Originally Posted by
787SEA
I'm traveling with someone else on the same flight (main cabin fare) and we're trying to maximize our chances of having an empty middle seat between us by selecting the window and the aisle seat in the same row. My question is how Saver seats are assigned at the gate: back-to-front, front-to-back, or something else? I'm wondering if there's an advantage to picking a row toward the front vs. a row toward the back.
As you get closer to departure, more saver seats seem to open up to selection--even exit row seats that aren't already taken. My go-to seats (prior to seat blocking) would be in Premium Class since the middles never open up as saver or main cabin and must be assigned by the gate agent if someone doesn't want to pay for them (and most won't pay for a middle). If you don't have Premium Class access, my guess would be that the empty middles would be more likely to stay empty further back (like the last few rows).