Has anyone broken the U2 "sitting allocated at check in" algorithm?
 

I'm surprised that I could not find a thread on this so apologies if I missed it. What are others' experiences about the "seat allocated at check in" and best time to check in for it?

I used to think that it was a case of try to check in as late as possible as they'd first allocate rubbish seats to hope to sell the good ones for a fee till the last minute but I am no longer sure. Conversely, I used to think it was random in terms of what seat you get within a row, but more recently I have had the impression that at least on some flights they seem to give couples window and middle and single passengers aisle (which isn't good for me!)

I thought it would be good to share experiences!

For reference, I take upfront seats on many flights when I want the proper hand luggage (comfort of a good seat comes mostly as a bonus), but I find that prices seem to have increased a lot for this recently so don't always do it if I am on a very short trip for which the backpack is enough. I also find that on many of my flights, U2 seems to have reduced the upfront area by one row which surprises me, and as a result, there have been times when only a middle seat would be available there in which case I sort of object paying.

Recent experience.....I checked in 23 days prior to a flight. The group was myself and 2 children. Auto / randomly allocated 11C (exit row) 12C and 12D.

Never before have we been split in such a manner. Seat map showed many rows with 3 seats available. Clearly they might have been seats already purchased but not yet checked in.

I have flown 14 sectors on U2 so far this year split evenly between where I've paid for SB and where I haven't.
I pretty much always check-in immediately, or wait to the 30 day mark if I've booked that far out.
My non SB seat allocations have been 1 x A, 3 x D and 3 x F all between rows 16 and 24.
Ironically the only middle seat I've been allocated is for a flight next week where I've paid for SB, but the original flight was cancelled and I moved to an earlier (busier) one.

One more data point - checked in 48 hours before the flight and got aisle seat about 3/4 back in the cabin. Have the impression that the system started allocating seats from about 2/3 back and then continued to move backwards little by little with all back rows still free. Most front is allocated but given the pattern I suspect (perhaps wrongly) it is mostly people who paid for the seats.

Checked in for our first Easyjet flight since 2019 and our own experience supports the OP’s hypothesis.

Myself and the 12 year old were given 9A & 9B for a flight just under 3 weeks from the check in date. This flight is completely sold out. I booked myself a bigger cabin bag along with the tickets in Feb.

MrLapLap, travelling alone with small bag only, checked in closer to a month before the flight date and was given an aisle seat in the mid twenties. That flight still has £150 tickets available.

I am wondering about this two, because I have just received the check-in notifications for two flights that I will take in 30 days time. So, I am going to do this live and report back here with the results!

ETA - And here are the results! I have checked in exactly one month before the following flights:

MAN-BFS Seat 19B
BFS-EDI Seat 19F

So that's one middle seat, then one window seat. Not too bad, that's a 50% success rate at having a decent seat and anyway, these flights have a timetabled block time of just 50 minutes.

I'm now at 41 U2 sectors over the last 24 months. Of these, I purchased SB for 12.

From the non SB flights (i.e. 29), I'm at 10 Aisle (34.5%), 16 Window (55.2%) and 3 Middle (10.3%)
Generally seated in rows 18-21, but occasionally as far forward as 15 and as far back as 25.

​​​​​​And yes, I realise that I should have purchased easyJet Plus but I kept convincing myself that my U2 usage would tail off.

So, best plan would be to check in as quickly as possible when check-in opens. Might be worth paying for a standard seat assignment on EDI-GVA because that's quite a long flight. Can you pay for a seat after check-in has been completed?

No, you have to choose before check-in, you can't roll the dice and pay if you end up in a middle.

My EasyJet experience is that if I'm travelling in a two or a three (me+wife, me+child, or me +wife+child) they will allocate us in a block together. If we're travelling as a three we get the block of three, as a couple we'll get window+middle or middle+aisle. Travelling solo it's rare I get allocated a middle seat for this reason, I'll usually be allocated either the aisle or the window with a couple next to me. I usually only get the middle where a couple have tried to be clever and paid for aisle+window, so even then I don't usually end up in the middle.

But if the flight time is more than an hour I'll pay to choose my seat, I'm a six footer and the middle seat between two strangers is hell. I'll tolerate it on the jump across the puddle to Manchester or Liverpool but even the run to Gatwick is beyond my tolerance.

In terms of timing, there seems to be no rhyme or reason to it. Without paying I'm usually in the back ten rows, although I quite often seem to score a row 1 seat when I pay for a large cabin bag (no seat selection). I suspect that EasyJet operate a form of theoretical seating but, unlike Ryanair and Wizz, don't deliberately split people up.

my experience resembles that. And yes, they start with 18-21 on a 320 (not sure if other plane types differ). So booking early I mostly get those mediocre rows but very rarely a middle. Later you may get a less central row (better for disembarkation through either door) but chances of a middle seem to ncrease.

I booked an aisle seat for EDI-GVA, cost £6.99. I think it is worth it for a flight longer than 2 hours although I can manage a middle on longer flights and have done it. Way back in my pre status days I ended up in a middle seat in the middle block on Air France SFO-CDG and I survived it (as do thousands of other people every day).

i agree - i typically pay (but aisles) on longer flights like TLV but on a 1-2hr flight I’ll take the chance unless I need the bigger cabin bag anyway…

Very infrequent easyJet flyer. Just to add my experience. Checked in 30 days in advance for UK->Switzerland. Did return flight at same time. 2 Adults+1 Child. On outbound we got three together in row 2, happy with that. On return we got three aisle seats, two adjacent across the aisle, the other row in front, even though there were many three in a row available further back in the plane. Not sure what I'll do next time!

Just to share a tip - buy a bigger cabin bag for one of the family of 4, check-in 30 days before travel and get 5-6 row together for the family + priority boarding for the person with bigger cabin bag.

Just to share my recent check-in successes. I let the system choose a seat for me in both instances and I checked in a couple of days after the notification arrived in my email.

GVA-BRS 19F
BRS-GVA 18C

So, a window seat on the trip to Bristol and an aisle on the way back to Geneva.

Right, I have just checked in for BRS-EDI next week. Truth is, I left it a bit too late because I was allocated seat 18B. There now seems to be no way to change it, once checked in. I also ended up buying a GBP10 inflight catering voucher for GBP8. I reckon the trick with this is to check in as early as possible.

And it wasn't a particularly good flight experience. First, I had to put my rucksack into the sizer. Fit without problem, but it wasn't good enough - it had to go in sideways, which it did. So, all was ok but the whole process irritated me, it felt like a scam cash grab and made me grateful that I'm not a regular easyJet traveller. The cabin crew weren't particularly great either, offhand and borderline unfriendly. You can't have a great flight every time, given the number of flights I've done, so that's fair enough. I had a catering voucher to use and I was stuck behind the trolley all the way down to row 18 after a visit to the toilet. They could have let me pass when we were at the top of the cabin but they just didn't care. Won't buy a catering voucher again and will just keep my money to myself.

Just another data-point: on a flight BSL - HAM I checked in 21 days before departure, on a ticket (single ticket, no speedy boarding, no luggage). Seat map showed a plane that was approx 60% empty. front part was well filled, and the back half was completely empty. I took a gamble....
.... and got a "B" seat in row 21. grrr...
It's a short flight, so not too tragic, but also not fun. I'm tall. I think I should have waited until closer to flight date. Learned my lesson.

I thought that the earlier you checked in the more likely it was that you would receive a better seat. I recall it being the opposite with Ryanair, where if you checked in at the last minute you were almost guaranteed a good seat.

Last three EZY flights, all checked in about a week before travel, all allocated an F seat and one of these was the exit row.

As I was travelling alone in all three cases I didn’t care where it was in terms of aisle or window or front or back, but if it was a middle I probably wouldn’t have been too happy. The flights are so short that I don’t think I care enough to pay.

it has dispelled the myth in my head that they allocate middle seats to upsell paid seating etc. Maybe other airlines like Ryanair do this though? No idea.

I travel regularly with Easyjet, on average !'d say once a week. Most of my travel is alone and with hardly any luggage, so I usually purchase the cheapest ticket possible with no options such as an allocated seat. I'd say, based on my N=1 experience, in the past 100+ flights, there is no strategy to minimise my chance for a middle seat. On my routes, I usually have a 80-85% chance landing an aisle or window seat. Late or early check in does not seem to make a difference. The algorithm seems random to me.

EasyJet will, in my experience, seat people on the same booking together. So, unlike with Ryanair who "randomly" split groups up across all 27 rows of the aircraft, with EasyJet there will be fewer unoccupied middle seats to allocate. Couples will be given aisle or window + middle so single travellers are much more likely to be given an aisle or window.

Not sure if it’s actually allowed but I just wait at the back of the queue and then take my pick of the empty seats once on board…

Me too - bit of a gamble sometimes but much less fuss than moving from one seat to another once you're on the plane!