Selecting Seats in Advance???
Nov 6, 2015 | 10:41 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Nov 2015
Posts: 1
Selecting Seats in Advance???
Hi guys!
I see you all seem pretty knowledgable. I have a question. We found really great pricing yesterday that went up today and I need a membership to Discount Den, boo! But it is still only $49 each way (was $29 each way...boo!) so I think we are still going to go for it. The flight is going to be either the 15th or the 16th with a return on the 18th no matter what. The planes both directions look empty as far as seats available. I can pretty much sit where ever I want for any price I want to. So I would like to save the seat selection fee. So my question is, should I risk it. It is my kids and my mom and I. Kids are 10 & 8. Do you think we will at least be seated 2 together??? I don't want to be cheap, but since the flight went up I am still trying to rationalize my super short trip!!
Thanks!!
I see you all seem pretty knowledgable. I have a question. We found really great pricing yesterday that went up today and I need a membership to Discount Den, boo! But it is still only $49 each way (was $29 each way...boo!) so I think we are still going to go for it. The flight is going to be either the 15th or the 16th with a return on the 18th no matter what. The planes both directions look empty as far as seats available. I can pretty much sit where ever I want for any price I want to. So I would like to save the seat selection fee. So my question is, should I risk it. It is my kids and my mom and I. Kids are 10 & 8. Do you think we will at least be seated 2 together??? I don't want to be cheap, but since the flight went up I am still trying to rationalize my super short trip!!
Thanks!!
Nov 6, 2015 | 12:04 pm
#2
Join Date: Jul 2013
Posts: 5,813
You can't guarantee you will get seats together, without paying the fee. Flights tend to fill as you approach departure.
My (limited) experience is that they will try to seat you together if they can (especially if the passengers are all on the same ticket) or at least put an adult with the kids, but it's up to the gate agent based on availability. If that fails and there are vacant seats you can generally move or trade places with another passenger..
It will help if you're at the gate as soon as the GA arrives.
I've elected to pay the seat fee rather than risk it, even when traveling alone.
My (limited) experience is that they will try to seat you together if they can (especially if the passengers are all on the same ticket) or at least put an adult with the kids, but it's up to the gate agent based on availability. If that fails and there are vacant seats you can generally move or trade places with another passenger..
It will help if you're at the gate as soon as the GA arrives.
I've elected to pay the seat fee rather than risk it, even when traveling alone.
Nov 6, 2015 | 12:10 pm
#3
Join Date: Sep 2013
Location: SMF
Posts: 1,251
Welcome to Flyertalk!
You're in pretty much the same situation we were in a couple months ago. I was debating selecting seats since my wife and I were flying with two kids but in the end decided to save $120 and not select them. We had four flights with them and even without seat selections we were all assigned seats together, albeit they were often towards the back of the plane.
Based on my experience I would recommend not paying for seats together but checking in 24 hours in advance so that there is the greatest chance of there being seats together. I would also suggest monitoring the seat map every couple days until your trip, that way if you see most of the seats being snapped up you can purchase some together before there aren't any together.
If, for some reason, you are randomly assigned seats apart, you can still pay for seat selections after checking in. We did this on one of our flights where I was upgraded to a stretch seat at check in as a Frontier Elite, but the rest of the family was still in the back. I was able to pay to move them up next to me. One thing to note is that if you do this, your boarding pass for some reason will still show your original seat selection. When I brought this up at the airport to the gate agent her system showed us all in the correct seats and they printed us out updated boarding passes. Just something to be aware of since I had something of a panic attack after noticing the boarding passes were different.
Hope this helps!
You're in pretty much the same situation we were in a couple months ago. I was debating selecting seats since my wife and I were flying with two kids but in the end decided to save $120 and not select them. We had four flights with them and even without seat selections we were all assigned seats together, albeit they were often towards the back of the plane.
Based on my experience I would recommend not paying for seats together but checking in 24 hours in advance so that there is the greatest chance of there being seats together. I would also suggest monitoring the seat map every couple days until your trip, that way if you see most of the seats being snapped up you can purchase some together before there aren't any together.
If, for some reason, you are randomly assigned seats apart, you can still pay for seat selections after checking in. We did this on one of our flights where I was upgraded to a stretch seat at check in as a Frontier Elite, but the rest of the family was still in the back. I was able to pay to move them up next to me. One thing to note is that if you do this, your boarding pass for some reason will still show your original seat selection. When I brought this up at the airport to the gate agent her system showed us all in the correct seats and they printed us out updated boarding passes. Just something to be aware of since I had something of a panic attack after noticing the boarding passes were different.
Hope this helps!