exwannabe

There is nothing at all wrong in any legal, moral or ethical sense of moving into a preferred seat.

The airline is charging a fee for advanced booking. The OP did not advance book. The airlines allows (in general) seat swaps within the cabin. As long as the cabin crew is allowing seat swaps, OP is 100% within all rights to grab an empty seat.

Fairly rare though that one has empty preferred seats and not wide open seats in the back. I would rather have and empty middle (or full row) in the back than be in the middle in a preferred seat.

daisyatl

I actually agree with EricH. If I saw someone that was lucky enough to get a row to themselves, I would not move there. Unless it looked like someone who would not lay down (e.g., a very tall person, an older person, something). In that case, I would maybe ask but preface my question with something to the effect that I completely understand if they want the row. I still am even hesitant to do that.

docbert

Why would an FA's seat chart show Preferred seats? As has been said above, once check-in rolls around these seats have *zero* meaning relative to standard Economy seats.

Economy v's Economy Plus they definitely know - but that's not what is being asked here.

satman40

Sorry I thought we were talking about changing assign seats,

sarpotd

Thanks, everyone

I will remember to login T-24 and try to grab the free seats. Back or front doesn't matter to me. But there is no reason for everyone to be packed in so close.

This brings up a really important issue. You may have paid the extra money now thinking you will have gotten seats in the lightly filled part of the aircraft only to find it fill up at check-in. I think the fee you pay at booking is for the first choice of seats and not for the guarantee that what you see is what you will get in terms of the empty seat map. So it really makes very little sense to pay this fee, at least to me personally.

notquiteaff

So you are the guy who will stay in the middle seat if the doors close and the aisle for miraculous reasons remains empty?

mrmoo

Few years back I was flying EWR-DUB on 777-200 in Y with two others, we booked three seats together in a row in E+. Had a tight connection and arrived to the plane with nobody still boarding (still 20 minutes before close). Plane maybe 30% full, many empty rows in both E and E+. We didn't move but after the door closed the FA told us to spread out so we could sleep, so we all took separate rows.

Point being - the FA may suggest, or you may ask. Don't poach, but I don't think there's anything wrong with asking. Then again, like others have mentioned, the flight may be full, just those seats not assigned.

Repooc17

If the plane is indeed fairly empty, let others take those preferred seats.

Pick a row of three seats+ and enjoy a lie-flat.

murphyUA

Sure, that's a polite thing to do, and something I would do and hope others would too, but it isn't anything that someone could claim ownership to "because it was empty when I bought it".

mr8

Or don't select a seat and get a free economy plus middle seat!

rlschur

A bit tangential, but since preferred seating is being discussed, thought I would raise something odd. Flying ORD-SRQ tomorrow with my wife on separate PNRs. First one was a changed ticket, with fare difference refunded in form of voucher. Then used said voucher to book my wife's ticket. Why then can, at check-in, I reserve a preferred seat for free, but my wife can't? She is being charged $13.

Potential reasons I see:

1. Original reservation of mine was with a Global Services member. I split off to use my credit.
2. Original reservation was actually a first class fare (can't remember bucket).

Both tickets are regular, not basic economy. Neither of us have any status, credit cards with UA, etc.

It's no big deal to me; just stick with my old E- seat. Just weird and curious why.

JimInOhio

Not sure what you mean by "reserve" a preferred seat. Did you mean "select" a seat at check-in?

rlschur

Yes, select at check in. I'm free. My wife is $13.

fumje

Might not want to use that phrasing around her.

rlschur

Ha yes, very funny. Point taken lol.