Hi all.

I've got an upcoming flight with VX - my first!
I've just checked the flight to see if it was full (it's nowhere near) and noticed that (presumably) single travellers - or maybe couples being 'sneaky' and angling for some extra room - book seats so that the middle is empty. The flight is SFO-LAX so I can certainly see why you'd try. I've done this myself flying domestically with much success but I am not familiar with this route and how busy it can be i.e. if the flight is likely to sell out.

ANyway, on checking my flight today I noted that almost every middle seat is vacant except, of course, the seat next to us (we selected aisle and middle and someone has gone in a selected window)! So I'm thinking about changing seats and am wondering whether it's worth the gamble to use the method that is apparently subscribed to by others i.e. select window/aisle and leave the middle empty hoping no one takes/wants it.

The flight is in 5 weeks so there's plenty of time for it to fill but worse case scenario I guess we'd just ask our fellow passenger to swap with us and concoct some tale about selecting the wrong seats "oh silly us" or whatever???

Thoughts on this practice?

Can't really comment on the load for that route, I'll leave that for someone else.

Keep in mind that if someone books the middle, you could try a -24 hour upgrade to F (for $50 each), but only if there are seats available. But I'm guessing if someone books a middle between two full seats, then the load is going to be high and the F seats would probably be sold out anyway.

(-24 hour upgrades are explained in the FAQ)

Thanks nermaljcat. I actually do have my eye on an upgrade for this flight (and, no doubt, so do 56 other people ) so we'll see how it pans out. I just went ahead and changed my seats for the 2nd last row since the theme seems to be that the middle seats at rear of the plane behind MSC all stay empty...or at least the majority do. I've looked at flights on this route for the next week and it fits this "pattern". Not very scientific but nonetheless worth a shot!

Thanks again.

This thread seems better suited for the Travelbuzz! forum. It's not specific to VX, is it?

well it is a VX flight and I gathered that those regular fliers with the airline might have some info on this, indeed, maybe they're old hands at this practice. Besides part of the question was about how busy this route gets and whether it's likely to sell out.

but, Im the novice so whatever you think is fair...bump me if you like

Sneaky? We book window/Aisle all the time. We get an open middle about half the time. Otherwise, we often meet interesting people. We've been lucky and never had the 300 pounder or a smelly person in the middle.

If you don't want to risk separation, book that way anyhow. You can usually get someone to give up a middle and take the aisle or window. For us, a few hours of separation is no big deal as we mostly read or sleep on airplanes.

Feel like this is sort of stating the obvious - in any context where there is a middle seat, they're often the last to go.

Single passengers or not, middle seats are usually the least desirable option, which is why they tend to be booked last.

Certainly book yourself in an aisle and your SO in a window. If someone ends up booking the seat between you, I guarantee you they'll be happy to switch with either of you if you really want to sit next to each other.

My point is that this is what everyone does on all of the airlines...
I can't bump anything (I'm not a moderator!).

Mr P1 and I do this also, especially on longer flights (phx-hnl et al)

We've had the row to ourselves 5/6 flts (phx-hnl, ogg) Only 1 time, when the flight was completely full, did it not work. And then, I switched with the middle seat person who proceeded to show his gratitude by buying us drinks.

Thanks everyone...I went ahead and changed seats to aisle/window
Personally I think it's pretty darn cheeky but it seems I'm the only one who's not trying to get away with it if the current seating pattern is anything to go by!

Besides which, when I mentioned this to my SO, turns out we were both thinking why the heck we'd want to sit next to the deranged individual who chose to sit next to us when they had 10 empty rows to choose from. Weird!

I fly this route often, and when traveling with others, I've had success with late morning, early afternoon routes and when booking rear seats. IMO I much prefer two aisle seats in the same row

No, this is usually SOP- for a flight that isn't all that full (and flights this time of year often are not), you end up with the low-rent version of F.

Except on Southwest he might have been assigned that seat by a deranged computer, having not proactively chosen anything himself.