re: Buying window and aisle seats on a 3 seat setup

I’ve tried this a few times and honestly, it does feel like a coin toss, especially on transatlantic routes. When I traveled with my partner just the two of us, the middle seat did end up empty once on an off-peak flight and it was awesome, but most of the time someone gets assigned there last minute or at the gate. Once we politely asked the person in the middle if they wanted the aisle (which they did), but I’d be nervous about relying on that with kids, especially since everyone’s travel stress is already high. I feel like it’s one of those travel “hacks” that only really works when flights are undersold, and that doesn’t happen much these days except at odd times. Most times when traveling as a family, we just suck it up and reserve seats together even if it means splitting the row, just to avoid the stress or weird scenarios. Dealing with home upgrades kind of reminds me of this, sometimes you hope you’ll save money with a trick, but peace of mind wins, which is why I always look for a reliable Ottawa windows companyl when taking care of big purchases.

On a 3-3-3, we go aisle, aisle if there is two of us if not flying business / first.

quote:

---

We're flying to Italy with two kids. My only worry is we get some total weirdo that refuses to play along and says they have to stay in that seat. I know that's probably extremely rare, but would suck to have a stranger between us and our kids.

Just curious if anyone's had luck with the middle seat staying empty more often than not.

---

Sure, its happened to us. Had an empty seat all the way to Taiwan but IO wouldn't use it as a strategy and is nothing more than good fortune.

With 4 people just go window - middle - aisle - aisle and put yourself across the aisle from your wife who sits with the two kids.

Domestically my son and I always book isle and window because neither want to sit in the middle. Even if they show up, having a person between us isn’t a big deal.

quote:

---

There are only so many flights per day on INTL routes from USA hub cities like DTW, MSP, IAD, IAH, etc. There are often restrictions on how early the flights can land based upon the destination. Just picking a random flight based on another thread, Houston to Rome in August, there is NOTHING in the first 25 ITA Matrix results that lands after 0800. Yes, you can find ways to extend layovers at AMS, LHR, etc, to land later, but then you're wasting time.

---

What a bump by someone. But yes you are correct here. International there's generally not many options.

I'll also say that I almost never see the middle of the plane not almost completely full. The very back you'd be more likely to have an empty seat. But my last 2 flights I thought were undersold, and then at the last minute literally for both prior to closing the gate a large group was let on and filled it up. The last flight the stewardess literally came and talked to me and told me my daughter could move a seat over to sit closer to me because they were about to close the gate so the seat would be empty, and it still filled.

This is dumb I hate talking to people on the flights and don't want to be asked to switch seats. I'd probably say no just to ruin your "travel hack"

Just buy the seats together like a normal person