How to Avoid the Middle Seat

By Mike Grasso

Assuming you would prefer not to sit between two strangers on a flight, there are several steps you can take to prevent getting stuck in a middle seat:

• Immediately choose seats when booking your flight. If tickets are booked through a travel agency or group tour, you may need to call the airline directly to confirm seats.
• If only middle seats are left on a flight, check back with the airline (online or on the phone) frequently to see if other seats open up.
• Monitor your flight for possible schedule or aircraft downgrades, either of which could result in your seat assignment being changed by the airline.
• Inform the airline of your seating preferences in advance. Frequent fliers may be able to update their profile to indicate window or isle seats. Others may need to call the airline directly.
• Use Online check-in for your flight. This provides you one last look of the seating arrangement, and an opportunity to switch to a better seat.

For more information on picking the best airline seats, consider a visit to SeatGuru.

How to Pick a Great Airline Seat (Video)

How To Pick a Great Airline Seat @ Yahoo! Video
Creative little video here on picking the perfect airline seat. Their tid-bits of general recommendations should then be compared with websites such as seatguru.com to determine specific aircraft seating arrangements.

Five Must-Do's With Each Airline Reservation

By Mike Grasso

So you found the perfect flight based on your scheduling, pricing and preferred carrier needs - Great! Now, to ensure a smoother journey and avoid unplanned hassles, consider adding these additional steps to your airline ticketing process:

1. Ensure the airline has your current contact information

Be sure you provide the airline a solid email address and phone number in the event they need to reach you about changes in your itinerary. If you have registered a username/profile direct with the airlines, be sure it stays current.

2. Include your frequent flier number with your reservation.

Input your frequent flier number during the reservation process. If you forget or are unable to, call the airline at any point before departure. Then, check your boarding passes to ensure your number shows up properly. Although requesting mileage credit after a flight is possible, airlines are slow and require additional documentation to consider post-flight credit.

3. Obtain seat assignments for your journey

If possible, obtain your seat assignments in advance. This provides your first opportunity to choose your favorite seats. Need some ideas? Scroll on over to Seatguru.com to view seat layouts with all the major carriers. Some airlines have limitations on how far in advance you can reserve seats - but are often willing to note seating preferences on your reservation.

4. Sign up for mobile flight alerts

Airlines website allow you to check the status of flights fairly easily. But websites such as Flightstats.com will send you up-to-the-minute information on flight delays or cancellations. The service is free and available with most airlines.

5. Monitor decreases in the airfare price

Some airlines will credit you the difference if the price of your ticket happens to fall after you've purchased it. With just a few clicks, Southwest Airlines by far has the most consumer friendly procedure to apply for such a credit. United Airlines is another favorite, but you need to make a phone call, request the credit, and wait for the voucher to arrive in the mail. Neither Southwest or United charge for the refaring. Websites such as Yapta.com can track and alert you to fare drops so you can apply for a credit with the airline.

Reader Question: How Full Will The Flight Be?

Question: "...My flight is next week and I want to know whether the flight will be full, or if I might get an empty middle seat. How can I tell?"

Answer: Thanks for the email. Actually your question has two parts. Let's first tackle the empty middle seat question. Based on your writing, I'm assuming you are flying a plane that includes a configuration of 3 seats in a row, and you are hoping for an empty middle one. Aren't we all! =) It's impossible to determine whether you will have an empty middle seat because seat changes can occur at any time, including at the gate. Not until the boarding door closes can you be certain to score an empty seat next to you.

If you are curious about how full the flight is overall, which can sometimes give you an educated guess whether middle seats will be occupied, there are a couple ideas:

First, check the airline seatmaps. Many airlines allow you to pull up your reservation on their website, then modify your seat assignment. Here you can get a general idea of how full the plane might be.

Some cautions though. Some people have confirmed reservations but no seats assigned yet. The airline may block certain seats because they are carrying extra cargo and don't want to fill every seat with passengers (weight restrictions). The airline may also block seats for security reasons, for high-status passengers, or for airport check-in only. All that taken into consideration, it may be tough for an accurate appraisal of how full the flight will be simply by looking at the seatmaps.

Second, check the class availability of your flight. This will give you an idea of how many tickets the airline is still selling (and their respective fare class). Many cheap seats still available could be a sign the flight is not full. Reversely, if you see the flight is nearly sold out, then expect a cramped flight (or perhaps lots of cargo).

In summary, using both the strategies above could help in determining the flight load, but factoring in variables such as last minute flight cancellations, displaced passengers/crew and stand-by customers, a simple guess might be just as accurate.