To not book a seat on a longhaul flight?

Good luck with Scoot. Worst long haul I've ever flown. Even Garuda in the old days wasn't as bad as Scoot. Singapore Airlines are lovely - Scoot is a sham. I won't fly Singapore any more because of being routed via a Scoot flight Sydney to CHangi.

We are going KLM, Scoot, Finnair and JAL in the summer to Australia and back and only JAL have given free seat allocations. Unfortunately our Finnair flight was booked with JAL and they can't make seat reservations.

I don’t care where I sit. I’d just wait and see at check in

someone pacing up and down shouting and crying for the first 4 hours of the flight

This sounds ... extreme. I doubt that passenger would ever have been unproblematic, regardless of seat bookings. How did the cabin crew handle it?

Yeah that hack is golden for solo travellers. They always want to swap, and you end up with an aisle seat, no quibbles. Keep doing this "hack", couples!

As for you OP, entirely up to you but it's a lot of money and I personally wouldn't bother. But then I never pay extra for seats anyway - it's a plane fgs, if you've got a ticket you've got to have a seat.

You don’t need to book a seat but don’t spend the whole time crying at the cabin crew if it means you don’t like the seat you’ve been allocated. We did book seats for a flight to Japan (4 of us, 2 aisles, middle and window) and had someone pacing up and down shouting and crying for the first 4 hours of the flight that she couldn’t have a window seat and why couldn’t we swap with her middle of middle
row seat.

I wouldn’t book if I were travelling alone - to be honest I don’t even book when in a group. If the airline wants to seat my adhd dd next to someone else be my guest! I think it’s money grabbing and the airline need to suck up discomfort of passengers inconvenienced by other customers. It’s not my job to pay £175 so a person I have never met in an adjacent seat has an optimal flight!

No, that's why I fly business now. I used to fly economy but had some hideous flights with some impossibly thoughtless people, and decided I'm far too old for such nonsense. So I now have cheaper hotels and better flights. But I try not to fly BA as I thoroughly begrudge paying £75 to pick a bloody seat after paying well over the odds for a distinctly average business class!

Aisle seats on long haul are the ones that are usually left anyway. 2s pick the window and the middle, leaving the end, and 4s pick the centre aisle.

no need to book, if you don’t get an aisle seat then so what

Check in early as possible so that many seats still unallocated.

In my experience if you don’t book a seat it tells you your seat when you check in and if it isn’t an aisle seat (or window whatever) you can go back and then pay to book a seat.

That's the price the OP quotes as the cost of booking seats, so I was just assuming it's a flat fee.

Who says that person paid £175?

I’m flying long haul in 2 weeks. We have booked seats on the way back because the plane is one where they are a few sets of two at the back so i have booked those and the aisle opposite. Way out I’ve not booked anything. We are a family of 3 and all seats are in sets of 3. I keep checking and hardly anything is booked. I’m actually thinking it’s not even too bad if we end up in the middle because we will at least have 2 aisles and less climbing over each other.

If the person in the aisle seat is 25 stone and fast asleep it would make interesting viewing to see you trying to clamber out without touching them. Which could constitute assault

I'd also hope or the best.

But I'd fully expect to be allocated a middle seat between a couple thanks to the tiktok "hack" if influencers advising couples to book window and aisle and hope noone opts for the middle so they get a whole row to themselves.

Unless I was willing to sit in a middle seat near the toilets I wouldnt risk it.

I’d probably punch someone in my slumber if I was asleep and I felt someone clamber on me.

My the seat, you sound like a pain to sit by.

I have to also. I don’t know what happens but I get very needy to pee in long haul. I even try to reduce my water intake which isn’t healthy. But I just have to pee A LOT when I fly long haul. And it’s a real need. Not psychological

I don't usually pay to pick a seat, but if you plan to move every hour on a 10 hour flight then please for the good of the other passengers, pay for an aisle seat!
On my last flight (only a few hours) I was automatically allocated the middle seat, the person in the aisle seat was using the table for most of the flight (as in, they had multiple things out that would have taken them a lot of effort to move, at one point they had a mini board game set up) and they were asleep with their legs stretched out under the seat in front for the rest of the flight. I felt bad enough getting up once to use the loo (and I waited until they were between games).

Years ago it wasn't a thing, but years ago the advertised price of a seat was a lot higher.

But in business class you there aren’t middle seats nor nose crushing seats in front of you

I did a long haul flight last year and DH and I were unfortunately in the middle 2 in a row of 4. We tried to book our seats beforehand but a technical issue meant we couldn’t. The woman next to me, at the aisle, wouldn’t get up to let me out and I’ve have to climb over her any time I needed to go to the toilet which was a few times as I have some bladder issues. The woman in front was furious as I kept accidentally bumping into her seat as I clambered over! She woman at the aisle eventually went to sleep and I was trapped. I had to then go out DH’s side when his aisle neighbour got up. It was absolutely crap and I felt so uncomfortable. I will always ensure we manage to book our seats from now on!

most people will need to get up sometimes during a long haul flight (plus it is recommended to stretch your legs regularly to avoid blood clots) so the person on the aisle needs to accept this.

Of course @wishIwasonholiday10 but not once an hour! Imagine if both the window and middle seat do this and don't coordinate, the aisle seat person would be up and down constantly - it's not reasonable to cause this much disruption because someone just feels like getting up a lot. Totally different in your nightmare diarrhoea situation!