To not book a seat on a longhaul flight?

[DecemberPlusFebruary]

I'm travelling alone. Flight is 10 hours. Adding seats to the (economy cheapest) booking raises the price by about £70 - £85/flight and it's round trip. Economy cheapest means I am allocated a seat randomly - no choice even at check-in. Price without a seat: £425. With seats: £602!

I have a half hour drive on arrival at destination, but a route I know well, and even if I don't sleep at all, timings mean I will be okay to drive. No driving on return.

But... I like an aisle seat. I stand up and move like once/hour. Crawling over people is pretty unpleasant, for everyone involved - though I would do it anyway.

Hmm. Aibu to just hope for the best on allocation?? How bad can it be? £175 seems insane to pay for seats.

also you dont need to get up once an hour thats ridculous

The thing is, it isn't ten times, it's twenty. Once to let her out, and once to let her back in every hour. If I were the aisle passenger that would very quickly get old, and I'd have no difficulty in telling her so. OP is getting her kicks being a goady fuckwit. Lots of people will not put up with that.

It's not recommended you have to get up every hour, though.

Nobody would be "angry" (i.e. picking up on her selfishness) if she'd said "I'll probably get up and move two or three times during the flight."

It's the acknowledging that "crawling over" the people in the aisle seats is "pretty unpleasant" for those people but then blithely announcing that of course she'll "do it anyway," approximately 9 times over the course of the flight. Which is of course actually 18 times the people on the aisle (and possibly middle) seats will be disturbed, when she gets up and when she comes back. Or 36 if the third person in the row doesn't want to co-ordinate their apparently perfectly acceptable hourly movement with OP's.

Nobody needs to move that much, and I can't believe you'd be fine with it if you were the one having to move every few minutes.

Hh always love these threads - “I’ve spends thousands on a holiday but be damned i pay 50 quid to book a seat.

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!

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!

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

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

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).

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

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

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

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

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.

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’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.

Who says that person paid £175?

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

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.

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

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

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!

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!

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.

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.