Etihad Seat costs

[atalost]

I’m flying Heathrow to Hong Kong which has an hour stop in Abu Dhabi and then a 2hr stop there during my return journey to Heathrow. I booked through Expedia and realised it never gave me the option to book seats or, I hadn’t noticed that functionality. So, I have just gone into my booking and it’s going to cost £300 to book seats on those 4 flights. I’m flying end of June. My predicament is, do I chance and wait until check-in or reluctantly cough up? I HATE flying so my fears suggest I should but flying-loving-hubby is saying it will be ok to wait until 24/48hrs before. Anyone had experience of this with Etihad to Hong Kong or a regular flyer to HK wit Etihad? Thanks

Do you require a particular seat? Presumably they will just allocate you one when you check in, for free?

They are just trying to fleece you. You will get seated together or near each other for free.

Prefer centre of a plane if honest.

You might not be able to pick which part of the cabin if you wait for allocation on the day, that's the only real risk. Sometimes once they allocate seats, they still try and charge you if you move them slightly. The scheduled airlines almost always try and put you together though. We went to Australia last summer, I was fine with £23 / person that KLM charged for Amsterdam to Singapore, but Finnair wanted something like £100+/person for Tokyo to Manchester, which seemed really excessive and I didn't pay.

I guess the question is will you be ok sitting apart from your partner and in the back of the plane. That for me is worst case scenario and while I’d be ok with that, I’m not an anxious flyer. Only you know whether you’d manage, if not I’d pay for the seats I wanted.

I think the OP has to accept they either enter the seat lottery or pay..

What's gone here is an example of a maybe hidden downside of connecting, most especially if the booking sites don't do full disclosure.

Fly Heathrow- HKG non-stop/direct, and then return (which you can) and the airline only has two opportunities to charge for seat choice, OTOH do the flights connecting via wherever and they can get you four times.

Yes this is true, and Heathrow - Doha and Doha - Hong Kong would be 2 long haul sectors and at the top end of the price range. There was definitely a difference in seat reservation price on both European airlines we used last summer between the within Europe leg and the long haul leg.