The art of switching airline seats

1. Don’t be the first to board. As a matter of fact, be one of the last. Flights rarely leave earlier than their scheduled departure time, and if they do there will be plenty of last call announcements. This way you can check out your seat and the people sitting around it; pass it by and see if there is a row empty, or a better seat. If there is, sit down as if it’s yours. If someone comes to claim it, then just play dumb, excuse yourself and move on. There is less likelihood that someone will claim it towards the end of boarding.

2. If you are already seated and have your eyes fixed on an empty row, odds are that ten other people also do. Just take the chance and move there. If you want to save yourself the embarrassment of being ejected from your seat, then you need to know when those spare seats are definitely not going to be utilized. The signal for that is when the ground agent or the chief purser makes the announcement “Will all ground staff please disembark,” and they give their little airport farewell speech. That is your signal that the door is, or is about to be, closed, and no further passengers will be boarding. All the spare seats in each respective class are now up for grabs.

3. Go to the back of the airplane and, in a nice and courteous manner, inform the flight attendant about the problem with your assigned seats. We respond to kind hints.

4. Upon check-in, always ask to sit in the front part of the cabin. It is usually the section with a few more inches of legroom. Flights are usually booked from the back to the front.

5. If you can, always offer your seat when they ask for volunteers to take another flight. It usually involves flight credit and an upgrade. If they end up not needing your seat, the gate agent is more likely to respond to your request for a change.

6. Check in early. Some of the best seats are held until the day of departure, so showing up early could be your best shot. Ask for an exit row seat, as they are usually roomier and no children under 13 years are allowed to sit there.

7. Be careful switching seats at the airport. Ask the gate agent to look for a better seat without canceling your currently reserved seat. This way you won’t end up in a worse situation.

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8. Check-in again. Many times the gate agent will tell you that there are only middle seats left, but misconnects often happen and the good seats go empty while you are wedged into a seat in the very back. Before boarding check, with the gate agent one last time.

9. Leave your overhead bags where they are. Just because you move seats doesn’t mean you have to move your bags. I have seen many people lose a great seat because they wasted time relocating their luggage. Time is of the essence in those matters.

10. On a three-seat configuration, look for the couple who have booked the aisle and window seat, hoping the middle will remain vacant. If you don’t like the looks of your current seat, many couples would rather sit together, leaving you with an aisle or window. That backfired one time on me as the couple I was between happened to be in the middle of a horrendous fight. They didn’t want to sit together and I ended up being the moderator in the middle, but every other time it worked.

Unfortunately, with fares so competitive these days it’s not as easy to get that much sought after empty row, or spare neighbor seat, especially on international flights. There are lucky exceptions though, so good luck, and let the shuffling begin. Let me know what works for you.

James Wysong has worked as a flight attendant with two major international carriers during the past fifteen years. He is the author of the "The Plane Truth: Shift Happens at 35,000 Feet" and "The Air Traveler's Survival Guide." For more information about James or his books, see his web site or e-mail him . Want to sound off about one of his columns? Try visiting Wysong's forum.

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