Better seats open up if you wait until departure time, but don’t get too close. Chelsea Dickenson, a British cheap travel expert, wants a roomy airplane seat without paying for it. So she tries her luck with Check-In Chicken, a gambit that involves delaying check-in until - if you play it right - the airline has no choice but to assign you a premium seat.
“I’ve tried this hack on over 10 flights and the success rate is pretty high,” said Dickenson, 34. “I’d say it has worked nine out of 10 times.” Check-in Chicken appeals to budget travellers who don’t want to purchase a seat and takes advantage of airlines’ automatic seat-assignment procedures.
Early on in the check-in process, an airline will allocate the least desirable economy seats - middle, back of the plane, by the toilet - to solo passengers and to groups of travellers that it splits up, in the hopes that displeased fliers will purchase seats together or in a better location, Dickenson explained. Once the carrier has run out of bad economy seats, however, it will free up the better options, such as ones towards the front or with extra legroom. Passengers who check in closer to their departure time can often scoop up these coveted seats.
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