There’s an easy trick that can give you an entire row of seats on your flight for free (or at least an empty middle seat next to you if you’re traveling solo). Like most of the best travel tips like this, it obviously won’t work 100% of the time. But it works very often for me, and it costs you absolutely nothing to try it.
The best way to get more room is to use our trick to fly in luxurious business class for cheaper than economy class. A luxurious lie-flat pod seat is truly wonderful… and it’s very easy to get if you’re flexible and invest a bit of time to learn.
But if you don’t want to put in that effort, or for shorter flights when it’s not worth it to splurge… not having anyone in the seat next to you is the best way to make the flight more enjoyable.
Being experts at traveling for less here at Flytrippers, we can help you with that too!
Here’s how to get a full row of seats for free.
How to get a full row of seats for free (for 2 travelers)
The tip is about which seats to choose. Seat selection fees are another topic entirely; we’ll have a detailed guide on that specifically very soon. Our recent guide to plane ticket fare classes explains the basics of when it’s included for free and when it’s not. I won’t spend time on that at all here.
The tip is the same, whether you pay to choose your seat (rarely recommended) or if you wait to choose your seat for free at check-in exactly 24 hours before the flight like a savvy traveler (with most fare classes and airlines).
Here’s how to use the tip when you travel with someone:
- Choose aisle AND window seats
- Not 2 seats pushed together
- Choose the seat as far back in the plane as possible
- This drastically increases your chances
- Simply offer to swap places
- If someone else ends up in the middle seat
Visually, it’s even more simple to understand.
The majority of aircraft models have 3 seats together.
The vast majority of travelers don’t know the trick and they will book 2 seats together. And at the front, too.
Such a bad idea. You are almost guaranteed not to have a full row if you do this.
Especially at the front of the plane. People love to save 2 minutes to get off faster (which is very logical for many who will then needlessly wait 20 minutes for their checked bags anyway😅).
You should simply choose the 2 extremities! Because airplanes are rarely 100% full and because the last seats to be filled in an airplane will always be the middle seats between 2 other travelers… especially at the very back of the airplane.
If the flight is not full, there is a good chance that you will end up with an entire row to yourself and much more space and comfort.
For me, I would say it works about 50% of the time. That’s a great success rate! Especially since it costs nothing to try it.
If you didn’t know this tip, that’s normal and you’re not alone…. but that means you’re almost certainly also overpaying on so many travel aspects just by not knowing some simple tips. The tip for a full row is another of the many many examples of great travel tips that are very easy, but that you just cannot know if nobody told you.
Of course, it will happen that the flight is 100% full and even the middle seat in the back will be assigned or chosen. In this case, you offer to swap the middle seat with the other traveler and you haven’t lost anything: you end up in exactly the same situation as if you had made a bad selection at the start. At least you have a lot more chances to maybe get a whole row.
No one is going to want to stay in a middle seat and not change. The only risk is if you absolutely want a specific seat between the aisle or the window and the person only wants to swap for the same specific seat as you. It has never happened to me and it seems very unlikely to me that someone would prefer to stay in the middle rather than take either of the 2 options — and that the person would negotiate so hard. So the risk is minimal.
But if you want to be 100% (instead of 99%) sure of having either the window or the aisle specifically AND being together, maybe getting an entire row is not for you. This is the basics of all travel tips, in fact: it is more difficult for travelers who are not flexible to have an affordable and enjoyable trip. Be flexible; it’s so simple!
One last tip I’ll give you as a teaser is that some airplane models have rows of 2 seats, which gives you more privacy when traveling with someone else. For example, Porter, the fast-growing Canadian airline (that is going to open a new airport in Montreal) has no middle seats in its entire fleet. This more pleasant on-board experience is a real competitive advantage!
How to get an empty seat next to you for free (for solo travelers)
The vast majority of my 500+ flights in my lifetime have been solo, because traveling solo is undeniably the best thing you can do to become a better traveler (and a better human being, too).
The tip also works very often to get an empty seat next to you… and it’s exactly the same principle.
Here’s how to use the tip for when you travel solo:
- Choose a seat in a row that already has someone in it
- Window seat in a row where the aisle seat is taken
- Aisle seat in a row where the window seat is taken
- Choose the seat as far back in the plane as possible
- This drastically increases your chances
- Try it at no risk
- You’ve lost nothing if someone ends up in the middle seat
It’s a bit counter-intuitive.
The vast majority of solo travelers will choose a seat in an empty row in the hope of having it all to themselves (but that rarely happens).
There is a much better chance that a couple or 2 friends will choose the seats next to you so that they can sit together.
By choosing a row with a traveler already in it, it becomes like the tip for 2 travelers. The middle seat will be the last to be taken, especially at the back of the airplane.
In my experience, the tip works even better when you’re traveling solo than when there are 2 of you! Most of the time, I have an empty seat next to me!
For someone like me, who’s 6 feet tall, it makes a huge difference not to have anyone next to me. In fact, it’s really more comfortable for all travelers!
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Summary
To get a whole row of seats on the airplane for free, it’s like all the simple tricks that make your trip more enjoyable or affordable: you just need to know the pro tips. Choose the right seats (NOT the ones that almost everyone chooses) and you have a very good chance of making it work!
What would you like to know about getting a full row of seats? Tell us in the comments below.
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Featured image: Airplane (photo credit: unknown)
Original publication date: November 13th 2017, updated June 12th 2018, May 4th 2019, and April 6, 2025
Very interesting advice.
We appreciate it
Thanks for the help
Great trip, I am going to try this on my next flight.
I hope it works for you this time, if not keep trying though it does work pretty often 🙂 Thanks for following us:)
Brilliant suggestion; thanks! Will definitely try this next time.