Check Your Seat When Checking In

I just checked in online for my flights tomorrow and scored an aisle seat on an exit row for the first leg.

I always look for better seats when I check in, and I often find them. You usually can’t get an exit row at the time of booking unless you have elite status, which, sadly, I lost years ago. But the elite fliers who do get those seats often get upgrades to first class when they check in, and the seats are left open for ordinary schmoes like ourselves.

So hurray for the extra leg room from Bradley to Atlanta.

Atlanta to Honolulu was another matter, however. Checking in for that one, there was not one single available seat to switch into. So I’m stuck in 63K. I can always ask at the gate for a last-minute switch, but those are harder to come by.

A window seat at the back of a 747 is not optimal, but at least the one I’m stuck in has extra room on the side. The curvature of the fuselage doesn’t leave room for a third seat in that row.

How do I know? Seatguru.com told me so.