Seat Strategy?

Good morning folks - my husband and I are both over 6ft and are flying to Tobago next month on Virgin. Our strategy was to check in online 24 hours before and prebook the emergency exit seats (I was told by Virgin that we can now do this and pay the additional £100 return at checkin, after they have confirmed we are able-bodied). However, thanks to this forum, I have discovered Expertflyer, which tells me that the plane is far from full. So my strategy is, if I check Expert Flyer just before I leave for the airport and its still showing plenty of availability, do you think it would be safe to book seats at the back of the plane, knowing that we would have a pretty good chance of getting 4 seats between the 2 of us, ie do checkin staff fill up the front of the plane first, as it seems when flights are not full the majority of empty seats seem to be at the back and can I rely on Expert flyer??? Phew and many thanks!!

Flew out to Tobago a couple of weeks ago (should really do a trip report!) and reserved seats online then did the online check in - reserved seats in 61/63H&K at the back where there are only 2 seats next to the window. Both out and inbound flights were not full and generally it was the window seats (ABC, HJK) that were full all the way to the back and the middle seats (DEFG) that were empty. You would hope that if you chose two seats in the middle section then you should be safe to get all four. This is just how I found it but there is far greater knowledge on this forum than from me!:D

Hope you have a good flight and holiday!

Last time I flew on VS, the flight was cancelled, so we all had to squash onto another flight, though i think I got a better seat out of it. So it's all a risk, if you need the extra leg room, I'd pay.

Agreed - for the extra cost its really worth upgrading to PE - the seats are bigger, leg room is better and you are not left worrying about whether you will have room - particularly on your way back from Tobago when the check in options will be greatly reduced from LGW

[ChuckC]

Hi Sandy,
You know it's going to be a roulette of sorts, hoping that this strategy will pay off. It well may, or ...

So MarkJ's suggestion to go ahead with PE is worth thinking about. You might look into M+M fares on the VS website.

Just for grins, you can also have a look at seat availabilty on expedia.com by going through the booking exercise and asking for SeatPinpointer to show you available seats.

Chuck-

Many thanks for the comments folks - only four weeks to go...
Sandy

Originally posted by ChuckC
Just for grins, you can also have a look at seat availabilty on expedia.com by going through the booking exercise and asking for SeatPinpointer to show you available seats.

Chuck-

Where exactly is this seat pin pointer thing? On all the times I've ever been to the Expedia website, including just now, I've never seen or found any option such as that. All I get is a fare + times.....then have to create an account and login just to see what's next.

Originally posted by xenole

Originally posted by ChuckC
Just for grins, you can also have a look at seat availabilty on expedia.com by going through the booking exercise and asking for SeatPinpointer to show you available seats.

Chuck-

Where exactly is this seat pin pointer thing?

You need to use expedia.com, not the .co.uk, and when you select the flight, the option "preview seat availability" should appear under the flight details.