SilkAir, economy more comfortable

Each Friday, we feature a reader-submitted tip as our Travel Tip of the Day. This week’s tip comes from reader Walt S., who offered the following after seeing my presentation at the Chicago Travel & Adventure Show:

“One tip that I would like to mention regarding travelling (almost) like a rock star on a budget is that it is possible to purchase an empty seat. When flying to Tahiti a few years ago my wife and I found a very reasonable fair on Air Tahiti Nui and we booked a third seat in economy. For the part of the trip from Chicago to LA not having someone in the middle seat gave us space to spread out and this made the tight economy seating much more comfortable.

On the flight from LA to Papeete we booked three of the five seats in the middle of the wide body plane. It worked out that the other two seats were empty and we had all five seats to fully stretch out and sleep. We didn’t have first class food and service but did have almost as much space for the long flight.

One thing to watch out for when doing this is to always check in with an agent for each flight segment even when you have a through ticket for yourselves and the extra seat. Some airline reservation systems don’t see a passenger name attached to the seat and, counting it as a no-show, the system assigns the seat to someone on the wait list.”

It’s an extra expense, but it’s a great idea. I’ll have a tip in the very near future on how to book an extra seat. Thanks, Walt—and thanks for coming out in Chicago!

Note: I’ll next be speaking at the San Diego Travel & Adventure Show on March 4 at 12pm.

 

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