Another pop-up will appear warning that you haven’t chosen a seat and asking if it’s ok. You’ll have to do this for both flights if you are booking a roundtrip. To bypass this and avoid paying a fee, just scroll to the bottom of the page and click “Continue”. However, if you do click on a certain seat, a pop-up will appear telling you the price and you’ll have to confirm that you agree. When the seat selection screen appears on Allegiant’s website, it doesn’t even indicate that there are fees associated with choosing a seat. How to Avoid Seat Fees on Allegiant Airlines If you’re buying a Saver fare and don’t like the choice of seats, simply click on “Skip Seats” and you’ll be assigned seats for free during check-in, which may include seats towards the front of the plane. Seats shown in a dark blue color are for passengers purchasing a “Main” class fare only so you’ll have to upgrade to that type of fare to choose those seats in advance. When choosing seats on the seat map, scroll to the bottom to find seats marked with a “S” for Saver fare seats. How to Avoid Seat Fees on Alaska Airlinesįlying Alaska Airlines is one of the easiest ways to avoid a seat fee, because even Alaska’s version of Basic Economy, the “Saver” fare, includes limited free seat assignments at the back of the plane. Just remember, you are never required to pay an extra seat fee. These same tactics can be used for international carriers. Some legacy airlines have simply made seat selection unavailable for Basic Economy fares and require that you purchase a standard or Main Cabin Economy ticket in order to choose a seat in advance.īelow, I’ll go over specifics on what to look for during the seat selection step when booking on the larger U.S. None of the fares sold by these airlines include seat selection, but there are certain bundles you can add on, which would include seat assignments. The biggest culprits in trying to force seat selection fees are ultra-low-cost carriers like Allegiant, Frontier, and Spirit. Related: Passenger Etiquette: The Basic Rules of the Armrest Even if an airline’s website makes it appear that you have to pay extra for a seat, you are never required to choose a specific seat and can always opt to decline seat selection in lieu of a FREE seat assignment during check-in. It can be confusing when going through the booking steps and you may not even realize an extra seat fee was added by the time you get to the final payment screen. In my opinion, the seat fee is one of the easiest airline fees to avoid. As consumers of air travel, we need to be careful to only pay for what we want and not get fooled into paying more than we intend. The airlines are making big profits from ancillary fees and do everything possible to keep the actual airfare lower than the competition. This is one reason airlines are able to sell tickets for pennies or across oceans for only a couple hundred dollars. The good news is that airfares are still historically low and, if you are diligent and don’t need all the frills of yesteryear, you can fly super cheap and sit anywhere (read somewhere) on the plane for free.ĭon’t Be Fooled Into Paying to Choose a SeatĪirlines want you to pay extra to choose a seat - even middle seats. I know this isn’t how it used to be, but Basic Economy is here to stay and this is just simply how the industry has evolved. Just as restaurants may ask for an extra fee if you want a special side dish or concert venues may charge more for specific seats rather than general admission, most airlines do charge extra if you want to pick a certain seat. Contrary to what some people believe, you do not have to pay extra for a seat. But there really is a way to only pay that initial price. And to be fair, the initial price you see for a flight does not include much anymore. The fare, plus bag, plus seat, plus food, plus xyz. © 2023 The Buffalo Bills.We share incredibly cheap flights with our users every day, and occasionally receive a snarky comment that there are extra costs we haven’t considered.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |