Last time we flew seems ages ago now, with British Airways from Heathrow to Houston in 2008. Online check in 24 hours before allowed seat selection.

The frequent flyers on here will know this no doubt but I've just discovered that you can now book your seats way in advance. Just been on Virgin Atlantic website FAQ page and chatted with their rep online and we can choose our seats from 1st April (then they say April fools )

It seems there is a charge for economy class but we are flying premium economy so no charge. I assume other airlines offer this or plan to.

http://virginatlantic.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/86 LL.B (Hons) - University of Derby
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I should add that our flight is 29th August. Heathrow to LA. LL.B (Hons) - University of Derby
LOT (Lord of Time) - University of Gallifrey

On American Airlines, you can choose your seat when you are booking the flights - even in economy.

The Doctor wrote:

I should add that our flight is 29th August. Heathrow to LA.

How long are you away for? Where do you live?  Past: FL2 TD4 HSE Auto
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I find that if you book with the airline direct, then you get to chose your seat - regardless of "Class".

This website is handy to find good seats specific to an particular airline/plane:

http://www.seatguru.com/

You do get to choose seats regardless of class it's just that they charge for economy class. The home is occupied while we are away  LL.B (Hons) - University of Derby
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to right your home is occupied, the freel2 annual bbq and rodeo is moving in  At work
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Most airlines have offered this for a long time now.

I certainly remember being able to reserve seats up to 180 days in advance back in 1999.

When I was travelling a lot, it never really mattered as most of my travel was last minute. But as the frequent flyer miles rack up, you get upgraded a lot which means seat reservation become a worry of the past!!

The link I posted stopped working as they have postponed rolling out this new system and charges until the end of June.

http://www.virgin-atlantic.com/us/en/trave...-news.html LL.B (Hons) - University of Derby
LOT (Lord of Time) - University of Gallifrey

with 99percent of all airlines you can pick a seat when you check in online , or prebook a seat, although it is not unknown for the airline to put on a plane with a slightly different spec and then all bets are off, also if the flight is not full they will shuffle passengers around to balance the plane. Take a tip from a miserable old frequent flier, sit in an aisle seat at least 10 rows away from the toilets on long hauls, that way you can get up when you want and don't have queuing peoples arses in your face for half the flight. if you have Premium Economy you will have extra legroom any way. If you haven't pay to get it . For the ultimate in inflight comfort get a pair of Bose QC 15 headphones, even if you are not listening to anything you can cancel our a lot of the background noise. 2009 GS Auto Zermatt Silver - Sold June 21 after 10 years of ownership

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be aware that some airlines offer seating together as one in front of the other opposed to side by side. Happened to me on a long haul, the wife was not amused-I had a good sleep......

fly Kenyan airways on an internal flight, get a ticket and given a seat, sit down

Queue flight landing to pick up more tourist at another airport and they get given seats as well, only 90% were already sitting in them as the seat number were the same number

ensue an Italian woman, waving her ticket and seat number in my face and screaming in a passionate Italian way and not understand broad Yorkshire, you can sit somewhere else, this is my seat!!!

Just checked in online and printed our Ryanair tickets for our weekend trip to Poland in a couple of weeks time. Didn't want to pay extra for choosing our seats but when I looked at them we have been allocated adjoining seats for me and the wife anyway. Oh !  Past: FL2 TD4 HSE Auto
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Here's one to bare in mind, airlines sell more tickets for flights than there are available seats!!!

Happened to me a few months back flying Emirates from Dubai to UK - company booked the flight weeks in advance so I immediately reserved my seat, as is normal practice, once I had received the flight confirmation.

Went to check in for the flight way ahead of the minimum 2 hours required, nothing unusual there, to then be told there was no available seat. WTF was my reaction. I would have to wait until the last possible moment to see if any other passengers did not turn up for the flight, then I would be given the "spare" seat. Composed myself and explained that my company only uses Emirates, that I was Silver status frequent flyer, had already reserved my seat online etc etc but they wern't interested. Asked for an upgrade to Business seat yeah right, nothing available.

Then asked for an alternative destination flight that morning to either Manchester or London but was told it would have to be a Birmingham flight, as per my now useless reservation. So 30 minutes before departure, an Emirates rep came over to where I and about 30 other "specially selected" passengers were told to wait - a seat had become available.

Their advice was to read the small print as it clearly states that this is now Emirates and other carriers policy to ensure they sell as many seats as possible, even if this means passengers get bumped. How reassuring I thought.... MY2010 TD4 HSE Santorini Black, 19" Alloys, Almond Leather, Lux Pack, Rear Spoiler, Adaptive Xenons

Someone told me if you travel by Aeroflot you sometimes get to sit outside.