If you want a less-stressful flight, it may be worth a splurge for preferred or premium seats.
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If you’re an elite level flier already booked for holiday travel you probably have your seat assignments confirmed, so you can disregard this post. Ditto if you’re an infrequent traveler but decided to splurge for preferred or premium seats. Or if you’ve absolutely stretched to afford the tickets you have.
But if you’re a last-minute traveler, or you’ve resigned yourself to sitting in the very back of the plane or taking available seats at the airport, either for costs saving or on principle, here are five reasons, if you can afford it, that you might change your mind and splurge for preferred or premium seats.
Yes, you might want to splurge for preferred or premium seats.
1. If you have a connection, seats towards the front have another advantage besides legroom. You get off the plane faster. With a full plane the time savings can be significant, especially when passengers have a lot of carry-on luggage, which people do around the holidays. Normally, I prefer the bulkhead in coach, but I recently had a seat in the exit row of a 737-900, row 21 out of a 39 row plane and it took several minutes. Anyone all the way in back probably had about a 15-minute wait.
2. Preferred seats usually put you in one of the earlier boarding groups, which means a better chance of finding room for your carry-on bags. Even if airlines allow you to gate-check for free, it adds time, and risk for fragile holiday presents.
Things often just feel especially stressful.
3. Even if you are normally fine with waiting until the last minute for a seat, the boarding area is especially no fun in the holiday season. Between many people who don’t travel often, not to mention tired and cranky children (and parents), things often just feel especially stressful. There’s an added value thus in just having decent seats in advance with no stress and waiting.
4. The further forward you are, the less chance you have of them running out of food (free or purchase) or your beverage of choice. This one isn’t a big deal until it is, and again, if the lines are long at the airport you may not have as much time as you expected to buy at the airport.
5. If you normally like the back of the plane because you’re more likely to get an empty seat next to you (my late father loved this hack), that just doesn’t happen with vacation travel, as even mid-week flights are bursting at the seams.
When you don’t have status it may be worth it to pay extra for preferred seats.
Yes, if I’m on an airline where I don’t have status, I hate the idea of paying extra fees for anything. But there are some times when a splurge for preferred or premium seats is worth it. Holiday and summer travel are among those times.
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Janice Hough is a California-based travel agent a travel blogger and a part-time comedy writer. A frequent flier herself, she’s been doing battle with airlines, hotels, and other travel companies for over three decades. Besides writing for Travelers United, Janice has a humor blog at Leftcoastsportsbabe.com (Warning, the political and sports humor therein does not represent the views of anyone but herself.)
