It’s widely accepted the middle seat is the least desirable spot on a plane.
Not only are you sandwiched between two other passengers, but there’s also no easy access to the loo or window views. To avoid this, some travellers opt to pay extra to select their seats.
However, one frequent flyer shared a “game-changing” trick on TikTok to dodge the middle seat without paying a penny. Jorden Tually believes airlines “intentionally put you in the middle seat” to make you pay more – but he’s found a way around it.
He tricks the airline booking system into thinking there aren’t any middle seats left. He said: “Upon check-in I saw there were still 10 middle seats available, so I go straight to the website and pretend to buy 10 more tickets.
“The website is going to ask for every passenger’s names, so just slam a bunch of letters in and continue on. Next, go to seat selection and select all of the middle seats or all of the seats you definitely do not want to be sitting in.
“Then click continue. When you do this, the system will hold those seats for about 10-15 minutes, and that’s when you book yours.”
Jorden revealed: “When you go to check in with your authentic ticket, you can see that there are no more middle seats so you can click that random seat allocation. It only took me two minutes, and now I have a window seat.”
He added the trick “never fails” but warned against accidentally buying extra seats. Many of the 175,000 people who liked the video were keen to try it, with one saying: “How did I never think of this? I love it!”
However, others thought it was more hassle than it was worth, with one commenting: “I’d rather pay. This wastes lots of time and my time is worth more than money.”