Worth it to pay for seat assignments?

When we travelled BA (bad old days) they would only assign seats at the gate- one way of getting the passengers to the gate in a hurry. We now fly Virgin Atlantic

We took 4 flights on BA this past year and opted not to pay for advance seating. In each case we logged in exactly 24 hours in advance and were always able to get pretty much the seating we wanted.
That being said I know its not always possible to log in at the most opportune time when you are traveling. Just happened to work out for us.

Logging in at the first possible opportunity to check in and select seats has become an important travel technique for me. I'm not ready to pay to pick my seat yet.

Not sure I would pay that much extra for seat assignments, but I've become almost militant about checking in online as soon as possible as Brad mentioned. On my last trip to Spain, our assignments, which were made at time of booking months earlier, changed more than once. I checked in online as soon as I could, discovered the third change and promptly changed it back to something that worked better for us...the change stuck and we had no problem. A few years ago, we couldn't check in with BA until we arrived at LHR for the flight home...assignments changed, flight was full, and small travelling party was scattered about the plane. My best planning for checking in early isn't completely foolproof, however. On a recent UA domestic flight, they changed the seat assignments even after I had checked in online...found out at airport, flight was full, and we sat in the last row just ahead of the crapper. We weren't split up and didn't leave ORD until around midnight because of storms/delays, so I was just happy to be on my way. With this one exception, checking in early online has normally worked out okay for me in the past. On my very last flight, I checked in online in the middle of nowhere from my mobile phone.

With your BA booking code you can go in to "manage my booking" and then " seats" just to see how things are filling up. I think most people just keep an eye on it and count on logging in 24-hours ahead to choose seats then. You can look at the seating charts without actually choosing (and paying for) a seat. If you know in advance that you won't be able to get to a computer to log in for your boarding passes on time, then it might be worth paying for the seat assignments at least on the longhaul leg of your flight just to be sure the family stays together. We did this for our return from Zurich last summer, as I knew we would be on a train when the 24-hour "window" opened up.

Awhile back, a friend and I flew to Florida. She was unaccustomed to flying and insisted that we pay to reserve our seats so that we could sit together. It wasn't that much (I'm thinking it was $5.00 for each leg, so a total of $20 each for the roundtrip). On three of the four legs we were moved from our requested seats, anyway, and twice we were not seated together. I book my seat as soon as I possibly can online, but I would not pay to do so.

I fly between Seattle and Hawaii on Hawaiian Airlines often and recently they have started to charge for different seats, as others are now doing. They also have been offering exit row seats available only 24 hours ahead (think internet check-in) for a charge of $25. At 6'3" it is a real bargain for me for a 5 1/2 hours flight. As expected, they reserve the right to move you out of the exit row if they think you can not handle an emergency if one should arise. Speaking of BA between Seattle and London, they assigned my wife and I seats apart and on different airplanes for the flight home at the last minute. Last time we will fly BA.

I've been flying Lufthansa and have been able to select my seat for the transAtlantic leg when I make my reservation, for no additional fee. However, for other flights, I usually find pretty good choices still available if I check in ASAP when I hit that 24 hour window.

My feeling is that it's a personal decision. I do book my seats and have very few problems with seat changing. However, if you don't pay - don't expect a lot of "tea and sympathy" from those who did... don't get on the plane and ask me to give up my aisle seat for your middle seat so "I can sit next to my wife" Uh NO! LOL! Standing in the aisle and acting like a two year old (a common ploy) has limited effect on most of us. If you have kids and will have hysterics if not seated beside them PAY! Do not depend on some theory that "the airline is required to seat us together" there is no such requirement!

I've never paid but have had fellow passengers more than once ask me to switch seats so they can sit by their wives...I've never had a wife ask, though. It has always surprised me that a complete stranger would ask me to separate from my traveling partner so he could sit with his. No...plan better next time...you're an adult...figure it out. I have given up my seat when a family with small kids ended up split up somehow...has always been on domestic flights when I'm traveling alone on business, so no big deal for me to move in order to help them out. The most selfless example I've ever witnessed was when a first class passenger gave up his seat for a young sailor right after 9/11...he insisted the sailor switch economy for first...the sailor reluctantly accepted...I've shared this before, but it has always stuck with me.

We flew BA in October '10 and paid $30 per ticket to select seats (economy, of course) and have aisle seats. Husband is tall and wanted to be sure of a "comfortable" seat for the trip over. On the return flight we elected to not pay the extra $$$. The guy at LHR who checked us in was very accomodating and gave us aisle seats. And the seats were near each other.