The Best Time to Check In for Your Flight to Score the Best Free Seat

When you’re a budget traveler, scoring a coveted seat without having to pay extra fees is possible — but it might take strategic timing.

If you’ve already chosen your seat when you purchased your tickets, you’re at an advantage. But many airlines don’t allow passengers in the most basic economy option to do so, and that’s when check-in time can make all the difference. That’s because during check-in, airlines assign seating to people who haven’t already paid for it — which means the time of day you check in can mean the difference between getting assigned a relaxing seat by the window or a middle seat wedged between two people in the last row by the bathroom.

If this is you, don’t dilly-dally when you get an email about checking into your flight.

“l aways say right at the 24-hour mark, if possible,” Fora travel adviser Amna Ismail said. “Set an alarm, as silly as that sounds, and do it, especially if you’re flying economy.”

Many airlines will allow passengers to check in 24 hours before they depart for a flight, and doing this immediately can increase your chances of getting assigned the preferred seats in the location you want –– without having to pay extra to guarantee it.

When people check in last-minute, “oftentimes, if it’s a full flight, especially around holidays or really busy periods, we find that you might get left with a seat toward the back, or a dreaded middle seat, which people hate,” said Katy Nastro, a travel expert and spokesperson for Going, a company that tracks airfare deals.

At the same time, even checking in as early as you can is not always a guarantee, because there are other factors that could determine how many window or aisle seat assignments are left by check-in time.

The leftover seating assignments “vary so much by routing and the time of year, like where you’re going. … Like Wednesday afternoon going from Las Vegas to somewhere, your likelihood of getting a window seat or an aisle seat is better than on a Friday evening,” Ismail said.

If you’re flying to a city where many people have loyalty status for an airline — like San Francisco and United Airlines, for example — then people with loyalty status will be more likely to get that coveted upgrade to a better seat, no matter how early you check in, Ismail added.

If…