Advantage of online check in
When you purchase your plane ticket, the next thing you want to do is to select the best seat possible. Some people want aisle seat right at the emergency exit so that you can have more room for your legs and easy to get up for stretching. Other people want to take a window seat so that you can view the sky, the ground and set yourself up in a nice a comfort corner. Unfortunately such option does not seem available if you have to buy your plane ticket through third party discount website, or if you are not Business class and above flyer. Do not despair because there is a way to get to what you want. A website call SeatGuru, a division served by TripAdvisor gives you cashable tips for your to the get seat you want at the price you want, too. How cool is that!
To cope with heavy security screening especially for those who travel to the USA or within the USA, security clearing with hassling procedure that passengers have to go through to get to your boarding gate, almost every airlines allow passengers an online check in which you can do at home within 24 hours prior to the departure time. Imagine if you have to queue in line for an hour to get yourself and your luggage checked in then move to the security clearing stage for a few hours to get inside there probably won’t be any passengers left. As part of the online check in procedure you are allowed to choose your seat assignment even you have been assigned previously. Typically you are assigned a seat number automatically when you purchase your ticket but you have no idea where you will be seated. SeatGuru will give you all information about the entire information and layout of plan you will be taking so that you can visualize better about your seat option. A typical layout plan may include seat options and comments on seating hierarchy (what good and what not), lavatories options and legroom etc.
To begin with go to SeatGuru and locate the airline you will be traveling, then look up the type of airplane you will be taking (say Airbus 380, Boeing 747 etc. Then check out the model of the plan given on SeatGuru. Having full knowledge about seating arrangement will help you to pick the right seat. If the airline does not offer online check in, you can print the seat map and mark the seat you want then carry it with you when you do self check in at the airport, or use it to discuss seat option with airlines staff when you do manual check in and ask airline staff to switch your seat to the one you desire.
Keep in mind that most of the times seats are shown on online check in are not always arranged in that order, that means they maybe still available at the airport. This is because sometimes travel agents purchase a whole lot of 30 plane tickets and have the airline allocate and block 30 seat options for them, hence you see those unavailable seats. Only at the airport the airline staff can tell how many of those seats have actually been allocated. Seating option for your flight does matter because it can say loud and clear the difference between a comfortable flight and a nightmare flight.