Published: 15 March 2013

The land of kilts, haggis, bagpipes and that delightful distilled drink of the devil… Scotch!   As we get closer to our trip we are crossing some t's and dotting some i's in preparation.  In that line of thought, last weekend we looked at our flight reservations on British Airways and made the decision to pay the little bit extra to get our seat assignments ahead of time.  The last time we flew we opted to wait until 24 hours before our flight to choose our seats and we were stuck with the ones in the middle of the plane; this meant no window access or wall to lean against and it was less than ideal.  What we really wanted was two seats by the window with the other two right behind them - and this time we are willing to pay for it.

This whole 'paying for your seat' thing is interesting to me - many airlines offer a seat fee of somewhere between $15-50 to choose your seat at the time off booking.  Many people opt not to pay and take their chances when on-line booking opens up and the seat selection is free.  I am the opposite - I will pay to get the exact seat I want because there is absolutely nothing worse than being squished in the middle seat between two strangers, or having your family of four spread all around the plane.  If the ticket that you are buying is $755 instead of $740 do you really notice a difference?  If not, then why not pay the extra $15 to sit where you want?  Just my opinion, but one formed after sitting in places I didn't want to be and wishing I could pay that $15, or $30, or even $50 to get out of an awkward situation!  (Who wants to sit in the back row across from the bathroom??)  This becomes particularly important when you are about to spend 9 hours sitting in that seat… you want to be comfortable! ^Modelling the middle seats on a KLM flight^  (summer 2012)

To make it even more interesting we were very pleased to find out that on our flight over we were able to spend an extra $12 per person (on top of the seat selection fee) to go from Economy class to Premium Economy - meaning more room, more privacy, and enhanced service.  Sounds lovely when you're trying to catch a few hours of shut eye!  After getting very excited about that it was slightly disappointing to discover that the same option wasn't available on our way home… we will have to suffer with the masses.  (Hee!)  This will not be difficult as we have always found the British Airways overseas flights to be extremely comfortable with great service.  Even the cheapest seats get a little loot bag with socks, eye mask and other little things to help make the flight more comfortable.  Who doesn't like free extras?