Some air passengers are trying out a new trend by playing “check-in chicken” when deciding whether to pay for good seats on a flight, following the advice of a viral travel influencer. But is the effort worth the saving?
Instead of paying up-front for the seat of one’s choice, the Check-in Chicken method, recommended by Chelsea Dickenson, aka the Cheap Holiday Expert, requires travellers to wait until the last minute they dare before checking in to their flight – a trick she claims will result in being automatically allocated better seats, such as those with more leg room or in exit row aisles.
These seats cost more to pre-book, and so, Chelsea argues, end up not being selected by other flyers. When a passenger selects automatically-allocated seating at the last minute of check-in, her logic continues, they could therefore be pleasantly surprised with a great seat for the flight.
Risk of losing out completely
In a TikTok video, Chelsea explains: “Essentially, what they do is they palm off the middle seats or the back of the plane in the hope that you will then pay to change your seat and if you sit tight and wait, you will see that the only ones left are extra legroom seats and the ones at the front of the plane.”
But there is always a risk, especially on a fuller flight, of being too late to the extra legroom party, meaning passengers playing Check-in Chicken must constantly monitor seat availability online, Chelsea says.
@cheapholidayexpert Was this too last minute?! 😰 🛫 Send this to someone who loves to leave checking in a little too late… 🙈 🐔 WHAT IS CHECK IN CHICKEN? 🐔 Check in Chicken is when you leave your online check in for Wizz Air and Ryanair late in the hope that you get allocated a better seat. 💺 WHY DO YOU GET A BETTER SEAT IF YOU L EAVE CHECK IN LATE? 💺 Wizz Air and Ryanair both do three things: 1. They charge for seats 2. They actively split up people travelling together 3. They often place people in ‘bad seats’ – i.e. middle seats and those away from the exits All of this means that as time ticks on, often the seats that are left available are the ‘good seats’ – i.e. upfront and extra legroom 🤔 DOES IT ACTUALLY WORK? 🤔 Yep! I actually can’t remember the last time I didn’t get an extra legroom seat because of doing this!! ⚠️ BUT WHAT’S THE RISK? ⚠️ The small risk – as you have seen in this video – is that you leave check in too late and there’s no seats left. This is because airlines can overbook planes due to the chance that a small percentage of passengers won’t show up for the flight. Now, technically the airline shouldn’t automatically boot off those that were last to check in – they’re supposed to ask if anyone is willing to give up their seat first (they get another flight plus compensation so some may well go for it) but often they just stick it on those who have left check in chicken a little too late… 😭 HOW BIG IS THE RISK?! 😭 Wizz Air and Ryanair both have a fairly high average load factor – around 94% – and so planes are often close to full. However, it is true that some passengers don’t show up and there are still plenty of flights that aren’t completely full. Overall, they wouldn’t overbook if they were losing money on the situation – which they would be if it happened often since they’d need to rebook your flight, put you up in accommodation if needed and give you compensation. 💁♀️ MY TOP TIP 💁♀️ Don’t leave Check in Chicken until the last moment – you need to be checking the seating plan throughout the day and check in when only good seats are left! 📣 LET ME KNOW… Would you do this?! And has anyone ever been on an overbooked plane?! #wizzair #checkin #overbookedflight ♬ original sound – Cheap Holiday Expert
Other hackers advise the opposite
This strategy is completely at odds with other recent travel hacker tips, such as that from Jorden Tually, who says passengers wishing to avoid seat selection fees should, in fact, do almost the opposite of Chelsea’s chicken game.
Tually advises passengers to open up an online ticketing page for their airline and go ahead and select every single seat they do not wish to sit in, putting it in an invented passenger’s name. On another page, they then log in as themselves and check-in without making or paying for a seat selection. Since all the undesirable seats are still being “held” by “another passenger” on an active webpage, the passenger should find they are allocated one of their preferred seats.
How much is the seat and my time worth?
Both methods are time and labour intensive on the part of the passenger, critics have pointed out.
“Being a ‘check-in chicken’ will 100% add stress to your day. To do this properly, you have to regularly monitor seat maps in the last 24 hours before going on a trip. For many of us, the time is better spent packing and getting everything in order around the house before our travels,” Adam Duckworth, president and founder of the Florida-based agency Travelmation, told Fox News Digital. “This trend will suck up a lot of your time, and you should ask yourself, ‘What is my time worth?’”
