The Washington Post covers check-in chicken, the idea of not checking in for your flight 24 hours in advance – and instead waiting until much closer to departure.

This benefits you if you don’t have a seat assignment because you aren’t eligible to get one in advance, or don’t want to pay for one of the better seats in a cabin, but you’d still like a better seat.

Since the airline has to assign one to you, and they go through all of the miserable seats first for people in your position, this can actually get you one of the best seats in coach for free. But there are some things to watch out for.

@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

“If there aren’t any of the free seats left, they’re going to have to assign a seat that would otherwise come at a cost,” said Gary Leff, founder of the View from the Wing blog.

…Leff, for his part, recommends waiting until only premium seats are left in economy before pouncing. Don’t hold out for a first- or business-class seat; it’s not going to happen.

Of course if you’re flying Southwest you want to check in as early as possible if you don’t have Rapid Rewards elite status, aren’t flying on a Business Select fare, and aren’t otherwise entitled to early board (like by faking the need to a wheelchair). That’s because your check-in time determines your boarding order, which in turn determines what seats you’ll be able to choose from.

But for other airlines, here’s how the game of waiting until closer to departure to check in can benefit you, if you didn’t want to pay extra for a seat assignment and don’t get the better seats free through frequent flyer or other status.

• If your fare doesn’t include a free seat assignment, or you don’t like anything that’s available for free and don’t want to pay, it can pay not to assign yourself a seat.

• A seat will be assigned to you at check-in. Everyone gets a seat assignment. Your ticket entitles you to be on the plane, and while there have been flights (by non-U.S. airlines) with passengers sitting in the aisles or lavatory that isn’t how this usually works.
  • In 2017, Pakistan International Airways gave 7 passengers on a Boeing 777 handwritten boarding passes to stand in the aisle of a 1,700 mile flight from Karachi to Medina.

  • In 2019, a British family had to sit on the floor of a TUI flight from Mahon, Spain to Birmingham when the carrier swapped planes for an aircraft that didn’t have their row.

  • In 2021, a Delta flight from Charleston, South Carolina to Atlanta left the gate with two more passengers than seats. Two employees traveling went up to the front to flag the problem and the plane went back to the gate.

• A seat will be assigned from what’s left even if that’s more premium seats like extra legroom or simply an aisle seat towards the front of the aircraft. So waiting to assign a seat can help.

• You may want to wait to check in also. Let other passengers needing a seat assignment check in first and get assigned (often, back-to-front) those worse seats for basic economy passengers. Let them take all of the free seats that are left, so that when you check in there’s only Economy Plus or Main Cabin Extra that’s left!

However, you need to be careful with this strategy. It doesn’t always work out if you don’t know what you’re doing and don’t pay attention.

• The premium seats may all be gone. You may be holding out for a seat assignment, while the better free seats get taken and all that’s left are middle seats in the back.

• This doesn’t work on empty flights. If there are plenty of premium seats left that’s no help if there are also plenty of free seats. If you select a seat early you have your choice potentially from the better free seats (if you have a choice at all). Once the better free seats are gone, you’ll be assigned one of the less desirable free one if those are still available – not the premium seats.

• This is risky on oversold flights. On an oversold flights, all seats may wind up assigned. Whomever doesn’t have a seat assignment at all is most likely to be the one involuntarily denied boarding for the flight if there aren’t enough volunteers to give up their seat for compensation and a later flight. Some people like that – it requires a cash payment from the airline – but if the purpose is to get somewhere on the flight you’ve booked, having a seat assignment on a sold out or oversold flight helps you do that, and conversely waiting to get a seat assignment can leave you without a seat when the music stops.

So to really take advantage of this strategy, you want to monitor whether the flight is largely sold out (based on whether the airline is still publishing inventory for sale, or how many tickets you can buy online) and also monitor the seat map to see whether there are still premium seats left, and whether the non-paid seats are filling up.

That way you can adjust – if there aren’t premium seats, check in and grab whatever is left. If the cabin is filling up completely, check in and get yourself a seat while you still can. But if there aren’t many free seats, and plenty of premium coach seats, consider waiting until the last minute for check-in to get that better seat for free.