Posted 2 days ago

Etihad airlines seats

Hey everyone! I have a question about seating arrangements on Etihad flights. For those who haven't paid to reserve seats, have you and your party been seated together? I know it can vary from flight to flight, but I'd love to hear about your experiences. Personally, I'm not sure if it's worth spending £400 on seat reservations as it’s £100 per person for the 4 flights so would be £400 all together for the 4 people in our party.

If any of you have flown with Etihad, I would really appreciate hearing your thoughts. Thanks in advance for sharing! 🛫

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12th Feb
If it is important to your group to be seated together,pay. No matter what anyone says here as experience, if you end up not being seated together what are you going to do? So many variables are in play and it's your gamble, long as you are happy with the possible outcomes.
12th Feb
I've booked Etihad flights for family and every time bar once, they were seated together but because we didn't pay for sitting together it was basically luck that when online check-in opened the seats were available with 24hrs to go.

Budget airlines I can just about understand employing these shyster tactics but when you're paying £600+ each for tickets and they still charge for sitting together, that disgusts me (edited)
12th Feb
It might be the only chance to get away from everyone on your break, so keep the cash and take advantage
12th Feb
My wife and I flew with them last month and they seated us together - allocation done at luggage drop off. Some couples were split up but the flight was rammed. My guess wold be that they'd try and sit you together if space allows. At least they don't have a Ryanair-esque 'split them up unless they pay' policy. You can check-in on-line within I think it was either 24 or 30 hrs of scheduled take off. You initially get allocated your seats but can move seats free of charge as part of the check-in process - subject to availability of course.
Author
13th Feb
Etihad have said to me that you can get your free seats at airport check in. So can you choose your free seats if you don’t reserve earlier at online check in 24 hours before and select what’s available and get the seats at a first come first serve basis.
12th Feb
Does anyone flying have any type of disability?
If you get special assistance you can call up and they allocate seats for the disabled person and a carer for free however every flight we've ever been on they've put our whole party together for free when i called
Author
13th Feb
Oh really! My brother deaf and we’re flying with him. For another holiday which was with emirates airline they give us free seats for all of us.
I have live chatted Etihad but they said only the carer and disabled and we all have separate bookings. I asked Etihad on live chat they said they can only do it for the carer and disabled person not for the whole party but emirates did.
13th Feb
The very second that online check in opens up, log on and reserve the seats.
13th Feb
Etihad seat policies have changed. Last year free seat booking opened 24 hours before the flight and I was able to both check in and pick seats. This year I’ve been told that they changed their policy back in November so that free seat booking is now only 4 hours before the flight.

Once online check in opens 24 hours before providing the tickets have been booked under a single ref then it should allocate seats for all the people, for me and my wife the seats were next to each other and the only quirk was that allocated a window and middle seat whereas we prefer an aisle and middle.

We were a bit unhappy that it put us right at the back of the plane but in all honesty the seats were great with not that much traffic through the aisle, whereas normally I’d book a seat further forward and every man and his dog walks by knocking you or you elbow!
15 h, 6 m ago
I've had no issues sitting together on my last journey travelling in Etihad about 6 months ago, however, I found that once I tried to check in as soon as it opened there was hardly any free seats available that I could swap over that's on an A380 which is a pretty big plane. Also, the flight was almost full at least the economy class. So I would suggest that you check in ASAP.
On our return journey I turned up early at the airport and requested for a change in seats as I prefer aisle to the window and they obliged.
Author
6 h, 12 m ago
Hi, Thank you for your message. Ethiad have changed there rules from November 2023 you can only select your free seats 4 hours before flight departure so at airport check in. You can no longer do this at online check in.

Do you think we will be able to get seats at airport check in to be sat together?