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Comment by johnshaft1000 | Hacker News Reader

On many airlines they use check-in as a way to try to upsell you on higher priced seats or other services.

I often am a sucker for those. I'm 188cm tall (6'2-ish). Long legs. For about $10 per hour of flight time, I'll pay more for a couple extra inches of leg room.

During boarding, I have sometimes mentioned to the boarding agent or air staff that if someone in an exit row isn't able to perform the exit row duties, I'm happy to trade seats. A couple of times it's even worked.

Being 2.08m tall (6’10) I _have_ to always pay extra because I don’t fit in a regular seat. Many years ago at check in I would automatically be put on the exit row but nowadays that doesn’t happen anymore. So now I need to book very early because otherwise the exit row seats are all gone.

They have financially engineered every part of the process now.

Once upon a time you would get those seats for being a nice person, now they go to the highest bidder...

I'm not quite as tall, but still quite tall (slightly under 2m), and I'm still not sure what I prefer: the exit row seats or regular seats. The problem with the exit row seats are that you're "boxed in" due to the meal trays being stored in the side of the seat, so the sides aren't open. I'm not fat by any means, but even for me it's really annoying especially on longer flights: my hips start to hurt.

Last time I had a flight I got a fairly good deal on a business class seat. That was quite nice.

I paid for the "upgrade" behind the empty exit row on a transatlantic flight once and it was kind of the worst flight I ever had. Usually only my legs hurt from being cramped in but on that flight we were somehow sitting directly in the vent of the A/C - it was the first time I needed a blanket and had a sore throat after just a few hours in the plane. Getting up and moving 3m to the left it was completely fine, so surely not just coincidentally getting a cold... And the entertainment/cupholder foldout thingy also was really flimsy and weird.

I've assumed for a while that's the real reason they have it any more. Years ago it made sense that you checked in when you got to the airport so they knew you were physically there and they wouldn't give away your seat. But now, checking in from home up to 72 hours in advance sometimes completely fails for that purpose.

Right, and of course there's the two hours spent looking at overpriced sandwiches and "duty free" booze. That's got to be worth something to someone.

Some airlines have flight attendants hawking credit cards.

Mind you these are people with immense authority. But like law enforcement.

If they tell you to do something, you do it.

And they’re telling you to sit down and listen to them sell you something.

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