Travel hack: Australian blogger claims this is how he avoids the middle seat on a plane for free

A travel blogger's video on how to avoid the middle seat on a plane has gone viral. Photo / 123rf

An Australian travel influencer’s video revealing how to avoid the loathed middle seat without paying extra has gone viral.

On November 14, Jordan Tually shared a video exposing the travel hack he claimed has “never failed” him and has a “100% perfect record when done correctly”.

The video which has garnered more than 21 million views and 6000 comments shows Tually booking online a Ryanair flight from Bologna, Italy, to Barcelona, Spain.

Typically, the flight charges a traveller extra when manually selecting a seat instead of opting for a randomised seat chosen by the system.

“I’m not going to pay nine bucks for a freaking window seat,” said Tually in the viral clip.

But Tually explained if travellers “pretend” to buy all the middle seats available - in this instance, there were 10 - it would trigger the system to temporarily hold the spots, meaning they would appear to be taken for customers trying to make a booking.

“Now the website is going to ask for every passenger’s name so just slam a bunch of letters in there and continue on,” said Tually.

“Next up, go to seat selection and select all the middle seats or all the seats that you definitely do not want to be sitting in, then click ‘continue’.”

At this point, Tually explained that the traveller should go back to the seat selection screen.

“When you go to check in with your ticket, you can see that there’s no more middle seats.”

Some social media users seemed impressed with the tactic, saying it was “genius”, while others were shocked that Tually was spilling the beans.

“Ong [sic] you’ll get banned from Ryanair sharing these secrets,” wrote one user.

But the most popular comment with more than 18,000 likes came from a user who said they worked for the airline and was pleased the blogger had publicised the hack. “I’m a product owner working for Ryanair and I just created a ticket in Jira to prevent such behaviour. Thanks for reporting!” the comment read.

Another hack helping travellers avoid the middle seat that gained popularity on social media is the so-called “poor man’s business class” travel trend.

This trend usually plays out in two ways:

1. A person pays for the whole row and then has two of the seats refunded at the last minute so they have the entire row to themselves.
2. The window and aisle seats are paid for while hoping no one takes the middle seat - typically the option for couples or friends.

While the seat-booking ploy may seem harmless, it can be a contentious and risky act.

If you’re travelling solo, the success of the trick depends on the seats being refundable. Many of them aren’t: it depends on the flight, the airline, and its policies.

On a full flight it’s unlikely to work as they are usually filled up by passengers on standby lists who are waiting for unassigned seats on a flight, often due to overbooking or missed connections.