I fly every month – I hate a common ‘travel hack’ that passengers use to get better seats

PART of my job means travelling the world, so I often find myself on a plane every few months.

But there is a common travel hack I keep seeing other passengers use – and I hate it.

Alamy

A common travel hack left me frustrated on a recent flight[/caption]

Flying economy is never comfortable, especially when a plane is busy.

However a recent trick has been revealed across social media that can get you an empty seat next to you without paying for it.

If you are travelling as a couple, ‘experts’ have said you should book the window seat and aisle seat if the aircraft has a three-seat formation.

This is because people are unlikely to book a middle seat, so can be left empty if the plane isn’t full.

And even if the plane is full, it means you can swap with the person anyway to sit next to your friend or partner.

However, I have fallen victim to this on recent trips.

Finding myself in the middle seat, I have been stuck between two friends, one in the aisle and one in the window.

After realising they were friends, I asked if one of them wanted to trade places with me so they could sit together.

They declined, so I assumed they would be fine not talking to each other.

Wrong. What they instead wanted was to keep their “superior” seats while constantly leaning over me to chat.

My Ibiza flight back to the UK may have only been two hours long, but left much longer when I had to keep leaning back from my book so they could lean around to talk.

I’m all for a travel hack – but maybe don’t do it at the expense of other travellers.

Here are some other hacks for getting an empty seat next to you on the plane.

Alamy

Either sit next to your friend – or don’t expect to talk to them[/caption]