This Viral Travel Hack Promises Extra Legroom for Free
It's called the "Check-in Chicken" game.
If you have a trip planned soon, perhaps this is the right time to think about how to make the most out of it—and that starts with your flight experience. A comfy plane seat is the key to arriving at your destination well-rested and, well, not fuming with rage. Luckily, a new travel trend called Check-in Chicken is here to help.
You've likely played a version of Chicken before where you push your luck to the limit, resulting in your opponent folding. It's a lot about pride because nobody wants to yield and look like a chicken. The difference in this iteration is that you not only protect your pride if you win, you also get something tangible that improves your life. Because, in Check-in Chicken, your opponent is an airline, and the prize is a very comfy seat—or row of seats, even—on a plane.
According to @cheapholidayexpert, a TikToker who recently posted about the trend, all you have to do is wait until the very last minute to check in online ahead of your flight. Because airlines usually make passengers pay more for better seats, and nobody wants to pay more, if you play the Check-in Chicken game, the only remaining seats available will be the better ones. Why? Because other passengers who didn't want to pay more for prime seats would have already snagged the worst seats for free.
While you can be successful and snag excellent seats with this method, as long as the flight is full or almost full, one thing you should remember is not to check in too late unless you're okay with potentially missing your flight.
"I've actually got five and a half hours still to check in, but at this point it's good to check in and see the lay of the land," the TikToker explained. "Because ultimately, you do not want to be left without a seat. Sometimes these airlines do like to overbook."
But if you're still determined to play, here's another tip by Travel Republic travel experts: Keep monitoring the seating chart online. "Many airlines release the final seating chart as boarding time approaches," they said in a statement. "Using the airline's app or website, you can often see which seats are still available and move closer to an empty row."