A savvy Brit has revealed the secret to scoring the best seats on the plane without paying extra.
Elaine Poon is a self-proclaimed travel expert.
She shares her tips and tricks on how to jetset across the globe for less with her 7,000 followers on Instagram (@travelainewithme).
READ MORE: Thrifty Brit shares hotel money saving hacks – and how to take advantage of freebies
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The 33-year-old knows how to get to the front of the line at security and the must-see locations.
But her best hack? How to score the best seat on the plane without having to pay a penny.
In a clip, which has racked up 2.2 million views and over 2,000 likes, she reveals how.
“With budget airlines such as Ryanair and EasyJet, they make their money mostly from charging extra for choosing your seat,” the content creator, from London, told What’s The Jam.
“In regards to seat allocation, they will intentionally split people up within the same booking and allocate ‘less ideal’ spots, such as right in the middle of the plane, or middle row seats.
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“The one trick that I use, which has always worked for me, is to check in as late as possible.
“Reason being is because these budget airlines tend to allocate the worst seats, so that you’ll pay extra to change them.
“And as people check in, they fill up the seats, and what’s left are the best ones – either far front or far back.
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“Almost always either a window or aisle seat, too.
“There have been multiple occasions where I’ve had an entire emergency row all to myself.”
In the clip, Elaine and her friends pass the camera from one another, showing their individual seats, all by a window.
She captioned the video: “POV: You and your mates end up sitting in the first four rows of your Ryanair flight with random seat allocation because you know the hack.”
In another clip, which has racked up 686,000 views and hundreds of likes, Elaine shows the time she was given an entire row to herself on an EasyJet flight.
She added: “[…] you guessed it – I didn’t pay extra for it either, because I simply applied the same approach that I’ve been using for every budget airline that makes you pay extra for seats.
“Works. Every. Time.”
In another video, which has over 5,000 views, Elaine talks through how to score the best seats with Ryanair in real time.
Her flight to Mallorca was at 10:15 pm, and she recommends checking in anywhere between five and three hours before the flight.
Elaine rolls the dice with random seat allocation – and gets a front row seat, which would’ve cost €14, and her boyfriend got a window seat in the last row, which costs €8.
She added: “I’m not paying an additional €8 or more for seats when the whole point of the flying budget is so that we can fly to another country for as cheap as possible.
“Especially when they’re only at most a couple of hours away.
“Of course, with every hack out there, there may sometimes be complications.
“Obviously, don’t check in too late, and always look at what the cut-off time is, because each flight can be different.
“For example, one of my friends was put on a wait list because she checked in later than usual.
“This doesn’t happen often – definitely hasn’t happened to me.
“I do have to say that if this does happen and you get bumped from the flight due to overbooking, you get put onto the next flight and receive compensation on top of that.
“Which, to me, is not that bad.”
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