How to find out if the previous flights (any airline) flew with un-booked or empty seats?
I was wondering if there is anyway of knowing how many seats were empty on any previous International flights? I am trying to figure out the pattern for the best season/day/time to fly in that airline when a lot of people dont tend to fly. I am flying with my wife and an infant and could not secure the bassinet seat on time. And even if I did get one, my unusually tall 1 year old son would not fit in it. So I am trying to see if I should get two seats (Aisle seat and window) for me and my wife, hoping that one will get the middle seat and I can sit my baby down a bit more comfortably. I know flights seat map can be a bit more unreliable. So if anyone has any advice or suggestion regarding my concern or any help on how can I secure comfortable journey without having to shell out thousands on upgrade to business class, I would appreciate your help.
Thank you!
Regards, Vik
P.S. I have already booked the seats and requested/blocked the seat in the airplane.
Best Answer
As a rule, airlines guard details about how full their planes are ("load factor") jealously, so this data is not available to the public.
However, price is a pretty good proxy for how full the flight is, and this data is available on sites like Google Flights. So if you check and see that (say) the Wednesday afternoon flight is always the cheapest, odds are it's also the emptiest.
All that said, these days airlines are pretty good at packing their planes to the last seat, so the only way to be sure of getting an empty middle seat is to pay for it.
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Can I track a previous flight?
With each WebTrak map, you can track current and past flights. The default is current flights. You'll see them on a Google Map with which you can zoom in and out and hover over or click on planes to get more info\u2014like flight ID, aircraft type, origin and destination airports, and altitude.Do airlines sell off empty seats?
Today, airlines have learned to predict capacity with mathematical accuracy, so empty seats are scarce and there's rarely a need to sell off unsold tickets on the cheap. Websites supposedly devoted to "last-minute travel" still exist, but they're really just using the same system that every other booking engine uses.How do I know if my flight is empty?
Call (or chat with) the airline When in doubt, call the carrier's customer service line and an agent to check how full the flight is. It might not be the most convenient option, but it will yield an answer. If you dread the idea of waiting on hold, some airlines have also introduced new customer service chat features.HOW TO FIND CHEAP FLIGHTS - My Best Tips After Booking 500+ Flights
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Answer 2
As others wrote, that data is not publicly available for good reasons.
You can try to game the system by trying to book a ticket for each flight, one hour or so before it leaves. If they are still available, you know that the flight isn't full. If you care, you can try to book 9 tickets, and if they are not available, work your way down to know how many are exactly still there.
[Note that it doesn't work to get to 18 with using two devices in parallel, as the same seats are offered to all people that try to book them - until they paid, and you don't want to pay.]
Sources: Stack Exchange - This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Exchange and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
Images: Sourav Mishra, Pixabay, Kelly L, Pixabay