Spirit Airlines Seat Assignment Algorithm
 

When I flew with Frontier Airlines, I realized that they assigned the seat from front to back. Therefore, I checked the available seat carefully before I checked in, and got an ideal seat (aisle seat) for both out bound and in bound. I know that Air Asia also has the same seat assignment algorithm and I was always success choosing the seat without seat assignment fee.

Now, I will be flying with Spirit Airlines this weekend. I didn't purchase the seat assignment. Do they have the same or similar seat assignment algorithm as Frontier?

I just checked in. As I expected, the seat assignment algorithm was same as Frontier or Air Asia.

What is the advantage of checking the seat map, if they assign from front isnt it best o check in T-24 to be closer to front or did you wait for a front aisle with no middles available in front of it? Also do the seat prices stay same?

I have always checked in at T-24 with Spirit, and every single time have been in the back of the plane, with the front being mostly empty. I think they assign from the rear first.

I don't think that the algorithm assigns from the back to the front. I recently checked in at T-4 and was assigned a middle seat in the back.

Interesting. Wonder if they let you move if flight is not full

My flight last week was half empty, with all of us crammed into sections, leaving other sections empty. It was something like 4 rows full, 4 rows empty throughout the whole plane. They told us we could not move because of weight distribution. That did not last long, and everyone spread out. No one said a thing about it.

The funny thing about it, I checked seating when I printed my boarding pass at the airport, thinking I might pay to move because I was not sitting with my partner. It showed all seats as taken. The minute it began boarding it was clear that the flight was not even close to full.

Thanks. So the trick is with moving is to not ask and wait until the plane is in the air?

Everyone moved before we were in the air.

That's been my experience as well, they assign the least popular seats first. I haven't checked Spirit in a while but ai think they charge more for seats in from of the exist rows, I know Frontier used to.

I could see them distributing people evenly across the plane when the flight isn't very full, however my experience in flying Spirit on mostly-full flights has been that they assign seats starting in the back. That way they leave the more expensive pay-for-your-seat seats until the end in case they can upsell people last-minute.

Since I'm always flying with my partner and we'd like to sit together (though we're fine if we aren't), this is my trick for increasing my chances of getting seats near the front:
Starting at T-24 hours, I log onto Spirit and start to book the same flight so that I can get a look at the current seatmap and which seats have been assigned. I then repeat that every hour or two. As more and more people check in, the available seats start to dwindle. Since the AI tries its best to seat people on the same reservation together, I wait until there are only a few pairs of adjacent seats remaining. That's the point when I log on and check us in for the flight.
Since I started doing this, we've always had seats in the first 1/3 of the plane.

-Rob

I have been watching the seats. There two sections of seats barring the exit and super big seats in front. There are the regular slightly cheaper seats in the back, now rows 15-19 and the front like rows 6 to 11. Left out rows are not showing available.

So for 10pm flight checked at 9am and 11am. Row 15 went completely before 16-19,, I doubt in the two hours people bought all 6 of those seats though its possible. Still not sure if they do aisle or window first.

Price also fluctuated in 2 hours. The front and exit went up from $18 and $25 respectively to $20 and $27 while the back section went down from $25 to $16 (why they were higher than others makes no sense)

So my thoughts , different than BE on AA since everyone is equal (no basic vs regular on Spirit), is that they will fill the back section (16-19) from front to back and then fill the front section from front to back (6-11)

11am:
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...9e5c1892b3.jpg

I am pretty solid on their algorithm. I checked in T-10 and betted I would get 16c as the middle one 16b went in the pic above in the half hour or so since I posted it. And I did in fact get 16C! I could have waited to try and let 16 to 19 fill up which then would move up the selecting seats to rows 6 to 11 starting with 6 but 6 and 7 aisles were already gone and didnt want to wait chance middle over a few rows.

So unless they mix up the algorithm, they go front to back by section , starting with cheapest section of seats (likely towards the back) and once they fill up they will go front to back from slightly more expensive section towards front of plane. Within that front to back they go left to right (alphabetical order - ABCDEF) I imagine Exit Rows and Really Big Front seats go last

So if I check back and can still view seats, my theory is 16 will finish, then 17, 18, 19, then starting at row 3 what was left, 4,5, nothing left then 6 and 7 windows and middles (aisles sold/taken) then 8,9,10,11, etc from left to right. If aisles go in those rows prior guessing people are paying.

My theory is being reinforced as correct as I just checked again and after I got 16C, 16 D went

So best chance to get aisle is to wait for a B seat to go, then you have good luck getting C or D

Update: should have waited T2 and only exit rows, including an aisle one and of course my luck I got a very big person next to me in 16b, that I actually felt bad for in this tiny Spirit seat, I wanted to tell him that offer seat belt extenders because I notice him struggling but did not want to offend him

Rookie question - if you book two people on the same reservation (husband & wife, for example) - you are guaranteed to be seated together, right? Or does the algorithm have a chance to split people up?