How to always have an empty seat beside you on the plane

If there’s one thing worse than plane food, it’s that moment you board a 12 –hour flight and realise your stuck in the middle seat.

Not only does it mean you’ll inevitably spend your entire time awkwardly waking people so you can go to the bathroom but you’ll also be cramped into a tiny space for the whole flight.

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However in a controversial move, Etihad has decided to let flyers bid to keep the seat next to them free.

Etihad announced this week that people who book tickets with them will be able to input how much they would be willing to pay to have a free seat beside them.

The passenger can bid for up to three seats, which means you could end up getting a whole row to yourself – which let’s not lie, is a frequent flyer’s dream.

The bidding war ends 35 hours before the flight is due to take off and people can’t try to bid in the airport.

The winner will be notified by email hours before taking to the skies so they can look forward to all that empty space.

However, while we’re all for extra room on a flight, can you really be sure that seat won’t be taken up in some way?

Usually if there’s a seat free in the middle, the person on either side takes up half of it – which we think is how it should be.

How can you really guarantee that the person on the other end isn’t going to let their feet stray into your paid territory?

We can feel the air rage coming already!

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