When I go on  a business trip, I have to ride in Economy class and thus for long-haul flights good seating is preferable. I usually arrive at the airport earlier, to be the first in the line at the check-in counter and I always talk to the staff if I can get a good seat. I always check the airline’s homepage for a seat map of my flight or I visit seatguru.com to find a good location to spend 10 hours or more in a narrow seat. In most of the cases I can get an acceptable seat (or I am freely upgraded to business class ) but as a rule of thumb I found out that seats next to the emergency exits are usually not available at the time when you check in. They are opened rather late and are offered to travellers with babies or special needs. But on most of the flights there are vacant seats next to the emergency exit and you can talk to the staff at the gate (not at the check-in counter !) if such chairs are available. It does not hurt and in the worst case you should get a friendly “no”. BTW, showing your frequent flyer card (given that you have one for the airline you are booked on) increases the chances to get a seat next to the emergency exit tremendously.

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