Waste of money or bonus?

Got the 7:55 from Orlando to Gatwick last Saturday and paid $160 for 2 exit row seats. By the time they closed the doors we realised that the plane was half empty so we managed to get 3 seats for my wife and 4 for me (I'm taller).

Armrests up, missed dinner and woke up at 6:00am GMT.

Loved the lay down but kicking myself for paying for exit seats that we only used during take off.

In hindsight waste of money but if the flight was full you would have kicked yourself even harder that you did not take the exit seats.
I call it hedging your bets and money well spent.

Had exactly the same coming back from San Fran last month, i was on my own, but was in PE, economy was empty.

To a certain extent, it's a bit naughty of Virgin selling these exit row seats when they know the flight is empty. Sure, they have to be occupied for takeoff & landing (volunteers can be found for this). On the VS74 on Saturday, Upper Class was full, but there were only 78 other pax onboard, so I bet just about everyone in Y / PE had plenty of room.

Most of the flights I have taken recently UC and PE has been full and Y half empty. Recession seems to be hitting hard !

Most of the flights I have taken recently UC and PE has been full and Y half empty. Recession seems to be hitting hard !

Recession or just the general hike in air fares over recent years? caused by government taxes and excess surcharges !

Even at christmas time, my flight to nyc was unbelievably empty and the chatty cabin crew said it had been like that for most of December.

Its a catch 22 situation as far as I'm concerned and I've said it before. Take the excess taxes/surchages from a very few or get alot more in the long run if you lower those costs and have far more customers paying them ii)

That senario applied to our local coffe shop - the owner put up her prices and lost business, suddenly a notice went into the window just before christmas saying 'back to 2010 prices' now the shop is full every single day y)

In hindsight waste of money but if the flight was full you would have kicked yourself even harder that you did not take the exit seats.
I call it hedging your bets and money well spent.

Thanks JCBR, I know you are right but it still felt bad at the time.