Tag Archives for middle seat.
A Frontier Airlines passenger took to the internet to blast her seat opponent. She’s flying the airline’s Airbus A320 from a middle seat. The man at the aisle is spreading his legs into her space. That’s incredibly rude. She has so little space to begin with, and he has access to the aisle!
A woman shares the experience of a middle seat passenger stuck between manspreaders.
The pair booked window and aisle seats. When a middle seat passenger showed up on the Saturday flight, Congresswoman Pelosi gave him the window seat. This is being touted in the media as offering that passenger an “upgrade” rather than “strategy.”
Whether flying with someone that you’re plotting with, or traveling on your own, there’s nothing like an empty middle seat. Having extra space makes everything about the journey seem better. The flight attendants are friendlier. The food is somehow delicious!
Surely the seat next to you, if left empty, is fair game for use right? You can spread out a bit. Not everyone shares this view, including an American Airlines flight attendant who reportedly scolded a new mom for putting her 4 month old in the empty middle seat beside her while pumping breast milk.
Two professors from Northwestern University attempt to determine “the value of space during a pandemic” by looking at the revenue premium earned by Delta Air Lines for blocked middle seats. They put it at $23.
You’re going to see a lot about a new CDC-released study that suggests blocking middle seats is important protection for air travel during the pandemic. However the coverage is going to be very misleading.
All that the new research tells us is that being a bit farther away from someone infected with the virus is probably better than being right next to them, which we already know.
I’ve heard from several Executive Platinum passengers recently who have received texts from Admirals Club agents shortly before they arrived at the airport. These usually welcome them and let them know the status of the club and Covid procedures. The texts aren’t from an automated system – they’re from an agent in the Admirals Club, which I think is a really nice touch.
And it’s gets better.
Does airlines moving away from blocked middle seats mean people don’t really value Covid safety? If we did, it would be profitable for airlines to continue limiting capacity.
Different airlines take different approaches to seat blocking, and each seems rational from their own perspective. Delta may be benefiting now from it since they’re the only one left really doing it. However as air travel recovers the cost of maintaining blocked middle seats rises, so it won’t last, because customers don’t seem to value it enough to cover this cost.
Southwest Airlines has limited the number of seats they’d sell on each flight, so that no one would have to be in a middle seat and everyone would have some space between them. They’ve been in a camp with Delta, Alaska, and JetBlue offering customers greater comfort (both physical, and peace of mind during the pandemic) and in opposition to United Airlines and American that have been booking to full capacity.
We’ve known that this strategy wouldn’t last.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
