Tag Archives for seats.
No one seems more concerned with assigned seating on Southwest Airlines than the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance.
Of course Southwest is making a lot of changes to improve revenue, pushed by activist investor Elliott Management. They might choose to revise their policy of refunding extra seat purchases on flights that aren’t sold out. And they haven’t said they won’t do it!
Members with status can still book preferred and extra legroom seats for free on basic economy fares. But seat coupons will no longer work for other members to save money on seats when buying the cheapest fares.
A United Airlines flyer stuck in a middle seat wonders if it’s alright to offer cash to someone with a window or aisle to switch with him? He only has a window to offer to he correctly understands that no one is likely to do a straight trade.
You used to be able to take any open seat in your cabin once the doors closed. You might move closer to the front, grab an aisle seat, or head for an empty row in the back so you could stretch out.
Southwest Airlines lets passengers pick their seats on a first-come, first-served basis. You board earlier if you buy the most expensive tickets, if you’re a frequent traveler, or if you pay for early boarding. Or if you fake the need for a wheelchair.
That’s why Southwest Airlines has more wheelchair passengers than any other airline.
A passenger shared their experience traveling with their 10 year old, and the internet is furious. These parents have their son sit alone on flights – even when they’re all flying together. The parents sit together, and the child gets placed in a middle seat, often people two other people traveling together. Let those people watch their kid.
I don’t like lining up to board on Southwest Airlines because I don’t really want to board 30 minutes prior to departure, and stand at the gate even earlier than that. But I do like Southwest’s first-come, first-served style of seating. Southwest says I’m in the small minority on this, but hear me out. I’m really going to miss the Southwest Airlines boarding process when they move to assigned seats.
At the end of the day overhead bin space is first-come, first-served. The polite thing to do is to place your personal item under the seat in front of you. Flight attendants often announce this instruction. But there’s often little enforcement – and taking matters into your own hands often won’t end well.
The space underneath the seat in front of you usually belongs to you. Not every passenger respects this. Your seat opponent may use the space in front of them and the space in front of you. When you arrive at your seat, there’s already a bag sitting where your feet should go.
They might even put their stuff in front of your seat and not in front of theirs to give themselves the extra legroom.
A Delta Air Lines passenger left their seat in a shocking state after a flight on Monday. There was food waste, brown smears, a ripped up safety card – and something that looks like a tiny version of the flag of Bolivia left in and around the seat. The passenger just got up and left at the end of the flight, blissfully unaware of their own chaos like Mr. Bean.
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 »
