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.
As a kid I remember making a bee-line for an empty middle row on an American Airlines flight from Honolulu to Sydney, so I could lay down and sleep.
- Self-upgrading was never allowed. You couldn’t just move from economy to business class.
- Now, though, airlines charge for ‘premium’ seats in coach so they don’t usually let you go from regular coach to extra legroom seats for free, even if the seats are empty once the doors close.
- People might not pay if they knew they could take an extra legroom seat for free that was empty once everyone had boarded!
On a recent United Airlines flight from Honolulu to Los Angeles, there were plenty of empty seats and passengers wanted to spread out. They asked permission from a flight attendant. Things did not go well. According to a passenger who wasn’t allowed to move,
- The flight attendant quoted them a price of $180
- When that offer was declined, the crewmember blocked off the empty seats by opening up each seat’s tray tables.
#UnitedAirlinesSUCKS!! May 24. HNL to LAX (UA 1169). Flight attendant wanted to charge $180 pp to allow us to change to empty seats when about to close doors, when denied she opened the trays to block everyone. pic.twitter.com/r3xCU3R5CR
— Sunny1Knob (@M4n3ct4) June 10, 2024
Years ago open seats were pretty much fair game. Now different airlines take different approaches. Southwest still has open seating! And once you’re on the plane it’s Lord of the Flies complete with seat-saving and crumpled up tissues to keep people away from the middle seat they hope to save.
Delta calls their extra legroom seats at the front of the plane “Comfort+” and it’s a different fare type. Effectively, it’s a different cabin just like coach is different than business class.
When American Airlines introduced free drinks to Main Cabin Extra extra legroom seats they left it up to flight attendants whether or not to stop passengers from moving into those seats – but around a year and a half ago began asking flight attendants to crack down on passengers moving to get extra space for free.
In the past, United has argued that passengers moving up to open seats with extra legroom is immoral; that it’s unfair to other passengers and it’s stealing from the airline.
Hi, Krunal. Economy Plus seats do carry an extra charge and letting customers move to those seats is not fair to the customers who did pay for the upgrade. ^BA
— United Airlines (@united) September 7, 2019
The customers who choose to pay for Economy Plus are then afforded that extra space. If you were to purchase a Toyota, you would not be able to drive off with a Lexus, because it was empty. ^BA
— United Airlines (@united) September 7, 2019
But according to this logic United shouldn’t be able to sell cheap fares or offer MileagePlus awards because it is unfair to people that pay full fare? Of course passengers who buy Economy Plus get Economy Plus and are in no way harmed when other passengers get it free – via elite status, via luck of the draw or otherwise.
Sitting in an open seat that can never be sold (because the plane is already in the air) is not the same thing as taking a physical car off of a lot where it is waiting to be sold. In the former case United loses nothing, in the latter case the loss is real.
It seems strange to compare United slimline economy seats to a Lexus, although I once a flight attendant compare Economy Plus to a Mercedes.
The better argument is: we do not allow passengers to move to better seats without paying extra (except under our own terms, for our operational.convenience or elite perks) because that would encourage passengers to take a chance rather than paying on future trips. The actual reason: It’s not allowed because we don’t allow it, not because of some broader moral imperative.
Comparing changing to an open seat nobody else is using can’t be stealing, because the airline hasn’t given up anything, and claiming it harms other passengers isn’t right either because other passengers still got exactly what they paid for.
Dumb move to open the tray tables .
Most FAs are not marketing or sales geniuses and don’t make decisions good for the airline or the passengers so policy is enforced. Perfect cannon fodder for any army.
For a 2023 early morning arrival AA flight from PHX to LHR I decided 2 weeks in advance to NOT reserve Premium or Business but instead a center seat in one of the many empty MCE rows. Sure enough my three seats stayed empty. I unpacked my 48 inch long and 2 inch thick inflatable ThermaRest pad and my Hest pillow. Sleeping on the pad on my side with my back towards the seatbacks was quite possible the most comfortable lie flat seat on the plane. Keeping those MCE rows empty on those extra long flights does bring an advantage for those with status or paying for MCE.
@Air France they have free(alcoholic )drinks in coach as well as champagne .
Possible to move to free (same class)seats after all passengers on board .
What else !
Modern America , most everyone wants everything for free and complains when they are told you have to pay for something.
This must be a joke. $180 to move to another seat n a plane that was not full and no chance to actually sell the seat? United should add Mercenary to their name. Way to disrespect your Customers
Invoking morals? UA should talk. (Eyeroll)
It’s simple, want the better seat pay for it…don’t want to pay for it then stay where you are.
I don’t have an issue with it, you paid for the seat you are in, if they don’t want you moving around it’s their call. With so many seats having different charges they shouldn’t have to worry about keeping you out of one that’s above what you paid. Is what it is. I was glad on a reverb flight when they did let people move that they were clear that they couldn’t move above a certain row, I was in a row by myself and paid to be there, I shouldn’t have to share it with someone who didn’t have to pay.
@ Steve +1.
Why should they give it for free? Those that pay more don’t want to have seat mates if possible and that’s why they agree to pay more.
Sorry. In this case I actually support United.. If I upgrade to a better seat and someone else comes and gets it for free (“just because its empty”) I have been robbed. I’m going to demand a full refund of what I paid. I as the paying passenger have been wronged to give away the same higher priced seat category for free. United is correct not to allow others to upgrade without a cost as they would lose money in the refunds that would be demanded from paying customers. Everyone needs to pay the same price.
If you move to an extra space row from a “normal” coach, you ARE upgrading your service and should pay.
I don’t like it, but airlines will charge for anything they can, although the one that frosts me the most is the luggage charge. I got on and off a Southwest flight a few days ago and because most of the passengers checked their luggage, the speed of on and off was dramatically different from the JetBlue, etc. where each row takes amazing delay putting or retrieving those 40 pound “carry ons”.
Although the Activist Investors are demanding that Southwest also do away with free to store luggage in the luggage hold.
When I worked for UAL, stewards had no means for collecting & reporting money other than the cash drop for liquor sales, so I suspect this stewardess is collecting seat upgrade fees for her private retirement pension.
Don’t ask permission. Don’t move immediately after takeoff. Observe the movements of the FAs. Recon run to the lav the moment the FL10 bell rings. When you head back, grab your underseat item and move at that moment. Take new seat, put on sunglasses, insert earplugs, and feign sleep. Look AWAY from the aisle. If the FA taps you on the shoulder to “wake you up”, act “just woken up”. Act disoriented. If interrogated, inform the FA that the pax next to you said they were sick when they were talking on the phone before pushing back from the gate, so once airborn you re-accommodated yourself.
I too remember finding empty rows of center seats on DC-10’s (in the 1980’s). On many long flights to Europe and South America I could spread out and lie down, buckled one seatbelt around me and slept.
@tom mariner: airlines will NOT charge for anything they can
if they did, they would sell overhead bin space at a premium and checked luggage at cost
You have an assigned seat. Everyone has paid in one form or another for their seat assignment. No pay no movement seems very reasonable
I fully understand not being able to switch to a better seat with extra perks. But I’ve seen flight attendants block the last 2 rows entirely when it’s a narrow body and it’s a 2 hour flight. And I was once on an AA 787-800 from Dallas to Chicago. It had a mechanical and we got switched to a 787-900. I was stuck in a middle seat and moved to the back after the doors were closed as the back section was empty because of the extra rows on the larger aircraft. The FA told me and many others they had to keep the last 6 rows empty to help with service. What a bunch of bull! She insisted we had to be cramped instead of stretching out to make the passengers happy, and make the cabin a friendlier environment.
Seems like the airlines’ policy is “heads I win, tails you lose.”
Gary: Do you think you should be allowed to walk into a movie theater after a movie has started and just take a vacant seat without buying a ticket? Just because it doesn’t “cost” the theater anything?
Welcome to Scott Kirby service!
About time! People would get and move so fast. Why should someone who breaks the rules l get something that a polite passage get would not get ? Maybe they can find away to stop that guy who gets his over head bag while the plane is still moving or is it the same guy?
I pay for the Economy plus seat and that’s what I get. Worth it for me.
For what it’s worth, United has also recently begun offering passengers the ability to buy economy+ seats off the bat, without upgrading, similar to delta.
THIS is the world that we have created and what Americans want! You now PAY for the level of comfort that you want. Because Americans are so CHEAP the airlines now cater to that. You want the cheapest price, sure, but don’t expect extra! You want a bag, you want a different seat, you pay! It’s not just yours to take if no one is there.
This is what you wanted! The cheapest price and pay to up your level of comfort. Don’t come crying when someone tells you no and don’t make it out like it’s no loss to the airline.
I applauded these FAs for doing this! THIS person paid for one seat. That’s it, they didn’t pay for the row, they didn’t pay to move.
IMO a passenger should be able to move to other open seats in their category of travel.
eg: If a family of three is together in the outside triple of a wide body, std legroom, and wants to spread out to nearby wide open std. legroom seats? Fine.
But UA charges extra for those bulkhead seats (more than they’re often worth, imo) so asking for payment isn’t irrational.
I’d assume that any Silver elites would have looked at the seatmap and legitimately moved up to bulkhead between 24h and boarding, or asked the gate agent to do that for them.
United has been dead last on my list of airlines I will fly. Ryan, Spirit and Frontier compr5 my “Do not fly” list.
I usually agree with you Gary, but you’re totally wrong on this one.
If I pay for a service or product, no one else better get it for free. Obviously elite levels, other factors at play that allow for some exceptions. But these are usually defined.
Want it, pay for it. Otherwise completely unfair to everyone who did. I applaud the tray tables.
And does the same thing work at a ball park? Your seat is in the nose bleed section and those nice VIP boxes are empty. Just move on in, right?
As the owner of a business with a dwindling bottom line and also a paying air traveler, I may be the only one who sees both sides of this conundrum…
Does this rule apply to baseball stadiums, concerts, football, etc? Of course not. People pay for premium seats, and if a seat is open next to them it’s their good luck. If you want a premium seat, pay for it, just like everything else you do.
As the airlines got crazy greedy and got more effective at convincing more and more of their employees that the employees would financially gain from maximizing the fleecing of customers, the desire for “revenue protection” at airlines has manifested itself in various ways. This is one of those customer-unfriendly ways while passengers are in the planes.
Fortunately, most TATL and TPAC airline flight attendants still don’t fuss over regular back end of the flying bus seats that remain open, but I’ve seen FAs block those too at times by doing the seat tray down thing until the plane is fully boarded and seat belt sign is on. The last airline where I saw FAs on a flight fuss about passengers moving about within a cabin was OmanAir earlier this year. And the fuss was about some passengers moving to the emergency exit row seats which were unassigned in that cabin. It wasn’t a weight-balance issue.
Also as FAs are increasingly given tablets/iPads with seat maps on them connected to passenger manifests, the FAs can get more picky about who is sitting where within their own ticketed cabin. Saw this on an SAS flight recently from CPH, and this seems to be part of that airline’s response to wrongfully transporting a self-smuggling Israeli-Russian stowaway on the CPH-LAX flight several months ago.
To me it seems like the flight attendant was corruptly attempting to be bribed. I don’t know any airline that has paid upgrading of seats while in the air.
New name for United Air. It’s now known ad DMV Air. Power just goes to the heads of thee people unless of course it’s United’s policy then it’s not the crew’s fault
I get not allowing people to move from regular economy to economy plus – it’s a different category.
But this picture looks like the FA wasn’t letting people in the same row switch seats…which is over the top. Maybe it was done to avoid people further back poaching.
Passengers have no right to “upgrade” themselves to a higher fare class, that’s ridiculous! If I paid for my Premium Seat and had an empty seat next to me I would be deeply disappointed if someone who paid for basic economy moves to sit next to me limiting my room while flying on a deeply discounted fare. Pay for the class that you want to occupy and stay there!
I love this idea. I had a flight attendant do this years ago when I purchased an exit row seat EWR-HKG. She proactively opened the tray tables for the other two seats, when peeps kept eyeing them.
While I don’t necessarily agree with the car comparison, I kind of have to agree with the airlines, in that it isn’t fair for some passengers to simply take an upgraded seat for free when another passenger has had to pay, unless said passenger has an elite status, in which case they’re a regular customer and have already been booked into that seat automatically by the airline.
The analogy here is saying I should be able to eat prime rib for free at a 5-star restaurant at the end of the night if they have some left over, but I had only purchased a salad. I mean, they’re not losing anything right? It was already made, they’re closing and can’t sell it any more, and if I don’t eat it, it will go unused. But of course that’s not going to happen. Because if they started giving me prime rib for free, I’d learn not to pay for it in the future. And I doubt anyone here would accuse the restaurant of poor customer service or being mercenary. I didn’t pay for it, so I don’t get it. Even if that means it’s going to be thrown away.
Same applies here. On top of that, I’d be willing to bet the complainer bought BE tickets and flies once a year, if that. Who cares if UA loses their business. On the other hand, if UA starts giving away E+ seats for free in these situations, they’re going to anger their elite customers and those who shell out cash for E+. Customers who actually bring value to the airline. So this is pretty much a no-brainer from a business perspective.
Love these comments because you do not prepare for your needs it’s the airline’s fault. You absolutely get what you pay for in this world. Where y’all been the last ten years? Under a rock perhaps? The entitlement is unreal. Why are people cheaping out on flights especially long haul flights? Unless it’s an emergency or unexpected flight save and pay for the luxury of the extra room. A flight attendant and the airline only owe you what you pay for! It’s very simple to me.
No one is entitled, other than the executives and they’re already in First Class. If you bought economy plus then sit in economy plus or pay the differences. I have many family and friends that buy tickets to go to work each week and they sit where the buy, and pay the penalties if required. It’s part of being responsible!
They did lose something. Lots of customers and their reputation. I don’t fly United, American, or Southwest because of price gouging and poor customer service. I don’t pay to be treated like crap by entitled companies and employees. I am not special or entitled but I do expect common decency for everyone. I don’t get that kind of treatment from Alaska, Singapore, or China Air.
its not fair for the folks who pay extra money for more leg room then have somebody who
payed to sit in the back move up.. so if this is allowed then we should be allowed to move
up to first class or business for same.. charging for extra legroom is ok.
i have seen people try it. to get the extra seat.
Let’s get real… if you go to a Theater, a Stadium, the Symphony, the Ballet, or any other ticketed venue, you can’t just self upgrade because the seats are empty! This is regardless of whether, or not the program has started/departed/taken off…or whatever you want to call it!
You get what you pay for, and that’s exactly what you’re entitled to.
Just because this is an aircraft, there’s no exceptions unless the company specifies. Why make things any more difficult or complicated for the employees working the flight.
Please stop the nonsense, and please stop throwing the crews under the landing gear!
If anyone can move to a premium seat once the doors close, then you will have those who paid demanding a refund. Understand the prospective of the paying pax.
That technology of charging for seats is comming to other airlines . United is just ahead of the game .
Remember that a flight had to return to Miami. After a passenger punched a fa in the eye after asking him to return to his seat in main cabin from business .
Amazingly, people can book and pay for the class of seats that they want. That includes MCE, Eco+, Premium Eco, etc. It also includes Business Class and First. Passengers are not entitled to upgrade full stop. They are not even entitled to choose different seats in the same cabin. If the cabin crew deny upgrading or moving that’s the end of the matter. Cabin crew have a directive for safety, comfort and their word is final.
Amazingly some people even pay to have a spare seat alongside them. Cabin staff also give different service that the passengers have paid for to different classes in the cabin. Moving can then become getting a service you haven’t paid for. Without permission, that’s theft.
Actually there is a technical reason for this also – the balance of the plane can be affected by passengers moving to different seats and this is important during take-off and landing. That’s why they tell you to return to your assigned seat.
You can ask cabin staff to move of course but please don’t complain if the answer is no – there are several good reasons for it. If you can’t see that its probably the reason you didn’t buy the front seat anyway and you can’t see why others would pay for it when you don’t.
I agree that you shouldn’t be able to self upgrade’ from one class of service to another. But what if you’re stuck in a middle seat and aisle is a no show. Can you move?
What if the aisle seat costs more than the middle??
This is getting ridiculous…
This is almost humorous…but not. The sense of passenger entitlement is staggering. Back in the day when people moved because there would be an empty seat next to them, it was not an issue. But since the airlines starting charging more for extra legroom and providing free alcoholic beverages and possibly a snack for those premium seats, it should be a hard no. It would be impossible for the cabin crew to determine who was assigned the seat vs who moved into it. That said, I do think it absurd that airlines charge premiums for seats that are like every other one but have an aisle or window location.