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Etihad allows flyers to bid to keep adjacent seats empty
- kaonashi 9y agogross
- ajmurmann 9y agoDo you care to elaborate? If someone is willing to pay the additional price to get more personal space why is that bad? This doesn't necessarily mean that people will be kept from flying altogether. If this is successful airlines will likely just increase capacity rather than keeping potential customers on the ground.
- thedarkproject 9y agoI agree with you mostly, but I would like to bring up the ecological concern of flying with empty seats. It increases the avg carbon footprint per passenger.
- dnh44 9y agoI assume this is only in the case of a non fully booked flight. But I didn't read the article.
- MIKarlsen 9y agoI think the concept of letting people with enough money get to do whatever they want is a bit unsettling.
- strictnein 9y ago> "Do whatever they want" People with enough money can already just buy a second seat or pay for business/first class. This actually opens up increased comfort options for those with less money.
- shostack 9y agoThe problem historically is that these increased options tend to go hand in hand with efforts to crappify the experience for those not paying extra in an attempt to "encourage" them to pay more. See "economy plus" ie. "Cram in more seats to shrink seat space except for a few that will stay the same that we can charge more for". This is also a part of the game to avoid listing high fares on affiliate travel sites but then charging more through upcharges like this in an attempt to mask overall increases to average fare prices.
- pembrook 9y agoSo basically you find market economics is unsettling? If it makes you feel any better there's not a single flourishing command economy anywhere in the world right now. China, Cuba, etc. are all moving towards market systems for a reason. If history has taught us anything, it's that humans will create power gamification in all situations. The market system is the only way to harness those instincts to a somewhat greater good.
- kaonashi 9y agoYes. Markets are a means, not an ends. When markets undermine basic fairness, they are gross.
- spuz 9y agoSo are you against business and first class? Without those customers paying 10x the economy fare, average folk like you and me would never be able to afford to fly around the world. You should be very careful when deciding what kind of markets are good and which are "bad".
- kaonashi 9y agoThat's how the financial arrangements work out, but those are quite malleable. Planes are perfectly capable of flying without first class sections.
- spuz 9y agoI think you give markets way less credit than they deserve. Check out http://wonderfulloaf.org http://wonderfulloaf.org and see if you are persuaded.
- kaonashi 9y agoDon't think there's anything wrong with markets per se, but implementation details are important. Markets where some players have considerably more coercive power than others don't tend to produce good outcomes.
- pavel_lishin 9y agoDoesn't go into how it works - if I bid $50 to have an empty seat next to me, and the flight ends up being fully booked, is my $50 refunded?
- thedarkproject 9y agoFrom an ecological point of view, this is very problematic. As far as it's value as a business idea goes, I'd say this an interesting idea.
- valladanger 9y agoBy ecologically problematic, do you mean that if many passengers opt to fly with adjacent seats empty it would transitively mean that more flights would be needed to meet the demand? (if that is the case it absolutely makes sense !)
- thedarkproject 9y agoThat's what I meant yes. Of course if it's applied onlx on routes where utilization is low a priori, my argument doesn't apply.
- waqf 9y agoDoesn't the same argument apply to the existence of business class? Since to a very large extent, what you're paying for in business class is the extra square feet of cabin space.
- icoder 9y agoI think they just make money from reshuffling empty seats they were gonna have anyway, not more than that. But I must admit I didn't read the article because my whole screen filled with junk while opening the website.
- kzrdude 9y agoSure. At the bottom of it, it's subsidized by the relative inexpense of oil, and how much we can do with that energy. Which reminds me: Is there a name for and can I read more about the problem of economy, market and pricing of resources for sustainability?
- roymurdock 9y ago
- jdc 9y agoThis is a smart move. Such a model could allow passengers to choose from a continuous range of options from being packed like sardines, to flying first class, to flying completely privately on _any_ flight. Picture an airliner cabins as easily reconfigurable as a minivan's.
- tuna-piano 9y agoMy two tips for how to keep the adjacent seat empty on normal flights: 1. If you book when there are still many empty seats, choose a window/aisle seat near the back of the plane. Those middle seats are usually the last to be filled. 2. If you're traveling in a group of 2 and there are 3 seats per section, choose the window and aisle of an empty section (preferably near the back of the plane). Chances are good that if there are any empty seats left on the plane, it could be your middle seat. If someone does happen to book that middle seat, I think 99.99% of the time that person would be happy to change to the aisle/window so you can sit next to your partner.
- ryanmarsh 9y agoInternational flights are usually undersold. I pick the middle seat. People will just opt for another row with a window or isle open and the middle seat open so they can have some space. I often end up with a row to myself.
- johansch 9y agoReally? What kind of international flights (src/dst/airline) have you seen being undersold the last five years or so? (I have seen so many flights that have been kinda the opposite. It was markedly different back in like 2008-2013.)
- tastybberries 9y agoIn mid-late April this year, I flew with Delta from Minneapolis to Tokyo Haneda and the flight was around 70% full in Economy - I was the only one in my row, and the row ahead was empty (by row I mean a set of three seats; I don't know the phrase for that). The way back was pretty full though (middle of Golden Week for Japan). I must have been pretty lucky for the trip there!
- nolok 9y agoNot parent, but Oman Air Paris to Muscat leg has been ~50% full at the most the last 3 times I took it. They're a top notch airline, flying Boeing 787, and their Muscat to final destination leg has always been full (same as the Muscat to Paris return flight), so I can't figure out why other than "I've been lucky" when the likes of Emirates/Etihad/Qatar Airways/... are full as can be. Picture from my mid-May flight after closed doors: http://imgur.com/a/8ikMP http://imgur.com/a/8ikMP
- ryanmarsh 9y agoFlew back to the states from London yesterday. Had the whole row to myself (planned it that way). People in front of me were upset that I wouldn't give up one of my seats. Nope. Slept like a baby.
- dnh44 9y agoI'm quite certain that they could have just taken one of the empty seats and you would have been powerless to prevent it. However the English are polite to a fault.
- ryanmarsh 9y agoNope, they were Americans. If I would have refused the flight attendants probably wouldn't have pushed the issue. Usually they won't.
- iak8god 9y agoHow in the world can you refuse to have the plane's staff seat people in whatever empty seat they see fit? They are in the right to do so and you are in the wrong to act as if it's up to you to have any part in the decision. You are basically just taking advantage of the airline workers' aversion to having someone make a fuss.
- ryanmarsh 9y agoThe staff didn't. They took it upon themselves to move. They asked the staff if it was ok and the staff said yes but didn't help reseat them. I love how downvoted I'm getting in this thread. LOL
- iak8god 9y ago"If I would have refused the flight attendants probably wouldn't have pushed the issue. Usually they won't." As I didn't vote on your comment I can't say for sure, but probably people are downvoting you because your own statements make it sound like you're bullying busy airline staff into getting what you want even though it's not owed to you.
- reverend_gonzo 9y agoThis is really interesting from a game theory perspective. What's really going to matter is how it's executed. If someone bids $100 to keep a seat empty and the flight is empty, do they still get charged the $100? Or is it only when there's a limited number of empty seats and more people that will pay to have an empty seat next to them. One interesting way would be that each person gets charged the lowest amount of everybody who has an empty seat next to them. This obviously limits what the airline makes, but keeps things generally fair. Another way is when people go to reserve seats, if someone is willing to pay $x to keep an adjacent seat empty, the price of selecting that seat goes up by $x. This guarantees the airline gets paid at least $x as soon as someone bids that. It also makes it more important to book seats early, but will of course, get much more complicated to execute. One of the things I do when booking flights for two, is choose an aisle seat and a window seat. Odds are if the flight is not full, a solo traveler will not book the middle seat, and we end up having all three seats for us. If someone does book the middle seat, we just trade aisle/window for the middle, so we're together, and he other person feels like he got an upgrade.
- pc86 9y ago> This obviously limits what the airline makes, but keeps things generally fair. What possible incentive would an airline have to do that, then? > If someone does book the middle seat, we just trade aisle/window for the middle, so we're together, and he other person feels like he got an upgrade. This infuriates me. My wife and I traveled cross country last month and due to a maintenance issue the previous night, our 6am flight was cancelled and we were pushed to 10am. What resulted was us trying to select seats when every row on the plane was either full or window-aisle. Had people flying together actually selected seats next to each other, it stands to reason some of those would have opened up and we may have been able to sit together. Not a big deal for a 30-minute connecting flight, but not the best 5 hours to start a trip with.
- obastani 9y agoIn this situation, wouldn't the person sitting in the middle be willing to trade for either the aisle or the window seat?
- austinl 9y agoIf you're flying with another person, you can try booking the window and aisle, then hope the middle doesn't get filled. If someone does take the middle seat, they're usually willing to trade so you and your partner can sit next to each other. This has worked for me on several international flights.
- edw519 9y agoAnother technology solution to a non-technical problem. 1. Fly Southwest. 2. Board earlier than most others. 3. When someone eyeballs the adjacent seat, yell into your phone, "The ointment works much better than the lotion when the boils open!"
- nxc18 9y agoYou're getting downvoted but this is a good point - southwest does it right. For whatever reason, people dislike the back of the plane but if you can tolerate that, you typically have your choice of isle or window, even with crappy line placement.
- dave5104 9y agoThe back of the plane is not ideal when you want to get off the plane sooner to catch your connecting flight.
- Symbiote 9y agoThis has worked on flights to/from particularly religious countries. I got the whole exit row on one flight from Poland, the guys already seated actually asked to move. 1. Wear a black metal band t-shirt This has only worked once: 1. Teach the toddler in the middle seat on the first flight to speak a little English 2. Her father will be so happy and relaxed, he will let her eat the overly sweet BA dessert 3. She will be sick all over both adults 4. No-one wants to sit next to the sick-smelling guy on the next flight.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- Jdam 9y agoHmm, AirBerlin is offering this now for 1+ years. Note that Etihad heavily invested in AirBerlin.
- mootothemax 9y agoIf you don't fancy the price of premium economy or business class, you can get some great deals at the literal last minute. Go through with your flight as normal, check in, go through security, and find a member of staff for your flight. Ask how much an upgrade costs, and if they have the space available, they're open to offers. For example, about 5 years ago I got economy+ on British Airways LHR -> LAX for $200, and business offered for $600 or $700 IIRC. Not bad for a 12 hour flight!
- bruce_one 9y agoI think Seatfrog are now gamifying the last-minute-upgrade trick. http://seatfrog.com/ http://seatfrog.com/