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Etihad allows flyers to bid to keep adjacent seats empty

economist.com

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Re: Etihad allows flyers to bid to keep adjacent seats empty

#81

Post by handedness »

madcaptenor wrote: post #71
clarkm wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Likewise, whenever I book a last-minute flight with only middle seats available, I make sure to ask the agent to place me between two passengers with the same last name.

But your plan will fail and seat you between me and my wife, since we don't have the same last name.

His objective isn't to determine whether you and your wife are married, but to identify one married couple who have an empty middle seat between them.

Unless you and your wife are the only married couple on the plane fitting that criteria, it's irrelevant.

Re: Etihad allows flyers to bid to keep adjacent seats empty

#82

Post by BryantD »

lorenzhs wrote: post #74
acchow wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do airlines expose the last names?

Well they're not going to ask "Is the seat between Mr and Mrs Jones all right?", there's no need to expose the name to you when you ask to be placed between people with the same last name.

That's still data I'd rather they don't share -- no need for anyone to know that I'm married to the person in the aisle seat. Minimize exposure.

Re: Etihad allows flyers to bid to keep adjacent seats empty

#83

Post by deadbunny »

kaonashi wrote: post #46
spuz wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So 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".

That's how the financial arrangements work out, but those are quite malleable. Planes are perfectly capable of flying without first class sections.

Each section of most planes bring in the same amount of money. So say you have 100sqft for seats the price is basically determined by 100sqft/seats. So while first class costs 10x much the 15 people in first bring in the second revenue as the 150 in economy.

The other consideration is that you'll likely not fill an entire plane if totally filled with economy seats so the price for everyone on an all economy flight would have to pay significantly more per seat to make up for the 60-80% capacity on basically 80% of routes.

Re: Etihad allows flyers to bid to keep adjacent seats empty

#84

Post by pavel_lishin »

SamReidHughes wrote: post #55
chris_va wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course, the last time I did that I ended up between two people who did not want to move, yet still wanted to talk to each other the entire flight with me in the middle.

That's when you join in on the conversation.

Which sounds like a fun way to punish them, or coerce them into switching with you, but as an introvert, I think I'd rather just put on my headphones.

Re: Etihad allows flyers to bid to keep adjacent seats empty

#85

Post by dahart »

pc86 wrote: post #23
reverend_gonzo wrote: post #14

This 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 e…

> 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…

> it stands to reason some of those would have opened up and we may have been able to sit together.

I'm curious what your reasoning is? That experience sounds like it sucked, I've had similar and I can sympathize, but I might guess that your anger is misplaced. The comment you replied to is someone traveling in a pair. People traveling in pairs and shifting from a window/aisle to a middle only vacates 1 seat in a 3-seats-per-side 727 type plane, so that strategy doesn't affect you. If a plane is entirely full of pairs, no shifting for people to sit together will let you and your wife sit together. You could possibly sit across the aisle from each other if you find two pairs, which you can sometimes do with some talking to passengers and/or agents.

It's far more likely that the plane was mostly full of singles and not pairs, and asking someone to move to a middle for you is a downgrade for them. I've done it successfully before by asking a few people nearby who'd be willing to move in exchange for me buying them a drink on the flight. But, most people are quite understandably reluctant to move to a middle when they're in a window or aisle with an empty middle next to them.

Ultimately though, no amount of communication or behavior or game theory would be better than if the airlines would just make the seats more reasonably sized -- just a couple inches in each direction. But of course, if they do that, we pay more. :P

Re: Etihad allows flyers to bid to keep adjacent seats empty

#86

Post by SamReidHughes »

BryantD wrote: post #82
lorenzhs wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well they're not going to ask "Is the seat between Mr and Mrs Jones all right?", there's no need to expose the name to you when you ask to be placed between people with the same last name.

That's still data I'd rather they don't share -- no need for anyone to know that I'm married to the person in the aisle seat. Minimize exposure.

Exposure to what?

Re: Etihad allows flyers to bid to keep adjacent seats empty

#87

Post by imgabe »

BryantD wrote: post #82
lorenzhs wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well they're not going to ask "Is the seat between Mr and Mrs Jones all right?", there's no need to expose the name to you when you ask to be placed between people with the same last name.

That's still data I'd rather they don't share -- no need for anyone to know that I'm married to the person in the aisle seat. Minimize exposure.

Before the middle seat person gets on the plane, they only know that there are two people there who are married, not that you specifically are one of them. The existence of married people is not a secret.

After you're on the plane, it would probably become apparent that you and your spouse are married, or at least related in some way to each other. If you have some game with your spouse where you pretend to not know each other in public or something, I guess maybe it could ruin that, but otherwise I'm not sure what the harm is.

Re: Etihad allows flyers to bid to keep adjacent seats empty

#88

Post by FireBeyond »

uhhfcuvv wrote: post #80
nolok wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Combined with their decently low price, recent fleet and good services, they're really becoming one of my favorite airlines for EU->Asia. Now if only muscat airport could be a bit better ...

You do realise they won't be around for much longer if their flights are half-empty?

Given that it's owned by the Government of Oman, which is in charge of a "high income economy", it's probably pretty safe.

Re: Etihad allows flyers to bid to keep adjacent seats empty

#89

Post by saryant »

ryanmarsh wrote: post #72
robjan wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Industry standard is to overbook economy by about 110% (there's a whole department dedicated to calculating this figure) and sometimes business class too.

Domestically, sure. The margins are better on international flights which might be why there tends to be more empty seats.

International flights are also more likely to be weight-restricted (like UA's TATL 757 operations).

Re: Etihad allows flyers to bid to keep adjacent seats empty

#90

Post by [deleted] »

tuna-piano wrote: post #9

My 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 i…

[deleted]
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