Back in March, United Airlines announced a new feature that would allow travelers to identify a seating preference in their reservation.
Their app-based seat preference feature allows passengers to designate seating preferences in their reservation. Let’s say they make a reservation and their preferred seat isn’t available upon booking. If it later becomes available in the same class of service, United will automatically move them to that seat, for free.
The process is very straightforward:
- Request your desired seat in the mobile app if your preferred seat type isn’t available at the time you book your flight.
- Select where you would prefer to sit, if it were available (you can choose between window or aisle seats, exit rows, or bulkhead seats).
- Get automatically assigned and notified about your new seat assignment (if your preferred seat becomes available).
So, how’s that working out for them?
Believe it or not, it’s going very well. In fact, United says that thanks to this new app feature, more than 18,000 passengers – just shy 40% of eligible flyers – have been able to avoid sitting in a middle seat, in July alone.
Two thumbs up
It’s rare that an airline will do something purely for the good of the passenger, without the airlines benefiting in some way, shape or form. This new system appears to be that very thing (well, save for a decrease in complaints because someone got stuck in a middle seat LOL. Although there are apparently some people who PREFER a middle seat). So good on them!
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This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary
1 comment
Thanks for looking into this. I would have figured the new system would have been much less successful.