presario1626

Just received email from united: "Let us know where you prefer to sit when you fly."

"United has partnered with TNS Research, Inc., an independent marketing research firm, to help us gain insight on your in-flight seating preferences. Please participate in this 10 minute survey to let us know what's important to you when selecting a seat."

Went through first couple of questions, which are very detailed on specific seat preference for each row and each seat (specific e+ seats, sit with your children, window/isle seats, left side of plane, etc. etc.), it made me felt they are planning to launch differential seat pricing scheme, so I backed out not to give them any ideas. Am I overthinking this or are they really planning to use this to enhance my travel experience.

WineCountryUA

E+ access prices for non-elites already vary depending on aisle/middle/window, exit row, ....

LaserSailor

Backed out? And missed the FT opportunity to devalue the seats you covet??

^^^

PV_Premier

If by enhance, you mean the same way they have enhanced the premium cabin...you're probably right.

presario1626

I actually gave them bogus answers before backing out, now may just continue as you said if I have nothing to read when sitting on toilet.

halls120

That is exactly what I think this survey was about.

exerda

Or they may be looking to build a case justifying reducing the number of E+ seats, or reduce the space available to some rows of E+, or to limit Golds to choosing E+ only at T-24 (and make Silvers pay), or charge "preferred seat" prices for non-E+ seats, or any number of other Jeffications of the airline.

eghansen

I would suspect that very few people actually pay for E+. Most are upgrades or people just moved there when the aircraft is full and they have to be put everybody somewhere. it is possible UA is trying to change this.

E+ seems a bit of a quandary for UA. They obviously would prefer that everyone pay for the seat or be upgraded with status. But if an aircraft is booked full/oversold, then all the E+ seats have to be filled with somebody no matter what. This would include a lot of people who neither paid nor have status, especially on leisure destinations. The people who check in at the last minute would be the ones put in E+ over people who booked their seat well in advance.

JBord

This seems possible, but I think it's pretty likely they just want to refine the variable pricing scheme. It wouldn't take a survey to determine that most people prefer an E+ seat over E-, or a window/aisle over a middle seat. Although I think some of what you mentioned may happen regardless of whether this survey is connected.

OP, did the survey ask questions about whether you were willing to pay, and how much, for certain seats, or was it just focused on selecting one seat over another so that they could eventually rank the seats? My guess is they are going to build some type of ranking system and then build additional variability into the pricing algorithm.

steveman518

and silvers until T-24

LilAbner

There ya go!@:-)
Tell em that their toilet seats are better than their crappy "Slimlines"!

steveman518

but if you but that down, they might slim the toilets too

presario1626

No mention of paying, just detailed comparison of seat preferences, I. E. Seat with or away from you child, your companion, front, back of plane, left, right, middle of plane, bulk head vs seat close to gallery, bathroom, aisle seats of different rows etc etc.

Of course my favorite seat in the survey is the one closest to the toilett!

kenn0223

I wouldn't be surprised if UA (and others) drop the seatmap and go to a TicketMaster style system where you pick a category of seat and they tell you the best they can do within that category. In other words they stop showing you exactly which seats are taken and push you into disclosing what you want in a seat. To the extent they can monetize various wants they will.

Beyond what they do now, I wouldn't be surprised if they designated "premium" E+ seats and charged all or some elites for aisles / windows or front / back. I also would expect them to eventually charge a premium for a guaranteed seat next to your companion (masked as a charge for selecting seats before check-in). It would be interesting to see if they are able to create some system to allow people to pay for an empty middle seat (perhaps pay $X now and we'll make sure the seat next to you is among the last assigned, if assigned you get your money back).

FlyerTom111

They will use it to figure out which seats are premium and charge you for the privilege of getting the seats you want.