countchocula

Hi folks,

Traveling PTY - IAH - LHR tomorrow with wife & lap infant. We have window and aisle seats reserved with middle empty. Called priority desk (I'm Gold) to ask to see if they could block the middle seat if the flight isn't full. Plenty of United reps have done this for me before. This rep said that there was "no way" for them to do this, and that she had "no idea" what these other reps had done for me.

Anyone have any insight into this? Am I asking for the wrong thing?

Thanks...

Baze

UA doesn't block seats anymore for people. If you want the middle seat guaranteed to be empty you need to pay for it.

JBord

You can't get anything in advance any more, but I have had some luck asking the GA nicely if the flight is not full, before they clear standby. It's worth a try at the gate. Just ask nicely and say something like, "it sure would help with the baby if you're able to do anything for us".

Madone59

That is the only chance you'll have. United has't blocked seats for elites in a long, long time.

Often1

The GA is the only place this works. And that only happens because the GA makes a mental note not to assign the seat. It's not really blocked.

If someone is assigned to that seat, I'm sure they'll be happy to trade for your aisle.

goalie

Agreed and I've had it work and not work-granted it was always ex-SFO where I know a lot of the gate agents where I would ask them if it would be possible to hold off assigning the middle seat until the last possible moment and like I said, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't

mduell

UA has no publicly known policy to provide complimentary seat blocking.

Yes to some extent -- if you want the seat, buy the seat. Otherwise the empty seats go to whoever is unpredictably sitting next to them.

As others have noted, you may have better chances of shenanigans with a sympathetic GA.

emcampbe

Seat blocking went the way of free meals in domestic Y and free checked bags for non-elites - it just isn't done anymore. While PMUA did this a long time ago when a flight had seats to be left empty, I want to say that was close to 10 years ago. Offering it today would be a recipe for complete disappointment - most of my flights, even on hub to spoke on routes that I wouldn't call key - end up being close to if not completely full, even in E+. It must be like this on practically every hub to hub.

If you don't want to pay for an extra seat, then you aren't guaranteed it, and selecting an aisle and window, with a hope for an empty middle is your best bet. I do that sometimes, but almost always, especially these days, someone ends up in the middle that I swap with.

If you're unhappy with that, I suggest switching to an airline that will block seats for you (and feel free to let everyone know which carrier that is).

transportprof

NZ offers this service for a fee. They call it the Skycouch:

http://www.airnewzealand.com/economy-skycouch

AlanSFO

Can someone tell me how to go about buying an extra seat? One that the GA isn't going to walk by, see is empty and put a standby there.

Mike Jacoubowsky

Given load factors these days, it wouldn't be fair to standbys, many of whom are in that position due to issues with prior flights, to allow someone to reserve an empty middle seat without paying for it.

NZ's "skycouch" idea is interesting, but for the situation here, it could make sense to have a refundable fee you could pay that would establish the seat next to you as the last seat to be filled on the plane. You get your money back if it's taken. And of course you make exceptions for GS folk in Y, who don't have to pay for the privilege.

Perhaps the fee could be variable; for domestic, $0 for GS, $25 for 1K or Plat, $50 for Gold, $75 for Silver and $100 for GM. For TPAC/TATL, twice that.

Workable? Hardly. People would be griping about seeing an empty seat someplace else, and wondering why that person got it, and not themselves. Or, discovering that you paid for the empty seat next to you, but the other person didn't.

sbm12

You have to pay full price for it but it is trivial to do via the reservations line. They book it under the name "EXTRASEAT" or something like that and you get a BP for it to demonstrate that it is occupied, even if no one is sitting in it

transportprof

Some musicians do this routinely for their instruments, e.g., classical cellist Yo-Yo Ma.

emcampbe

I know you were responding to someone else, but it sounds like the OP doesn't want to pay for it, but wants something for nothing. In the days of cheap fuel and frequent flights that were, say, 50 - 60% full (which still could be profitable), getting an empty seat next to you was almost as probable as not. Now this requires really good luck.

mezzowithcorigis

Very true. I think in the last year I've had an empty seat twice. Once was on a full-to-the gills 753 DEN/LAX. I'm not a POS, but not a petite little thing, either. I was in a center seat in E+, the guy next to me at the aisle was also a pretty big guy. It was going to be a miserable flight, and he got the 11th hour UG to clear as they were closing the doors. The other was a late-night IAH-BFL. I was in 2A because I had been re-booked due to IRROPS and the agent kept my seat assignment from a much larger mainline flight There were only three of us in F, I think a total of two people in E+, and E- was pretty full. FA made me wait till they closed the doors to move across to 2C, but that was the last time I flew "empty"

I have purchased an extra seat to transport an instrument before, and it's no big deal. GA asked me if I had a BP for it as I was boarding, and that was that, but that was a long time ago.
I have been tempted a few times to buy an extra seat on a CR2, but have always just gone out of my way to avoid flying one instead.