American Airlines Introduces Social Distance Seating
Kaelin Dodge March 25, 2020
Image Source: Piqseles
The airline is taking measures to protect customers amid the coronavirus crisis.
On Tuesday, March, 24, American Airlines announced that they would be modifying their in-flight operations to help prevent the spread of coronavirus, as well as protect customers from some mishaps due to flight cancelations.
Social Distance Seating
The 24th marked the start of American’s new social distance seating policy. They are allowing re-seating at the gates in order to maximize the distance between passengers, and once onboard those passengers will be permitted to move seats accordingly. In addition to this, “American will also block 50% of all middle seats and all seats adjacent to Flight Attendant jump seats on every flight.”
Suspension of Checked Pets
For now, American is also suspending their checked-pets feature, their reason being that, as many flights are forced to cancel, they do not want anyone’s pet stranded. Carry-on and emotional support pets, however, are still being permitted.
For more updates on what changes to expect when flying with American Airlines, check out this FlyerTalk Forum where we take a closer look at American’s new policies.
I looked at pricing for DFW to TPA on April 10, $28 for Basic Economy, $63 for Main Cabin even for the nonstops So, they are clearly having trouble selling seats
The dumbest PR stunt of the day/week/year. Since we cannot sell the seats, we'll institute this great program to make our customers believe we are making an effort to assure safety.
Hopefully they will keep this policy after all this.
My sister in law is a senior international FA for American. She's been flying on nearly empty planes. Are we to assume that the strict seat pricings are being suspended in order to facilitate this distancing? There is a shortage of protective gear and she's rightly worried about exposure, but glad to still have a job. This distancing will be good for crew and passengers alike, but still, better masks, etc are still needed.
You can't get 6-foot separation with 31" seat pitch. You need at least 36" seat pitch and every-other-row seating to do it. Sorry, Dougie, but your Dense-Pak(tm) seating just won't cut it in the SARS-COV-2 world of today.