Originally Posted by
AllanJ
However some airlines, including Southwest, reserve the right to refund and take back the second seat if the flight is otherwise full.
Huh? Where do you see that? I know that the customer can get a refund for the seat if the flight is not full but I've never seen anything that says the airline can refund that seat unilaterally.
http://www.southwest.com/travel_center/cos_qa.html
Originally Posted by
Efrem
The downside is that this reduces the capacity of that flight. I got the last seat out of ORD at least twice that I can recall right now, probably more times than that. (Statistically, it's not all that rare, since every full flight has to have one person in that situation.) If even one person had bought two seats on those flights, so he or she could spread out in relative comfort, I would have been stuck there overnight both times. I'm grateful this wasn't an option at the time.
It's nice to have a way to block the seat next to you when the plane isn't full. After all, an empty seat has to be next to someone. I don't blame airlines for wanting to turn that opportunity into a revenue stream. When it results in keeping folks who want (or need) to travel off the plane, though, it's not quite as one-sided as it may seem.
The option was there at the time - there hasn't really ever been a restriction on one customer buying more than one seat. And I find it somewhat interesting that you're willing to fault one person for buying two seats when two people could have purchased the same two seats. Who would you blame then? If a flight sells out then it is sold out. Sure, there may be other folks who want a seat on the plane but it is sold out. Perhaps the airlines should stop offering first class, too, as those seats prevent more people from being on the plane, right?