Originally Posted by
AAExPlat
Which means that more and more elites will BUY the previously free ELR seats because they KNOW they are unlikely to get an EUA and thus likely to sit in the most uncomfortable Y class of all US legacies. And to make it bearable, they'll begrudgingly pay for ELR at time of booking.
Elites will buy? I guess I am confused: Elites (other than silver) get the ELRs for free at booking, no? And that's not going to change, it's just that previously passengers ineligible to buy ELRs at booking now can fork over cash and get them right away.
Originally Posted by
sbm12
I think that purchases for things like E+ are much more likely to happen inside the OLCI window than way in advance so I'm not all that concerned that it will affect me either way.
But you don't need very many pre-OLCI purchases to take up the available ELR space, no? (of course, one doesn't need very many elites to take them up today, either) The popularity of sites like seatguru shows that even casual flyers are more and more interested in getting good seats. If CO then prices them right (for their revenue purposes), some one will bite.