Originally Posted by
jsloan
Honestly, I think the seat maps are doing more harm than good.
Here's a fuller piece about the same flight. and there's a quote saying that people were yelling at the middle-seat passengers, because they didn't understand the policy and thought that the seats wouldn't be occupied.
I think you either have to limit the capacity on any given flight -- which, ultimately, is unsustainable -- or just remove the seat blocking and let people figure it out. The current policy makes people feel that they're being lied to.
Yes, I think the blocked Y middles / F alternate-row-window seats are just confusing to everyone, and along with the gate-only CPU, they just make the gate agents' tasks a lot more complicated. The only way I can see this block pattern actually helping is if they only block until T-24 and then release everything again. That could nudge passengers to disperse as much as possible, but it doesn't misrepresent where passengers will actually be seated on board.
I won't opine about whether it's intentional or not, but the blocking as it is currently done is disingenuous.
Originally Posted by
Adelphos
I thought a major point of the CARES Act was for airlines to keep capacity open and employees paid during an unusual time. During this time, there should be true capacity controls for each flight - As more people fly, airlines should be rapidly adding back airplanes in order to block middle seats, at least through the summer. It’s not sustainable, obviously - however, nothing is sustainable in the current environment.
The CARES act really didn't do anything to address the economics of capacity, so it's not realistic to expect capacity limits.