Originally Posted by
narvik
It's not as if physical distancing means that if you're closer than 6ft to another person you're guaranteed to get COVID-19 and get terribly sick (or worse),
and if you're further than 6ft from another person you will be 100% safe.
Since we're all wearing masks nowadays, the idea is to keep as far away as possible, under the circumstance.
Having the middle seat unoccupied seems like a good solution for a few reasons:
- less crowding in gate area
- less crowding while boarding
- less close proximity while placing bags in overhead
- spread of viral load from an infected person is likely going to be considerably less if the other persons are one to two feet further away
Having the middle seat unoccupied seems like a good solution and United promoted that idea.
I'd rather UA flew at ~70% occupancy, and keep the middle seat open. This seems like a good compromise.
It can't be as financially devastating as not flying at all, or only flying with cargo, surely?
The reality - with hundreds of billions having been lost already due to it - is that the public justifiably fears to fly. Getting a deadly disease by being jammed with your mouth 8" from the person next to you is just not worth flying. I have zero interest in doing it, nor evidently do about 95% of travelers (given travel numbers are down by 97% in the US). OTOH, air travel is a necessary and required service. We can't run an economy or a government if we don't have a network of airplanes.
The airlines promised to keep middle seats open - starting with Alaska Airlines, expanding to other airlines - because they knew that it was a necessary act to make people feel safer to fly. People bought tickets based upon United's promise.
United has now broken that promise, and now appears to be trying to pull back on the promise see
https://www.washingtonpost.com/trave...ge%2Fstory-ans
The bottom line is that people are NOT going to willingly set with their noses/eyes/mouths 8" (or closer) from some stranger. And I might add that I am even more scared to be sitting next to someone who thinks that this is a good idea.
United's new "promise" - we will sell out pack our planes,and if you are uncomfortable with that, we will let you wait for a flight that has enough space for you to have social distance - is a clear signal to avoid United at any price.
It's one thing to be upset with United for crappy J/F food, tight seats, surly flight attendants, uncomfortable seats. But safety is the core basic key thing in buying an airline ticket. United has just shown that it takes passengers safety less safe than shady third world airlines flying old Russian planes.