Originally Posted by
Lux Flyer
If it's a NRSA standby, getting an E+ seat if they are still available is quite literally part of their NRSA benefit.
Eons ago, airlines including UA used to provide meals on every flight, fly planes at 30% capacity, have every row with seat pitch equivalent to today's E+, etc. Know where all those policies got the airlines? Bankruptcy. So maybe policies they had eons ago weren't the best thing for the airlines and are eliminated for a reason. What you're proposing is they give premium customers in coach two seats for the price of one. This is the same attitude as people who think the airlines shouldn't so aggressively sell their FC seats so they can get their free upgrade from coach. And the response to that is the same, if you want an extra seat empty next to you, there is an option to pay for that, but expecting the airline to set it aside just because you're flying in coach, which is what you paid for, is a bit of a stretch. Just like WFBF, want an extra seat, buy an extra seat.
Oh okay, the discussion is about Basic Economy not NRSA.
It wasn't really eons ago, I can't really remember when that benefit went away but if I had to guess iʻd say ~the merger.~
Iʻm not that old, I did the bulk of my early flying on transcons throughout the late 90ʻs, 2000ʻs pre and throughout p.s.
It was absolutely not "giving premium customers 2 seats for the price of one" it was: if youʻre seated in a bank of 3 the middle seat next to you is blocked. Hopefully youʻre siting across the middle from a 1K or GS (whenever that came around) as that would strengthen the power of the blocked middle. It was like a game, since we didn't have access to live seat maps on your phone. As the plane would board and fill up, youʻd wait to see if your middle seat block would survive. When the door closed and your block survived it was always a moment of gratitude amongst you and your seat mate across the middle. This was only offered with middle seats. Wonderful benefit, go figure.
They should just allow BE to choose a dang seat in the back, it would solve a lot of these problems. Having the "preferred" section of rows behind E+ off limits to most no-status flyers sets up this conundrum and the gate agents are tasked to fill these "preferred" and E+ empty seats with the folks that aren't allowed seat assignments. Diabolical!
Most standby passengers are NRSA. Why do you care if they get E+?
Incorrect.