Tuvv

Haven´t seen any posts regarding this here so here i go: I have a flight in a couple of days and just noticed on expert flyer that the seat next to me on the ATR has been blocked. I thought the seat block thing was only for plat and lumo? Or is this something that happens regularly for golds as well? never happened to me anyways and never heard of such thing either...?
very nice surprise though!

r2d2

I've experienced it on the ATR as well as a gold.

Teppo

I saw it even on A319, 320, 321. I assume Gold will be the first one who will loose the seat blocking if the plane gets full. But as long as there is space, I guess Gold will could have the seat blocking, too. At least my experience.

Akkku

I can confirm the seat block! The only time someone has been seated next to me was when the plane was full. Saw it also in action when my friend couldn't select a seat next to me.

lento

In 12 intra nordic legs in last two months on variety of narrowbody aircrafts, nobody was next to me or in between me and the next guy (100% success rate). In one of the flight they were even announcing we are fully booked today, put your bags in front of you or something like that. So, yes there is block ( or it is unoccupied) .

TTL

Wishful thinking at best. Or then just low occupancy.

intuition

This again...

The imaginary seat block system has a strong body of believers. I am happy all of you enjoy a seat block perk, but I as a lowly platinum do not. Maybe it is not tied into the AY+ tiers but if you were born with the moon in the seventh house.

on22cz

For me, the free middle seat has perfectly worked domestically. However, I would say, in case of morning OUL flights, they just closed the first 5-10 rows at some point, so it has never reached the point when those middle seat get occupied.
On other routes, I can tell I often see empty seats everywhere around the plane, but the one next to me is of course taken. It is not like that everyone could pick the seat, but I think staff allocates those and overrules the somewhat automated system of not offering the seat next to you to a lower tier passenger.

TTL

As OULuisian with those ample 32Xs, would you rather have seat blocking perk instead of BMW-ride? As KUOpioian, the seat block in ATRs seem never work but the few Lumos around always seem to get the BMW.

on22cz

Definitely! If they promised seat blocks fleet-wide (seats would be filled as per status - such as it has always worked perfectly for me on SAS), I would have immediately changed such a perk for a BMW ride. Of course, I assume the perk would work.
BMW is a nice service, but I don't think it would be a convincing factor for becoming / remaining Lumo. Seat block, availability based upgrades (at least SH), same-day standby / confirmed changes, CS agents that know what they are doing and +/- consistent quality of airport and onboard service would be in the core of success. Then can come things like BMW rides, good quality welcoming package, small gifts now and then, free snacks etc. They got right things that are nice to have, but make little-to-no difference in the end - more like those that you can come up with from an office, not even stepping on a plane. Sorry it went a bit off-topic...

Courmisch

Seat block exists even for Silver, or at least it did back when I was Silver. I even confirmed it at one point with somebody else on the same flight but different booking. It is just not systematic, depending on load factor (obviously full plane is full plane) and whatever unknown factors.

NoWindowSeat

The seat block is there for sure, not always, but it definitely is there, no question about it. Often you see it even in SH J if the load is light, they do not allow anyone to select the seat "next" to you. I have a flight tomorrow, for example, where A is blocked and I'm on C seat in SH. But, totally agree with intuition, it's something you can never take for granted but it sure happens (often).

To add, I think the block, when it happens, is only activated closer to departure, maybe when OLCI opens..

intuition

If someone wants to pay to be seated next to you despite you being <fill-in-tier-of-choice>, by jove Finnair will let them pay for it.

Or think about it like this - if you experience you have this personal seat block perk it is just because you are not popular enough to sell the seat next to you!

Steve_Hun

I'm with intuition on this one... Most often than not, there IS someone sitting next to me. Granted, it may have something to do with I'm always aiming for exit row seats, but at one occasion, I was sitting on D, there was someone sitting on both E and F (they were NOT there when I booked the seat), but NOONE at A, B or C... So the seat block ended up on the other side of the aisle.

intuition

Yup, that mimics my experience. When on popular seats there is no "block" even when other popular seats are wide open.


All these effects are consistent with a "optimal seating ancillary revenue system" and not with at "seat block perk system".

A large number of parameters are considered by an algorithm and in some cases the result is something that people interprets as a seat block. And there might even be a block when the control is handed over from "optimal seating" to "check-in". But in this case, it might look like a duck and it might sound like a duck. But it isn't.

There clearly are a lot more factors than tier level and 100% loadfactor that comes into play. A seat block is when seat next to elite is blocked for all, CS staff, IT-systems and passengers. As proven multiple times, passengers are free to purchase the seat next to elites if they wish and it seems also clear that AY staff can override any system limitation.
'
And it even seems like the system itself does actively put "valuable passengers" (definition unknown but not the same as AY+ tier) in "valuable seats" (like extra legspace) even if it means putting them next to an elite.