Maxwell Smart

The person you are quoting was talking about an empty seat at a sporting event, not an airline flight.

Plato90s

Oh, I wouldn't do that for the WHOLE flight.

Just long enough to mark my territory.

I also always travel with a yoga mat which I use as extra cushion for my seat. Spread it out, 2 seats become 1 wide/comfy one.

COSPILOT

I'm so used to FT being purely about travel that I completely missed that. Sorry folks.

Maxwell Smart

I suppose if the event was at the United Center or American Airlines Arena, you could be forgiven.

Shareholder

My seat selection strategy when flying long haul economy (as a program elite) is to try to ensure there will be an empty seat next to me. This is pretty much equivalent to real PE if it's in the extra legroom E+/MCE/Comfort forward section of coach. I'll select the last row of that section in an aisle seat of the middle bank. Since non-elites must pay a hefty supplement for these seats, it's likely anyone else will be an elite, often awaiting an at-the-gate upgrade to business. It's unlikely anyone would voluntarily select the middle seat unless the flight was 100% (and being the extra leg room section, agents will only select these seats for those without advance seat selection if no other regular seats are available).

So my luck has been pretty good over the years. Last month on an AA 767 from PHL-MAN the person who had the middle seat in the weeks prior must have been upgraded so the middle seat remained empty for the flight. (An added advantage on this aircraft is that this MCE section was a discrete 2-row mini-cabin so it had the feel of exclusivity (and both forward coach washrooms at the rear were always available since most coach flyers in the back used the rear washrooms) just as AA's 777s used to have before adding PE. Free drinks were an added benefit.

One of the best benefits of upper tier elite status should be blocking adjacent seats until really needed to accommodate full flights.

ijgordon

I've done this a good handful of times over the last ~10 years on DL, B6, and AA. Typically it's when my husband and I are traveling together on long-ish flights (4+ hours), because 3 coach seats is almost always MUCH cheaper than 2 in first class, and the extra width makes a huge difference for us.

I've never had an issue with the seat being honored, except almost one time when an incompetent airport AAgent for some reason screwed around with our seat assignments, inadvertently releasing the middle seat, which was subsequently given to a standby. That pax had boarded before us, and so I had to put up a bit of a fuss on board, and get the GA to come down. Ultimately we got back our seat.

mauiUAflyer

I do this frequently on longer flights on UA. I was in an auto accident several years ago; while the legroom in E+ is fine, I have trouble with my shoulders and neck when having to share the space/arm rest on flights >2 hours.
Work typically won't pay for a premium cabin, so I will purchase an extra seat using miles miles. If my upgrade request is honored, I will cancel the seat and release it back into the pool.

jrpallante

Everybody enjoys a little more elbow room, but two econ seats are nowhere near as comfy as a biz/first seat. Each seat is designed for one butt, so it's not like you can straddle the two seats. I would like to see a premium economy seat that is something between econ and business/first. What domestic carriers call PE is simply the same crummy seat with the 2-3 inches of extra leg room that all seats had just a few years ago. Instead of the standard 3x3 seating, I would like to see a few rows of 2x3 or even 2x2 seating, but not quite as spacious as biz/first. Several international airlines have such seats (EVA, Singapore), and I think it is a nice compromise between cattle class and the outrageously priced Biz class.

MSPeconomist

RustyC

I think it was 10-15 years or so ago, but Southwest got in an ugly controversy over a policy (or maybe it was a draft policy) about making of-size passengers buy two seats. When you get mentioned on the late-night monologues on that it's probably not a good sign.

One self-reported of-size person here at the time changed his signature to read something like "Sure, I'll buy two seats - if I get status miles for both."

I'm not of-size (no seatbelt extensions needed and can get both armrests down if in a middle seat). But I'm above average. I've never bought two airplane seats but have been known to buy 2 seats on other occasions, such as on an intercity bus in Thailand or on a bemo in Bali or jeepney in the Philippines if seated next to the driver (where they'd otherwise try to cram in two). On some of the longer Thai routes they have the VIP buses (where you don't need to buy 2), but on the 44-seaters with 2x2 configurations it can help with comfort a lot. It's one of the few places you can play the "pum pui" card.