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. Good luck finding a UA employee, who that is part of their benefits, to make the decision to remove getting the best seat still available when clearing NRSA. Not to mention, good luck getting GAs to actually enforce that when it would directly impact them, and their colleagues when they're flying standby. Plus the majority of cases it is not the gate agent manually going through and putting each standby in the seat, it is an automated process that runs at a certain time prior to departure, and can be manually triggered to clear standbys into open seats. That process prioritizes giving the best seats still available depending on the standby code being used.

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.

Kacee

No one is demanding that UA withhold seats from sale so elites can fly with empty middles. The point is that if you have a bunch of empty E+ seats, fill the ones next to the GS and 1K last. For many years, UA proactively blocked those seats so they were the last ones assigned, and it was something many of us took into account in directing most or all of our air travel spend to UA. UA has now stopped doing that, along with various other things that helped build customer loyalty, which is why UA is now my last choice among airlines - despite having the best schedule on my primary route.

WineCountryUA

Empty economy seats -- very rare sighting IME . My last 6 flights in June, mostly departed with unfillied standbys. The lightest was a 777HD DEN-SFO in the middle of the day -- a handful of empty seats.

Those were in the days of 70-80% bookings, those days are presently gone.

Boraxo

concur. My kids were so spoiled they always flew in the same cabin as the parents which often meant F. It wasn’t until this year that we decided they (now teens) could fly together in E+ with parents in F.

I guess some people are really trusting and haven’t seen the stories about all the exhibitionist and worse who get arrested on landing.

bocastephen

We are not talking about NRSA, we're talking about Basic Economy and other standby passengers who for whatever reason, likely due to their ticket, or refusing to pay for a better seat in advance, do not have a seat assignment. It's not an automated process, I can see gate agents clearing standbys before boarding and they are either deliberately giving them E+ seats, or just too lazy to scan down the seat map and figure out where to put each one, that extra 5 second of work is so onerously taxing apparently. The entire second paragraph is a strawman - the bottom line is the clearing of standby passengers SHOULD be an automated process outside the control of gate agents, and that automated process should assign all standby passengers filling the rear of the aircraft moving forward, middle seats and all, and blocking all seats next to GS/1K until those seats are needed to empty the standby list. NRSA can be dealt with separately, although I am unaware there is anything in their contract that stipulates "the best seat in the house" for voluntary standby pass flights.

Kevin AA

Most standby passengers are NRSA. Why do you care if they get E+?

If there are any empty seats on the plane, it is almost always in E+, because it costs extra to sit there.

evol

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!

Incorrect.

Kevin AA

I have access to the standby list for any UA flight. Most standby passengers are NRSA. That is a fact.

evol

My apologies, let me rephrase: NRSAs on the standby list are irrelevant to the discussion. Iʻm talking about the Basic Economy pax who are assigned their seats at the gate. As far as I know these pax are on not the standby list, someone who knows can confirm. Maybe you can, since you have access to them?

For me, pax that are on both the Y standby list AND listed for upgrade/J are NRSA. Totally unscientific tho and as iʻve said, not my point.

Aussienarelle

As a 1K member that has had to sit in a middle seat due to late swap to a flight those things are darn uncomfortable. I am a window person myself. And last year I did a very late swap (at the gate) to be on the same flight as a friend and ended up in the middle seat in E-.

Like most 1Ks I like having a spare seat next to me but not going to begrudge anyone who has to be in a middle seat sitting in E+ rather than E-.

As others have stated my flights this year have been full with Standbys not cleared but if you really want an empty middle seat next to you United does give you the option to pay for an Extra Seat.

Live4Upgrade

Unless I'm being asked to move from E+ into F or C, I'm not changing my seat for anyone. They can be as mad as they want at me the entire flight -- I don't care.

Kacee

Obviusly if the flight's 100% full, blocking empties is not an issue. But on those flights when they are not - and those days seem to be coming, with fares dropping significantly on many domestic routes the past several weeks - are you saying you're fine with UA's decision to cease all blocking for elites?

My flights have also been full lately, but I still have a very fresh recollection (w/in past 8 months) of having the middle next to me in E+ filled and yet the flight going out with numerous empties. It's one of the many things UA now does that says "we just don't care."

SS255

4 empties on my ORD-BWI flight today. One was 21B, and the other 3 were in E-. Due to the very short upgrade list (I died at #1, out of maybe 6 or 7) and the unscientific fact that I was the only one who boarded when 1K was called, the fact that the exit row middle next to me was filled within an hour of the flight, and the fact that the person who filled it just had one small bag, I’m thinking “BE.”

And, to bring this back on topic, I’ve never seen more people sit in the wrong exit row seat in the past 2 days than I’ve seen in a typical year of upgrade failures—including the guy with the small bag seated next to me!

prestonh

So is your proposal that other elites lose their seats to be seated next to you, and then the E- pax backfill their seats? Please clarify what you are asking.

nycflyer222

The proposal is for UA to do SOMETHING/ANYTHING about sitting Basic Economy passengers in E+, many of whom are infrequent flyers, couples, and families who ask to change seats.

I don’t work for airlines and don’t have a solution. However, I do have dollars that I am putting on other airlines that have their act more together and don’t plan to go for 1K again as it’s useless.