United Airlines will upsell customers to sit in a row with an empty middle seat.
United Airlines
United Airlines has a new way to entice customers to pay more on board: no middle seat neighbor.
The carrier said Tuesday that one of the rows on its Airbus A321XLRs will have an empty middle seat with a tray table for the aisle- and window-seat customers to share. The seats, which are in the extra legroom section, go on sale later this year so it’s not clear just how much more United will charge. It said it could later add them to other aircraft beyond those new, long-range narrow-body planes.
The new upsell is just one of many airlines are throwing out to get customers to pay more to fly. Last week, Delta Air Lines joined United in launching basic business-class and premium economy fares that don’t come with perks that used to be included in the ticket. For example, Delta will no longer include access to its top-tier Delta One lounge or seat selection with its cheapest long-haul business-class tickets.
United in March also said it plans to launch a set of three economy seats that can be converted into a bed, which it’s calling the “Relax Row” on some of its wide-body planes.
Airlines have spent years adding more premium-class seats to make bigger business-class cabins where spending has been more resilient. The bottlenecks of ever-more-elaborate seats have even delayed deliveries of new planes.
