
Etihad allows flyers to bid to keep adjacent seats empty - edward
http://www.economist.com/blogs/gulliver/2017/06/travelling-space?fsrc=scn/fb/te/bl/ed/
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tuna-piano
My two tips for how to keep the adjacent seat empty on normal flights:

1\. If you book when there are still many empty seats, choose a window/aisle
seat near the back of the plane. Those middle seats are usually the last to be
filled.

2\. If you're traveling in a group of 2 and there are 3 seats per section,
choose the window and aisle of an empty section (preferably near the back of
the plane). Chances are good that if there are any empty seats left on the
plane, it could be your middle seat. If someone does happen to book that
middle seat, I think 99.99% of the time that person would be happy to change
to the aisle/window so you can sit next to your partner.

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clarkm
Likewise, whenever I book a last-minute flight with only middle seats
available, I make sure to ask the agent to place me between two passengers
with the same last name.

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chris_va
Of course, the last time I did that I ended up between two people who did not
want to move, yet still wanted to talk to each other the entire flight with me
in the middle.

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SamReidHughes
That's when you join in on the conversation.

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pavel_lishin
Which sounds like a fun way to punish them, or coerce them into switching with
you, but as an introvert, I think I'd rather just put on my headphones.

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reverend_gonzo
This is really interesting from a game theory perspective.

What's really going to matter is how it's executed. If someone bids $100 to
keep a seat empty and the flight is empty, do they still get charged the $100?
Or is it only when there's a limited number of empty seats and more people
that will pay to have an empty seat next to them.

One interesting way would be that each person gets charged the lowest amount
of everybody who has an empty seat next to them. This obviously limits what
the airline makes, but keeps things generally fair.

Another way is when people go to reserve seats, if someone is willing to pay
$x to keep an adjacent seat empty, the price of selecting that seat goes up by
$x. This guarantees the airline gets paid at least $x as soon as someone bids
that. It also makes it more important to book seats early, but will of course,
get much more complicated to execute.

One of the things I do when booking flights for two, is choose an aisle seat
and a window seat. Odds are if the flight is not full, a solo traveler will
not book the middle seat, and we end up having all three seats for us. If
someone does book the middle seat, we just trade aisle/window for the middle,
so we're together, and he other person feels like he got an upgrade.

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pc86
> _This obviously limits what the airline makes, but keeps things generally
> fair._

What possible incentive would an airline have to do that, then?

> _If someone does book the middle seat, we just trade aisle /window for the
> middle, so we're together, and he other person feels like he got an
> upgrade._

This infuriates me. My wife and I traveled cross country last month and due to
a maintenance issue the previous night, our 6am flight was cancelled and we
were pushed to 10am. What resulted was us trying to select seats when every
row on the plane was either full or window-aisle. Had people flying together
actually selected seats next to each other, it stands to reason some of those
would have opened up and we may have been able to sit together.

Not a big deal for a 30-minute connecting flight, but not the best 5 hours to
start a trip with.

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obastani
In this situation, wouldn't the person sitting in the middle be willing to
trade for either the aisle or the window seat?

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porpoisemonkey
I think the point of the parent comment is that the strategy of capturing the
two end seats of a three-person row displaces noncoupled passengers across
more rows which has the potential to make finding coupled seats less likely
for other fliers.

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pc86
Yes I didn't do a great job explaining it but this is what I meant. You end up
with a lot of couple + single filled rows and couple + empty seat rows. If you
selected the seats you _wanted_ instead of trying to game everyone else on
what is probably a full or nearly-full flight anyway, there would be more rows
filled with 3x single passengers.

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thedarkproject
From an ecological point of view, this is very problematic. As far as it's
value as a business idea goes, I'd say this an interesting idea.

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kzrdude
Sure. At the bottom of it, it's subsidized by the relative inexpense of oil,
and how much we can do with that energy.

Which reminds me: Is there a name for and can I read more about the problem of
economy, market and pricing of resources for sustainability?

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robotresearcher
> Sure.

No. The seats are not being _made_ empty. You're just moving the empty seat
next to you. Zero energy impact, save for moving the information around.

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dTal
Hmm, I dunno... it relieves some of the financial pressure of having empty
seats, by extracting some value from them. Therefore there will be less
incentive for the airline to maximize seat utilization (through overbooking,
for example, which saves money but costs reputation for the airline every time
someone gets booted). Therefore we can expect seat utilization to go down.

~~~
robotresearcher
That's true. That's a pretty complex effect, so you'd need some decent data to
estimate its magnitude. But you're right it should be above zero, unless
there's some other effect to suppress it.

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pavel_lishin
Doesn't go into how it works - if I bid $50 to have an empty seat next to me,
and the flight ends up being fully booked, is my $50 refunded?

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tptacek
Presumably, because you'd have lost the auction.

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mootothemax
If you don't fancy the price of premium economy or business class, you can get
some great deals at the literal last minute.

Go through with your flight as normal, check in, go through security, and find
a member of staff for your flight. Ask how much an upgrade costs, and if they
have the space available, they're open to offers.

For example, about 5 years ago I got economy+ on British Airways LHR -> LAX
for $200, and business offered for $600 or $700 IIRC. Not bad for a 12 hour
flight!

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bruce_one
I think Seatfrog are now gamifying the last-minute-upgrade trick.

[http://seatfrog.com/](http://seatfrog.com/)

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austinl
If you're flying with another person, you can try booking the window and
aisle, then hope the middle doesn't get filled. If someone does take the
middle seat, they're usually willing to trade so you and your partner can sit
next to each other.

This has worked for me on several international flights.

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jdc
This is a smart move. Such a model could allow passengers to choose from a
continuous range of options from being packed like sardines, to flying first
class, to flying completely privately on _any_ flight. Picture an airliner
cabins as easily reconfigurable as a minivan's.

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Jdam
Hmm, AirBerlin is offering this now for 1+ years. Note that Etihad heavily
invested in AirBerlin.

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edw519
Another technology solution to a non-technical problem.

    
    
      1. Fly Southwest.
      2. Board earlier than most others.
      3. When someone eyeballs the adjacent seat, yell into your phone, "The ointment works much better than the lotion when the boils open!"

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nxc18
You're getting downvoted but this is a good point - southwest does it right.

For whatever reason, people dislike the back of the plane but if you can
tolerate that, you typically have your choice of isle or window, even with
crappy line placement.

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dave5104
The back of the plane is not ideal when you want to get off the plane sooner
to catch your connecting flight.

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ryanmarsh
Flew back to the states from London yesterday. Had the whole row to myself
(planned it that way). People in front of me were upset that I wouldn't give
up one of my seats. Nope. Slept like a baby.

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dnh44
I'm quite certain that they could have just taken one of the empty seats and
you would have been powerless to prevent it. However the English are polite to
a fault.

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ryanmarsh
Nope, they were Americans. If I would have refused the flight attendants
probably wouldn't have pushed the issue. Usually they won't.

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iak8god
How in the world can you _refuse_ to have the plane's staff seat people in
whatever empty seat they see fit? They are in the right to do so and you are
in the wrong to act as if it's up to you to have any part in the decision. You
are basically just taking advantage of the airline workers' aversion to having
someone make a fuss.

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ryanmarsh
The staff didn't. They took it upon themselves to move. They asked the staff
if it was ok and the staff said yes but didn't help reseat them.

I love how downvoted I'm getting in this thread. LOL

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iak8god
"If I would have refused the flight attendants probably wouldn't have pushed
the issue. Usually they won't."

As I didn't vote on your comment I can't say for sure, but probably people are
downvoting you because your own statements make it sound like you're bullying
busy airline staff into getting what you want even though it's not owed to
you.

