The New United aka ContiUnited has decided that Economy Plus seating will not only stay but it will be added to Continental aircraft.  And the only way that happened was through a heavy analysis so I suspect it’s been making the Old United a fair bit of coin over its life.

This is pure speculation on my part but I suspect that United will also adopt the BusinessFirst approach to the front of the cabin as well.  First class seating on an airliner is super expensive but also takes up an enormous amount of real estate.  Business class, as it is today with lie flat seats and other features, so closely approaches anyone’s idea of first class that it is not a let down to 99.9% of all passengers.  Continental has been very successful with that strategy and you can be sure that if Continental hasn’t found the need to have a fully first class section even on its international trips, then it would’t be missed by the New United.

I like Economy Plus seating both personally and from a business perspective.  As a tall person, it affords enough room to go from being uncomfortable for a 2+ hour trip to being quite manageable.  From a business perspective, it offers an upgrade path from economy both for the occasional traveler as well as for the frequent flier.  Don’t go looking for the new United to have lots of upgrade opportunity for those frequent fliers, however.  Fitting economy plus type seating to the Continental fleet will require removal of seats and the most likely section to give up that required space is in BusinessFirst. 

One thing that I do believe hurts economy plus is the model for purchasing flights online but not through the airline.  Purchasing an economy seat and then wanting to upgrade requires a person to visit an online site such as Expedia, buy the travel and then visit United in some form to buy that upgrade.  Wouldn’t it be nice to view your options completely before purchase and get it done?

That will require better flexibility from GDS systems and online travel agencies as well as the airlines and that argument is, in part, what is going on between AA and GDS/OTA companies.  AA wants more flexibility offered via its DirectConnect system.  The resistence isn’t to the flexibility so much as it is directed towards AA wanting to target customers directly through these systems and its wants that targeting done customer by customer.   For instance, a frequent flier who usually buys business class might not see his/her other options in the AA model but he/she might see a better than usual price in business class.  It’s about wanting more opportunity to manage the revenue by customer preference.

I vote for complete flexibilty and transparency to the purchase process and I want to see it in all one place.  And that’s a big reason why I want to see a third party putting together this content without necessarily being “managed” by the airline.

Filed under: Airline Seating by ajax