Recently, I tried out being a Person Of Size.
I flew four segments on United this weekend, and presented boarding passes for two seats on each. (The cost of this was less than buying a single ticket, such were the mechanics of the deal).
I highly recommend it! There are only two differences between having two seats in Economy and having a single seat in First: you don't get addressed by name, and you don't get inundated with free alcohol.
On one segment, the gate agent noted "we are fitting 182 people on this 757 today". As I stored my backpack in the footwell of the middle seat, the adjacent passenger warned: "you know you're going to have to move that to accommodate someone yet to board; this is a full flight and they've got a long list of standbys".
My response: "oh really ... care to make it interesting?" Indeed, that full flight carried just 181 passengers.
Too bad you couldn't SELL your spare seat to a standby!
ReplyDeleteAlthough there was a long standby list, United was not offering bump compensation. (It's only in their interest to do so if they are faced with denying boarding to a confirmed booking).
ReplyDeleteI suppose I could have negotiated privately...