When most travelers think about domestic airlines, it’s much easier to think about what they do wrong, than what they do right.
But sometimes, even much derided airlines do get it right. Southwest, for example, is winning deserved kudos for their free bag policy. JetBlue’s Direct TV was a welcome innovation, and United’s “Economy Plus” is often the only option many frequent travelers on a budget have for flying with their knees intact.
The Continental-United merger, however, could change “Economy Plus.” Here’s two reasons why:
The first potential scenario seems unlikely, but you never know — remove “Economy Plus” from all flights. Continental planes don’t have a section with extra legroom, so to bring the new fleet into some sort of standardization, either United will have to add Economy Plus sections to the Continental planes or take the seats out of their own.
My sense is that United would rather keep the goodwill of their Elite fliers, and the one amenity that really differentiates them from other airlines and expand the program, not shut it down.
On the other hand, American Airlines had a “More Room in Coach” program some years ago and it fell victim to cost-cutting and consumer indifference.
United could decide to reduce the program to their most heavily traveled business routes and jam seats in everywhere else.
The second reason, however, is already happening now and is likely to get much worse. As both a travel agent and a frequent flier, the biggest problem I face with Economy Plus is availability.
Right now, I have clients who have booked travel up to six weeks in advance, where there are ZERO Economy Plus seats available to preassign. Or, perhaps, there might be a middle seat or two.
Now, this isn’t just my clients’ bad luck. Most agents I know have the same complaint, and many of us spend a great deal of time checking and rechecking to see if an Economy Plus seat has opened up.
From travelers, who book online, I regularly hear complaints of even those with the highest Elite status still ending up in middle seats. (Actually from a travel agent point of view this isn’t always a bad thing, as many of our clients start using “brick and mortar” agents again after having seat problems booking online or with an online travel agency.)
This isn’t always the case, but for travelers who book less than about three weeks to a month out, Economy Plus seats are sparse more often than not, especially on popular transcontinental routes. These seats are filled by not only by Elite-status business travelers, but by normal passengers willing to pay up to about $100 cross country each way to arrive in slightly better shape.
Add Continental’s frequent flier program’s elite travelers to that mix, and it’s hard to see the problem improving. Especially if they don’t reconfigure all the Continental planes. (Additionally, Continental flies almost exclusively narrow-body planes within the U.S., which may limit their options as far as number of seats.)
Of course, there’s always the option for Elite travelers at least to try to upgrade. But there will be more people chasing those few seats too.
Janice Hough is a California-based travel agent a travel blogger and a part-time comedy writer. A frequent flier herself, she’s been doing battle with airlines, hotels, and other travel companies for over three decades. Besides writing for Travelers United, Janice has a humor blog at Leftcoastsportsbabe.com (Warning, the political and sports humor therein does not represent the views of anyone but herself.)
