Comments on: The Airline Hack For Extra Room And Double Miles—United Now Makes It Simple

By: Dave W.

Dave W. — Sun, 24 Nov 2024 19:14:38 +0000

“Weirdly, UA doesn’t allow this for exit rows, claiming that open seats in exit rows present a safety hazard.” Since it is found in the section “where they talk about it in terms of passengers of size,” I think they are concerned a larger pax in the exit row adds risk.

By: mauiUAflyer

mauiUAflyer — Sun, 24 Nov 2024 14:28:44 +0000

I’ve done this several times; it works.
Usually I’m trying to get an upgrade, but if the odds look long, then I’ll use miles to buy an EXST. One has to call to do this, or it gets mucked up. If the upgrade goes through, then I cancel the extra seat. If not, then I check in for both seats, and scan both boarding passes when getting on.
I hurt my neck/shoulders a few years ago in an auto accident, and have trouble sitting in a tight coach seat for more than ~2 hours. I’m tall, but the leg room in E+ is fine. It’s the ‘shoulder width’ that I have problems with.
I’ll have to check out this new mechanism; wondering if one can use miles for this…

By: Andy

Andy — Sun, 24 Nov 2024 14:11:08 +0000

Weirdly, UA doesn’t allow this for exit rows, claiming that open seats in exit rows present a safety hazard. I’m not sure how having more room and fewer bodies in the exit row makes it less safe, but no one ever said rules had to make sense. A few years ago UA allowed it as my girlfriend and I would often do window/aisle/open middle in the second exit row if FC was outrageously priced (bonus!- greater effective pitch due to no recline into our row made it easier to work on our laptops). Sadly, this is no longer allowed.

By: David Gzesh

David Gzesh — Sun, 24 Nov 2024 07:11:55 +0000

This seriously smacks of angle shooting. If you want more room, buy a seat in a class of service with bigger seats and more leg room. It should be that simple. This “hack” sounds self-aggrandizing., similar to the popular smug overuse of the term “hack” itself. as in , aren’t I “clever”?

By: GUWonder

GUWonder — Sun, 24 Nov 2024 06:47:39 +0000

If there are two or three people traveling together but on separate bookings, this can be quite a good way to get the poor person’s version of business class in economy class. When it works. But the airlines will often just fill up the “blocked” seats in economy class anyway when they want to do so.

By: jns

jns — Sun, 24 Nov 2024 03:03:07 +0000

The seat for comfort is titled as EXST space and last name for the passenger from my experience. When your boarding passes are scanned make sure that both are scanned. I think it was on JetBlue where I had to remind the gate agent that the EXST boarding pass also needed to be scanned after handing both over. The gate agent may not realize what is happening with the extra seat so it is up to the passenger to make sure both boarding passes are scanned.

By: Ari K

Ari K — Sun, 24 Nov 2024 02:15:02 +0000

@Lindy

Problematic if there’s an incident and there’s one less soul accounted for than manifested.

By: Lindy

Lindy — Sun, 24 Nov 2024 01:23:01 +0000

In response to Johnathan, if you paid for 2 seats separately, you should have 2 separate boarding passes. Then just present BOTH boarding passes at the gate and tell the gate-agent that you’ve paid for both. If the boarding pass is scanned, it would be impossible to fill that seat accidentally or purposely, since the system already shows that middle seat as “occupied”.
Just my guess.

By: jns

jns — Sat, 23 Nov 2024 23:07:02 +0000

I have bought an extra seat for comfort several times. They should come with a slight discount at a minimum because you don’t get the luggage allowance on the extra seat, neither carry-on nor personal item nor any free checked bags. If you are paying full price you should get the whole bundle. On Singapore Airlines I got a slight discount but it was long wait times on the phone to put the deal together. On JetBlue there was no discount but the online purchase and setting up the seats was very easy. I always use part of my extra seat by sitting somewhat sideways to give my knees a bit more room. If the airline was to sell the same seat to two people it could end up with conflict if both people wanted to put some of their things there or even sleep partially in the extra seat, a seat that they each fully paid for. I suppose you could insist on both armrests in an extra seat in the middle (sarcasm.) You could even take the middle seat to sit in and keep the one next to it that you had bought, open.

By: cairns

cairns — Sat, 23 Nov 2024 22:40:48 +0000

Smart move and a good value. Therefore Delta won’t offer it.