Well, United Airlines has updated its policy about overly large passengers since I blogged this morning (see the previous blog). I just received an e-mail from a United Airlines spokesman outlining a new policy for flyers,  known to United as guests. The pertinent parts of the e-mail read:

For the comfort and well-being of all our guests, today United has matched eight other U.S. airlines and adopted a new seating policy that requires customers to purchase a second seat when they are unable to use an extended seatbelt, put their armrests down, and if they infringe on another guest’s seat.  Unlike WBBM-AM’s initial news report ,this will apply after all other solutions are exhausted, meaning the flight is full and we are unable to re-accommodate our guest next to an empty seat that is not occupied by someone else.   Should the flight be full, which is rare in today’s economy, and United is unable to re-accommodate the guest who is infringing on someone else’s seat, we will offer the second seat on another flight at the same fare that was originally paid …even when a second seat is purchased on the day of departure, which is when fares are often much higher.  Previous to this policy, when no empty seats were available, our guests would subsequently infringe on the seat next to them.  Last year, we received almost 700 complaints from guests who did not have a comfortable flight because the person next to them infringed on their seat, and this policy addresses this feedback.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 15th, 2009 at 1:57 pm and is filed under airlines, consumer. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.