Ever gone through the seat selection process with an airline only to find your preferred seat type is not available?
United Airlines is rolling out a feature which it says will make it easier for its customers to get their desired seat type, “even if their preferred seat isn’t available during booking”.
Passengers can now visit the carrier’s mobile app to request their preferred seat type, and will be automatically assigned and notified about their new seat assignment should the requested type become available.
The new feature allows customers to select preferences for window or aisle seats, as well as exit rows or bulkhead seats.
The complimentary service is available up until 12 hours before the scheduled flight departure, for all customers except those travelling on Basic Economy tickets.
United says it is the first and only US airline to offer the new feature.
The news follows the carrier’s recent changes to the way it boards passengers in a bid to speed up the process.
The US carrier now employs the so-called ‘WILMA’ method, which sees customers boarded in the order of window, middle then aisle.
United said that the policy had been shown in trials to save up to two minutes on the time taken to board passengers, and also resulted in higher Net Promoter Scores (a measure of the loyalty of a company’s customer base).
United Airlines to employ ‘WILMA’ to speed up boarding times
