rynofrowan
Newbie
- Joined
- Feb 22, 2024
- Posts
- 5
Seat Angels
Has anybody acted as a 'seat angel' by anonymously trading their business class seats with a passenger in economy?
Sometimes we end up with a premium flight. That we don't value particularly highly. But that someone else would value highly.
Without giving up much, and without spending money unnecessarily, can we brighten somebody's day who perhaps has never flown business?
There may be circumstances that are conducive to gifting premium seats to a random / worthy passenger such as:
* Frequent / high status flyer is in short haul biz (eg golden triangle)
* Has been on enough flights that 90 mins day biz / econ doesn't move the needle (not exciting, won't eat the meal etc)
* Has already purchased biz ticket optimally eg:
1. Company paid for flight
2. Purchased multi-leg biz and mostly only want the flatbed for overnight, but happen to have short-haul domestic connector
3. High demand periods sometimes WP econ redemption unavailable, but biz redemption is available and still cheaper than rack rate econ
4. Status upgrade (operational upgrade)
5. Status run with many meaningless domestic biz legs
etc
* Either doesn't care much for domestic lounge or can get free lounge access anyway (through WP, QC etc)
Execution / Logistics
How might this be executed?
* Would it be officially through QF gate staff, or can you do it directly person-to-person?
* Would we need to nominate someone, or can we have the gate staff randomly assign it (to remove personal bias)? For example, could just say '13th person to go through check-in'
* Would we nominate this at checkin or at the gate?
* Do we favor particular demographics (solo traveler, elderly, disabled, low QF status etc) or just let fate run its course without imposing our own biases?
* Legally / liability standpoint do gatestaff need to change the ticket in the system or will they be OK just letting passengers informally swap seats?
Corporate vs Personal
* Could / should Qantas or other airlines adopt this as a business strategy?
1. People are generally quite excited by lotteries
2. Goodwill branding to advertise as 'seat angels' rather than eg 'upgrade lottery'
3. For example randomly upgrading eg 1 Y -> J on every flight. Like meter maids in Gold Coast
4. Could be +EV (+$) corporate strategy as imagine customers may overvalue the lottery payoff (eg they'll pay $20-$50 more to fly QF vs JQ when the EV of the upgrade may only be $5-$10)
* Is corporate involvement desirable, or better to execute person-to-person directly? If the intention is to brighten somebody's day / inspire a sense of 'random acts of kindness', coughising it with corporate stain may detract from this
* Pros / cons of being anonymous?
Further Ideas
Any similar experiences / ideas to add?
Obviously not under the impression that this is like 'saving starving children in poverty', however it does seem like an almost costless to do a random act of kindness, from time to time
Cheers
Has anybody acted as a 'seat angel' by anonymously trading their business class seats with a passenger in economy?
Sometimes we end up with a premium flight. That we don't value particularly highly. But that someone else would value highly.
Without giving up much, and without spending money unnecessarily, can we brighten somebody's day who perhaps has never flown business?
There may be circumstances that are conducive to gifting premium seats to a random / worthy passenger such as:
* Frequent / high status flyer is in short haul biz (eg golden triangle)
* Has been on enough flights that 90 mins day biz / econ doesn't move the needle (not exciting, won't eat the meal etc)
* Has already purchased biz ticket optimally eg:
1. Company paid for flight
2. Purchased multi-leg biz and mostly only want the flatbed for overnight, but happen to have short-haul domestic connector
3. High demand periods sometimes WP econ redemption unavailable, but biz redemption is available and still cheaper than rack rate econ
4. Status upgrade (operational upgrade)
5. Status run with many meaningless domestic biz legs
etc
* Either doesn't care much for domestic lounge or can get free lounge access anyway (through WP, QC etc)
Execution / Logistics
How might this be executed?
* Would it be officially through QF gate staff, or can you do it directly person-to-person?
* Would we need to nominate someone, or can we have the gate staff randomly assign it (to remove personal bias)? For example, could just say '13th person to go through check-in'
* Would we nominate this at checkin or at the gate?
* Do we favor particular demographics (solo traveler, elderly, disabled, low QF status etc) or just let fate run its course without imposing our own biases?
* Legally / liability standpoint do gatestaff need to change the ticket in the system or will they be OK just letting passengers informally swap seats?
Corporate vs Personal
* Could / should Qantas or other airlines adopt this as a business strategy?
1. People are generally quite excited by lotteries
2. Goodwill branding to advertise as 'seat angels' rather than eg 'upgrade lottery'
3. For example randomly upgrading eg 1 Y -> J on every flight. Like meter maids in Gold Coast
4. Could be +EV (+$) corporate strategy as imagine customers may overvalue the lottery payoff (eg they'll pay $20-$50 more to fly QF vs JQ when the EV of the upgrade may only be $5-$10)
* Is corporate involvement desirable, or better to execute person-to-person directly? If the intention is to brighten somebody's day / inspire a sense of 'random acts of kindness', coughising it with corporate stain may detract from this
* Pros / cons of being anonymous?
Further Ideas
Any similar experiences / ideas to add?
Obviously not under the impression that this is like 'saving starving children in poverty', however it does seem like an almost costless to do a random act of kindness, from time to time
Cheers
Last edited:
