Passengers Willing To Swap Seats ... For A Price

Crowded flights are the new normal, leaving many air passengers traveling for business or pleasure stuck in seats they do not want. What if, even on sold out flights, passengers had a way to find a better seat?

Many passengers are willing to pay or be paid to swap seats with other passengers, according to survey results released today. Passengers wanting a better seat (e.g., aisle / window seat) are willing to pay other passengers to swap seats. Also, if paid to do so, many passengers are willing to swap for a less desirable seat (e.g., middle seat).

Of those surveyed, 55% indicated they would be moderately to extremely likely to be willing to pay another passenger to swap for a better seat on a flight of 3.5 hours or longer. Not surprisingly, on shorter flights, the likelihood to pay to swap for a better seat was lower. On the flip side, in return for being paid, 20% indicated they would be willing to swap for a less desirable seat on a flight of 3.5 hours or longer. By contrast, if paid, the likelihood to swap for a less desirable seat was higher on shorter flights.

The survey covered many potential seat swap scenarios across varying flight lengths and included questions about the prices at which seat swaps could occur.

"The survey results suggest that air passengers may be able to solve some of the biggest complaints about air travel, including a limited inventory of comfortable seats, crowded flights, annoying passenger behavior, and high airfare costs," said Brad Pursel, Founder and President of the travel startup Seateroo.

Seateroo hired SurveyMonkey to survey U.S. residents aged 18 to 65 years old who are mobile device users and had traveled at least 3 times during the previous 6 months. Responses were gathered from 401 respondents meeting the above criteria during November 15-19, 2015. The margin for error for this survey is +/- 5%.

(Source: Seateroo news release)

FMI: www.seateroo.com