AirTran Now Selling Upgrades On the Aircraft

There are plenty of airlines that sell upgrades on the day of departure, and these are almost always sold at the ticket counter or at the gate. AirTran has decided to take this even further by offering upgrades to passengers once they're already onboard the aircraft. This is a great move for AirTran, but it likely creates some logistical issues.

To illustrate why this is a good idea, it may be helpful for me to use a personal experience. Back in 2004, I was flying on Maersk Air (now part of Sterling) from Copenhagen to Venice. That airline had an innovative seating plan with four different types of seats with varying amounts of legroom. I was sitting in the cheapest seat, and I didn't even consider the possibility of an upgrade.

Once onboard, I found that the seats in the back had an incredibly small amount of legroom, but I settled in for the relatively short flight. The flight attendants soon came through and offered people the opportunity to upgrade for just a few extra dollars (or kroner, I suppose). I didn't have the right amount of change on me, but others who did jumped at the chance. There's nothing like sitting in those seats to make you realize the value of having more legroom, and it worked well for Maersk.

So now, when you step onboard that AirTran 717 and realize that the legroom is pretty tight, the opportunity to jump up front and get more comfortable becomes even more attractive than it was in the airport. Of course, this is all based upon the assumption that there will be seats available to sell, but while popular routes will fill up in business class long before departure time, there is always room on some flights. This can only generate extra revenue - $49 to $99 payable with a credit card.

So what are the logistical issues? Well, there is always the issue of weight and balance. This is a much bigger issue on smaller aircraft, but weight and balance figures are calculated based upon how many people are onboard and where they're sitting (among other factors). So if people start moving around once they're onboard, it could alter the calculations. Like I said, this is a bigger issue on smaller airplanes.

The other issue is having people shown in the correct seats on the manifest. It's an ugly thing to think about, but in the event of an accident, airlines may look at the seat assignments to help identify passengers. If people are moving around onboard the aircraft, this can become more difficult. This is, of course, an extremely rare issue and one that we all hope never needs to be used again, but it's still something to think about.

Obviously, AirTran has decided that the benefits outweigh the potential harm and has moved forward with this. I tend to agree that it's a smart move.