United’s Economy Plus
Travel any airline, and getting an exit row seat is like hitting the jackpot in this small universe. Extra leg room in exchange for agreeing to help out in case anything happens to the plane. Generally to get those seats you have to be in reasonable physical shape (not handicapped or too ineligible because of the age), and agree to perform the necessary procedures as requested by the airline crew.
Not on United, where exit rows are referred to as Economy Plus seating, and are sold either on per-flight basis, or as annual membership. Anybody can buy them, and there’s no implicit requirement that you help other passengers out in case of a disaster. Who needs safety requirements, when the airline stands to make an extra $14 per seat?
October 15th, 2007 at 6:59 am #Sergey Chernyshev
It was about $50 from NY to SF on our last trip. Also they all were sold so I couldn’t get one.
October 31st, 2007 at 12:33 pm #Keith
E+ also includes most or all the seats between exit row and first class, which also get 4 extra inches of legroom.
You can get them as a frequent flyer (25K miles/year or more) the guest of a more frequent flyer (35K or more), the annual fee, or a buy up.
The exit row part of E+ specifically can only be reserved in advance by 50K mile year or more flyers. The 25-50K milers can ask at the gate if still open. But yes the Flight attendants do still ask you to help to confirm you understand English, and all the other legal safety aspects if you end up in those seats by any means.