Here’s a secret about that window seat ticket you’ve got for a United flight out of Denver or Seattle: It will get you on the plane right behind the elite fliers.
It won’t give you any extra leg room or put an end to jostling for space on the armrest. But because you get to board before the aisle- and middle-seat passengers, your window spot pretty much guarantees space to stow carry-on luggage in the overhead bin, no matter how far forward in the cabin you’re sitting.
Look for the already premium window seats to soar into high demand, at least among coach fliers whose bag-checking anxiety cannot be soothed by a tiny package of pretzels.
“If you’ve got a window seat, you’re almost guaranteed you’re going to have a place for your luggage, and to me that is always a concern,” said Susan Daimler, a frequent flier and vice president of marketing for Seatguru.com, a website that helps travelers suss out the prime seats on commercial aircraft.
“If the window seat will give you all of the benefits – a view, charge of the window shade, a wall to lean against and first crack at the overhead bins – it’s tremendous.”
The airline revived WilMA, the Window-Middle-Aisle loading plan used by the defunct Shuttle by United, as part of its operations improvement initiative at the Denver hub. United and Ted flights on narrow-
body planes – the kind with three seats on each side of an aisle – have been testing WilMA since May. Some Boston flights use the scheme too.
Help for the bottom line
The new program is meant to speed boarding, better on-time performance and, ultimately, bolster the troubled carrier’s bottom line, United spokesman Jeff Green says.
If the tests play out the way experts think they may, zone boarding that puts rows of people seated at the back of the craft on just after first class and frequent fliers may be left in the wind systemwide.
WilMA is theoretically quicker because lines don’t stall when people sitting on the aisle are asked to stand up to let in folks for the middle and window seats, Green said.
“We’re hoping to minimize customer inconvenience. Everyone has had the experience of sitting in the aisle seat and having someone come up and say ‘Hi, I’m the window guy,”‘ Green said.
In practice, however, the road-warrior class of travelers, rewarded for never spending a night in their own beds with the right to sit on the aisle and get on the plane along with first-class fliers, could muck it up.
“You get on one of those United planes from Chicago to Denver and about one-third are frequent fliers and have aisle seats and are stowing luggage,” said Laura Barry, who travels frequently from San Francisco for her work.
“There will still be some level of crawling over,” Daimler said.
Getting passengers to respond to a new type of cattle call will take some practice, too.
No amount of gate-agent coaching last month could untangle a knot of fliers leaving Seattle who were befuddled because they had tickets stamped with zone numbers but were called aboard by seat position, Daimler said.
Rethink seat choice?
Before a flight from Denver to San Francisco recently, confused passengers backed up the jetway to the terminal by the time the aisle group was called.
“There were a lot of guys looking around at each other like it was a crazy situation,” said Keating Crown, a San Francisco traveler seated on the aisle.
The new system may push travelers like Crown, who have elite status on other airlines, to rethink their seat choice on United.
Crown, an American frequent flier who is always on the aisle, said he’ll fold his 6-foot-2 frame into a United window seat if it means he gets on the plane in time to stow his bag.
“It’s aggravating to get on and not have room for your briefcase,” said Robert Polk, chief executive officer of Polk Majestic Travel in Denver. “If you have to put it in front of you, you have no room at all.”
Still, there has not been a rush to the window among Polk’s corporate clients: “Nine out of 10 business travelers still request the aisle.”
Staff writer Dana Coffield can be reached at 303-820-1954 or dcoffield@denverpost.com.
