An empty seat next to you on the aeroplane: added comfort, but anti-green too
I took this early morning flight with Swiss from London to Zurich and while flicking through the inflight magazine I saw an article where the CEO of Swiss proudly announced that “we’re substantially raising the quality of our short haul Business Class product...you’ll enjoy an empty aircraft seat on all aircraft types.”
Swiss isn’t the only airline guilty of actively keeping seats empty in business class on short haul flights of course, but it seems such backward thinking in this day and age to actively promote flying with empty seats when so many millions of people around the world are bending over backwards to reduce energy consumption and be as sustainable as possible.
However, if we’re honest, whilst most of us want to reduce energy consumption as much as possible in our lives and strive to do so in as many areas of our lives as we can - whether recycling and refurbishing, refusing to buy products with ludicrously huge amounts of packaging, or simply driving more gently without slamming down the accelerator and then the brake - most air travellers love to have an empty seat next to them.
Who hasn’t boarded a nearly full flight, with an empty seat next to them, hoping one of the last few passengers won’t sit there? I’ve met some fascinating people on flights and had some great in-flight conversations - but I’ve also endured a good few hostile, obnoxious or over-chatty types too.
When there’s unassigned seating there’s a good few tactics out there to dissuade the last boarding passengers from sitting next to you. You could simply put some of your things on the seat next to you, to suggest that the seat may be occupied. You could try to look a bit crazy, repeatedly punching the seat in front maybe. Perhaps one of the most effective methods is to hold the sick bag, opened, in front of your face until boarding has completed.
If there’s going to be an empty seat on the flight, it might as well be next to you...