United’s Blocked Middle Seat is Nothing New — I’ve Been Doing This With Delta for Years

Oh wow!? United just announced it’s blocking off the middle seat on select Economy Plus rows of its new Airbus A321XLR jets, and the travel world is acting like this is some brand new idea. Folks, it’s not. It’s not even close to new. I’ve been doing a version of this myself for a very long time, and Delta has quietly sold this exact concept for years. United just put a nicer bow on it (literally, a fixed table with cup holders) and figured out how to charge you more for the privilege.

So What Is United Actually Doing?

Starting later this year, on one row per A321XLR, United will physically block the B and E middle seats with a permanently mounted table (leather-like covering, two cup indentations, the works). Buy into that Economy Plus row and you and your row mate each get real elbow room and a shared surface between you. It only applies to those four seats per plane for now, but United says it’s exploring the idea for other aircraft down the road.

Here’s the part nobody’s saying out loud: this isn’t really about your comfort. It’s about United hitting a 150 seat threshold on that jet so it only needs four flight attendants instead of five under the FAA’s staffing rules. Block two seats, save a flight attendant’s salary, then turn around and sell the “extra space” you created as a premium upsell. That’s not customer generosity, that’s a staffing loophole with a marketing department attached.

I’ve Been Booking Myself the Extra Seat Since 2017

Long before United discovered the blocked middle seat, I was buying myself an extra seat on Delta with an EXST ticket in my own last name, just so I’d have the whole row to myself (or split with whoever I was traveling with). It’s a hassle. You have to call to book it, you have to double check yourself in at every single leg, and your “extra self” earns exactly zero SkyMiles for the privilege of sitting there empty. But on a long coach flight, that extra breathing room is worth every bit of the annoyance.

Chris wrote up the cleaner version of this trick back in 2021, using a Delta Amex Companion Certificate to book two seats for yourself and put your “invisible plus one” in the middle (a great use for the cert if you still have one you are trying to use btw). Same concept, just paid for with a benefit instead of cash. And when COVID had everyone rethinking cabin space, I leaned on this again and wrote about buying an extra coach seat instead of first class just for the peace of mind of an empty seat next to me.

My reaction, and it hasn’t changed in years: the only way I’ll fly a long coach flight is with a blocked or empty middle seat next to me. I’d rather have a real business class seat, obviously, but when that’s not a possibility, a blocked middle is the difference between arriving human and arriving wrecked. Plus you get an extra tray table in the seat you are not using (looking at you United with your silly little extra tiny new tray in the seat).

This Is Just European Business Class With a Table

If this United setup sounds familiar, it’s because it’s the exact same concept European carriers have used for years to sell “business class” on short haul flights. It’s the same coach seat, same leg room, just with the middle blocked off. I flew this on Air France’s A321 between Paris and Lisbon earlier this year and said the same thing then that I’m saying now: it’s a nice touch, the meal and drink service elevate it, but let’s not pretend blocking a seat physically turns coach into a premium cabin. It’s coach with a curtain of marketing pulled across it.

United is essentially doing the European trick in reverse. Instead of calling it business class and bundling in real perks, they’re calling it “Economy Plus” and selling you just the empty seat itself, no extra service, no different seat, just the space. It’s a more honest label in some ways, but the underlying play is identical: take something that used to happen for free (or by accident, on a light load) and turn it into a line item you pay for.

And It’s Exactly What Delta Just Did With Basic Business

This is where it all connects. Chris covered Delta’s new “Basic Business” fare earlier this month, and it’s the same playbook from the other direction. Instead of taking a cheap seat and dressing it up as premium (Europe’s move) or taking a cheap seat and selling you the space around it (United’s move), Delta took its actual Delta One seat, the lie flat suite, real business class, and stripped away everything except the seat itself. No lounge, no dedicated check in, worse mileage earning, seat assigned at check in. Same hard product, fewer soft perks, lower price.

Three different airlines, three different directions, but the same underlying strategy: find a way to unbundle a cabin so you can sell a discount version to price sensitive premium buyers while protecting full fare revenue from everyone else. United is upselling coach toward business class territory. Delta is downselling business class toward coach territory. They’re meeting in the middle, pun fully intended.

My Take

None of this is villainous (even though I have been warning about this for years) as airlines have been unbundling fares for over a decade now and at some point you have to expect it to reach every cabin eventually. But let’s call it what it is. This isn’t United “eradicating the woes of the middle seat” out of the goodness of its heart, it’s a staffing rule workaround that happens to create a sellable amenity. And it’s not really a new idea either. I was buying myself an empty middle seat on Delta back in 2017, Europe’s been doing it as long as I’ve been flying business class over there, and now United’s just formalized it with a nicer table.

If you fly the A321XLR and that Economy Plus row is priced reasonably against a real premium economy or business fare, take it. Extra elbow room on a long flight is genuinely worth paying for, I’ve been paying for a version of it myself for years. Just don’t let the marketing convince you this is some industry first. It’s the oldest trick in the book with a fresh coat of leather trim. – René