'Middle Seat Lottery' Hopes to Make Seats More Popular
The middle seat is the last place a lot of people want to sit during a long flight.
A survey of over 7,500 people by airline Virgin Australia found that fewer than 1% of travelers prefer a middle seat while flying. This is compared to about 67% of passengers who say an aisle seat is their first choice, and 34% who prefer window seats.
Some airlines have tried to make sitting in the middle a better experience. For example, Spirit Airlines in the US has made the middle seats on some of its airplanes wider.
But Virgin Australia is trying something different. It has announced a "Middle Seat Lottery," offering around $150,000 worth of prizes — only to people in middle seats.
Until April 23, 2023, travelers who either choose or are given a middle seat when flying with Virgin Australia could win free trips, event tickets, adventure experiences and frequent flyer points.
Some seat lottery winners will even take home their own airplane snack cart, which the airline says is worth nearly $6,500.
Passengers will need to be a member of Virgin Australia's Velocity Frequent Flyer program and aged 18 or over to enter the lottery. But then all they'll have to do is find their flight on the Virgin Australia app and enter their information within 48 hours of their flight departing.
One winner will be chosen each week.
To celebrate the start of the lottery, the airline gave Virgin cruise vouchers worth up to $6,000 to middle-seat passengers on a flight from Melbourne to Adelaide on October 24. Window and aisle passengers also got 10,000 frequent flyer points.
