Airline to reward middle seat passengers

Nobody wants to sit in the middle seat on an airline flight.

Not even people who are traveling together want to get stuck in the middle between two others that they know, much less strangers. Statistics show that less than one percent of air travelers intentionally choose to sit in the middle seat.

Now one airline is trying to change that.

Virgin Australia is turning the middle seat from dreaded into a hot property by utilizing a clever campaign that is uses a lottery, prizes, and branding that suddenly makes scoring a middle seat into a hot property. The “Middle Seat Lottery” will reward passengers who either select or are assigned a middle seat, according to multiple reports.

The promotion will end in late April of 2023, and between now and then a new passenger will ‘win’ the contest every week. There is a total of $230,000 worth of prizes available that range from free flights to Australian rugby games, cruise packages, vacation packages, and airline points on Virgin Australia.

“Virgin Australia is an airline that’s doing things differently and we are having a lot of fun coming up with exciting innovations to make every part of the travel experience more wonderful,” Jayne Hrdlicka, the chief executive officer of Virgin Australia Group, said in a news release.

Whether it becomes a trend that is followed by other airlines remains to be seen, however. Right now, demand for airline travel is through the roof and carriers likely don’t need to promote their offerings – middle seat or otherwise – to lure flyers.