Upgrade Your Theatre Seat For More Legroom?

Butts In the Seats: I caught a story on NPR’s Marketplace yesterday that discussed the way airlines use premium seating. One of the people interviewed mentioned that airlines craftily use the separation of time to get people to upgrade. Because the flyer is offered the opportunity to change to premium economy around the time they check in, months or weeks after they purchased the ticket, consumers view the upgrade payment as a different transaction from the initial seat purchase rather than thinking about the total amount they have spent.