Here’s a simple thing that could make the entire world better: What if we all just agreed that when we can do things that benefit other people, and that don’t cost us anything, we’ll do them.
Example: being polite; just saying please and thank you. Costs you nothing.
Or else, holding an elevator for someone running behind you. You trade two seconds of your time to save a half a minute of theirs.
Or imagine you’re on a plane, and someone asks to switch your seat 5A for their seat 4A — same class, basically the same seat — so they can sit next to a companion.
See what I mean? Minimal effort for you, measurable benefit for them.
Because last week, I learned that United Airlines has added a simple feature to its app that costs the airline next to nothing, but could make life measurably a bit better for some passengers (especially, passengers who buy tickets to fly on United, but then realize that only middle seats are available).
With this new feature, you can now choose whatever seat is available, but also indicate a preference — for example, aisle or window. And if one of those seats opens up, you’ll be moved automatically.
Honestly, once United told me they were doing this, I wondered: Wait, why doesn’t every airline do this?
According to United, at least, they don’t. So let’s take a minute just to drill down on how it works:
Book a flight on United.
If the seats you’d prefer aren’t available, look for a button that says: “Can’t find your preferred seat? Choose seat preference.”
Clicking that brings you through a series of screens explaining how the feature works, and offering preference options.
Select your preferred seat. (You can choose things like “window,” “aisle,” or “I don’t like exit row seats.”)
Sit back, and wait to hear if you get a better automatic seat. United starts monitoring seat requests when you ask it to, and will automatically move you, up to 12 hours before departure.
Now, I haven’t had the chance to test this feature yet. United announced it only a few days ago and I haven’t needed to fly anywhere since then — never mind book a flight only to learn that middle seats were all that were left.
As a result, my endorsement here is more for the spirit behind the change than the execution of the change itself.
But, I know for sure that I’ve played the “set an alarm on your phone and keep checking because you’d really like to avoid a middle seat on that cross-country flight” game in the past.
And while you do get a bit of a good feeling when you time things just right (like when you see that you can trade your 32B middle seat in the back for seat 7C on the aisle near the front, just because you happened to take a look at exactly the right moment), automating the whole thing with your preferences does seem like an improvement.
At the same time, I don’t see how it costs United Airlines anything, except maybe a bit of programming time, or takes anything away from fellow travelers.
Minimal effort, measurable benefit.
No matter what business you’re in, I suggest you look for a similar opportunity.
In that spirit, allow me to note that this free advice cost me almost nothing to give you. I hope it pays off big-time.