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Edited by Christopher Simmons, senior news editor

INNOVATIVE "SEAT RIGHTS" BRINGS NEW PROFITS FOR AIRLINES WHILE MAKING TRAVEL MORE ENJOYABLE FOR PASSENGERS

A "win-win" service: passengers pay small fee to keep neighboring seat empty, and airlines generate substantial and recurring profits

ALPHARETTA, GA - Dec. 12, 2002 /Send2Press Newswire/ -- Jonathan S. Blank announced today that he has filed a patent application for a new service that brings added comfort and enjoyment to airline passengers as well as substantial and recurring profits for the airlines.

Called "Seat Rights," the service allows passengers to pay a small fee in exchange for the airline's "best effort" to keep a vacancy in a seat designated by the passenger. A vacant neighboring seat on an airplane is a popular preference among travelers, who use the empty seat to spread out their carry-on gear, take a nap, or simply enjoy the extra breathing room and distance from the next passenger.

In addition to making air travel more enjoyable for travelers, airlines can earn billions of dollars in recurring profits from Seat Rights. The seven major US airlines and their partners fly over 20,000 flights daily. If they sell just five Seat Rights per flight at $25 each, Seat Rights will add almost $1 billion per year with very little cost: no new airplanes, no additional fuel use, and no labor or union issues.

"It's a 'win-win' for the passengers and the airlines," says Mr. Blank. "Seat Rights recognizes that there is economic utility (enjoyment) and thus value for passengers in the unfilled airplane seats. Currently, passengers have no say in seat distribution while the airlines give this valuable service away for free, the worst of all worlds. Seat Rights turns this into a winner for both the airlines and their passengers. It creates substantial and recurring profits for the airlines where no profits currently exist, and it creates a valuable service for passengers where no such service currently exists."

Using Seat Rights, an airline passenger pays a fee to the airline for the airline's "best effort" to preserve the vacancy of a particular seat designated by the passenger. The airline then assigns seats to subsequent passengers while preserving the vacancy of the seats designated with Seat Rights.

When all seats are either filled or designated with Seat Rights, the airline is free to sell and assign the Seat Right seats in reverse order of priority, with the first-to-purchase Seat Right seat given out last.

Thus, airlines can sell any and all of their seats while profiting from Seat Right fees, and passengers get an opportunity to preserve the vacancy of their desired seat. The airlines can make the Seat Right fee refundable or non-refundable, as they wish, and the Seat Rights priority-based system might also encourage passengers to purchase their tickets early and thus lead to faster revenue recognition for the airlines.

"This patent-pending system makes travel more enjoyable for passengers at a time when passenger satisfaction is low, and it brings substantial and recurring profits to the airlines at a time when they greatly need new sources of profit," adds Mr. Blank. "The beauty of Seat Rights is that everyone is a winner. It's an ideal business offering."

Source of news: Jonathan S. Blank