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China Southern - One Passenger, More Seats
The illustration above is an excellent example of how marketingcampaigns, and also imagery, don’t often translate across cultures.
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Could you imagine British Airways, Delta, Lufthansa, Qantas or Air Canada producing it?
The image in question comes from China Southern, in particularfrom the China Southern WeChat page, and is designed to promote anew service from the airline called “One passenger, more seats.”
As the name suggests, this allows you to buy the seat next to you in economy, so that no one else sits there.
According to the Life of Guangzhou website, this service is currently available at check-in counters for international flights departing from Guangzhou. It will soon be implemented for Beijing and Shanghai departures as well.
Depending on the length of the flight, the extra seat costs from US$37 upwards. It of course does not allow you an extra luggage allowance or an extra meal.
As you can see, the illustration shows three unhappy looking passengers squeezed next to each other on one side of an airline aisle.
Meanwhile, on the other side, a gentleman who obviously decided to take advantage of the service is stretched out with a coffee cup, as if he were at home on his living room sofa.
According to the Google Translate translation, the post talks about “butt pain + back pain + neck pain” on a ten hour night flight.
While this might be an accurate description of the long-haul economy experience for a lot of passengers, it of course by association doesn’t say much for China Southern’s own economy class product.
The Loyalty Lobby website casts some doubt about how the whole thing will work in practice, as you can only purchase the extra seat, after everyone has checked in: “Are customers supposed to wait in the public area until the last passenger checked in and then decide which seats they want to buy?”
Likewise, as the Loyalty Lobby points out, often passengers will reserve two seats leaving the middle seat anyway, in the hope that they can get a free seat for nothing.
