Personally, I was not aware that selecting a seat does not guarantee a seat barring extenuating circumstances. I was also not aware that I wouldn’t be notified about it, or difficult to get reimbursed if it changes. I would like to think that vast majority of travelers think this way, barring high-level travel-buffs.
But honestly who cares what any traveler thinks (the airlines certainly don’t), as long as there is proper disclosure. So I decided to take a look.
Here’s how you book JetBlue seats:
Step 1.
Step 2. Takes you to a page where you can choose your seat. Once selecting, it gives you details about the seat.
Step 3. Back to the seat selection screen, and a button pops up directing us to the next booking step to select “extras”. Note how until this point there is no disclosure indicating that seats are not actually reserved.
Step 4. We completed seating selection, and now prompted to select extras, but wait! Did we spot a tiny disclosure in the seating selection section? Well, surely a disclosure that only appears in previously completed section after moving to the next section can’t be enough. But did it really just appear - it must’ve been there the whole time. Let’s look at step 1 again…and nope. And going through the rest of the booking process, that’s the only disclosure you will ever have a chance of seeing.
Let’s help JetBlue write a proper disclosure, because their practices will certainly not change. Putting it in the seat details section seems the most appropriate, at the very least.
