United relaunches onboard premium economy upsell

United Airlines reintroduced onboard Economy Plus Upsell following the launch of its new handheld credit card scanners, according to a communication from the Assn. of Flight Attendants-CWA to its members. Up to three "upsells" enticing economy passengers to pay extra to sit in the roomier economy plus section are permitted on narrowbody aircraft and up to 10 on widebodies. AFA told members that upselling should occur only after takeoff. "Not only would flight attendants be uncertain as to seat availability, potentially creating seat dupes, this would be a violation of our job scope and that of our customer service colleagues as well," the union stated.

AFA also alleged that setting up the handheld devices, which will enable UA to move to a cashless cabin on North American flights from April 20 (ATWOnline, April 10), is interfering with flight attendants' safety-related tasks during boarding. "We need to be in our boarding positions after we complete our safety checks. Unless additional time is added to our preflight duties to compensate for that loss of time, there is no 'spare' time to be setting up handheld devices."