United Airlines to Sell Economy Plus Seats With Guaranteed Empty Middle Seat

United Airlines will soon add another premium option, allowing passengers to pay more to guarantee there’s an empty middle seat next to them.

United is configuring its new Airbus A321XLR in its extra-legroom section to block out the middle seat, replacing it with a shared tray table for the window and aisle passengers in one special row instead. Aside from the empty space, the row will also feature three extra inches of legroom.

United is calling the row Economy Plus. The plan is for the seats to go on sale later this year, for a price that’s yet to be revealed.

Several European airlines already do this on short-haul flights—including British Airways, Lufthansa, and Air France—where the setup is marketed as short-haul business class. However, United will be the first U.S. carrier to offer a dedicated, blocked-middle seating option.

Some industry observers speculated that capping the row’s capacity would allow United to reduce staffing on the new aircraft, but United said on Tuesday that it still plans to staff five flight attendants on most transatlantic flights, matching its current practice on the Boeing 757s the XLR is replacing.

Also on Tuesday, United rehighlighted Relax Row, another premium option slated to debut in its Boeing 787 and 777 widebodies in early 2027. Relax Row, which United announced in March, is another new cabin configuration for the airline that allows three economy seats to transform into a couch, offering a flat surface for passengers to sleep or stretch out.

Just like the Economy Plus option, the Relax Row concept was popularized by carriers outside of North America, this time by Air New Zealand with its “Skycouch” concept that debuted on that airline’s Boeing 777-300ER in 2011. Those rows will be positioned between the United Economy and United Premium Plus cabins.

United plans to outfit more than 200 of its widebody planes with the Relax Row by 2030, offering up to 12 sections per aircraft.