Virgin Australia offers prizes to passengers who take middle seat

Reviews and recommendations are unbiased and products are independently selected. Postmedia may earn an affiliate commission from purchases made through links on this page.

Article content

Just like a middle child, the middle seat on an airplane can sometimes be overshadowed, maybe even looked down on.

So in an effort to give middle seats their due, Virgin Australia launched the Middle Seat Lottery, which rewards guests who are in those dreaded middle seats with some amazing prizes totalling over US$350,000 (CDN$474,000).

Article content

How’s that for incentive?

The lottery is part of the airline’s “Bring on Wonderful” campaign that began after the company relaunched under new ownership in November 2020 in an attempt to make the airline profitable once more.

Article content

It was inspired by a social media survey conducted earlier this year that found travelers are least likely to select the middle seat, with less than 1% intentionally choosing the middle seat as their first-seat preference.

The Middle Seat Lottery is available until April 23, 2023, to Virgin Australia passengers who either opt for or are assigned a middle seat.

Each week, the airline will randomly pick one winner, with a total of 26 prizes up for grabs.

RECOMMENDED VIDEO

And it’s not like a free bag of nuts or a bump up to first class. Rather, prizes include a helicopter pub-crawl tour, flight and tickets to an Australia Football League away game, and a number of cruises with Virgin Voyages.

Earlier this week, Virgin Australia Group CEO Jayne Hrdlicka surprised all guests who were seated in middle seats on a flight to Adelaide with over $350,000 worth of free Virgin Voyages cruises.

Hrdlicka said the airline is “having a lot of fun coming up with exciting new innovations” and enjoying “doing things differently.”