Book the middle seat, win the lottery with Virgin Airlines

The dreaded middle seat: the objectively worst seat on an airplane and the battleground for armrest elbow fights. Understanding that no one would willingly choose this fate, Virgin Australia is hoping to entice people to the middle seat by offering up weekly prizes via a lottery system on their app.

Now through April 23rd, anybody 18+ who selects a middle seat will be able to enter the lottery on the Virgin Australia app and win prizes like vacation packages, pub crawls, seaplane trips, bungee jumping, tickets to Australian football matches, status upgrades, and more. No word yet as to whether or not this promotion will be extended to Virgin Atlantic.

The sheer need for a lottery is truly a testament to how bad the middle seat is. Even when Virgin Australia polled their travelers on social media, only a reported 1% of people would voluntarily select a middle seat.

I can’t say I disagree. I don’t know about you, but for me, it would take a lot more than a pub crawl to pick a middle seat. The only way I’m entering is if they offer front-row seats to Beyonce.