Miles & More (Lufthansa, Austrian, Swiss, and other partners) - Logic in changing seat allocation after check-in

I fail to understand the following action from LH.

Flight LH-metal VIE-FRA. I choose seat 5C (economy ticket) at OLCI. I arrived at the gate, presented my boarding pass and received a nice paper stating that I am now seating in seat 8C.
I understand the possible need for LH to move the Business-economy curtain, when number of C-class passengers is higher than planned (happened many times, thanks!).
However, this was not the case. There were only 4 pax in Business (rows 1, 2 & 3). The remaining seats and rows were totally empty.
Thus I sat in the 5C seat, presented my BP when requested by FA to check the presence of 5-pax instead of 4, as written in their manifest. After 5 minutes, FA came and informed me that they will exceptionally leave me in 5C, even if it is now a business seat, but will not have any meal available.

why do LH change the curtain position when the business class is empty? It takes 5 seconds to move the curtain back and forth if needed for the next flight...:confused:
The answer I got from FA was that LH needs to show all customers that their business-class section is important, thus decided to enlarge it.
Fail to understand their logic.

Passangers more cramped in economy may decide to book C next time(LH logic :rolleyes:).

why do LH change the curtain position when the business class is empty?

Easy answer: The load factor is higher when the curtain is moved as the middle seat of the business class section is not available. This is good for the results to be published as well as for those getting the bonus based on the load factor. One flight does obviously not make a difference but if you do move the curtain consistently you might get the 0.5% for the next bonus level on your route...

why do LH change the curtain position when the business class is empty? It takes 5 seconds to move the curtain back and forth if needed for the next flight...:confused:
The answer I got from FA was that LH needs to show all customers that their business-class section is important, thus decided to enlarge it.
Fail to understand their logic.

The C section was probably required to be larger on the inbound. They only have to move the curtain once.

By the way, if I had paid for C on your flight I would not appreciate your self-upgrading, even though crew 'allowed' you to do so.

Passangers more cramped in economy may decide to book C next time(LH logic :rolleyes:).
I assume the OP is not a SEN as then they could have selected the seat even earlier.

Also, when you are a SEN and select a forward aisle stool, you usually get moved to a back middle seat as it happened to me the last 2 times when I did seat assignments.

My row 7 seat was upgraded to the last row in coach with crippled recline. And for the icing they found two severely obese passengers to plant in the same 3 group. I assume that they were moved there as they desperately needed the empty seat between them.
They did not enjoy me trying to sit down there.

The C section was probably required to be larger on the inbound. They only have to move the curtain once.


That was not the reason given by FA.


By the way, if I had paid for C on your flight I would not appreciate your self-upgrading, even though crew 'allowed' you to do so.

Understand your comment and may even agree with it. However, I never asked to be move to C-Class. Just to stay in the front of the plane, as I had connecting flight in FRA and time was relatively short.

for other comments:
OP is SEN and choose seat 20 days before departure (5C). OLCI done -26h before flight and seat 5C allocated. The plane was not changed, the flight was relatively empty, also in Eco.

I have been moved a few times (luckily, not often), due to heavy load in C-class, but never happend to keep empty seats! Go figure.

I fail to understand the following action from LH.

Honestly.. no, you don't. There simply may be none ?

Same thing happened to me on a JFK-ZRH flight in Y. I had a bulkhead seat with more leg room confirmed several days in advance, after check-in had a seat with limited recline just adjacent of the lavatories in the back of the plane :mad: Had the noises and smell from the lavatories all night

My seat was taken by a young couple (no baby) who were clearly friends with one crew member. :rolleyes:

Complained to Swiss and got 10,000 miles and a letter of apology (by snail mail) as compensation. better than nothing, but not happy how they just reseated me to the crappiest seat in the plane.

On short haul the curtain is moved for the trim of the plane, belive it or not the 3-4 rows empty make a difference. The loading is caclulated in Brno about 60 min before departure and the station will move pax and the curtain back, even is there are only 3-4 pax in C. Usually this hits the SEN/HON who have ASRed the first few rows of Y like the OP. Recently I was moved from row 4 to row 23 with my kids with a wide open C. On the way back I wise changed our ASR to row 7 and surprise surprise the curtain moved again, making our row the first in Y, with 5 HON/SEN (according to the little ACARS PIL on the drinks trolley) moved to the back of the bus.

.. belive it or not..
Ok, have made my choice.

Why is the curtain then moved only in one direction? Would the mere concept of 'trim' require the occasional move to either side?
..Usually this hits the SEN/HON who have ASRed the first few rows of Y like the OP..
You mean who are been ARSed by LH, right :p ?