Originally Posted by
reinballe
Will E+ seats on COs planes be good news... For domestic flights... I think the answer will depend on "where" these are installed.
If the addition of E+ seats reduces the number of seats in F... it will mean fewer upgrades. That would be bad news IMO.
Is it realistic that E+ seats would be added without removing F seats?
I have my doubts when I look at the ratio of Y seats to F seats on CO planes and compare them to those of similar sized UA planes.
COs ratio of Y seats to F seats on the 737-7, 737-8 and 737-9 ranges between: 6.6 - 9.33.
UAs ratio of Y seats to F seats on (similar sized) A320 ranges between 10.5 - 11.
This makes me wonder what we should wish for. Perhaps the the relevant question might be... Which of the two alternatives do you prefer?
A) 2 segments in E+ and 1 in First
B) 1 segment in ELR and 2 in First
On planes configured for international routes... there is not doubt in my mind that E+ is great. (Because there are no complementary upgrades to BF)... So I hope to see E+ on all International flights... For domestic flights... My top priority will be to keep then number of F seats intact on COs planes.
Note: The ratio on UA bigger planes is much better... According to seatguru.com (which I used to compute all these ratios) the domestic 767 tops with an impressive 6.17 ratio.
The worst Y/F ratio are for COs 737-5 and UAs A319: 13.25 and 14 respectively. (Avoid this equipment if you are hoping for an upgrade).
I think you need to compare not the aircraft type but the aircraft doing the flight.
UA has a lot of 757s that are domestic config (24F), not to mention domestic 777 and 767 flights (~36F), and of course a handful of int'l 3-cabin flights flying domestically with huge numbers of C seats available for upgrades.
Add to that the RJs with 6F, and that's a lot of F seats flying around.
Of course the 319 sucks at 8F if they put it on a business-heavy transcon. And also with the merger the Elite mix will be different (e.g., Texas has historically been an easy upgrade on UA, I'm sure with the number of CO Elites in Texas, this will change).
But to answer your question, it really depends on what kind of F upgrade rate you're getting on CO. When I pulled in 27% upgrades one year as CO Plat, at that point it wouldn't really matter -- upgrades aren't reliable, just give me a good seat in E+ anytime, and then I'd know I'd have the freedom to switch flights, VDB, or get an IRROP and have a shot at a decent seat.
Now if I were a 90% upgrade rate Plat, I'd say leave the system alone.