Originally Posted by
FWAAA
Someone recently posted about these somewhere on the AA forum. Some of the 738s have those four middle seats blocked by a bolted-in table. If you subtract those four seats, the seat count is 150 - and the legal requirement is just three FAs, not the four. The flight attendant union recently posted a piece on their website where they contend that those four seats still count despite the table and thus, four FAs are required. Don't know if the FAA has weighed in.
I'm too lazy to search for the thread, but it was in the last 10 days or so.
thanks, FWAAA... it all makes a little more sense now..
So, armed with that info, I did some more Googling and managed to come up with:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/19152750-post41.html - post 41
Originally Posted by
TWA884
Since the LBFO was announced, management revealed plans to permanently block off 4 seats on the MCE configured 738s and reduce the minimum staffing on that equipment type from 4 to 3. That will result in additional flight attendants overages.
and
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/19155305-post50.html - post 50
Originally Posted by
AAFA
So far they removed 2 rows and the middle seats of those rows become work tables. Magically, the total seat number becomes 150 which should only require 3 FAs. (1 per 50 passengers)
AA's plans are not so easy because, even though the seats are replaced by work tables, the FAA minimums state seat 'structure' which leaves it at 154 seats. AA is petitioning to change or override the rule.
So apparently this is only on 738s with MCE, which I guess are few and far between right now. I'm sure they'll get around to revising the seatmaps eventually (they won't want the seatmaps to show 154 seats if they need the seating capacity to be 150 for contract reasons).
I'd be curious to see what these look like, and whether they wind up being a good thing for adjacent passengers or something else to avoid!
(edited to add that I just noticed TWA884's reply pointing me back to the thread I listed above - thank you.)