Originally Posted by
alexbc
At least 4 due to the size of that plane... regardless of how many rows, I really think as the first in the industry, would be a very smart move, with very little impact on the overall capacity. If they fly at 85% capacity now, losing 5-10 seats just means that they'd be flying at 90% capacity... makes a ton of sense to me! It also has the potential for upsell at check-in time to non-Elite, if Elite hasn't picked those up! Win-win-win!
I like it too - it's not crazy at all.
In addition to providing another (small) revenue opportunity for AC, and a little extra legroom for the elites ... the hidden benefit of the preferred seats is that it finally means the preferred seats are the last ones to fill up - so you're more likely to find the seat beside you, empty. It's not quite as good as the seat blocking that LH does, but it's a step in the right direction.
Right now, on any of the 777's, you are far more likely to have an empty seat beside you if you're in row 44, than you are if you're a FF in 18-22.
I don't know how complicated it would be for AC to shuffle all the seats back by a few inches ... but heck, even if they didn't even add any physical space, if they charged a premium to pre-book rows 18-22, then it would mean the FF's would be more likely to have an empty seat beside them.
Although they really should give us an extra inch or so, too
