Originally Posted by
justaskme
As i said before they adjust the capacity according to the recorded demand.
For example JFK, JNB and LAX still have 9P or 8P.
It has nothing to do with unions.
Once on board you will be able to change seats and i m sure that if you ask at the lounge they will do everything they can to satisfy your demand.
Technically it is impossible to have two different cabin layouts 8P and 5P. So the system blocks out 3 seats. Furthermore the airline has to take this into account in order to establish the crew roster
About one month before departure if there is a P pressure on the flight , they cabin layout will swap to 8P/9P.
The same will happen on the day of departure.
As a P customer you can be sure that even if the 5P flight is full you will get a confirmed seat which means that the flight will swap to 8/9P.
Sales are not restricted.
Thank you for joining FT and providing useful information on the staffing of F cabin.
However, I do not buy your explanation for the F cabin seat map.
The offer of only 5P is controlled by the fare bucket availability on the destinations you mentioned. They are indeed all constrained at 5.
In theory that would not limit where pax sit that F cabin, so there is absolutely no need to put restriction on the seating map. One could let pax sit in their preferred seat and still meet the 5 pax limitation.
SO, a possible explanation is that the IT system constrains the seat map to be linked to seat bucket availability. That is quite weird.
But I also remember discussing with some purser, the situation where there were fewer FAs onboard coz the flight had very light load. I was told that the agreement on number of FAs precisely described which cabin or sub-cabin were closed. I have seen case when the J min-cabin was closed (I don't remember the ac). That makes sense in terms of service. She said that this was detailed in their agreement (there is a technical word for that agreement).
I am not privy to the agreement in F, but I would suspect that the 5 seats open should be nearest to the galley for service purposes, as it is on the 5P maps. So there are two possible explanations.
Finally, let me respectfully disagree with
Stimpy. As a somewhat-frequent F traveler, a significant part of the 10,000EUR package is a hassle-free experience. Many here enjoy a F award for a leisure trip, so it is all bonus. But on a short business trip (I sometimes sandwiched a day of work between two F nights on a plane), I am expecting no hassle whatsoever. When I cannot choose my desired seat online and have to wait for the lounge or plane to negotiate moving from a noisy seat that I dislike to my desired seat (on a full plane all experienced pax will fight for the 77W second row), that is not my vision of very-expensive, exclusive F travel. And I am sure that there will be AF crews which will strictly enforce the agreement, serving meals only in the seats near the galley and letting you move only for sleeping. Another reason not to travel AF F. Sure, the problem will be resolved on the 4-class BEST 777. in a few year time. And then it will be only a tiny one-row cabin....