Originally Posted by
HarryHolden68
Is this a commercial decision in that the additional fares paid by whoever would buy First do not justify the cost of operating the First cabin or is it still down to crew numbers whereby aircraft are still going out with minimum staffing levels? It seems pointless to have outfitted a purchased aircraft with a First cabin and then not use it to raise revenue. It is happening an awful lot in the current schedule.
Your answers may suggest why I don't run an airline.
It's quite possibly the downgrade compensation they'd have to pay if swapping the aircraft out.
What I don't understand is why they don't open the cabin, but offer the seats as 'extra legroom' or something for business class passengers, charging £500 or whatever as a seat selection fee. It's an easy few thousand pounds on every flight, for zero extra cost. This works because "kicked out of extra legroom" is not a downgrade, it's just a refund of the seat selection fee.