Originally Posted by
aerobod
I’m hoping with the new config that they lock-out recline on all seats that are in front of any row with the 28/29” pitch, not just the seats in front of emergency exit rows.
Ryanair has always had seat recline lock-out on all their 737-800 and MAX 8 seats AFAIK. When I have travelled on them, I’ve never seen any disputes over knee room due to this, compared with recline battles on other airlines.
Absolutely. With that seat pitch, it's a necessity.
It will be interesting to see how the differentiate this new "Basic" class in terms of on-board service -- which may be impossible to do since it's just different rows in the same cabin. Will the row in front of the exit row get nothing - and have to pay for water - while the exit row gets complimentary drinks and the usual free 'sweet or salty snack'? Or will everybody get the same level of service ... which kinda defeats the purpose of offering a differentiated ULCC product option on board, at a significantly lower ULCC price.
The seating may turn into a mess, particularly since it seems that there will be different seat pitches at different places throughout the Y cabin. It seems like there will be 3 (?) different types of seat in the future ... Preferred (including exit), standard, and knee-crusher-Ryanair. I just have so many questions about this will work, and how it will be perceived and understood by infrequent fliers (i.e. WestJet's new target market) who may not realize that different rows offer significantly different levels of comfort. And what about self-upgraders within the Y cabin?
I also hope and pray that this new Swoop/Tango/ULCC/Basic fare class on mainline WS is loaded everywhere as a universally-recognized "Basic" fare in TA systems. My company's policy is that we don't book Basic -- so any airline fare that's classified as 'Basic' isn't bookable and isn't factored into our "within company policy" price approval algorithm. If WestJet rebrands it or gives it some kind of new fare class that TA systems don't automatically flag as 'Basic', that's a problem.