Originally Posted by ConnFlyer
If you removed just one row of seats in the front cabin section, the remaining seats would have a pitch of about 37-38" (slightly better than E+). DL would only lose 6 revenue seats and the plane would still have 193 seats total.
Let's take it a step further. Not sure how many rows you were dealing with, but lets assume the make 9 rows of E+ to replace 10 rows of E-. So you're losing those same 6 seats and 28% of your seats are E+.
I don't know how you "average" the price paid for a ticket in today's airline pricing structure, but let's assume and average of $300/each. With the current configuration of 199 seats, thats $59,700. In the revised configuration, its $57,900 - a mere 3% drop. So how much would you have to charge extra for your 54 E+ seats to make up the difference? You'd need to make up $1,800 over 54 seats, or $33/seat. So if they wanted to make up the difference by
charging for the E+ seats, they'd have to charge a mere 10% premium to sit in that section. I know I'd pay it!
Now Delta would have to make the business decision as to whether or not it made economic sense to waive that 10% premium charge to their medallion customers. I have to believe it would make economic sense.