Preferred seats on shorthaul?
 

When doing my regular check of upcoming flights, a message popped up advising me of a seat change for operational reasons. The aircraft had been changed from a 737-700 to a 737-800 (I haven't checked, but I'm guessing that they are starting to selectively cancel flights on the route in question and substituting larger planes on the remaining ones). The weird thing is that I ended up in a preferred seat, right behind EC. I'm normally automatically assigned a seat in EC if I book early enough. Very occasionally I'm placed in the first row behind EC, which until now has always been regular coach.

I've never seen preferred seats on shorthaul before. I checked other reservations, and they are also showing preferred seats, but only on the 737-800, not the -700 or -900.

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...293644ba4c.jpg
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...e4cfe5bb17.jpg

Johan

I see them on an upcoming 737-900 flight (ARN-AMS). Rows 11-14 now marked as preferred seating. I selected these seats before they became Preferred and it seems me (Gold) and my companion (Explorer) are still seated there.

Upcoming 737-700 (AMS-CDG) does not show any preferred seats.

I see it too on my upcoming trip. As EC was full I had not made a seat selection and see that I have now been placed there (though I am waiting for the curtain to move at T-72 hours).

If this means that they will start to fill the plane back to front (and more chance of a free seat), I’ll be quite happy (in case no EC is available).

It seems that the “product” has not yet been officially launched, no news yet on the KLM seating page: https://www.klm.com/travel/nl_en/pre...oard/index.htm

probably another way to generate money by copying FR/W6 behaviour . As they expect to make people who would like to leave a plane faster pay for this privilege

Interesting pricing:

EC €14.-- , Preferred € 12.--

So the extra inches of pitch in EC are worth all of €2.--

I just rechecked my upcoming bookings, and the -700 & -900 flights now also show preferred seats, but a single flight on a -800 does not. Weird.

Johan

It's not weird. It's protecting then rows near the front for frequent flyers.

EC for platinum.
Front Seats for gold, very few of whom will upgrade to EC on short hall.

Similar to you, noticed a flight seat cancellation and rebooking on an EDI - AMS today, 737-800 in April.

Looks like each of my booked EDI - AMS / AMS - EDI all have 'front seats' now. Other pax (FB explorer) travelling on same ticket have seat for free, but if change will now be charged £10 for same seat if they were to book today, or swap seats.

What I found weird was that of all my shorthaul reservations, one single flight on an -800 does not have any preferred seats. Just regular economy starting right behind EC.

Johan

Same here, Preferred seats visible on both a -800 (Row 6 EC, 10-14 Pref) and -900 (8-10 EC, 11-14 Pref) for a Glasgow trip in a few months' time. No offering on (E190) LCY flights end of this month.

Only one of current tickets (5) that doesn't have preferred seating is E190.

That's supposing Gold will have them for free, which I can't check, since I can't log in on KLM web on this computer and the app does not let me add seats to a mock booking before payment.
If they are under normal rules (50% dicount for Gold), they're... pretty useless value. 0 advantage not to just get EC.

Other airlines that do prefered rows don't have EC...


Different subfleet? Does Transavia still operate some of the 737s?

Gold indeed gets 50% off EC seats and extra legroom seats.
Gold gets free 'Front Seats' (preferred)

So for EDI to AMS -
Plat: EC €0, FS €0, XL €0
Gold: EC €6, FS €0, XL €6
Silv: EC €9, FS €7.50, XL €9
Others EC €12, FS €10, XL €12

With such pricing, looks like a clear move to provide a service for gold FB members.

​​​​​Same on most of my TATL flights, front seats always last to fill up as most travellers are discouraged from choosing them.

Pref row 7-9, surely?

Johan

Here's another data point for you; I've a booking next week on a 737-800 from LHR and it doesn't show preferred seats.