Main Cabin Extra Seats

[Hatu]

From AA Flight Service:

American today announced plans to outfit our entire fleet with Main Cabin Extra seats, which will offer more leg room to our customers. Main Cabin Extra, which also includes priority boarding, provides our customers with choices that enable them to customize their travel experience by choosing which services they decide to purchase. There are no changes to flight attendant procedures.

In most cases, American will remove one row of seats in the Main Cabin to accommodate Main Cabin Extra, which will offer four to six inches of extra leg room compared to a standard Main Cabin seat.

As the new configuration of the 737 is anticipated to be sold at 150 customers, there will be an impact to the number of flight attendants required on certain domestic flights operated by 737s. The requirement for domestic flying is one flight attendant per every 50 customers; therefore American will staff three flight attendants on domestic flights operated by a 737 after the reconfiguration.

 

[eolesen]

http://www.aa.com/i18n/urls/mainCabinExtra.jsp?anchorLocation=DirectURL&title=maincabinextra

Just like More Room, except that it is only the first few rows of seats...

I'm assuming the reduction in seats was probably already figured into the FA layoffs, which helps explain why they were forecasted so much higher than they were for the pilots.

 

[AANOTOK]

From AA Flight Service:

American today announced plans to outfit our entire fleet with Main Cabin Extra seats, which will offer more leg room to our customers. Main Cabin Extra, which also includes priority boarding, provides our customers with choices that enable them to customize their travel experience by choosing which services they decide to purchase. There are no changes to flight attendant procedures.

In most cases, American will remove one row of seats in the Main Cabin to accommodate Main Cabin Extra, which will offer four to six inches of extra leg room compared to a standard Main Cabin seat.

As the new configuration of the 737 is anticipated to be sold at 150 customers, there will be an impact to the number of flight attendants required on certain domestic flights operated by 737s. The requirement for domestic flying is one flight attendant per every 50 customers; therefore American will staff three flight attendants on domestic flights operated by a 737 after the reconfiguration.

Deja Vu

 

[jimntx]

Just like More Room, except that it is only the first few rows of seats...

I'm assuming the reduction in seats was probably already figured into the FA layoffs, which helps explain why they were forecasted so much higher than they were for the pilots.

Please! Surely you are not suggesting that someone at Centreport looked beyond the end of their nose in planning for the future. I will not be at all surprised if the company reads this, realizes that you thought of something they didn't (fortunately, you are no longer with the company so they don't have to give you credit), and announces a further reduction in the f/a corps.

Cynical? Moi? How could you say such a thing?

 

[FWAAA]

I've been banging the drum for AA to match UA's E+ ever since Arpey (a fairly short man) came up with the brilliant idea of slowly removing MRTC just as air travel began to recover from the economic impact of September 11 and the SARS outbreak.

It's about time.

 

[eolesen]

Well, I do think they probably did bump into this one already, Jim. The 773 already had MCE figured into it probably a year ago, and it hasn't exactly been a secret that they've been looking at this for the other fleets...

 

[jimntx]

Of course, we now have to assume that they will keep these seats empty up until the last minute. But then, if there are seats in F/C, the execplats get a free upgrade anyway. And, considering the number of lesser beings I have seen throw a fit at a poor gate agent because he/she would not give them a free upgrade and not charge them any AAdvantage miles, whose going to pay for this extra space? I'm guessing that just like the "first row of coach holdback" these seats will end up being filled by wheelchair passengers.

Of course, the company can declare a huge success before it even starts, and then they won't have to come up with the numbers to prove the space is paying for itself. Like Vietnam. Just declare victory and go home.

 

[FWAAA]

The concept works. It's worked at UA for nearly 12 years. DL has finally copied it. Smisek, formerly of no-pitch CO, has agreed that the concept works and will be retained on PMUA aircraft and added to PMCO aircraft.

 

[TWU informer]

Re-Invent the wheel boys and spend some more cash.

I bet a consulting firm came up with this idea.

Keep shafting the employees and there will be plenty of room.

 

[Birdman]

No doubt they will handle this in the same cAAreless way they did on the 80's. Out of a heavy check and taken right across the ramp for a repitch.

 

[1AA]

Another failing idea. Carty tried this and it failed after a few years. Crandall commented on Cartys blunder on The more legroom through out coach back then. He said in an interview something in the area of "Why give seats away to your competition during rush hour traffic" He meant the New York, Boston, Chicago and Washington corridors. Another money wasting idea. Passengers only care about pricing and scheduling. I guess with fewer seats our load factors will be artificially inflated.

 

[WorldTraveler]

It has been said elsewhere that AA's 773ERs will be 10 abreast in coach in contrast to 9 abreast on every other US carry 777, including AA's.

 

[FWAAA]

Another failing idea. Carty tried this and it failed after a few years. Crandall commented on Cartys blunder on The more legroom through out coach back then. He said in an interview something in the area of "Why give seats away to your competition during rush hour traffic" He meant the New York, Boston, Chicago and Washington corridors. Another money wasting idea. Passengers only care about pricing and scheduling. I guess with fewer seats our load factors will be artificially inflated.

No, you're incorrect. Carty tried to one-up United by expanding legroom in all rows after United rolled out its Economy Plus in 2000. In fact, AA's yields were above UA's while MRTC was in existence. MRTC co-existed with higher yields than the competition.

Along came Arpey, a well-known opponent of More Room, and began dismantling it in the midst of 2003, when AA needed every advantage over the competition. Instead, he claimed that packing in more seats was worth $150 million in incremental revenue each year. Lately, however, UA and DL have seen better unit revenue increases than AA.

If this idea were a "failing idea," then you gotta wonder about UA, which has stuck with it for 12 years now and why UA is continuing it even though Smisek, formerly of CO and a vocal critic of more room, has taken over UA. And you gotta wonder why DL has finally matched UA. Airlines offering more room to some economy passengers have the numbers that you and I do not have, and they say it works. But maybe you're right.

 

[BoeingBoy]

If I had to guess, I'd say that AA has to do it to be competitive with it's 2 main competitors - UA and DL. Airlines do some things to prevent revenue erosion instead of to increase revenue. But I'd also guess that AA will make these seats available at no charge to it's FFers but charge a fee for non-elites to sit in them - at least till there are no other seats left in coach and the computer will assign one of these seats to a non-elite.

One thing I always assumed was that AA had lousy timing with MRTC. The recession that started in 1999 (in hindsight) punctuated by 911 caused air travel to fall off a cliff. That meant either operating more airplanes with MRTC, with the resulting higher costs, or scrapping MRTC and flying fewer airplanes, at lower cost. If the economy had remained as strong as it was for most of the 90's and 911 hadn't happened, MRTC may have been a resounding success.

Jim

 

[Rogallo]

Keep shafting the employees and there will be plenty of room.

In the desert....