Taking Off- Take a Peek inside the new 757-200

[Kev3188]

It's far too early for any of your prognostications about who is going to remain the revenue leader, Miss Cleo.

 
On the internets, it's never too early to speak in absolutes.  lol.
 
BTW, I love the ads you posted. Do you know if there are more coming?

 

[WorldTraveler]

AA is ditching the cargo market because it wants to ditch about half of the coach capacity while keeping the size of the business/first cabins.
 
You can't have a premium heavy aircraft with high frequency with a widebody and make money.
 
Walking away from cargo is consequential to the decision to cut the passenger capacity of the flight.
 
There is no evidence that any combination carrier in the US prioritizes cargo in its fleet planning over passenger revenue.  If someone thinks otherwise, I want to hear/see it. 
 
 
 

Exactly: cargo is the last refuge for the carrier that can't attract the premium passengers.

what? you do realize AA carried transcon revenue for years.  When did they lose the premium passenger revenue?

 

[AdAstraPerAspera]

 
On the internets, it's never too early to speak in absolutes.  lol.
 
BTW, I love the ads you posted. Do you know if there are more coming?

 
 
I sure hope so, Kev! They are classy as hell! 🙂
 
 

 
what? you do realize AA carried transcon revenue for years.  When did they lose the premium passenger revenue?

 
I have no idea what you're saying, but if I had to guess I would remind you that AA had the worst, most outdated F and J seats in the market. Now, we're the new best-in-class. Hopefully the premium passengers will notice, but obviously it is too early to tell. You however, seem to think everything is a foregone conclusion. I think it's a wiser man who reserves judgement until the numbers roll in.

 

[WorldTraveler]

my statement was regarding cargo revenue.  Someone made the statement that the only carriers that care about cargo are the ones who couldn't get premium passenger revenue.
 
AA has carried transcon cargo PLUS premium passengers for  years.
 
I'm trying to understand the phrase that cargo only belongs to those carriers who can't attract premium passenger revenue. 
 
I have no doubt that AA will hold onto its premium revenue.... and its seats didn't appear to hurt its ability to get that revenue.  The problem is that AA is walking away from a significant portion of the economy market.  AA's average fares will go up but their total revenue will go down.... they are adding some flights but not enough to make up for the loss of revenue.
 
If AA's average fares were really being dragged down by low fare economy passengers, then they are the ones to blame and not the market.
 
DL's average fares on JFK-SFO have been higher than AA's - but less than UA's who has a similar limited coach cabin - while DL's average fares on JFK-LAX are within 10% of AA's.  Either DL gets decent revenue with its small business class cabins (the 757s only have 16 seats and they are still angled lie flat which I'm not sure is much worse than what AA had) while the 763s have lie flat but only 26 of them out of 225 or so total seats. 
 
The difference between DL and AA's 767s is that DL will have about 60 more total seats on the plane - and that affects the economics of the flight a whole lot. 

 

[BABABOOY]

back to the topic of the 75S, did anyone else notice the 44 seats in EC ?  big jump

 

[Kev3188]

What is it now?

 

[WorldTraveler]

entire capacity of the aircraft will go to 199 or 200 seats if 75s is the reconfigured 757-200s.  Part of that comes by removing galley units, part from a smaller FC cabin, and part from slimline seats which themselves take up less space. 

 

[Kev3188]

Delightful, but I was asking Baba if s/he knew what the current EC count is. Can you help with that?

 

[737823]

Kev, you know first hand DL has about nine different 757 configurations. Current 75S is 44 seats (http://www.seatguru.com/airlines/Delta_Airlines/Delta_Airlines_Boeing_757-200_75S.php). The 75X, for example, has 26 EC seats. I find it odd DL is adding so many more. This must mean on the longer routes the 757 is being deployed there is a great willingness to pay for the seats. I find this surprising considering on many of my DL flights the EC seats are often empty once the Medallion upgrade window opens and then EC seats are later given to standby/non-revs/people without assigned seats on day of departure. Obviously DL has hard numbers and knows but the sense I get is very few people actually pay for the seats, its more a consolation prize for Medallions who don't get upgraded. Interestingly enough, USAIR management has hinted the AA 738s will be reconfigured (again) from the current 16/48/86 to REMOVE Main Cabin Extra seats. DL 738, for example has less pitch in FC and considerably fewer (18 to be precise) EC seats.

Josh

 

[WorldTraveler]

DL's aircraft maps are here
 
http://www.delta.com/content/www/en_US/traveling-with-us/airports-and-aircraft/Aircraft.html
 
The 75S is DL's transcon/int'l config with lie flat Business Elite seats which probably explains the high number of Economy Comfort seats.
 
EC in most domestic 757 configs is 18-21 seats. 

 

[737823]

Are there any in revenue service? I know they have recliner international 757s with in-seat video but haven't seen the 757 you speak of.

Josh

 

[WorldTraveler]

dawg might be able to say but I don't think they have entered service yet.
 
You can usually tell by looking at delta.com on flight avaialbility and the seat maps that are attached.
 
Since the intent is to put them on the JFK transcons first, you can probably figure out what day DL plans to put them in service.  They could enter service earlier.

 

[AdAstraPerAspera]

I sat in Economy Comfort coming back from SFO on the redeye last week. I got a free veggie wrap. If I had known EC now offered free booze also, I would have changed out of my uniform!

 

[Kev3188]

Kev, you know first hand DL has about nine different 757 configurations.

Lol. True. The Widget doesn't shy away from subfleets.

Current 75S is 44 seats (http://www.seatguru.com/airlines/Delta_Airlines/Delta_Airlines_Boeing_757-200_75S.php). The 75X, for example, has 26 EC seats. I find it odd DL is adding so many more. This must mean on the longer routes the 757 is being deployed there is a great willingness to pay for the seats. I find this surprising considering on many of my DL flights the EC seats are often empty once the Medallion upgrade window opens and then EC seats are later given to standby/non-revs/people without assigned seats on day of departure. Obviously DL has hard numbers and knows but the sense I get is very few people actually pay for the seats, its more a consolation prize for Medallions who don't get upgraded.

Maybe. It's also likely a way to capture incremental revenue that otherwise wouldn't exist. Depending on flight, they're really not that expensive, and so they become almost the equivalent of an impulse buy like you might see at the grocery store.

 

[WorldTraveler]

the total number of seats onboard all of the 757s (non BE) are within a few seats of the same... which means DL has rearranged other features of the aircraft in order to fit in more premium seats, including EC.  The 75X also has 26 FC seats, some versions have less.  The 75X is the old Song aircraft, IIRC, and thus they have better amenities and are generally used on longer domestic routes.
 
Kev's assessment is likely correct that the increased number of EC seats creates an impulse buying opportunity - I believe the kiosks even are programmed to solicit for an  EC upgrade.  And the cost to DL to go after that additional revenue is very little.
 
And it is a given that EC like other carriers premium economy cabins is a FC consolation prize.
 
Most DL aircraft have 3 rows of EC.