It would be nice, if we could easily see what type of seats and service our competition is offering.
This is hardly a secret in real life, infact isn't that what most airlines tout in their marketing campaigns. And then there are services like Seat Guru that can easily let you check out the seats of most airlines.
Yes I know I can look how many seats they have in the fleet lists, but it does not say what type of seats these are. Yes I can experiment with the cabin configurator to come up with the same number of seats. But why does it have to be so hard, and also that method does not tell you the truth, you can achieve C42Y148 config in more than one ways on a particular type of aircraft.
Well, seat guru also does not tell you if the seats are from Recaro or Zodiac, nor will they tell you anything besides the number of seats and rows. In AS you know that some seats can go in multiple of 3, 4, 5, 6 etc. Depending on the aircraft. For example on 739 recliner short haul goes in multiple of 6 and comfort plus in multiples of 5. You can easily calculate this.
as the op already said, you can calculate but there are many possibility and there's no guarantee your estimation is the actual seat installed by competitor.. we never know whether the competitor maxed out number of seat or give generous extra pitch or even intentionally put misleading number of seat to confuse its competitor.
as in real life, airline usually boast their type of seat anyway when they introduce new product, while seatguru might not have the information, most airline website will feature a picture gallery showcasing the aircraft interior.. and if it's not, one curious airline could always send mystery guest to try the competitor product offering.
so yeah, no need to conceal what seating configuration an airline has. I bet the manufacturer also has the information which they will happily share with their airline customers.
as in real life, airline usually boast their type of seat anyway when they introduce new product, while seatguru might not have the information, most airline website will feature a picture gallery showcasing the aircraft interior.. and if it's not, one curious airline could always send mystery guest to try the competitor product offering.
You mean downgrading. Lufthansa downgraded their economy cabin with there new A320NEO, Air Asia seems to be introducing some new very uncomfortable looking seats. Frontier, Wizz Air and Spirit have downgraded and SAS have altogether removed it´s special purpose Business class seats all together and making passengers pay ridiculous amounts for economy seats called "plus". Though SAS upgraded there longhaul business class seats, Qantas and Icelandair have as well. Some airlines have also upgraded their economy seats though I do rarely fly economy if it is not Norwegian (which only offers economy but they still offer a superior product compared to SAS and they are my preferred choice of travel).
@CBE: Not true for the LH A320neo. LH seats for A320NEO cabin are the same NEC seats as before. The higher amount of seats is due to a different cabin layout. Refer to the pictures in this link, if you wish. The piece says they squeezed the seats a bit, though I am not sure about it.
@rubio: True, but seatguru tells you whether they are lie flat, whether the layout is 2-4-2 or 3-4-3 or... and also has (often wrong) numbers for seat pitch.
Anyway: I think posting the seat types in AS (mouseover in fleet list?) wouldn't be bad!
@CBE: Not true for the LH A320neo. LH seats for A320NEO cabin are the same NEC seats as before. The higher amount of seats is due to a different cabin layout. Refer to the pictures in this link, if you wish. The piece says they squeezed the seats a bit, though I am not sure about it.
@rubio: True, but seatguru tells you whether they are lie flat, whether the layout is 2-4-2 or 3-4-3 or… and also has (often wrong) numbers for seat pitch.
Anyway: I think posting the seat types in AS (mouseover in fleet list?) wouldn’t be bad!
Sorry, but did you even read the very link you posted? It clearly states the pitch difference between the old and new configurations. Spaceflex allows for an additional row of seats, but the neo has 2 additional rows of seats, which means the second row must come at the expense of pitch.
But we shouldn’t blame Lufthansa for this, we should blame the customers. Unfortunately, passengers these days only really care about going from point A to point B in the cheapest possible way, even if that means getting packed into a tincan. It’s cheap price, not quality service that people want, airlines are simply offering the product that people want to buy.
But starting a LCC in AS is impossible, your ORS rating will be low and thereofre no customers. So the AS PAX care about a lot of things that are not in real live. :)