How many people can you get on a 747 ?

[tezzer]

Flew back with KLM on a 747 combi this week. Flight was full, in fact overbooked.

After we had loaded, and every seat in the house taken, the ground staff filled every spare crew / jump seat with extra passengers. Some were crew on their holidays (still wearing their staff badges prominently) others were just people on the overbooking list.

I could not believe that our already delayed flight (over an hour late in) was furthe delayed to allow all of these extras to come and fill up all of the emergency exit spares.

The day before I had tried to get out early, but was told that there was no availability, and that was that. So, in future, how do I get a jumpseat / crew seat when the plane is full ?

[PAXboy]

tezzer The 'jump seat' would not have been filled by pax and, almost certainly, not with crew. Special dispensation.
I could not believe that our already delayed flight (over an hour late in) was furthe delayed to allow all of these extras to come and fill up all of the emergency exit spares. So you wanted other people to suffer simply because YOU were OK?? If you had been one of those that was squeezed on - would you not have been pleased? Are you not pleased with KLM as a carrier that they did their very best to get as many pax as possible to their destiantion?? Sheesh. :hmm:
The day before I had tried to get out early, but was told that there was no availability, and that was that. So, in future, how do I get a jumpseat / crew seat when the plane is full ?The number of pax for any flight changes by the minute until the flight closes. They do not know how many no-shows they will have or emergency "I am due to travel tommorrow but my father has just had a heart attack and a I need to get home today" requests they will get.

So the answer to your question is: You cannot. You turn up in good time and speak politely and quietly to the check in staff and show that you can be a reasonable human being.

[747boy]

Lots more than were on your flight

"On 24 May 1991 an El Al Boeing 747 airlifted a record-breaking 1,087 passengers – Ethiopian Jews flying from Addis Ababa to Israel as part of Operation Solomon. The passenger count became 1,088 when a baby was born in-flight. "

[manintheback]

How do you get 1087 seats on a jumbo or am I missing something?

[seacue]

You don't get 1087 seats on a 747, but you apparently can get that many pax on board ... not legally, of course ... but it was considered a rescue mission.

There was a pre-cyclone 747 exacuation flight from Darwin with way over the "legal" number of pax. IIRC, many were children. I now see it was post-cyclone.

[Desert Diner]

The Saudia 747-100 "Hajj" jets have 444 seats. I doubt you could put any more seats without removing the toilets.

[172driver]

747 ex Darwin had 673 pax. Link here (http://www.qantas.com.au/info/about/history/details20)

[mutt]

747-100 "Hajj" jets have 444 seats

The leased Air Atlanta -200's have 470 seats!! Just perfect for a 10 hour flight to Manila.. :yuk:

Mutt

[Pax Vobiscum]

High density seating 747s used on internal flights in Japan have more than 500 seats. The JAL example that tragically crashed near Mt Osutaka in 1985 had 524 souls on board - only 4 survived.

[Curious Pax]

According to their website Corsair cram 582 people onto their 744s, which amazingly includes 24 in Class Grand Large (presumably with greater legroom)!

[Long Haul]

You may have thought that they were "just people on the overbooking list," but they weren't, they were airline employees traveling privately on a standby, space-available basis. I have never seen regular, full-paying passengers on the jumpseats, the cabin crew would go nuts from the complaining. The combis hold 42C/238M

[tezzer]

"Airline employees "? Not all of them, unless KLM/ AF employee 10 year old's and assorted pension age passengers.

[Dan Winterland]

Japan Air Lines have some B747-400Ds. The D designation is for 'Domestic'. The differ from the regular 400s in that they don't have winglets. Inside, they have in excess of 600 seats and no galleys. They spend their life on the internal and very short route between Tokyo and Osaka, a 40 minute flight hence no need for the galleys.

[Monkeytoo]

DesertM25...........we had the pleasure of flying in one of those Saudia Haji flights from Jeddah to KL. Walked on and we were the only westeners onboard - we just couldn't get over the 'sea' of faces I personally have never seen so many people on an aircraft - we counted (well the trip is 8 hours!) and worked out that there were over 500 people on this 'one class' flight............and nothing worked on the seats except for the recline - no lights and no TV's - miserable:mad: