RAT - which airlines that you use still have smoking sections ?
FRatSTN - consider the passenger who pays online for a specific seat but because of a train delay is the last person at the gate to board the aircraft. The flight is full, so someone who was following a free seating policy is now sitting in the late passenger's seat. The airport is slot controlled and push back time is approaching fast. Do you
a - tell the passenger with the allocated seat that they have forfeited their chosen seat and musit sit at the back of the plane ?
b - enforce that people move seats, even if it's a single parent and child who would be separated thus requiring further seat changes ?
My point is that you can set aside a few seats in the aircraft as allocated with the remainder free seating... but you cannot operationally make the whole cabin both allocated and free seating at the same time on an LCC
A mix of free seating and allocated works on trains only because there is a much less stringent time constraint around turnaround times (so staff can distribute all the 'reserved seat' paper slips) and that train passengers are not required to be seated at any point (eg just after train departs station).
Last edited by davidjohnson6; 15th Feb 2014 at 20:20.