Upgrade in flight
 

My company operates a range of Airbuses (A319/A320/A321 and A330/A340). Now they are introducing a new feature which is upgrade onboard, which consists of an economy passenger asking for an upgrade onboard and if there's a seat and meals available, he can buy the upgrade and then the captain will be informed of the deal.

I would like to know what are your feelings about this. Will this upgrade, in the worst case scenario, have a great impact on the CG of the plane? Is it safe to move 3,5 tons (A340) from the back of the aircraft to the front and then "inform" the captain?

Thank you so much, Krueger...

Boy, thats one BIG, BIG passenger. Not even the USA makes them that big. Sorry. :p

yeah they do Brian...you should have seen some of the Heifers on my flight this morning out of KORD.......

An A340 with 40 business class seats is not unlikely. A 40 seat business class selling just 5 tickets at the ridiculously high paid business fares is not unlikely ether. So, a plane might take off with 35 empty seats in front - then upgrade 35 fat passengers at 100 kg each plus their cabin baggage...

Worrying about some of older flight attendants moving about the plane would more productive. An aggregate of 3.5mT is quite conceivable in this realm.

An A340 has what, 8 or 10 stewardesses on board. And perhaps a similar number of first class seats. Business class seats are more numerous and, with the ridiculous pricing may well be mostly unsold.

And as for bothering the Captain with this upgrade information nonsense...please don't bother.
After all, this is the cabin captain's area of expertise anyway, and I don't want to be disturbed reading my newspaper and smoking my Havana, thank you very much...:)

Wont be much of a problem on the A340. The FCMC can compensate for CG changes via an Aft/Fwd fuel transfer to trim tank.

impact on CG
 

Methinks there should be no significant impact. Remember that the estimated weights for FDC, CC, and SLF for loadsheet computations are largely unrealistic anyway. Pursers know how to balance the stew stations, and checkin counter personnel know how to distribute the cattle.

And how happy would said first class/ business class pax be to be inundated mid flight with pax moving about.

An old Aussie movie The Castle, How's the Serenity... That would be gone!