VS006 MIA-LHR 30 DEC 10 (Economy)

This is a Trip Report from the Economy cabin

Ground Staff

Food & Drink

Entertainment

Seat

Cabin Crew

OK, first attempt at posting a Trip Report, but as there were a couple of oddities if would be useful to get some feedback from other v-flyers.

We had managed to pre-reserver two seats in row 56 some months ago. When we enquired about availability of upgrades at the ticket desk at MIA, we were quoted $375 for PE and over $2,000 for UC - no go.

At check-in we asked about availability of seats further forward. The agent advised us that the exit seats would be $80, but that the first three rows of the EC cabin had extra leg room for only $50 each - we took them in Row 34.

When all boarded and locked, there seemed to be quite a lot of free space in the EC cabin. Confirmed by an announcement - only 180 passengers + 14 crew on board.

They hadn't sold any of the exit seats, so a stewardess requested that four passengers occupy the exit door seats for take off and landing - never seen this before!

When the seat belt light went off, we could return to our seats and spread out. My wife managed to nab the middle four seats in row 33 leaving me with two seats to spread out.

When I walked down to the back of the aircraft, it did appear that all of the free spaces were in the front EC cabin - the back looked pretty crowded. Is there a policy to load from the back?

Other incident was a problem with the entertainment system. Most seats in EC where blank, even though the handset appeard to be working. To resolve the problem, they had to reboot the whole entertainment system, even for those who were already working.

Any comments from anyone on these oddities?

Robert

Thanks for the TR. I can comment on a couple of items. Re the exit rows, there have to be a certain number of able bodied passengers seated here to assist in an evacuation. Re seating areas, there are 2 possibilities. In an extremely light load you'll find they place all non-fee paying EC passengers right at the back to assist in rotation (getting the nose in the air). If that wasn't the case it's most likely that most passengers (like yourselves) had pre-assigned their seats. Before OLCI opened the front section wouldn't have been available. If they hadn't bothered changing their locations during checkin that would explain the loading.

Exit seats must always be occupied for take off and landing so that there is someone there to help open the door etc.

Loading from the back would likely be due to weight distribution.

All points on here are correct.

A minimum of two able bodied passengers are required to be seated in all exit rows for take off and landing.

And when there is a light load in economy, the seats at the front of the cabin are always blocked out to balance the weight of the aircraft - remember that the planes are very heavy at the front with the UCS. After take-off you are free to move forward to empty seats but it's the Captain's decision on whether you need to move back to your original seat for landing.

And as for the IFE, if there is a lot of seats not working then generally only a full reboot will work. Simples.

Thanks for the TR anyway.