Seat configuration cost

[GDK]

I'm still new in seat configuration and I don't understand 1 thing. I got A310-200 with default seating of 189 standard economy seats. I plan to configure it to 14 standard business seats and 171 standard economy seats. The price for business seat is $6800 each and the economy seat is $3100 each. When I assign it to my aircraft, $625,300 was charged for every aircraft. That it the price of 14*6800+171*3100, which means I bought a complete set of new seats including the standard economy seats. Where goes my original 189 standard economy seats?? Why are they disappeared mysteriously? If those 189 seats were replaced, then I should get some cash selling them. If they are not sold and still in my store, why can't I use them in the new configuration??

[Curse]

At the moment you have to buy all seats new, but I can remember some threads in the feature forum about this.

For the moment sometimes it is more useful to not reconfigurate an aircraft, for example if you only get them for one or two years from the used market. 

[GDK]

Alright. Thanks for your advise.

[SACEO]

One good thing about having to replace all seats when you reconfigure is that it really boosts the overall condition of used a/c's.  For instance, if you pick up an a/c on the used market with a condition of, say, 83% and then reconfigure the seating the overall condition will have improved by about 10% by the time you take delivery of it. 

[GDK]

Seat reconfiguration is considered as an extra 'maintenance' and that's the reason the condition of the aircraft improved... But 10% is just....... Seems the effect of defective seat is more serious than a malfunction hydraulic pump

[powi]

If you buy a new aircarft then the you only pay for those seats you put in. At least I rember it beign like that, I haven't tested it.

[swiftus27]

Remember, its not just seats.  You are also re running all wiring, re-branding the interior... etc....

[orionmco]

My issue is this.  I recently leased several aircraft close to brand new.  There is absolutely no need to do a full service of the interior.  All I desired to do was add a few business seats to balance the aircraft a little closer to the demand.  Unfortunately, you have to pay out your butt to do it so it really isn't worth it.

There should be some sort of option to adjust the seating on brand new aircraft (or newer... i.e. high percentage) without a complete refurbishment.  Not sure how much coding work it would take, but perhaps the seats in the aircraft could have an age or percent themselves that would be viewable (that would also improve with regular maint. checks).  I would seriously think that one should be able to add business or first class seats without removing ALL economy class and replacing them.  And if you do remove brand new seats from an aircraft, there is no earthly reason why as a business you couldn't re-use something that you already paid for.  Especially if they are in good/mint condition.  I fully understand that the current reconfiguration process includes refurbishment of all cabin components and the labor associated with it.  What I am suggesting is that other options should be available in the future.

I read some of the other forum posts on this so I discovered that the seat configuration is a relatively new feature in the game.  My aim here is not to make a complaint, but rather to add my opinion to the mix.  I hope you understand Sami.

[swiftus27]

My issue is this.  I recently leased several aircraft close to brand new.  There is absolutely no need to do a full service of the interior.  All I desired to do was add a few business seats to balance the aircraft a little closer to the demand.  Unfortunately, you have to pay out your butt to do it so it really isn't worth it.

There should be some sort of option to adjust the seating on brand new aircraft (or newer... i.e. high percentage) without a complete refurbishment.  Not sure how much coding work it would take, but perhaps the seats in the aircraft could have an age or percent themselves that would be viewable (that would also improve with regular maint. checks).  I would seriously think that one should be able to add business or first class seats without removing ALL economy class and replacing them.  And if you do remove brand new seats from an aircraft, there is no earthly reason why as a business you couldn't re-use something that you already paid for.  Especially if they are in good/mint condition.  I fully understand that the current reconfiguration process includes refurbishment of all cabin components and the labor associated with it.  What I am suggesting is that other options should be available in the future.

I read some of the other forum posts on this so I discovered that the seat configuration is a relatively new feature in the game.  My aim here is not to make a complaint, but rather to add my opinion to the mix.  I hope you understand Sami.

Glad you looked.  We've asked for this for a long long time.  Planes are built with tracks (if I remember correctly) that the seats attach to.  If we are simply taking a few out of the back and giving everyone a few more inches shouldnt mean we have to pay over 1/2 of a million.

[GDK]

The literature by swiftus27 is exactly what I concern about.

Yea, there are seat tracks and we can put anything on the seat track. The seats are secured to the track with quick release lock (some sort of quarter turn lock) and we can remove and install it to suit different flights.

Another thing is the seat reconfiguration will improve the overall condition of the aircraft. My question is, the so called 'aircraft condition' is all about conditions that affecting the airworthiness or conditions that affecting passenger comfort or both?

[Sami]

How about a separate cabin condition rating? And with option to replace all seats (incr. cabin rating) or just change the seats you want.

[DHillMSP]

How about a separate cabin condition rating? And with option to replace all seats (incr. cabin rating) or just change the seats you want.

That makes a great deal of sense.  Just wondering if that would factor into maintenance costs and/or CI/FI at all (beyond the replacement/rearrangement option) - nicer/newer seats improving the company's image a bit and so forth.

[spiff23]

As one who often pays to reconfigure all Y planes, I'd be fine if you can figure out a way to just program the cost of the new business seats.  If the plane is already at 189 Y (in case of A310)... It would seem that if you are going to configure for say 4C and 180Y then really you are leaving 180Y seats and just buying the 4C and probably upgrading some cabin features (dividers, gallies, service items).  I'd be willing to pay more for the C seats (assuming you are adding dividers, rewiring etc). as long as there wasn't a fee for keeping 180 of the 189 original Y seats when getting the used aircraft.  since it's a topic, that would be a wish list.  Overall, I'm so used to reconfiguring used planes that i's just part of the game so it would really be more of a nice bonus enhancement at this point .

[GDK]

How about a separate cabin condition rating? And with option to replace all seats (incr. cabin rating) or just change the seats you want.

Is that means replacing entire cabin seating will increase cabin rating but upgrading Y seats to C seats don't?

[powi]

If there is going to be Cabin Condition Rating, maybe it could also track if the current interior is in company livery. All planes in not too old company livery should boost CI. 20 years old company livery might not be worth anything...

[mideg]

Is that means replacing entire cabin seating will increase cabin rating but upgrading Y seats to C seats don't?

It probably should mean that replacing entire cabin seating will reset the cabin rating to 100% (as it is made completely new) but upgrading Y seats to C seats will "only" increase the cabin rating by some value as only some Y-seats are replaced by C seats and the other Y-seats stay old.

[SACEO]

I'm sure this has already been mentioned in the feature request thread but what would be cool is if you had the ability to select the "quality" of the cabin interior such as choosing between cloth and leather seating (and being able to choose such options on a class basis - such as leather for C and cloth for Y, etc...).  It would also be nice if you could mix premium economy with standard economy instead of having to choose one or the other - so maybe you could have 75 standard along with 15 premium economy on the same aircraft.  Such things bring in a few more variables that can help differentiate one airline from another.  It would also be nice to be able to "see" what other airlines are doing in this respect - not only for competative reasons but also so that we have the means to sort of "brag" to all the other airlines about how much money we are willing to spend to "luxuriate" our customers.  Just some thoughts. 

[DHillMSP]

I'm sure this has already been mentioned in the feature request thread but what would be cool is if you had the ability to select the "quality" of the cabin interior such as choosing between cloth and leather seating (and being able to choose such options on a class basis - such as leather for C and cloth for Y, etc...).  It would also be nice if you could mix premium economy with standard economy instead of having to choose one or the other - so maybe you could have 75 standard along with 15 premium economy on the same aircraft.  Such things bring in a few more variables that can help differentiate one airline from another.  It would also be nice to be able to "see" what other airlines are doing in this respect - not only for competative reasons but also so that we have the means to sort of "brag" to all the other airlines about how much money we are willing to spend to "luxuriate" our customers.  Just some thoughts. 

I wholeheartedly agree on the seating choices and ability to mix seating.  I guess the question would be, would there be an impact on CI/FI between leather and cloth?  I'm assuming so.  I'm also assuming there'd be a difference in maintenance cost, if its broken out - leather's more expensive to purchase, cloth's more expensive to maintain.

Of course, if things were to go this way, it begs the question on whether I'll be able to install AVOD systems, in-flight Internet and the like. 

[Chaxterium]

My apologies but digging up an old thread but I was actually going to make a post about this so it's a good thing I looked this up first.

Is it still true that if I only want to add a few business class seats, and keep almost all of my standard economy class seats, I still have to pay to have ALL the seats replaced? This doesn't seem right. I shouldn't have to pay almost half a million dollars to add 5 business class seats.  I've been reading the posts in this thread and sami mentioned a couple options that may be added to the game at some point. Has there been any progress on this?

Cheers,
Chax