Class Seating - Great Benefit Or Waste of Space?

[GlobalCEO]

So for you more experienced players, are Biz and First class seats really worth the investment in remodeling the plane and space they take up? I have only one plane with biz class seats and on some routes it's raking in the extra cash and on other routes I'm unsure if it's worth it.

What's your experiences and what have you found to work well? 

Thanks!

[JonesyUK]

Business Class are definately worth it. They only take up a little more space than economy but have a huge mark up on the tickets. First Class use a lot of space but are still worth it.

[JumboShrimp]

They are worth the space if you can fill 50%+ of the seats on standard seating.  Premium seating (business, first)?  That's a little iffy.

[swiftus27]

I've only use non standard seatinh in rare occasions.

Sometimes I need some extra range on a non standard route so I put in premium seating. 

Seating quality is too low of a factor in this game.  Pax just want to go from a to b.    They'd use the cargo hold if they could

[GlobalCEO]

Interesting, thank you!

[Sigma]

I've only use non standard seatinh in rare occasions.

Sometimes I need some extra range on a non standard route so I put in premium seating.  

Seating quality is too low of a factor in this game.  Pax just want to go from a to b.    They'd use the cargo hold if they could

Seating quality is generally a waste.

Seating class, as the OP was referring to, is not.

Provided you can move them, you're crazy not to put the seats into your plane.  For example, Business seats cost somewhere between 1.3 and 2.0 Coach seats but fetches 250-300% of the fare.  First-class costs about 3-4 standard coach seats and on long-range flights can fetch about 600% of coach fare.  First-class, on Domestic flights, is about a break-even, but if your plane isn't going to fill up every single Coach seat anyways, then giving up a few for a waiting First-class passenger is just money in the bank at that point.

[GlobalCEO]

Ok, that makes sense. Sigma, that was my mindset when I refitted a plane to test how it would work. I wasn't selling all of the standard seats on one route and now that I have the biz class seats I am making more. BUT on another flight I am making less now so that is why I was asking. I think I will stick with trying to add the biz class seats more and see what happens.

[Sigma]

Well, it's not like putting in the Business seats scares away Coach class passengers.  So there's  only 2 possible ways you could make less money:

1>  You gave up so many Y seats that you're now leaving more Y pax at the airport and the number of C pax you're getting isn't enough to fill up the seats you put in.  This happens quite easily actually.  For every C seat that's empty, that's 2-3 less Y pax you don't get to move.  That's fine if they weren't there to begin with, not so good if you're leaving them back at the airport.

2>  What you're seeing is a decrease that's completely unrelated.  Maybe there's competition, maybe it's normal ebb and flow of demand (you'll notice your flights don't make the same every week and can, in fact, change by a fair bit).

Always play around in the Configurator and try to maximize the seating.  Some planes can get a handful of C-class seats in there at a minimal (sometimes almost 1:1) Y-seat cost.  The F-28, for example, can get 4 business seats (sufficient for most flights an F28 would operate on) at the cost of just 5 coach seats.  A great deal even if you can't fill up every Business seat every time.