Seat Selection

[blues deville]

Flew recently on a Dutch low cost carrier. I booked the flight months ago and had a choice of all exit row aisle seats. Selected 17(C/D) because it's a lucky number in our family. Unfortunately for us we found out row 17 is not really an exit row and there was a substantial difference in seat pitch from rows 15 and 16. But we paid the same upgrade fare  

Wouldn't you agree that this seating chart shows all three (and I should have realized only two are real exit rows) rows with the same seat pitch?

 

[UpperDeck]

Aren't those the doors depicted on 15 and 16? Given that 17 was characterized as an exit, what consituted the exit facility?

[blues deville]

3 minutes ago, UpperDeck said:

Aren't those the doors depicted on 15 and 16? Given that 17 was characterized as an exit, what consituted the exit facility?

Good question. The seat plan photo I've attached is much larger than what is viewed on their website. Those overwing exit doors are not as visible. Why this is labeled an exit row is unknown. The airline has told me they meet European standards. I've never seen this depiction of exit rows before. I should have looked more carefully at their safety cards to see what it shows. 

To prove my point, I took a photo of our carry on to illustrate the seat pitch. I wanted to do the same at the next row and dropped it down but people were anxious to deplane behind me. However, there was more than two inches either side of the bag sitting in the same position. 

[Guest]

1 hour ago, blues deville said:

Flew recently on a Dutch low cost carrier. I booked the flight months ago and had a choice of all exit row aisle seats. Selected 17(C/D) because it's a lucky number in our family. Unfortunately for us we found out row 17 is not really an exit row and there was a substantial difference in seat pitch from rows 15 and 16. But we paid the same upgrade fare  

Wouldn't you agree that this seating chart shows all three (and I should have realized only two are real exit rows) rows with the same seat pitch?

 

Based on the picture, row 17 is clearly not an exit row (no hatch shown) but I do agree that the labels (being used to bracket the exit rows) are confusing.

[thor]

Something got lost in translation...maybe?

[blues deville]

50 minutes ago, thor said:

Something got lost in translation...maybe?

Perhaps but this airline is owned by the national carrier and hard to believe this would be permitted by anything run by the Dutch. Three emails now to this low cost airline and I definitely think ESL is an issue for me so far with their replay. 

Ready to quit. 

[blues deville]

2 hours ago, Malcolm said:

Based on the picture, row 17 is clearly not an exit row (no hatch shown) but I do agree that the labels (being used to bracket the exit rows) are confusing.

Exactly. Their schematic of the seat/floor plan also includes what appears to be the floor track lighting. There was no floor track lighting across row 17. Not an exit row by any Canadian standard. 

[FA@AC]

Was this Transavia?  We flew on them a few months back and I remember similar seat chart weirdness.   We bought up for the exit row were in fact seated in a row that had an exit and extra leg room.  The non-exit seating looked quite squishy.

The aircraft we were on had a GOL (the Brazilian carrier) interior.  I wonder if having a few of those in the fleet with a configuration that varies from their standard one is the reason for the discrepancy.  I do remember there being 3 rows showing as being exit rows when we booked, but I didn't notice whether the row behind the aft overwing exit actually had any additional leg room.

[blues deville]

8 minutes ago, Rich Pulman said:

Unbelievable!

Seriously??

17 (C/D) is a lucky number?

All I could think was...

Wouldn't 37 (C/D) be even luckier?

What? Oooohhh. 

 

[blues deville]

1 hour ago, FA@AC said:

Was this Transavia?  We flew on them a few months back and I remember similar seat chart weirdness.   We bought up for the exit row were in fact seated in a row that had an exit and extra leg room.  The non-exit seating looked quite squishy.

The aircraft we were on had a GOL (the Brazilian carrier) interior.  I wonder if having a few of those in the fleet with a configuration that varies from their standard one is the reason for the discrepancy.  I do remember there being 3 rows showing as being exit rows when we booked, but I didn't notice whether the row behind the aft overwing exit actually had any additional leg room.

Yes. Transavia. Now that their customer service has totally annoyed me I'm outing the airline. 

And you're correct. Their website seating charts don't match the planes. I don't think anyone has a 737 with three overwing exits. 

Exit rows are good. That's what I thought I'd paid for.  Row 17 is slightly better than the rest of the cabin which are a solid 29" at best. 

[J.O.]

Sounds like a pure money grab to me. Someone's been taking lessons from O'Leary. 

[Super 80]

Although Vueling has the worst seat pitch I have ever experienced, I will give them credit for being relatively easy to interact with and not having too many counter-intuitive policies. 

[blues deville]

We had two low cost airlines in our recent travels. Ryanair and Transavia. I thought Ryanair would be the problem trip but it was completely event free as far as baggage, priority boarding and seat selection as advertised. Could not understand a word of the Captain's broken English PA but it was only a 36 minute flight from Barcelona to Ibiza. Wouldn't want to fly for too long in those seats however.

On a positive note, our Transat legs were both excellent. Club class seats with amazing cabin service. I also think TS may have the best IFE system. So user friendly and error free touch screens with an endless selection of entertainment. USB and ear phone plugs well placed for easy access.

10 out of 10!