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Comment by technicaldonut | Hacker News Reader

I will be flying from east US to Germany this weekend. (Planned move and visa is running out so no choice). So far I'm the only person on the transatlantic plane. Interestingly enough the local US-US flight seems to still have a lot of passengers on it (50ish%)

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In 2011 I took a flight to Boston which happened to be on the same day that William and Kate got married. I don't know if that was the reason, but the flight was almost empty (apparently under 30 passengers on a 737). It was annoying for a couple of reasons: Firstly they didn't upgrade anyone, even though first and business was basically empty. Secondly, the flight attendants were constantly badgering me in case I wanted something, when really what I wanted was a bigger seat and to be left alone. Anyway, good luck on your 1 passenger flight.

They can't upgrade people on an empty flight without upsetting the balance of the plane. I've been on flights where we didn't leave the gate until people downgraded so the front wasn't overfull. (I was the only person flying economy, first and economy plus was full so everybody was in front of the wings)

I'm having trouble believing that the margins are so close that the position of a 200lb mass on a 68000 lb plane is a significant factor in anything. If true it would suggest that using the lavatories would be a significant event requiring coordination with the stewards and pilot.

30*150 = 4500 lb. There are cases of planes crashing because everyone rushed to the front or the back to avoid smoke.

I know it's not the same as a commercial airliner, but I used to teach hang gliding on the beach and we'd sometimes get a little packed sand in the back of the keel (which is the name for the central bar that the wings were mirrored across). The total weight of the student plus the glider could get up to ~280 lb, and the amount of packed sand would be less than a pound or two, but the flight characteristics of the gliders would change drastically, to the point where we could barely get them in the air.

As another commenter notes below, the few people moving around the cabin is less about control ability and safety than it is about fuel efficiency.

Actually, for center-of-gravity reasons they (often) cannot reassign seats freely, as the aircraft gets balanced based on the assigned seats. If everyone moves up front, the pilots might get a surprise in how the plane reacts.

I think this is actually not the case. A Boeing 737 totally empty and in the smallest possible configuration is 61,864lbs. If 20 people move up to 1st class that is less than 7% of the overall weight. With the engines and fuel in the centerline, that represents even less in terms of overall torque change on the center of gravity. The aircraft would adjust for this with the tiniest of movements on the elevator, so small it very well might be in the hundreds of an inch.

It is not about balance.

Here is an example for an A320neo where LH seems to have resolved the issue by not booking the last row due to GoC issues [1]. So 6 people can make a difference.

[1] https://simpleflying.com/lufthansa-a320-cog-economy/

I think this depends on how full the plane is.

Moving a few people probably doesn't cause an issue if the rest of the plane is completely empty.

If you move 20 people from the right side to the left side of the plane this will probably have some kind of effect.

On smaller regional aircraft they sometimes ask people to move seats to the other side or back to front.

Moving people left and right has absolutely zero effect on the controlability of the plane, because the ailerons can compensate for much larger movements than that. What it might have an effect on, though, is the overall efficiency with which the plane flies. It is more efficient to have the center of lift and the center of gravity matched, than not.

>Firstly they didn't upgrade anyone, even though first and business was basically empty.

They rarely upgrade to international first/business because the meals and other perks cost real money. And it'll piss off the people who payed over a thousand dollars for those seats.

> Interestingly enough the local US-US flight seems to still have a lot of passengers on it (50ish%)

That's probably a mix of people with critical jobs needing to travel, people having to move for a variety of reasons, and people listening to the ignorant and ignoring the advice to social distance.

Probably. As far as I can see from the airport website this is a regular flight leaving a few times a day. Right now it appears to fly once every other day.

How do you know that? Seatmap are not a reliable indicator - I made this mistake once to board a full flight to India (idea was to save on assigned seat) - many people booking will not be assigned a seat until checkin. The information your OTA or bespoke corporate travel agent has is no different to expertflyer, seatmap bad indicator and for availability you'll only see a max of 9 in each bucket..

Empty transatlantics aren't unheard-of. I was one of only two passengers on a Lufthansa MUC-EWR last year.

It's better for them to run highly unprofitable flights than miss their contract obligations with big corporations that want a plane available to move people transatlantic on a day's notice.

Also, you have a schedule and there is likely a return flight for which you need a plane in EWR in this instance.

I called the airline yesterday and they told me.

Well, might as well recline the hell out of your seat then. :-)

I've been wondering, do they upgrade you to the highest end seat on the plane then?

I have hopes, but it likely depends on the airline.

Had an empty flight with Singapore Airlines right after Christmas and they didn't.

This is British Airways so we'll see.

If you ask, they'll almost always say yes. Something like, "Hey, I noticed the flight is mostly empty. Would it be possible for me to get a complimentary upgrade to one of the empty first class seats?"

They're losing millions of dollars every week. Will they still be eager to say yes?

1. The steward(ess) isn't losing millions of dollars every week.

2. Does it cost them significantly more to seat you in a different location? I'm asking, I genuinely don't know.

I wouldn't mind economy service if I still get the first class seating. So zero cost for them.

I'd take any kind of upgrade to be honest.

Right now I'm in premium economy as for some reason the ticket was cheaper than economy.

The question is if the stewardess cares as much as the airline.

Realstically speaking there is virtually no difference in service for them.

Assuming that I get the usual economy food and I'm really the only person on the flight.

Unlikely. There are different crew for different cabins. When a flight departs without anyone in first, for example, they don't normally bump people up to fill it they redistribute crew into the main cabins.

Now, if you fly regularly and have some miles status with that airline you can request all sorts of things. The gate agent has a lot of leeway in that regard.

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