Strange seat numbering on Garuda Indonesia planes.....

Strange seat numbering on Garuda Indonesia planes.....

Author
Discussion

SimonV8ster

Original Poster:

12,543 posts

227 months

Thursday 2nd October 2014
quotequote all
Can anybody please explain why on an aircraft with only 4 seats across they are labelled A and C on the left and H and K on the right ?

It drove me mad trying to work out how an earth this could happen, fortunately it was only an hour flight so i moved on.

The second flight of the day (another Garuda Indonesia) had the same odd labelling but it gets worse !! I was in row 26 but only half a dozen rows from the front ? The row numbering started at row 20 ?

This may seem trivial but i spent a while trying to come up with at least one pluasable answer but failed miserably.

I need the best PH airplane spotter anorak to answer this !!

In case it helps, which i very much doubt, but i know you like pictures of planes, first plane -



Second plane -


marshalla

15,902 posts

200 months

Thursday 2nd October 2014
quotequote all
AFAIK the seat lettering is standard on all commercial aircraft.

A is left hand window, C is left hand aisle with B between them if it exists.

DEFG are middle of the aircraft seats if they exist - with D and G being the aisle seats and E and F in between them.

H is right hand aisle, K is right hand window, with J between it if it exists.

As for the numbers - I'd guess it was all economy class and the airline reserves 1-19 for 1st and business.





Edited by marshalla on Thursday 2nd October 14:43

AlexIT

1,482 posts

137 months

Thursday 2nd October 2014
quotequote all
marshalla said:
AFAIK the seat lettering is standard on all commercial aircraft.

A is left hand window, C is left hand aisle with B between them if it exists.

DEFG are middle of the aircraft seats if they exist - with D and G being the aisle seats and E and F in between them.

H is right hand aisle, K is right hand window, with J between it if it exists.
I have flown recently with Easyjet and it wasn't the case. Seats were designated ABC - DEF.

But it might well be practise on some airlines, as when I fly with Cathay seats are designated exactly as you say.
An Asian thing maybe?

marshalla

15,902 posts

200 months

Thursday 2nd October 2014
quotequote all
AlexIT said:
I have flown recently with Easyjet and it wasn't the case. Seats were designated ABC - DEF.

But it might well be practise on some airlines, as when I fly with Cathay seats are designated exactly as you say.
An Asian thing maybe?
Or possibly determined by the longest row of seats on the biggest aircraft in the fleet.

IforB

9,840 posts

228 months

Friday 3rd October 2014
quotequote all
There's no sensible reason for it frankly. Other than they have some steam driven reservations system that can't cope with different seat maps for some inexplicable reason.

Actually I can think of a reason, it's Garuda a place where common sense rarely reigns.

shakotan

10,679 posts

195 months

Friday 3rd October 2014
quotequote all
IforB said:
There's no sensible reason for it frankly. Other than they have some steam driven reservations system that can't cope with different seat maps for some inexplicable reason.

Actually I can think of a reason, it's Garuda a place where common sense rarely reigns.
Virgin Upper Class has the seats on the left of the 'plane A and the seats on the right as K, despite there being either 2 or zero seats in the centre.

http://www.seatguru.com/airlines/Virgin_Atlantic_A...

Moose.

5,339 posts

240 months

Saturday 4th October 2014
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marshalla said:
Or possibly determined by the longest row of seats on the biggest aircraft in the fleet.
They used to start at row 1 on their 737s but then it all changed a couple of years ago when they bought their 777s, so I suspect you're probably right. The numbering is probably to do with separating first/business with economy and keeps the numbers the same no matter what aircraft type.

I have to say, Garuda are ever improving and one of the better domestic airlines I fly on. Certainly my pick of the Indo airlines - bar the one I work for of course wink

hantsxlg

862 posts

231 months

Saturday 4th October 2014
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Moose... i bet your airline doesn't have to worry about 1st and j class.. and economy-plus means no chicken on your lap :-)

As for seat lettering, the a-k is pretty standard for legacy airlines, though sometimes only within an aircraft type. Ie ba first had 1a and 1k with nothing in between on 747 as economy has all letters a-k. But a short haul 737 flight will only have a-f. Though that might be REALLY legacy and date back to bea vs boac!

SimonV8ster

Original Poster:

12,543 posts

227 months

Sunday 5th October 2014
quotequote all
Ok, thank you. There maybe some sense in there somewhere then !!

airlana

10 posts

173 months

Saturday 25th October 2014
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The problem is there really is no consistency through out the airline industry.
Seat numbering varies from airline to airline and aircraft to aircraft.

As previously mentioned, a typical arrangement for a Boeing B747 which has 3x4x3 seating
in economy, the seats go ABC-DEFG-HJK (seat I is not used due to confusion with number 1. The boarding pass would read I1 and everyone would be heading for row eleven)

Some airlines who operate different aircraft keep to the above system. It's easy for the crew to remember window seats are A or K, aisle seats C,D,G or H.
Singapore Airlines for example with their Airbus A330 which has economy layout 2x4x2 uses the arrangement AC-DEFG-HK ie there is no middle seat B or J.
Just to be different, KLM with the same aircraft use AB-DEFG-HJ

Seat numbering with the DC10 and MD11 also varies between those airlines who operate it in high density seating of 2-5-2 arrangement.

Finally just to totally confuse everyone is the system of row numbers. Logically you would think they would run numerically 1,2,3,4 ............ through to the last row.
But no, they're all over the place due to different aircraft being configured for the number of first, business and economy class.
Someone once mentioned they had been on a Thai International B777 flight and it was full with over 600 passengers!! Their calculation was based on the last row being numbered 72, so 72x9 across seating = 648 less a bit for first class.
As it turned out the aircraft capacity was only 348 passengers.
The row numbers ran 11 to 12, 14 to 22, 31 to 37, 40 to 54 and 60 to 72.
with no rows numbered 1 to 10, 13 (unlucky?) 23 to 30, 38 to 53 and 55 to 59.
And some rows were not 9 seats due to galleys, toilets etc.

Best advice if you prefer a window or aisle seat is to check and double check when
making your booking. Assume nothing.