Filling the plane from the front or back?

[Warks]

I don't mean loading on PAX before takeoff. I mean filling the seats.
As I'm a SG with Velocity I usually get row 3 on my regular SYD-TSV flights. Now when the flights are full of course you get the middle seat filled. However on lighter loadings it used to be almost guaranteed that you'd get an empty seat next to you. For me that's almost J class as I like my space - I'm not small but I'm not huge either. It's just a lot more comfy.

On my flight yesterday (TSV-SYD) I thought it was full as the first few rows of Y were filled (only one pax in J!). However I visited the back of the plane and on my return I counted 15 empty seats - there wasn't an empty seat until around row 14. The flight to TSV was only about 2/3 full so I had the empty seat on the outbound (0 pax in J but we couldn't use THAT toilet!).

I thought it pretty odd that they are rewarding the less frequent flyers by giving them all the space at the back on non-full flights. Meanwhile in row 3 there's no entertainment (actually there's nothing on DJ1518 at present) and nowhere to put your extra bag. Having an empty seat there might be nice for your frequent flyers.

Is this normal or just an oddity?

Another first world problem to solve...

 

[JohnK]

Some people like to sit as forward as possible so if the choice was middle seat 3B or 3E over 24E guess which would they choose?

I am suspecting there is no such thing as blocked seats and if there was the block would not stick for very long so anyone could grab those vacant seats.

 

[Aus ATC]

I dare say the Platinum shadow is something Virgin need to to "copy" from QANTAS. Is there any evidence of it with Virgin? - if there is, I certainly don't see it working as effectively as with Qantas.

I'm travelling with Mrs Aus ATC on Sunday and have preselected 3A and 3C - not doubt someone else will end up with one of these seats while I "enjoy" 3B!

 

[Jamesl]

It sounds more like a load control thing, depending on the dead load below it could determine how the pax zones are delegated...

 

[lazybones1987]

Is there any evidence of it with Virgin?

This might help: http://www.australianfrequentflyer..../does-platinum-shadow-exist-virgin-32807.html

 

[Mattg]

On my flight yesterday (TSV-SYD) I thought it was full as the first few rows of Y were filled (only one pax in J!). However I visited the back of the plane and on my return I counted 15 empty seats - there wasn't an empty seat until around row 14. The flight to TSV was only about 2/3 full so I had the empty seat on the outbound (0 pax in J but we couldn't use THAT toilet!).

That's interesting. There were no J passengers the last time I flew Virgin so the FA said we were allowed to use the J toilet.