The grass on the other side of the fence is *parched* - thank you, UA, for keeping E+
Ever since my first flights on NZ a few years ago, I've been thinking of them as a great potential alternative to UA, in particular on the LAX-LHR route. Their C and PE products seemed great, and their Y product seemed similar to E+ in terms of the hard product (34" leg room), as befitted their LONG-distance profile, and superior in terms of the soft product. So I was happy to have myself booked into NZ Y on a recent trip AKL-LAX and LAX-LHR, and was happy to find myself in their new 777. Big mistake. Yes, their soft Y product is still really classy. Charming FAs, decent food, good drink selections (with nice NZ wines including Lindauer sparkling wine), fantastic IFE system, even including a function where you can send the concierge a question or request. But jeepers, the things they've done to their hard product! They now have 10 seats abreast on the 777 (3+4+3). That combined with the leg room being shrunk down to 32" meant for a flight that was painful, and would have been even worse had I not had an empty seat next to me. The aisles were ridiculously narrow. I'm not a particularly big guy, but I found myself having to walk sideways. The FAs didn't, and cheerfully bumped into every aisle seat passenger on their way. And the only upside of this is the silly gimmick of introducing those "cuddle seats" across the 3-seat window sections. Walking through the cabin, you realise that you're back to F/C/cattle Y, only with different names. So *thank you* United for keeping E+. Thank you for reconfiguring the 777s with 9-abreast seating with 36 x 18" in E+. I'll never complain about your sucky food and the occasional grumpy FA again. I can eat and watch movies and hang out with cheerful people on the ground!