Everything you want to know about 737-900 (739)

Flew the new plane from IAH to SJU today. Awaiting my AA flight from SJU to FDF.

New plane OK. Seats were comfortable and it had the new ambient ceiling lighting. Of course I heard for the 3000th time how "way cool" the 787 is by Smi/J.

However, there wasn't any IFE for this 4 hour flight. Not even Music. Also, they took delivery of this plane 2-3 weeks ago and it DID NOT have E+ seating. Since this is a new plane, shouldn't it have been picked up with the E+ configuration if that is the intent for the entire fleet? Also the power outlets were not working.

Anyone here know if IFE, seat config and turning on the power to the outlet is something that gets done "after" the fact? I am very surprised this plane was put into service before all this was done. Not a good Brand impression until they do that. No IFE especially made for a very restless pax group.

Sat in Row 20 Exit (CO- 2 Row E+) and upon landing, water from the somewhere was dripping all over the person sitting at the window. Pretty good gusher.

Yes, all that stuff is coming. CO (aka UA) are using temporary seats on those planes until their lawsuit with Koito (sp?) is resolved. The seat manufacturer CO chose for their planes failed FAA inspections due to fire concerns.

FYI - I flew a 739 with no IFE, no in-seat power and no Boeing Sky Interior on a 6 hour EWR-SEA flight last week. Four hours is nothing.

-RM

There's been about 3-4 threads on the front page just today about these planes.

Yes, they will get E+/DTV. E+ will probably be soon, DTV, unknown, but also likely soon.

Regardless of the seats being used it wouldn't have been that difficult to put E+ on the plane when they were configuring the seating. Mr. Smisek is missing out on an upsell opportunity for no good reason.

E+ requires that UA receive a Supplemental Type Certificate (STC) for all aircraft similarly configured of that make. Typically a trial aircraft is completed and then flown for 30 days, then, assuming approval, the rest can be converted. It seems the most likely story is that the STC had not yet been received for that particular subtype when the plane(s) were delivered.

There are 11 739s in the fleet with E+, so apparently the STC has already been done for this model.

If I understand correctly, planes with different seats need different STCs.

I stand corrected, I misread the chart. Apologies.

Really? Lawsuits might take decades to be resolved.

-David

It seems I am on a 737-900 flight in July and rows 15 and 16 are exit rows, not 20 and 21. Are there still planes out there with this configuration? If yes, what should I know about these?

Thanks.

I just had a notification from UA that there has been a change in my itinerary and as in your case the previous exit row 21 is now row 16 on the new seat map.
Also the Y+ cabin starts at row 6. This configuration does not show up on UA.com.

Anybody with more info?

Yesterday I was in 21F on 737-900, today I'm in the very same exit row seat, but it seems they have updated the seat map/configuration...

All narrow body aircraft have 20 & 21 as the overwing exit rows. Makes it easier in case of equipment swaps etc.

This seems to have changed in the last 24 hours. My row 20 seat has been changed to row 16, as has the seating diagram for the 737-900.

Seeing this for an upcoming EWR-IAH flight on a 739 my bulkhead seat in 7F is now showing 6F on my PNR. However on another 739 flight that is showing a seat map with the E+ configuration has the standard row 7 for bulkhead and 20/21 for the exit rows.