DC-USCP-UAPE

Flew to MUC in FC on one of the worst 777 in the fleet. Had not been refurbished, and jokingly complained to the FA. She said they stopped all upgrades and are now looking to go two class only. That will leave AA as the only US carrier with three classes. Great for AA. Some people (those with more money than common sense) want to be First Class - not business. So anyone dumb enough to pay $14,000 (FC) vs. $7,000 (BC) is going to gift AA.

I see the point. FC used to have flat seats, video on demand, and other perks that are now in business class. The new first class has private suites and have really stepped it up a notch. Do you invest and play along or give up? Since Jeff seems to want to run a low cost carrier - UA gives up. Is Jeff eyeing the US air model, perhaps? FF are scum. Who cares about FC revenue? Just pack the planes and get every cent from every passenger?

nevansm

They're not stopping 3 class pmUA conversions. Check out the United Fleet Thread. Probably just a gossiping FA.

sannmann

Isn't UA going to fly a pmCO two class 767 on the Dulles-Munich route coming soon?

DC-USCP-UAPE

Maybe the FA was speaking only of the IAD to MUC route.

JOSECONLSCREW28

IAD/ORD - MUC transfer to sCO 764 in November I believe.

PanAmWT

May be UA has changed plan and stopped configuring some PMUA interntional 777s to 3 class?

http://flyerguide.com/wiki/index.php...onversions_(UA)

"- It has been reported that all 6 777XAs and 3 777XCs will be converted to a 2-class Pacific configuration using old-style business-class seats. These conversions will start after Jan 1, 2013. "

"- It has been reported that 3 777XCs (N768UA, N772UA, N779UA) will be converted to a 2-class Pacific configuration using old-style business-class seats. These conversions will start after Jan 1, 2013. "

planemechanic

The three class upgrades to the 777 IPTE configuration continue to happen.

garykung

If UA has to do so, they don't need to reconfig those domestic 777 to IPTE but to PMCO configuration with E+ instead.

FlyerChrisK

Aren't the A-series 777's used domestically with domestic seats? That doesn't say much about the state of three-cabin IPTE conversions.

5khours

IMHO, 2 class doesn't get UA much on the 777. They pick up 2 premium seats, and lose 4 economy seats. The only way the 2 class makes more money on the 777 is if you assume a) that UA always fills business with full fare (no UGs) b) that no one will every buy paid F, and c) that UGs to F do not cause anyone to chose UA over a competing carrier. Otherwise 3 class will make more money.

andrewwm

FA is wrong, so is your supposition. pmUA 777s will continue to be converted into 3-class IPTE birds, except 3 that will transition to a Hawai'i domestic configuration.

UA will have by far the largest amount of F seats of any carrier in the Western Hemisphere, and will be in the top 10 worldwide in terms of absolute number of F seats in the fleet.

ORDnHKG

Sorry, it seems like you have no idea who sit in F.

For years, there are only 4 types of people will be in UA F, awards, upgrades, companies contract (it is extremely rare these days in this economy) and non-rev. It is the same in AA F as well !

Those with more money will have more common sense enough that if they are paying, they will fly non-US carriers, definately not UA or AA. If I have money to fly paid F, I certainly wouldn't gift my business to AA at all !


I assume you mean domestic 763 ?

There are no domestic 777 reconfig to IPTE and will not be in the future.

nevansm

You forgot FAM's!

sdsearch

You're judging this by one route???

In case you haven't heard, AA is cutting back int'l First Class to fewer routes:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...get-new-j.html

as in fact are a number of international carriers.

I bet that's all that UA is doing too. Not dumping international first class comlpetely, just eliminating on some routes where it no longer makes sense.

The "no longer" is keyed to many things, but one of them is the consatnt improvement of Business Class (horizontall flat seats, etc) to the point where the differences between Business and First have been reduced from what they used to be years ago. (Years ago you had to fly First if you wanted horinztal flat seats, now increasingly on more and more airlines you only need to fly Business to get that.)

So airlines are finidng that in certain markets (city pairs) First works, but not in as many as they've been flyiing. So they are reconfiguring their fleet to have fewer three-class international planes.

But there's a difference from a fleet perspective between reducing the number of international three-class planes you have and getting rid of them entirely. I don't think you have enough evidence in some FA talk to know that UA is doing the latter as opposed to only the former.

But of course, you may not fly all of uA's routes; you may fly on certain ones; so if the ones you fly are the ones on which three-class is eliminated, to you it'll seem like it's gone, but from the UA-wdie perspective, it may be a different story.

TWATWA

That is a huge downgrade in service and choice! 3 class is the only reason to stay with United as AA only has it on the 777 and Delta doesn't even offer it or an IFC Lounge. United was profitable before this merger and now they are losing passengers as they cheapen the airline to CO standards. United passgengers would have been much better off without a full merger and done something like Air France/KLM where CO could have been the lowfare, cheap service airline. Now they are cheapening every aspect of the new United and making it worse for paying passengers.