exerda

And some of us disagree.

bocastephen

You'll be much happier upstairs, believe me. Stepping over your seatmate is not a problem, and if you do your 'business' as the meal service concludes, they probably won't be in lie flat mode yet and there will be space to move around.

The only small drawback to the seats is the flimsy foot divider, so there is a slight risk of accidental 'footsie' when you're both in bed mode, but once you meet your seatmate, you can decide if that is a bad or good risk

I'm no OJ Simpson in a Hertz commercial, but I've rarely had issues stepping out of my window seat in any business class configuration, and only tripped over one Japanese businessman over the years - so I wouldn't fret too much about the aisle access.

villox

I myself change my opinion on the seats from flight to flight. I've had occasion to fly on the new LH seat (both the 748 and A330), PMUA 777 (usually to Europe), and PMCO 777 (usually to Delhi) throughout this year. There are pros and cons to each:

LH Pros: More separation between pax (especially in the middle, and ESPECIALLY on the 748 lower middle section), great IFE.
LH Cons: I find the seat uncomfortable and the past couple times felt that it has this weird inflation system that randomly inflates/deflates throughout the flight. Narrow footwells unless in a bulkhead.

PMCO Pros: Pretty comfortable seat, more privacy, good sized footwells if you can get a bulkhead, at least some storage
PMCO Cons: Terrible IFE, location of headset jack behind your head means you're constantly knocking it out

PMUA Pros: Pretty comfortable seat, pretty good IFE
PMUA Cons: Least privacy of any of the seats, no way to get an aisle middle for unrestricted/unbothered aisle access, backwards seating can be weird, no storage

Frankly none of the seats are so much better or worse as to make me pick one carrier over the other; I pick based on flight schedule and cost.

I've had good and bad food and crews on both LH and UA so this is an irrelevant factor for me; neither are consistent enough for me to care.

wto605

And the best part... either way both LH and UA get your money!

FTstudent

Last week was my first ride on this plane FRA-IAD. It was wonderful. The LH BF seat is about the same as the sUA GF 777 seat in the amount of real estate you get. I was amazed BF was only about 70% full. I ditched my seatmate for the empty center row in front of me. I've never been on a UA flight under 95% full in BF.

It was a DAY flight, so I preferred the main cabin over the UD. I toured the plane multiple times on the flight. The UD felt a bit like a rest home.

IMO I would pay more for the LH BF seat over the sUA BF seat

mgcsinc

My GF and I have our cheap J run -- Rome for a day, with a Toronto side-trip -- coming up, and I'm hoping to get a quick reality check in case there's something horribly wrong with my plan.

We're flying on AC for most of the trip, and we're each crediting to new A3 accounts. I think P has traditionally mapped onto Z on AC metal, but it's showing P on the AC site, which I think reflects their change to P being a business fare class. Either way, it looks like it will credit at 200% to A3, and we should end up with almost A3 Gold status on the YYZ-FCO segments alone. (There's also a SFO-YYZ segment on AC, which should seal the deal.) Any flaw in this plan?

The UA segments in the reservation (LAX-SFO and YYZ-ORD-SNA) don't accrue anything on A3, becuase stupidity. I think I've heard some reports of success doing UA retro credit claims for segments that earn 0% on the airline to which their credited -- is that the case?

Looking forward to Rome in a day. I think we're gonna be there at the same time as Kacee!

Mike Jacoubowsky

I hate to disappoint you, but the IAD-CDG segment of my "business deal to Europe" trip was not just "awesome" but astounding.

The plane was spotless. The FAs attentive & friendly. The food was great, best I've had in the air. I even had celebrated with my "annual drink" and had a Gin & Tonic, and it was too strong for my tastes, certainly not watered down like I've had in the past. This was UA915 on 7/17.

But wait, there's more. I called up the night before, to see if I could fly out of SFO instead of SJC and avoid the 35 minute connection my original itin had. Not only did I get switched, but onto an International 777 SFO-IAD.

I will say, however, that the biz class in a 777 sucks compared to the configuration in the 767. I don't care that I'm facing backward, but there's a lot less room between passengers and, if you're in the middle-middle, you have to step over someone to use the lav. Food wasn't anything to write home about either.

But UA915 IAD-CDG was the best flight ever for me. This can't possibly be representative of the international product everyone's complaining about. Or if it is, my standards must be ridiculously-low.

FTstudent

The 767 is a good plane. You must not have gotten the 2-2-2 floor plan, otherwise you might have a different opinion in respect to the 777 biz seat.

Kacee

Agreed. That is one cramped BF cabin on the three-class 763.

fjfv19

I was with my significant other in 1K/L on IAD-CDG. Same experience, incredible service from the crew. As others have stated, the 2-1-2 is much different than the 2-2-2 configuration. Row D in the 2-1-2 is amazing when traveling alone.

Bonehead

I think the poster is referring to the pmUA three-class 777 sardine-can C section.

exerda

Yeah; though the 2-2-2 763 is more cramped than the 2-1-2 config, it's still far ahead of the 777 in terms of spacing. The 2-4-2 config is awful.

Mike Jacoubowsky

Correct (I think)... I believe it was 2-4-2... an OK but not extraordinary configuration for a steam engine, not-so-hot for C-class flying.

Kacee

I wasn't responding to that post. I was responding to this one (which I quoted):

And btw, I think the three-class 763 is equally bad, unless you are stuck in the middle on the 772, in which case yes, the 772 is even worse. They are better than Y, but still a fairly uncomfortable experience for lie-flat business class.

Bonehead

Now that's funny.

I think there may have been a mild non sequitur in that post, which threw one of us off.

I'm betting it wasn't me, but I've lost lots of bets in my time.