mre5765

Hmm I have trouble believing this is the first post on this topic in this forum. I did use search; regrets (but not apologies, since FT search is abysmal) if this is not new.

Cranky Flier writes today his sources say the reason why UA has not reconfigured the 777 to new C/F is because of the personal AV in E. Apparently the personal AV's power supplies won't power 5 seats, so UA has to go to 3-3-3, and that costs money.

Well the silver lining is that if one upgrades on a 3-class 777 there is zero danger of losing the upgrade due to an equipment swap from old config to new config.

But losing the 2-5-2 configuration is going to be bad, and will be a nightmare for the pax who thinks he's scored the coveted aisle on the 2 part of the row only to board and find he's in a middle seat. What a fiasco.

mahasamatman

This certainly contradicts what we've heard from more reliable sources. That word says that UA is having trouble certifying the new Coach seats for crashworthiness.

For what it's worth, every seat map UA has published for the new 777 has 2-5-2 in Coach.

I don't see why power would be an issue - it's so easy to run cables under the floorboards, so the proximity of the seats to the power supplies shouldn't matter that much.

aagoldflyer

This sucks as I loved the pair of seats on each side even though does this mean we will get AVOD in Y hope so

kkjay77

Unfortunately, no AVOD in Y.

ORDnHKG

Don't you think that maybe there is a shortage of aircraft, so they have to take the 777 last ? And also 777 routes with UA are not flying as long range as 747. Wouldn't be wise the get as many 747 done first to put it in the high yield market like ORD-HKG, SFO-HKG, SFO-SYD, and LAX-SYD ?

UA_Flyer

Paging planemechanic for his authoritative response......

21H21J

Sorry, I can't believe that reconfiguring from 2-5-2 to 3-3-3 is the only way (or least expensive) to get AVOD in economy.

How will this affect the aisle going from new C 2-4-2 to proposed Y 3-3-3?

Surely United would be more likely to just to pull IFE from E

PanHam

Sucks if it's true.

planemechanic

^

EsquireFlyer

How do the new Y seats on the 767 pass as crashworthy when the new Y seats on the 777 don't?

hamburgler

There aren't new Y seats on the 763... the 777 Y cabin, however, is planned to receive new larger LCD screens, and the current seats can't handle them. Thus the 777 is getting newer, lighter seats in Y.

mre5765

Hmm, I just went to http://suitedreams.united.com/ and the UA says the maps won't be published until fall. Is there another UA source for maps?

EDIT: ok I found UA's new 777 maps ( http://www.prnewswire.com/mnr/united/28964/ ). Those are from same time as a 2007 press release ( http://www.united.com/press/detail/0,6862,58415,00.html ) that said there'd be a newly configured 777 in 2008. Indeed, FWIW.

LAX

Why is UA planning to upgrade the 777 Y cabins when they are still quite acceptable in their current form whereas the 747 Y cabins really need an update, but won't? The 777 Y seats (especially E+) can compete fairly well against other airlines. However, the 747 Y seats are light years behind and not very competitive at all against other airlines.

LAX

warreng24

I suspect that UA plans to keep the 777's around for much longer than the 747's or the 767's. Therefore, UA is making a more significant investment in the 777 product due to a longer ROI time frame.

mre5765

That's logical, but when UA announced lie flat for C, it said there'd be a 777 with lie flat by February 2008. That obviously didn't happen. What is common to this thread, and the comment thread on Cranky's blog is that the economy seats are being replaced and the delay is due to crash verification.

So while Cranky's reasons for the rumored switch to 3-3-3 might be wrong, I'm not convinced 3-3-3 won't happen. One commenter in the blog, named SG said:

EDIT: I did like Randy's idea abut going to 2-4-3. Something for everyone, except the lone flier (who is in a better position to afford C anyway) ... families/groups of any size can be accommodated without sitting next to strangers.