Update sent on Express First Class installations!
 

http://www.usairways.com/en-US/trave...21037_06242011

So apparently the F cabins are being installed now. Until they are complete, there will be coach-only service on all Express flights, so basically you'll get a bigger seat but no free drinkies and no actual upgrades; pick a potentially F seat when you do your seat assignments, and if it's an F-equipped plane, you've got the F seat. I'm sure there will be plenty of annoyance over that (why should a late-booking CP not get the big comfy chair just because 5 Silvers booked first) but with the number of affected planes, which I assume can be swapped with eachother pretty regularly, I guess that's the only coherent way to handle things.

Anyway I'm just glad to see F finally being built out on these planes so I can live with the way they're doing it!

Had anyone figured out what the heck 5D is supposed to be on the EMB's???

HTSC

My guess is, it's just a random Preferred seat; they're probably trying to keep roughly the same number of preferred and choice seats and had one extra so it needed to go "somewhere." Probably can't put it in 4 due to the bulkhead not being up for booking in advance.

I saw that email this morning too. I'll have to check my upcoming itineries and make sure I'm in the front of the plane.

Can someone refresh my memory, is this for planes more than 50 seats, or 50 and more? Will a normal CRJ (not CR7 or CR9) get F?

Bigger than 50. So the CRJ is SOL. CRJ7/9 and EMB17x only.

I assume that the fact that these are express rather than mainline probably triggers a more significant likelihood of a multitude of metal swaps. Add to that the fact that in many express-only stations the staffing is probably not yet accustomed or equipped to deal with sorting the priority of the various preferred levels, the least problematic solution is the one they've picked.

I think US has handled this one very well.

A someone who finds himself on the EMB 170/175 more often than not, I'm a fan! ^

It seems that, at least on my one upcoming CR7 flight, those seats are actually Choice, not Preferred. Perhaps this will change soon? Or perhaps it is only for bookings from now on.

Based on my future reservations they have not yet changed the seatmaps. My upcoming flights (late August) on EMB175 and 170 aircraft still show the old map with the "C" seats still available for choosing (and not blocked out as they won't exsist in the FC config).

As a Silver on almost exclusively regional segments, I would not expect that to be that much of a problem. On almost all of my legs for the past six months, there have been only a handful of elites flying STL, BDL, DEN, SLC, or SNA on my segments. There have been a decent number where I was the highest status passenger, at least judging by the empty preferred seats, empty exit rows, and nobody else boarding early.

Elite on regional seems really route specific. Out of SAT with mostly express service there are a good numbrt of elites on flights it seems. Into SBP its usually me in zone one, and a maybe a few zone 2's.

I'm curious as to what they are doing that allows them to upgrade what appears to be about 110 AC in about 6 months but is a 2-3 year process for 7 332s and 9 333s. Also, IIRC the express retrofit was just announced on the 2010 earnings call which was about three months ago... I find it impressive that this whole thing is taking less than a year when the WB refit is taking years. I understand that the 333s are also getting the 332 seats/IFE system in Y, and that its probably a bit more complicated to outfit the WB ACs. But 110 AC in sixth months suggests something is going on if the limiting factor for the 33Xs is the amount of time in the shop for the overhaul.

Perhaps its a capital budgeting situation?

Maybe. Also remember that the 110 regional jets are spread across three Express carriers (Republic, PSA and Mesa) so they are probably each running retrofit programs themselves and some concurrently. We also know that Envoy upgrades are more complicated, there were some seat hardware availability issues when the A332s were delivered (5 came with suites on delivery from Airbus, two had to be refitted later), and they can't really take more than one A330 out of service at a time without a schedule impact, so they usually do the upgrade when it's scheduled to be in heavy maintenance during the low season.

When I read this post, I thought to myself, "What you are really asking is, 'Will I be flying in Y to Avoca?'" :D

I don't think US flies any of the CR7's or CR9's to AVP, do they?

Nope, they fly a mixture of CRJs operated by Air Wisconsin and Dash-8s operated by Piedmont depending on day of week. I still remember the days when US had a mainline jet into AVP!