Originally Posted by
TheMoose
You're comparing a first class suite to a business class seat? Please. How many of DL's ubiquitous recliners do you think they would have "crammed" in there if DL had 747s before the merger?
Nobody is comparing a first class suite to a business class seat. Folks are comparing the VS business class seat to the DL business class seat used on the 777LR. The seats are so close that VS sued Contour for patent infringement! So, ummm, I think the best guess as to what DL would have "crammed" in there would be to look at a carrier that has pretty much the same seat installed in the nose of a 747...
Under an optimal scenario, they should be able fit an additional 2 or maybe 4 seats into the nose, where VS puts the bar. They may also be able to squeeze in an additional 2 by fiddling with the spacing. On the upper deck, it looks like CX manages 22, so DL should be able to do the same. The second section of the lower deck handles 24 seats on CX, so that should put the total somewhere between 62 and 66 using the Contour seats, though this will require rejiggering the galleys and lavs, too.
At the end of the day, there is no reason why DL can't use the same seating and retain the densities needed for those exceedingly "valuable" MSP/DTW-NRT runs...