Originally Posted by
ijgordon
I assure you that BusinessFirst has been around longer than 9 years. @:-)
In its earlier days, international F was typically a 60-62" pitch recliner seat. And not just on AA/UA. Int'l J was 45-50" pitch. CO's seat was right in the middle in terms of pitch and the width was identical to the F products (I.e., 2-1-2 on 767 and 2-2-2 on DC-10/777). And the 5 course meal with many elements served from a trolley was more similar to F than J on competitors, and the ratio of FAs to passengers was in between. CO BF has remained remarkably consistent over the years (IMO), and just because the competitive landscape has changed doesn't mean they have to rebrand their product; that would be a stupid business decision in some ways.
? United offered fully flat 180 beds for nearly a decade before CO did. Admittedly yes, the hard products were closer before UA started installing F suites/pods, but from 1999 until 2008, CO BF was undeniably less F-like, and much more C-like.
And lets not discount the fact that in the 90s, the soft product in UA F was far superior to to what it is today - Dom, caviar, even a mattress pad ffor the newly unveiled F suites. CO BF has never, at any point since its inception in the early 90s, had a superior soft product than the best of what UA had offered (3 class F-cabin). Even today that still stands true. For all the ragging on F that goes on on online communities, the food is still better than CO BF. The seat is still larger, there is still more privacy, better service ratios.
And remember, the 90s UA was larger and had more employees than both the current CO and UA put together today.