787-8 versus 787-9 international business class
I've got reservations on my favorite ANA flights coming up this summer (June & July 2017): NH177 and NH178, between SEA and NRT. Have seats up front in J. I love their 787-800 business class seats (and service) and have flown this aircraft a lot.
Just got notification via email from ANA about an aircraft change. Uh-oh...
It appears it's now on a 787-900. I'm assuming they are just increasing capacity for the summer season.
Should I expect any differences in J on the -900? I'm primarily concerned with seat comfort.
As best I can tell from a quick glance at seatguru (often inaccurate, I know), it appears that the middle seats on the -900s have lost the alternating "throne" seat (one across) - in the -800s, the middle seat section alternated between 2 seats and 1 seat. The seat layout for the 900 shows all rows with 2 seats in the middle, just alternating left/right. So it appears they have made the J cabin more dense (at least in the middle rows). This will be sad for my wife, who loved her "throne".
What seems more odd is that, if seatguru is to be believed (which I question), the measurements on the J seats have changed - and not in the way I would expect if they were increasing density. According to seatguru, here are the 800 and 900 J seat dimensions:
787-800: width 19.4", pitch 44"
787-900: width 21.0", pitch 62"
Hmmm. That seems very unlikely - they have effectively added one more seat across, in the middle (at least in every other row), and yet the width of all seats has increased by 1.5"? That seems impossible, unless they are shrinking the aisle and/or the armrest/console/foot cubby (since the aircraft diameter is the same).
Even more oddly, it says seat pitch has gone up from 44" to a giant 62"? While that would be nice (for me) that just seems highly unlikely if they're increasing density (as they surely are, looking back at the 9-across seats in economy...I bet those cramped seats could use more leg room more than the business class seats really need an extra 22" on top of what they have on the 800s). Hmmm.
Does anyone know the real details of the new J seating in ANA's 787-900?
Thanks.