Originally Posted by
BBSHOPSINGER
Since these are domestic flights, the seats are almost exactly the same size as 737, where if you sit in a window seat, you will be in exactly the same situation. Are those who are avoiding this plane also completely avoiding 737s? Pretty hard to do on United flying domestically.
Living in Atlanta I have the advantage of getting to often fly Delta's MD-88 and MD-90's with 18 inch seat widths. If I have to fly West Coast in Y I aim to get an MD-88/90 for this reason unless I can expect to get an empty seat next to me. Anything over 2-3 hours I try to avoid 737-x for the seat width issue (and these 777 actually have .1-.2 less than those). There's a huge difference between a 2-3 hour domestic hop and an 8-9 hour marathon. Sitting in a 17" seat means no laptop use (too rude to neighbor).
Different things for different folks. My chest size is 47-48" with shoulders that are 21-22" in width (I am not fat - BMI is ~24 - but 6' 4" with broad shoulders) so the extra width isn't trivial.
I have no problem paying extra for more space, but going from Y to F (or J on int'l) seems excessive in most cases when all I need is an extra inch or two. I happily pay for true premium economy with a 19"+ seat width when it's available. Just frustrating all around (especially in this case as I specifically picked this routing for the 18.3" seats) but I guess this is the way the industry is going and, as others have pointed out, buyers always beware...
Originally Posted by
N104UA
UA only schedules planes a few days out (a week at max) and all the time they change in the time frame. So UA does not have false advertising as they honestly do not know what aircraft will be on that route when you book. As they reconfigure more and more a/c with the 28F config this problem will go away. They did the same thing when they introduced the lie flat on the international fleet starting in 2006, better to upgrade your F/C product than to downgrade it.
If UA would require that the 32F config flew ORD-SFO for a certian flight you may be waiting for a long time until one can naturally cycle through ORD which would cause a delay and make more people upset than someone not getting the 2-5-2 configuration. If you were that upset about the change you could have always contacted UA and asked for a flight change to a 737 on a different nonstop.
Understand the scheduling logistics but let's be careful calling the 8-abreast lie flats an upgrade over the old 7-abreast recliners for some people. My upgrade on my return flight (which still shows the recliners) cleared, and I am ambivalent about whether they do a plane swap to the v5 even though it's a redeye. 19" seat width in J is a joke, which is why I never fly BusinessFirst (err, sorry, Polaris) on a United 777. The old recliners were 7 across with 22" width. No point in lying flat if you can't fit.