Originally Posted by
phkc070408
Does anyone know how long the 78Js will be on the EWR-LAX route for?
I ask because we are looking to book a OW LAX-EWR in late August. We would really like to try the 78J on the 9:15pm departure, UA1882. The problem is we will be making a few other sacrafices on our trip to be able to get on this particular flight and I would really hate to book this flight and have an equipment change before August. The following thoughts come to mind:
1. This flight is 7 months out and a lot can change between now and then.
2. While new aircraft fly domestic for the first couple of months, I would imaging the bugs would be out of them by August and they will all be in international service by then.
3. Even if there is a schedule change if they swap the equipment, I feel I would have a hard time convincing an agent to move us to the flight that works the best for us time wise, the 12:15am departure, since we would not be switching to another 78J.
4. Fear that it would be swapped to the domestic 777, the new ghetto-bird, which I really do not want to fly in for our first flight in 3 years. (Note: I don't mind the 752s and while not perfectly ideal, I could live with the 9:15pm departure as a 752 if I had to).
UA is planning 2 78J flight every day on EWR-LAX this summer, except for the Saturday night early redeye eastbound (9:15pm) and Sunday morning early AM westbound return (7:00am). The 8:15am eastbound and 4:00pm westbound run daily. Even though schedules are subject to change, I would feel pretty confident with this plan, and further, that any swap would be to another 787 or a 757, rather than 77G. The 77G is pretty heavily scheduled this summer, with daily OGG-DEN/ORD, 3x SFO-HNL, 3x EWR-SFO and a bunch of domestic flying that wasn't in the schedule last year. There's already an existing 77G on EWR-LAX-EWR, so the airplane would have to come off another route (already for sale) in order to replace the 78J.
If you're very concerned about it, I'd wait a few months until schedules finalize, and then book. But at this point, I wouldn't book away from the 78J solely for fear of a 77G swap.
Originally Posted by
Kacee
KrisWorld is fantastic. 18" HD screen is better than UA, too.
FWIW, the screens on the 78J are HD, too. I believe the Polaris seat can only accommodate a 16" screen, though.
Not passing judgment on which is better... just relaying some broad specs.
Without having flown it yet, give me a few weeks, especially now that it's on EWR-LAX every day, I think it's fair to expect this to be the best IFE suite (latest-generation Panasonic eX3) UA has installed.