g46r

Anyone seen this? Virgin owns the patent. http://blog.apex.aero/cabin-interior...nsity-revenue/

Since AC's 787 cabin is 16 inches narrower than 777, this layout will get 4 J seats abreast on 787.

It does seem a little less private if you're sleeping and the pax sitting upright next to you and slightly behind can easily look at you downwards. Female passengers might particularly dislike this aspect.

RCyyz

Make the walls higher and I think it could work.

KenHamer

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (BlackBerry; U; BlackBerry 9780; en-US) AppleWebKit/534.8+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/6.0.0.448 Mobile Safari/534.8+)

Or use Tuna instead.

global happy traveller

very soon you can squish all the bones together and get a sardine layout

Plumber

This looks very strange to me- the devil is in the details--ie wall height etc

RCyyz

There might be a temptation to make the seats narrower than they already are. This would be a mistake IMHO as AC J pods are already on the narrow side.

Shareholder

Considering the 787 is more akin to the 767, that would be the model for AC's J cabin. However, 787s won't be getting the same J pods as the current fleet. It will be an all new product, likely something like the new OZ, NH or LX semi-cabins. Certainly not like UA's sardine cans: 2-2-2 on the 767 and 2-3-2 on the 777! While the seat width may be wider by a couple of inches from AC's current pod seat, there's next to no privacy or distance at the head end. (CO C seat has more space at this end, similar to the new LH C seat soon to be introduced. And 2-1-2 on the 767 and 2-2-2 on the 777.)

Dorian

Are you writing this from opinion or fact?

WR Cage

See this website for lots of photos on the new Virgin herringbone style seat.
http://www.ausbt.com.au/review-photo...ss-seats-cabin

One word: This is a step down from the current design at AC. Hopefully AC goes with the CX Biz seat for the 787 and new 77Ws.

One photo in the above website has BRA/R (Richard Branson in SMI/J style) in fully reclined seat. Branson's a lot skinnier than me and he looks a little cramped in the photo.


Also the center section is a lot more compact than window seats for the new Virgin Biz seats. Big from me.

Edit to Add: Only way for VS to make the J cabin seem roomy was to remove center section overhead lockers and reduce the size of the side lockers, see this pic:

ThatJohn

Hey there AC folks! Glad you enjoyed that review I wrote for AusBT. To answer your questions:

1) The walls are indeed a bit higher. They're also significantly thinner overall, and especially in the translucent plastic bits.

2) YEG Guy is quite right: the centre section loses around six inches of overall legroom. (Ouch. I seem to have been the first one to spot this during the review.) There's also a slight seat pitch difference of around four inches between centres and windows, which nobody from VS could explain to my satisfaction, but which by the same token I couldn't actually figure out myself. They didn't feel any less wide, but it might have been a slightly different angle.

3) The biggest thing for me is the interesting new structural changes to the seat itself -- I'm writing those up for AusBT next week, so can't say much more here yet, but they're pretty nifty.

4) I really liked the cabin as an improvement over the 346s we get to Australia, but I'd still pick the slightly wider 747 older seats, I think.

5) Don't discount the extra space where you need it that comes from the helix-shaped dividers. It's a big win.

6) There is extra width at bum level, which is noticeable. Where you AC types have a win is the recline -- this is still fold-over style, and there's a bit more recline for day flights but not a lot more.

7) Aw, my little purple carry-on is now officially FlyerTalk famous. ^

Any other questions?

shore9

UA is 2-4-2 in J on the 777. I would rather the old recliner J seats on AC than what UA offers.

g46r

Thanks for the link -

Hmm - such small amount of overhead bin space for increased number of J passengers. VS probably didn't to a thorough job researching the U.S. business travelers. They apparently lack the awareness of the fear and loathing, at times almost pure hatred, of the U.S. business travelers' attitude towards even the remote possibility of having to check their 20" rollers.

I would say it's very big fail. What works in Europe simply doesn't cut it for the U.S.

Mauricio23

Branson is pictured in the old-style J seat. The point is that new ones are more spacious than these.

ThatJohn

I don't disagree with you there. The idea could easily have worked on a 777 with the retractable-style bins, but on an A330 it just doesn't.

In fairness, I poked my nose into the enormous closet space at the front of the cabin, which stretches across basically the whole middle section. I think it's pretty unlikely that anyone will actually have to check their 20" wheeliebags, because they can be stuffed into the cupboard. But that's kind of a bad solution -- and, as I said in the review, it'll be worse in wintertime when everyone's in coats and scarves.

The Lev

Really...
767 interior cabin width: 15' 6" (4.7 m)
330 interior cabin width: 17' 3" (5.28 m)
787 interior cabin width: 18' 0" (5.5 m)
350 interior cabin width: 18' 4" (5.61 m)
777 interior cabin width: 19' 3" (5.86 m)