Boeing 737-8 (7M8) interior information (seats, IFE, overhead bins, etc)
 

So I'm flying one of these beauties tonight. Why do people not like the J bulkhead? I have the choice between 1D and 3F. Currently in 1D as I prefer aisle.

Still no wifi?

I am also following the developments of the Lion Air investigation. Provides a lot of confidence in the airframe...

1D is my favorite. FIN 501 is enabled. The remaining 7M8s are scheduled.

Less leg room, same as any bulkhead row. I generally prefer aisles, but would probably take a window to avoid the bulkhead. But I'm 6'4", so the leg room really matters to me.

To me it's a matter of just how much less leg room. On an A320 on the A/C side I find the bulkhead row sucks however on a A319, there's lots of leg room on the A/C side bulkhead.
I ended up taking 1C for a seat swapper. Noticed that in 1D the IFE screen is centered on the seat, in 1C it's offset. Leg room was acceptable for me, but I'm more like 5'9.

Flew AC860 YHZ - LHR in PY. I really don't like this plane. Feels cramped. Lavs are small (and I'm fairly short and small). It would be ok for a 1-2 hours flight but a 5+ hours flight: no way.

Flew this aircraft on AC861 (LHR-YHZ) and then AC615 (YHZ-YYZ) this past Friday in economy (seat 19C).

Seatback IFE:

• IFE is good in general (large screen, responsive touch) but many things just don't work right yet. Some of these non-working features probably depend on wifi (eg info on weather, connecting flights status); some are just straight-up defects (change the interface language to German or Japanese and see half the text still in English; "About this 737" information is missing; information on AC comfort fares and signature service is reversed).
• The moving map is perhaps more visually attractive then on the 777/787, but has less inflight nerdery available (eg units in nm/knots, airspeed, climb rate, etc).
• You have to watch something like 10 ads before a viewing a feature movie, which is abhorrent. You can skip them after the first 10 seconds, but after skipping about 7 or 8, I'd lost the desire to watch a film and went back to watching biathlon footage on my phone. Even worse is that you couldn't quit out of the movie interface and go do something else instead.
• On the other hand, it has Angry Birds, which I confessedly killed several hours playing.

Seating & such

• Legroom is quite good...given that I was sitting in 19C, an exit row. :D
• The ordinary preferred seats, although less roomy than the exit row, were also quite good in terms of legroom.
• No promises about legroom in the ordinary non-preferred Economy seats; I didn't get a chance to check them out.
• Width-wise, the seats are actually not uncomfortable; they are definitely better in this regard than the Y seats in the 777/787. That said, the stated 18" width seems to have come from shaving down the width of the armrests and possibly also the aisle.
• Seat cushions are a bit on the firm side, definitely getting uncomfortable after the 5th or 6th hour.
• Seatbelts are a good length; pax who just barely need a seatbelt extender on other AC acft won't need it on this one.
• Shoulder room still sucks, regardless whether you're in an aisle or a window seat.
• A good amount of at-seat power, even in Y -- a USB port at every seat, plus another USB & 120V outlet between each pair of seats. Also the USB ports seem to be at least 2.0A; they charged my phone much more quickly than the (presumably 1.0A) ports on other aircraft.

Washrooms

• The lavs are tiny, as promised. You can barely turn around; I've seen urinal stalls that are larger.
• Very gentle pressure on the tap is key if you wish to avoid taking an involuntary shower.
• There seemed to be constant lines for the lavs on these very full flights as well.
• All in all, definitely a plane to avoid much liquid intake on.
• The galley is also small and not very private for flt crew. I can't imagine the FAs are big fans of these at all.

Final verdict: would I fly on these again? I wouldn't go out of my way to book on them or to avoid them. I find them marginally more comfortable than most Y seats on the 777/787, though the miserable lavs are a definite trade-off. For domestic routes I wouldn't call them either better or worse than the current A320 and Embraer family equipment, just different. That's my assessment on the basis of things that are important to me, though; for different flyers, YMMV.

None of which answers the MCAS issue, which is still to be resolved and at this point is my main concern.

I am but a humble passenger, not an avionics engineer. I can only give an assessment on the things I've observed.

Other than those who might have an inside track on such things, I suspect all that most of us can do to learn more about the MCAS situation is to watch the media and see what story pops out next.

I believe the J seats are sold as premium economy on overseas flights.

Oh right, forgot about that. The seatmap on ac.com simply shows them as "J" without any footnote or remark regarding TATL sold as O.

737 - Max 8 J class worth it? YVR - HNL
 

Hi fellow FTers!

I just had a quick question and not too sure whether this would go into the 7M8 forum or not cause it's pertaining to a specific situation.

I am going to Honolulu for my reading week (yes, I go to university and we have a 'spring break' for some much needed relaxation in February haha). There's a lot of J class availability on this particular flight (AC517 departing February 18, 2019) and I wanted to hear thoughts on whether the narrow body J class is worth the bid upgrade.

This is the current fare availability from EF for anyone curious: :)
J4 C4 D4 Z4 P3 R3 Y8 B8 M8 U8 H8 Q8V8 W8 G8 S8 T0 L3 A0 K0

One word, YES

J4 is not a lot of availability. Two couples could book and its gone.
Whether its worth it only you can decide. What is the bid upgrade at right now ? This is a daytime flight with no lie flat beds. So you are paying for a better seat and nicer meals/drinks/service.

Just did this flight last week. J is not worth it, especially row 1.