roknroll

I know that AF is currently upgrading their 747 with a newer affaires product. Are they also changing it to a 2-2-2 configuration in the rear cabin? I booked an award in affaires for Sept 18-27 going SFO-CDG-BCN and back, on 747-400 both ways. The seat map showed a 2-3-2 configuration for both outbound and return, however shortly after booking the SFO-CDG was changed to a 777-200.

Today I was checking the seat map in Expert Flyer and noticed it was a 2-2-2 config. I also logged into Delta (who I booked the award through), who also showed a 2-2-2 seat map. KLM and AF did were the same. For comparisson purposes, I check AF 83 departing in May (SFO-CDG), and it shows a 744 with a 2-3-2 configuration on the seat map.

Is this part of the upgrade process, and if so it seems to be a nice change for those in the center aisle.

747-400 Map on AF Website:



747 Seat Map for AF84 CDG-SFO on 27SEP2012:

brunos

That is indeed surprising. EF probably has access to the same info that gives the seatmap on AF website, so these are not independent confirmations. Probably a bug.

roknroll

What I find most interesting is that 747 flights departing in the next few months show the old seat map, while 747's departing later this year show the 2-2-2. This leads me to think it's more intentional than a bug. I agree, though, that EF is just showing the AF/KLM seat map data, so it isn't an independent observation.

Also noticed the single seat in the front cabin middle is gone.

Zembla

I had that seat once. Felt like I was captain Kirk!

brunos

You mean Jean-Luc Picard?

roknroll

Touché!

airchristophe

Bonjour,

In fact the 744 will receive the new business class seats ...

I too was pleasantly surprised to discover the disappearance of the middle seat in rows 5-6-7 !

J will be consequently 36 seats.

brunos

Hi aircristophe. Do you have private information or just an educated guess? If by new, you mean the latest lightweight version NEV4, there is not reason why it should be 2x2x2 as seats are replaced one for one. Seems extremely unlikely that they will just remove the middle seat and have 2x1x1x2 seating.

Leadership

Confirmed with NEV4 retrofit, 744 will have a 2-2-2 configuration in the second cabin, I know it from internal source.

brunos

Interesting. NEV4 take exactly the same space as previous versions. So what are they going to do in the main cabin, just widen the two aisles? With the disappearance of the middle seat in row 4, that is a loss of 4 seats. Very strange and why, especially no more 4F?

Mokshu

Already mentioned it before Christmas, the retrofit will make 40J396Y -> 36J396Y on 744.

roknroll

Indeed you did! But losing 4 seats in J is not really big news, and doesn't really imply where the seats would be taken from. Losing the middle seat in rows 4-7 is a much bigger change. I do suppose that if you had to guess where the 4 seats would come from, those 4 would make the most sense to remove.

I like that the seat maps have been updated, and seems that will be a good indicator of whetehr or not you'll be on the upgraded 744 or not.

At first it didn't make sense to me why they would remove 4 seats from J that result in no gain elsewhere. But new seats are expensive so they'll save some $ there. And with the 744s nearing retirement, it makes sense that they put less investment into the upgrade. The cabin is probably rarely full, so why spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on putting in the 4 extra seats?

AF744garbage

AF 744s are to get tvs on each seat its real garbage compare to QF, CX, BA, VS, SQ, NZ, KE and KL.

stimpy

I haven't flown the AF 747 in years. Is 1A a good seat?

Goldorak

Personally, I prefer rows 2 or 3. Row 1 is to close too the front wall/closet IMO.