JDiver

[Im hoping some of our members will recently have flown, or will soon fly, the Bummer Bee, so we can have some seat and cabin data in our threads for these new aircraft. (In the post-737-823 end, probably one thread for F/D and another for MC and MCE will suffice.)

Guide: AA Boeing 737 MAX 8 / 7M8 First / Business Seats, Etc. now that it is in service (entered Service November 2017).

and Guide: AA Boeing 737 MAX 8 / 7M8 Main Cabin, MCE Seats, Etc..

If y’all have, we’d love to read your comments.

AANYC1981

I agree with these LAA FA's: https://viewfromthewing.boardingarea...ment-bad-idea/

Ber2dca

Looking at the F cabin on this plane..if they plan to make that the standard then you can bet it will be Euro business sooner rather than later for most flights other than premium transcon routes. The seats are basically Y seats with more width and more pitch, which of course means they're superior to the current J offering in European short-haul, but also it signifies a departure from the concept of a higher quality, premium seat itself in F. The mentality behind that will lead straight to Euro business.

DatBoi

schertz

It isn’t about the auto upgrades. It is about the revenue management. What price point and what market for F. AA is behind the curve here, but improving. And EU/UK don’t do upgrades and their F is in name only.

Unfortunately I think that with the densification of Y the old standard Horton AA 24-F standard (757) could be sold with competent IT/management and still give out upgrades to entice top elites. This seems to be Wall Street — look how Kirby’s sharp and overdue expansion plans at UA have been savaged by the Street...they want seat growth without additional airframes...so we get densification. The folly here is that 32-34” MCE is a compelling buy-up or that 36” F with a snack basket and surly service is worth a double buy-up (or triple from BE). If you segment, it can’t be uniformly downwards.

DatBoi

CLT

[<redacted>

????

While I agree I really find his voice to be somewhat juvenile, the current VPAs in use were in place before US/AA were one airline (I recall seeing the same VPAs in the Summer of 2015-they replaced the VPAs featuring AA employees during this time...) and I highly doubt that DP or US had anything to do with selecting the voice over artist.

And it wasn't like AA's prerecording announcements were better...I recall the post-landing video that AA had where some woman loudly announced "We know you're ready to be on your way....we look forward to flying with you again soon" to be similarly distasteful.
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On an unrelated note, I flew CLT-JFK-CLT last week-with all flights operated by an "first generation" LAA 738-it simply had drop down LCDs and the standard Boeing 737 NG interior.

I was seated in Y, and I was surprised to see how many people were actually viewing the IFE. On the return leg, we were delayed because another passenger seemed to steal another passenger's iPad, and the #2 FA went through the Y cabin offering headphones for the IFE, and she ran out...twice. She kept having to run back to the rear galley to get another baggie of them. Again, when I went to the lavatory midflight the vast majority of pax seemed to be viewing the dropdown monitors.

JDiver

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AANYC1981

Just flew 2 DL 739's in FC and it seems like AA is just copying the bathrooms that DL has on their 739s......the sink was so tiny and looked just like the ones on these new AA 73M's.

cmd320

Yep, the Delta 739s have been very well hated ever since they came out. Absolutely terrible, even in F.

iahphx

There seems to be extraordinary interest amongst bloggers and reporters about (among all things) the lavs on the new AA 737 MAX 8's. All of the stories suggest that these lavs present a truly miserable experience. I haven't flown the new AA aircraft yet, but I've flown the MAX on other airlines (including WN) and I've encountered a noticeably smaller lav. Are these the exact same lavs as on the new AA aircraft?

I do not recall my lav experience on the WN Max aircraft to be "horrible." I recall noticing that the lav was smaller, and that was about it. About the level of mild annoyance I get when I encounter a regular public restroom that has only an old fashioned hand dryer and not paper towels. In other words, a petty annoyance that doesn't influence my purchasing decisions. Like I don't avoid restaurants that have hand dryers and not paper towels. Is this a correct assessment of the impact of smaller aircraft lavs?

A more significant problem, I would think, (and not one much discussed) is the fact that the AA MAX aircraft reportedly have only 2 lavs in the back. That's not a lot of lavs for the number of pax, and I could easily imagine significant bathroom lines on longer flights (at least on WN, all pax can use the third forward lav). Seems to me that the "correct number" of coach lavs on this aircraft would be three. Again, I don't think this is anywhere near significant enough to avoid flying these aircraft, but I suspect the number of lavs is going to be more of an annoyance than the size of the lavs.

IADCAflyer

The lack of MCE seats (30 out of 150) and 33" pitch in MCE is enough for me to want to avoid these "hell ships".

iahphx

Is that really a terrible percentage for MCE? I suppose it depends on how elite-heavy your typical routes are.

And 33" in MCE doesn't seem particularly problematic to me -- especially since, I assume, they've limited recline to a reasonable level given the tightness of the configuration. Like the other day, I was flying an old AA 767-300 (only 21 MCE seats!) and I was seated in regular coach because I couldn't get enough contiguous MCE for my family. The pitch was fine, until this small woman in front of me put her seat all the way back on my daytime flight. That seat back must have gone back about 6 inches, with the top of her seat actually overhanging the bottom cushion of my seat. Use your imagination to envision that "pretzel seating"! Honestly, given that the new MAX seats are designed for current aircraft configurations, I think 33" pitch won't be "hell ships" at all. No paradise, of course (especially since they are slimline), but not a material deterioration in current coach cabin comfort.

IADCAflyer

The regular 738s show 30 seats out of 144 and 34-40 inch pitch.

iahphx

Personally, I'll take all the pitch I can get (thank you, exit row seating), but honestly I would never pay for anything more than 34 inches (assuming the recline from the seat in front of me isn't "nuts"). You can probably shrink that by an inch when you're talking about slimline seats (remember, it's measuring the distance between a certain point on one seat with the same point on the seat behind it, not actual legroom that's being measured). Which is why average pitch is going to decline with slimline sets.