Jussaflyer

Flying on 80 and 81 in Business in Dec and just received notification of an equipment change to a 772.

Having not flown this configuration before, only ever 4 class 777 (used to be 3), is this a good / bad or indifferent swap. I was thinking with only 37 seats service might be better, but not sure if these are older planes and there might be downsides.

Searched the wiki but could find no recent comparison, but if it was an issue I could change back to the 4 class, assuming it may or may not change later.

Anyone have recent experience?

Thanks

enviroian

Yes

AA DFW-LHR flight delays

Both are great planes but I prefer the 77W seats and the mini J cabin if you can get it (and get there, period).

RichieMc

There are 2 different 777-200ER versions. Both have the same number of seats. One will have the Super Diamond you are used to. The other is the weird backwards/forwards Concept D. The second option is worse. Not sure I’d go changing flights just for that though.

Antarius

The Super Diamond seats on the 772 are not the same as the Cirrus seats on the 77W.

​​​​​​The Super Diamond seats all face forward, but your lower body is stuck underneath the tray table and screen. The 77W Cirrus seats have more single seat structural similarity with the concept D as the monitor pops out and you can prop your legs up.

IMO, the 77W seat is superior to both versions on the 772 and significantly so.

LlamaJesus

I realize this is getting somewhat OT, but is there a reason the 772 and 77W have different J seats? I know they switched away from the Concept D seats on the 772 and 788 because they realized they kind of suck (to put it bluntly), but why did they change it up again on the 77W? Is the 77W just a newer/more refined version of the Super Diamond? Or was it always available but cost more (and thus they didn't want to put it on a "lesser" plane)?

As an aside, I realize it will likely never happen because the benefits (none, as a practical matter) wouldn't outweigh the costs (potentially significant), but oh how I wish they'd at least switch all the Concept D seats to the Super Diamond seats...

ijgordon

Pretty sure the 77W seats pre-date the SuperDiamond, which came in when Zodiac had massive production issues (not to mention the quality). Not really sure why they didn’t go with Cirrus at that point maybe there wasn’t capacity for those either, or possible they would have had to license them from CX? (I may be making that part up lol).

Antarius

The 77W seats do indeed pre date the 772 refurbishment. The 77W joined the fleet under Horton pre bankruptcy in 2013. And yes, you are correct that it was licensed through CX.

The Concept D was in planning stages before the 77W order was made and not certified, so they had to grab something that was available on the market. CX is an alliance partner and has a large 77W fleet, so it made sense to use their seat albeit in different colors. AA then returned to the concept D design which ended up being a disaster from a design and implementation standpoint and a further disaster due to Zodiac having production and quality issues. This finally resulted in them grabbing another off the shelf product (not made by Zodiac) which is the BE Aerospace Super Diamond.

Personally, I would have much preferred the Apex Suite that JL has to the Super
​​​​Diamond. I hate the foot jail.​​​​​

econ

Still one of the best designed J seats out there, IMO.

PDXPremier

I think the folks that should be the most concerned are the passengers in MCE who need to hustle to the "good" seats that are numbered completely differently....like going from 20A to 17A. The three rows of paired seats in the back of the 772 are free to select but they are preferred seats on the 77W....never understood that.​​​​​

RichieMc

Yep. You’re absolutely right. I was conflating the SD and Cirrus.

Antarius

Agree. The new version that CX has on their a350s is even nicer.

It's my favorite J seat. Beats out the trendy call center cubicles that they pass off as suites.

Antarius

Agreed. UA went through the renumbering many years ago to ensure that their fleet had a semblance of consistency between E+, exit row etc. Across types.

Then again, until recently, AA had the 763 that started at row 2, the 737s and MD80s that started at row 3 and the rest of the fleet (including updated 737s) starting at row 1.

So, *shrug*