rhysflies

I did Y to Singapore on a BA 787 last year. I was in a middle seat, and it was horrendous. Recommend against it!

flatlander

787 economy is not a great experience if you are average or above size (and not even fat).

Personally I recommend the window seat because you can set yourself in the seat with your shoulder against the side of the aircraft rather than being pushed from both sides.

Being by the aisle only works if you dodge every trolley (including from behind) and don't mind being bumped by people coming up the aisle behind you.

Never middle. Never, never.

Magic01273

I walked through a packed 787 Y cabin once and no joke...it actually made me feel physically sick.

vsadda

Next time you venture into the 787 Y cabin, I hope you will remember to take your air sickness bag with you, for the sake of those poor folks actually sitting in that cabin.

Freddorick

I flew SCL-LHR in Y on a 787 recently. I dreaded the flight, but I booked the day before departure and this was by far the most reasonable and fastest option. Y+ and J were full on this flight but Y was reasonably empty. They were still selling F at 10K oneway but I found this a bit steep.

It honestly wasn’t that bad, it got me where I wanted to go in a reasonably quick time. My wife and I managed to get a free middle seat. Spent most of the flight working and dozed off for a few hours in the end. The seat is not more or less uncomfortable than any other long haul economy seat.

Magic01273

I can assure you - there won't be a "next time".

skipness1E

It's an appaling experience due to the IFE box under the seat eating into the already appaling legroom.

Confus

One thing that hasn’t been mentioned yet… not all 787s are equal. For BA the 788 came first and is indeed horrific. But even they realised, and made the aisles slightly narrower on 789 (and later 781) for the seats to be ever so slightly bigger. So it may be worth making a decision based on variant, rather than type alone.

fwiw, I’m with the ‘I’d rather not but plenty of people survive and I would too’ brigade. I’m fortunate enough to be able to avoid it, but I’d absolutely do it if I had to.

IntVic

I will never forget the distorted faces of the tortured and suffering in a full Y cabin on the overnight ATL-LHR in 2018.
From what I witnessed on that flight, I vowed that I would never fly in that cabin on that aircraft.
I have many failings and have made many mistakes, but I don't believe I have committed any sins worthy of such punishment.
Hyperbole?
Of course, but for any TATL flight, if I cannot fly premium economy or above then I choose not to fly.

Icyflyer

I’ve flown 11hrs twice, daytime and overnight on the 788. Both times in the exit/baby rows (I’m 6’2” and neither lanky nor broad), with an average person next to me.

It was comfortable, even with (I assume) even narrower seats because of the IFE/tray table pullout. Like any long flight, make sure you get up and walk up and down the aisles every hour or so and do some stretches - makes a world of difference. I slept well on the overnight flight.

edit: flying long haul in Y is always uncomfortable to some degree, but I can’t say it’s any worse than flights I’ve had with EK, QR, LH, VS and BA on 777/ A350/A380/747/787.

ScienceTeacher

I did a day trip in Y to Chicago a few weeks ago. Landed circa 1pm and took off again at 8pm.

Perfectly doable with a seat block beside you; otherwise it’ll be a painful ride!

MeltingAlf

Unfortunately the premise of your reply is faulty and is based on something totally different from what the OP was asking — it isn't whether one could survive economy on a 787 (obviously one can as you have mentioned), but whether he should try to brave economy on a 787.

And I don't think it's hard to admit that he should not, even if he could practically do it. There's really not many reasons to put oneself in 9-abreast 787 if a 9-abreast A350 or a 9-abreast 777 option existed. Or even a typical A320 series or B767 or A380 exist. The seat width on a 9-abreast 787 is objectively smaller than even the narrowbodies, and subjectively woefully tight. Unless OP has time constraints or route constraints (which is again, I believe tangential to the topic at hand), I don't think it's anywhere a weird opinion for people to express that 9-abreast 787 economy should be avoided where possible.

CKBA

Perhaps money is a possible constraint? Many times the cost of WT+ (yet alone CW or F) are just prohibitive. Unfortunately I'm a miser and think "for the price difference it's a holiday... iphone... ... etc.

PETER01

An older thread (was that really 7 years ago ) and a mini trip report by corporate-wage-slave which makes very interesting reading! (It's on a 787 in Y!)

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/26179235-post480.html

MeltingAlf

As a relative miser myself, I'd rather take the extra time to avoid the 787, whilst sitting at the back of the bus, and most of the time it doesn't cost more if at the expense of time. But fortunately for me my routes are either mostly intra-Europe, or LHR-SIN, so I can easily avoid the woes of having to fly on an 787.

The only time I had 9-abreast economy on a 787 was on the Ethiopian OSL-ARN fifth freedom route, which was so uncomfortable I swore off it. Even a narrowbody would have been so much more comfortable in comparison.