texas gold

Now that CO has installed the new flatbeds on the 772 fleet, what is going to happen to the new fleet configuration of United's 772 fleet?

They just started a renewal, but their C class configuration is 2-4-2 and CO's is a much improved 2-2-2. I see this as a major step back, although they were already 2-3-2 to start with.

I don't think they have more than a few birds with this unfriendly configuration, so I'm hoping that they will move towards the CO configuration.

Any thoughts?

BF263533

I checked seat guru, and it did show the 8 across. Does anyone have photos of the UA 8 across?

Seven across is bad if you get stuck in the middle. I have flown ANA with a travelling companion and the 2 seats near the window was fine, and none of the center seats were taken.

But I flew Emirates when downgraded from the A380, and got stuck in a center seat, and the worst business flight ever.

Legend717

The problem is that Continental markets its product (whether we agree with it or not) as BusinessFIRST. The product HAS (er, HAD) to be better than other carriers' business products. Hence the 767 is 2-1-2 while Delta and AA and UA are 2-2-2. CO's 777 has always been 2-2-2, while most three-class carriers were 2-3-2.

So, it not really a fair comparison to say that UA's C 2-4-2 is inferior to CO's, because CO was trying to position their product as BETTER than UA's C. Not as good as UA's F, but better than C.

As far as where it ends up, it will depend on one things alone (in my estimation): whether the new UA ends up with three class 777s, or two.
IF they take out F, I suspect they will go to a 2-2-2 BizFirst type arrangement.
IF they standardize the 777 fleet on three classes, including F, I suspect CO's will be retrofitted to 2-4-2.

But, they might just keep them as they are, and have subfleets- UA's birds where the market demands a true F product, and CO's birds otherwise.

Only time will tell; it took us this long to figure out that they'll keep Y+!!

sbm12

So why is it not fair? If CO meant the product to be better and succeeded in that then stating that seems quite fair.

rankourabu

Wasnt it BusinessFirst when the seats were crappy too?

I like how now that CO has new seats all of a sudden, its a hybrid class, forgetting that not long ago, this supposed better business class had the same name and was flying around with old school recliners.....

UA's old 777s are crap for longhauls. The retrofit is very welcomed even if very slow going.

DLPhoenix

I wouldn't call this configuration "unfriendly". I always wonder why BA gets rave reviews with (a very good) 2-4-2 configuration in J while the UA configuration is criticized.
Having flown both CO and UA (UA new J on 744) I find both hard products excellent. (As far as soft product - matching the service standards of UA/CO J with those of KE Y will be a significant upgrade).

IMHO they should keep the UA configuration on 3 class airplanes and the CO configuration on 2 class ones. As long as they replace all the cradle seats with flat beds - I am happy.

DLP

Steve M

It's been BusinessFirst since the product was introduced some 20 years ago. Back then, the story was the same: better than most competitors' business class for the same price. 20 years, ago, standard int'l business class was not much better than domestic F: a wider seat, with more recline, but not even what I'd call a "recliner" seat. So the original BF recliner seat, which by today's standard is "old school", was revolutionary in business class. Then, as most carriers adopted similar seating, CO went to the "flat but at an angle" seat in BF. Then, as other carriers also adopted that, and some even went to flat and level, BF was upgraded to flat and level.

texas gold

As I understand, BA'c configuration is a hearing bone that also offers reverse seating and staging so the two seat in the middle are more connected and the the two aisle seats are reversed to allow easier entry-exit as well as privacy.

UA on the other hand has four seats in a row all facing the same direction, which means that there are two seats with passengers directly on each side. The new UA economy only has three.

I think that despite the dedicated four class routes, the new United should dump their reconfiguration plans and make C class the new Business First with 2-2-2 and pump up 1st for the markets that need it.

I for one would not want to pay to sit in C on a four class bird and get one of the middle seats in the new cabin configuration.

ijgordon

It's like banging your head against a brick wall with some of these folks.

IAH-OIL-TRASH

The UA 777 2-4-2 is a sardine can. There is no good seat. It is an INFERIOR PRODUCT relative to CO's BF. If you have to fly UA in business, the 763s are much better, but still an INFERIOR PRODUCT to CO's BF. I'm relatively thin and I find the UA seats a bit tight. If you're portly, you'll want the CO seat.

DLPhoenix

I recommend you try it, i would chose a 2-4-2 with 20" flat beds over a 22" wide slanted lie flat on any flight longer than 3 hours.

CO's BF is better, but I had no issues with the UA configuration and I could lose (quite a) few pounds.
Happy travels
DLP

st530

Although I'd already flown CO's flat-bed 772s quite a few times before, I got an opportunity to compare the new CO and UA products back-to-back on IAH-NRT-ICN-SFO-IAH last week (IAH-NRT on CO 772, NRT-ICN on UA 772--with new configuration and CO colors, btw--and ICN-SFO on UA 744). I think the CO seat is definitely superior but the UA seat compares quite favorably, and the UA IFE is marginally better as the screen appears a bit larger than CO's (unless it was my imagination). CO's food, both in quality and quantity, blows UA away (this is the most "First" part of CO's BusinessFirst), although I very much like how UA describes the wines in its C menus (CO refuses to do this for reasons that escape me, preferring to let its flight attendants stumble through by reading the labels). To be fair, on both UA flights I was on the 2 part of the configuration, so cannot describe the experience of being on any of the middle seats in the 4 configuration. But then I am generally miserable without an aisle seat, so being stuck in the middle of a 4 configuration doesn't sound any worse to me than being in a window on a 2 configuration. In any event, the UA passengers in the middle seats on the 4 configuration looked quite comfortable and content.

SEA1K4EVR

Agree completely, including the part about UA's wine descriptions.

cbechdel

I guess you can't print menus when you go to Publix (or albertsons, or giant eagle) and just buy what ya find on sale!

sbm12

And on which aircraft configuration would you find those 22" sloped seats?