CO flatbeds deteriorating rather rapidly!
 

This has been my observation the past few times that I flew 772s that were among the earlier ones retrofitted. My friend also happened to mention the same after a EWR-DEL-EWR trip (on both legs) so I thought I'd float the topic here to see what others have experienced. Apologies in advance if this is already being discussed on another thread, I searched but didn't quite find it.

The problem is with the main hinge area between the seatback and the seat cushion. Once the bed is fully flattened out, there is gaping open space between the two pieces. The edges of the foam in the seat have lost their firmness and shape and this results in a very uncomfortable and visible gap. I had to ask for an extra pillow and jam it into that space (it fit quite well!)

Now, I am not sure if this is a result of poor manufacturing and design, or a planned obsolescence feature (with CO aiming to replace the seat cushions every year or so).

Either way, I (and my friend) both found it to be very uncomfortable. Note that this is not an issue with the newer seats, but it is clear that they do deteriorate pretty rapidly. I hope CO fixes these seats, FAST. I also hope that this is not the result of CO skimping on actually investing on good quality materials GM style. We all know how the GM story turned out!

Ps. I don't like beating on CO so here is a positive review. The lamb shank that I had on the outbound leg from EWR to LHR was excellent, better than what I have had in some very nice NYC restaurants. Good job CO chef!

You are complaining about fluff...literally.

CO got you from Point A to Point B, and you were served by the "finest in the business." I don't see the problem.

And if you don't believe channa, smisek will be happy to back him up!

Mike

I think I remember hearing that the deterioration of lie-flat seats is a common problem on Channa's beloved airline.

To answer the *actual* post: no, I haven't found it on recent flights. I do know that foam might compress over time. I'm sure it does on every airline. Certainly if you point it out to an f/a and ask them to write it up it will, or may, get replaced. I'm sure that CO monitors these things and if there's a systemic - read "more than just your flight," or opinion - they'll eventually do something. Likely not fast enough for any of us.

Or, you could just post nasty stuff on flyertalk about CO (or UA) which seems to be all the rage now.

I've found the controls on the lie-flat seats to be many times broken.

Between myself, wife, and parents, we flew on 3 different flights to NRT from EWR. All 3 times, one of us had a "bad" seat where a set of controls did not work. They tried "resetting" it every time with no luck.