Premier Al

I wanted to weigh in after flying last week on one of F9's newly reconfigured interiors, complete with the new leather seats! There was alot of concern on a previous thread about how F9 was "reducing seat pitch", and how awful F9's cabin would be with these new seats.

Happily, as far as I am concerned, the new leather seating is an improvement, even over F9's very comfortable older seats. True, they are a bit thinner, and seat pitch is a bit closer. But the important thing is that a person can fully recline with a minimum of impact on the person behind. Personally, I did not notice any reduction in space when compared to the older seats. And as an aside to the UA fans, these new leather seats seem fine to me, even without the superfluous difference in pitch when compared to E+.

Another nice detail is that the card slot for TV allows a full downward swipe of the card, rather than the "up and down" card dance that was often required to activate the TV on the old seats.

Bottom line, the new leather seats are very nice, and F9's cabin is still a very comfortable coach class cabin.

zdave

What row were you sitting in? When I was on one of the planes with the new seats, it seemed that forward of the exit row looked roomier than behind. I thought the seats were fine as well. They definitely are thinner, but no less comfortable.

JaggedMind

I had my first experience with the new seats last night. I didn't get a chance to catch the tail number, but I believe it was N812FR, Griz's new brother. There was only 19 rows, just like the other 318s (I was in a 19 aisle). I thought there was supposed to be an extra row. Maybe that configuration won't work in the 318s or this plane was delivered with the new seats before they realized an extra row can be squeezed in. I'm thinking it is the latter since it seemed roomier than usual in the legroom.

My observations:

- Very comfortable. Seemed to mold to my body better than the old seats. The headrest does a better cradling job when extended.

- Don't know about recline since I was in the last row and the passenger in front of me didn't bother to recline.

- It seemed like the aisle is skinnier. Using my rollaboard as a guide, the width is 17" to 17.5".

- The IFE under-seat box has been moved from the middle seat, tapered and forward of the seat to a square box to the rear of the aisle seat (and it looks like a small tab protruding into the middle seat). Before I could put my laptop bag and camera bag together under the seat, even in the middle. Now only the laptop bag fits in my preferred aisle seats.

- Much more professional looking style with an IFE that doesn't look like a last-minute hack.

DenverF9Flier

Since the exit row itself can't be moved, it would make sense that the seats behind the exit would have less pitch, since that's where they were rumored to be adding the extra row.

I agree that the new seats were quote comfy - and definately make the planes look nice. I have flown in a couple F9 aircraft over the last few months where the interiors were really starting to show their age - especially in the seat-back-pocket area, which seems to get the most abuse - in terms of ripped or seperated fabric. The new interiors will give "brand-new" look back to Frontier. Has anyone spotted them in a 319 yet? I have only seen them on the 318's.

sparky81

I will try and find the source, but the new seats are apparently being installed in two phases. First is simply a one to one replacement with the new leather seats. Since they are thinner than the old ones they actually have given an increase in seat pitch. Phase two will be the addition of four more seats per aircraft. Rumor has it that there was a problem of not having enough extra overhead units (air vents, oxygen masks, etc) and that is why the extra row hasn't been added yet.

Just remember, when you get on a plane with the new seats, don't look down. Most of the carpets have NOT been replaced and some, especially the 319s with the new seats look terrible. The 318s are hit and miss, as some are pretty darned new. Hopefully the carpets will be swapped out when the extra row is added.

Premier Al

Row 4.

C17PSGR

I just took a flight in a 319 with the new seats. The seats look nice and seem comfy although clearly thinner. Aisle is narrower because middle seat is wider. Pitch looks a little shorter but can't say for certain. There is an additional row.

The big loss, however is in the exit row. There are now two exit rows - 10 and 11. There is no extra leg room and row 10 does not recline. So, the only seats in the exit row worth sitting on are 11A and 11F. Unfortunately, I put myself in 10D which has normal legroom, does not recline and seems to pitch forward in the back when compared to other rows.

I've been doing more flying on F9 rather than AA because of ability to get rows 10 which are nice seats. I'm going to rethink this since there's now only two seats on the plane with room to work.

DenverF9Flier

Terrible news indeed, I have been flying 10D almost exclusively for the past two years and greatly enjoyed the legroom. I'm curious how the new exit rows can't have any extra room, don't you have to make the space in front of them wider so that passangers can exit? Or is it because now that there are two rows that you can squeeze people through rather than one, the pitch issue is eliminated?

I'm assuming that the new config puts 2 seats on each side of Row 10, with an empty space where 10 A/F would be, which is why you said 11A/F are the new best seats?

Any idea how we can determine what A/C are going to have the new seats? I've got 5 people booked in row 10 for a flight to Mexico this January, it would be a real shock to show up and find that our once-great seats have dissapeared, and one of us has been shoved elsewhere.

C17PSGR

Row 10 now has 10 BCDE, no A or F. Row 11 has all the seats but there is nothing in front of A and F. Long way, by the way, to the TV screen. The room between 9 and 10, and between 11 BCDE and 10, is no better than the rest of the aircraft. Row 10 is the pits, since the seats don't recline and seem to tilt forward.

Pretty disappointing last night to see the new seats, then look at 10D and see no legroom and no recline. On top of that, the folks in 11 A and F clearly had never even flown F9 before.

In terms of how to know ... the FA said there were only a couple of these right now. She checked and said there are 23 rows in the new configuration instead of 22 in the old configuration. Not sure if you can see that from the seating chart or not.

cs19

Wow. Myself +1 are going to Mexico in January as well. Booked into 10B and C specifically for the leg room.

It seems to me you cannot dummy book far enough to get to the point where you choose your seats, is that correct? I was trying to dummy book my flight to see the seat layout.

It does sound like 10A/F are removed (I've seen this on other airlines with the A319 or 320). For 11 A/F do they have a TV? Is it in the armrest or are they expected to look two rows ahead at the back of 9A/F ??

So if they added a row, but took out 10A/F that's a net addition of 4 seats. I hope they enjoy the extra profit from those four seats, seeing as it is coming at the expense of tall folks like me who prefer the exit row.

EDIT: Looks like most of my questions were answered while I typed my post.

New question: Do 10A/F have a slim seat cushion, or are they full blown seats? It's a tossup for the extra leg room versus having to watch the same thing as the person in 10B/E.

C17PSGR

Its 11 A/F. It looked like a normal seat but you did need to watch the screen in 9 A/F

In terms of finding out which version of the plane, I'm a little skeptical of finding out before you hit the gate. They could have (a) decided which routes get the new seats significantly in advance or (b) wing it at the gate by asking 10 A and F to come forward for reassignment.

I know there weren't two exit rows on the seating chart when I selected my seat or I would have figured out something was wrong (for example AA's 737's have exit rows 13 and 14, and 13 should be avoided). Plus, the guy in 11F commented he had never flown F9 before (although the FA's assumed he was Ascent or Summit because he had that seat). So ... I'm assuming they were winging it on the plane assignment meaning there's no way to tell. On the other hand, there are only a couple of the planes which have been reconfigured for now so your chances are fairly low. It will be more problematic once the fleet gets closer to 50 50.

xtacy8one

I flew the new seats on a LAS-MEM-DEN run 2 weeks ago and loved the new seats. Row 3 and Row 7 Windows.

The seat pitch seemed close to E+ on United. I never travel in the back but it did look like they were closer together as before.

JaggedMind

Flew on N905FR "Sherman" last night and it was the leather seats. No extra row, just the one exit row and I counted back to 22.

Loved the comfort once more, but I again got screwed on the under-seat stowage in my favored aisle.