Idk. I'd rather the pilots get all the rest they need. Much better to arrive at your destination in one piece w/o an upgrade to GF than to die in a plane crash b/c the pilot didn't get enough sleep.

Hello - they have their own bunks!

As mentioned earlier on the thread, not on all planes.

never mind

I am all for safety and pilots getting adequate rest. Point is that they end up selecting the absolute best seats in the cabin, the ones that frequent flyers (no I am not talking about upgrades, or free tickets) tend to covet b/c of privacy and less noise from the galley. if two seats are now required, then why not take the two seats in the middle of a 777 and haul the curtains around the whole area. this has nothing to do with entitlement -- but somehow customer feedback should also matter. but i get it --- hey, here's a suggestion. give them business class flat-bed seats and closeup the whole 4 middle section.

Don't you think UA and the pilots both know which seats are the best? Do you really think UA said "hmmm we have to give the pilots two GF seats, lets give them the best seats out of the kindness of our hearts and screw the passengers who desire those seats?"

I am sure the pilot's union negotiated these seats specifically.

While I agree with the sentiment that two seats when only one is needed is excessive; I think the ideas you are alluding to are underdeveloped.

I'll get some clarification on this point, but my understanding is only 2A is held for pilot rest on the 777, even on the longest segments like IAD-PEK or the upcoming ORD-HKG.

The issue with the 2 seats seems to be limited to the 757 (or longer n/b duty days) where the rest seat and the adjacent seat are blocked to give the crewmember unrestricted/undisturbed aisle access.

I believe what you will find is that there are a few pmUA 777s without crew bunks. They are not often used on the 12+ hour flights that require four crew members, but when they do, two seats (2A and 2K) must be blocked. Except for take-off and landing when all four are in the cockpit, they rotate two up front, and two on rest.

I was on one such flight PEK-IAD a few months ago. It was a last-minute substitution, and the purser told me they had to downgrade someone who had been previously been upgraded to give them the 2nd crew rest seat.

It seems like 6A/6B on reconfigured sUA 777 are also blocked until few days before flight. In fact, I was on LAX-NRT last December, and I saw pilot rested on 6A/6B while all 8 F seats were taken by passengers. I always thought that pilot takes 2A or 2K on rest if no crew bunks on sUA 777.

Your explanation is the correct one.

but yet, prior to the new contract, the sCO planes still flew safe and on-time. Just a BS move on this contract along with the First Class seats for training.

777-200 single augmented (3 pilot crew) requires a bunk AND one premium break seat in cabin (J or higher) OR IPP in the bunk area OR IPP in the cabin.

777-200 double augmented (4 pilot crew) requires two bunks AND one premium break seat seat in cabin (J or higher) and an additional break seat in the highest class of service available - after all revenue customers have been accommodated OR one IPP seat in the bunk room and one IPP seat in the cabin OR two IPP seats in the cabin.

787 single augmented requires one bunk and one premium break seat in crew rest facility.

787 double augmented requires two bunks and one premium break seat in crew rest facility AND one additional break seat in the highest class of service available after all revenue customers have been accommodated.

767-200/300/400 requires one IPP seat per augmenting crewmember.

757-200 with lie-flat seats requires one premium lie flat window seat, the adjacent aisle seat shall be the last seat assigned on the aircraft.

737, A319/320, 757-300, and 757-200 without lie-flat seats require one premium seat grouping in the highest class of service.

(IPP seat means "international premium product" - must be lay flat, be enclosed by a bunk room or have a sound-deadening floor-length curtain, be equivalent to passenger premium seats including comfort and convenience items, and be a pod seat or a seat grouping which means a seat or group of adjacent seats that are separated from seats used by passengers by an aisle or window on both sides.)

You could not be more incorrect about this. I can't tell you how many times I've flown the late Europe departures completely wiped out and exhausted during the approach. The augmented crew and first class rest seat makes all the difference now for all pilots.

Hopefully you will believe me, I have some credibility on this flying 5-6 European crossings a month. This contract change makes the operation safer, particularly the eastbound legs.

This makes sense. I have to believe the preference is to schedule the 777s with bunks on these ultra long haul segments.

Just flew NRT-LAX on Sunday (pmUA 777 w/IPTE) and 6A/6B were reserved for the pilots while all of F was full. Two of them sat there for a while during boarding and chatted with some of us.