theblakefish

^^ Great news!! ^^

mecabq

Of course. If they succeed in creating a business model where most people sitting in C actually paid to do so (like every airline outside the U.S.), then it will increase the company's health.

I will certainly miss the Y->C and C->F SWU/CR-1 upgrades, though my success was limited anyway, but I can't say I am surprised at this mood.

At least they are keeping three-cabin F on long-haul routes, at least for now. That's good news.

kb1992

C/F: 38->26

Y: 72->114

So they cut premium seats by 1/3 and increased Y seats by 60%.

Not to mention no increased legroom in UA's worst E+ cabin.

My best wishes to people in NYC/LA/SFO trying to find NC flying p.s.

mduell

Remove 1 row of E-, so 16F/138Y.

Yes, but note the announcement says "26 flat-bed Business Class seats and 114 in Economy" not "26 flat-bed Business Class seats and 114 in Economy Plus" so it's left ambiguous.

2. 2-1-2 for sure.

3. I doubt it. Many-hub carriers don't need VLAs; they bought them in the past for range, but that's no longer necessary with the long range twins now available.

And vv shorthaul, CO charges for Y IFE but UA does not. Will they harmonize there too?

Given the limited number of premium seats (matching CO's existing Hawaii fleet) and lower engine thrust ratings, I suspect they'll be used for Hawaii rather than longhaul.

channa

Am I missing something with this one? I always get my bag in the A319s/320s, lengthwise. I never noticed a difference between these bins and the 757 bins (or the CO bins for that matter).

dholsinger

But my roller bag that easily fits wheels-first in the Airbii has to go in sideways in the 767. I always feel like a jerk doing that in C where there's also no underseat storage.

goingbananas

So did I...then I even went a bit further asking IF it was April 1st somewhere else in the world!!

The P.S. change to 2-cabin would not be nice. The rest of the changes sound good though....hey..it is a change that I will like!!

prestonh

The 32s (ex-TED craft) had their closet removed and moved the A/V and safety equipment storage to the F bins. Without a closet, there are plenty of crew bags in the bins. The bins in the front are also not as large. They are probably going to add another row of seats and remove the closet and one side of the galley up front since there really are not F meals to speak of that don't come out of a box.

sinoflyer

Thanks Scott for the nice bit of actual news from the company.

^ Channel 9
^ Q-400 F/E+
^ WiFi
^ Upgrading ghetto birds

I will accept the inevitable reality that UG on p.s. will be harder, especially on the popular 8 am LAX-JFK and 6 pm JFK-LAX runs that I frequently take. I will also rue the passing of row 9; I don't think the new configuration will end up leaving that much open space like the current one does.

Overall, these are changes I think I will like.

sgopal2

Looks like 3 cabin for long-haul routes is the way UA/CO is heading. This is what I was afraid of.

I travel mostly internationally, so domestic upgrades are not that important for me. I could care less about upgrading on a short domestic flight.

My company only allows me to purchase business on flights > 6 hours. No FC at all. So the only way I could sit in First is by using miles or a SWU.

I would much rather fly an airline that offers a two class configuration for the long-haul flights so that I can just purchase outright a decent business class seat instead of playing the upgrade game. Sorry but the UA biz class seats are a piece of crap (6 across on a 777 - ...!). I know that that the F class seats are nice, but I don't fly enough to count on getting SWUs and I don't want to rely on using miles for each long-flight to count on comfort.

The lack of a true two-class configuration on long-haul routes is a big downer for me. The old CO BizFirst/Coach two-class configuration on these routes were perfect for me. If they change this to three-class, I will be taking my business elsewhere.

halls120

Excellent point. The 767 Ghetto Birds have atrocious overhead storage in Y.

Better news would have been getting rid of Colgan entirely.

Adding Channel 9 to the PMCO fleet, keeping the 777 3-class conversions on schedule, and not giving up F seats to add E+ to the PMCO fleet are finally changes I like.

Am I the only one who thinks that leaving the domestic 777's untouched signals that they aren't long for the fleet?

Someone earlier in this thread pointed out the odd timing of this press release. Maybe it's because I'm such a suspicious cynic at heart, but I wonder if the timing of this announcement has anything to do with the beating UA is taking over the rumored downgrade of the MP program.

okrogius

Are you still planning on having these aircraft do Hawaii flights, or will they be reallocated to international and down-gauge HNL/OGG to 757s only? (Yes, there are domestic config 777s for time being presumably, but seems they're as worth of an update as the 767s)

eponymous_coward

I don't buy for a second that UA is going to tear out a bunch of F capacity from the ghetto birds, so they can sell flatbed seats to people going on a honeymoon to Maui, as opposed to selling them to business travelers going to Europe or Asia.

AS is making a killing flying 738s to Hawaii... with domestic F (in seats that get regularly panned on this board, they are the temp F seats CO uses on new planes for the time being). And as a matter of fact, you know who else flies narrowbodies on West Coast routes to Hawaii? CO.

So my prediction is that aside from the obvious cases where they HAVE to fly a widebody (ORD/IAH/EWR-HNL/OGG), they'll switch to narrowbodies out of the West Coast once they're getting the SOC- and they'll use the ex-ghetto birds on some longhaul service.

meFIRST

I'm just curious : How is united going to handle the phasing out of the 3 cabin format on p.s Flights?

Specifically, what is going to happen to the IFL ex JFK?
And what happens when you have a mix fleet thoughout 2012. Some p.s flights will be 2 cabin and some 3?

Will the 3 cabin service be completely discontinued in 2012?

As it is, there is NO DIFFERENCE in the C and F service now, other than the lounge. You used to get different menus in F and C, now its the same (as of this month).

murphyUA

It's actually 8 across, and I still take it over the CO seat due to the vastly better seat pitch.