LarkSFO

So, you've had the chance to fly the new aircraft already?

(I am not saying you are wrong, I do want to hear some first hand experience from E+ ad E- flyers though...)

FlyWorld

Based on what others have said and based on experience with those seats on LH.

I look forward to hearing first hand reports, too.

If I fly on one of these aircraft, I'm sure I'll also be able to report on the Y experience since CO is so determined to make sure I never touch a seat in F.

LarkSFO

With your track record, I am sure an E- seat is in your future! (That is, if they even let you board the plane at SFO...)

Renard

Or even more likely its another cost cut? They're betting that not enough people would take their biz elsewhere if they save the money it would cost to do this with Channel 9 and the new system. Will more higher profit folks fly us if we do this? Will this stem any bleed of high profit folks?

Their reasoning for not outfitting E- with plugs is similar I would guess. The extra folks that would pony up for the IFE will not increase sufficiently enough to ensure that it will be worth it to UA.

If you examine all the changes made since this merger in this light a lot of them make more sense--at least to the accountants. Now I'm not saying that I like it. I'm not sure they can predict well the cumulative effects of all the cuts on the types of flyers they want to keep and recruit.

pinerd

I recently flew a ANA 737 and I think they had basically what UA is going to install on the Airbii. It was the "enhanced" Recaro seats. They weren't too uncomfortable, not as good as the current Airbii seats but way better than the seats on sCO planes. The tray table is higher than the current tables. The one thing I noticed is that with the magazine storage moved up, you feel like there's no room between you and the seat back in front of you on the head level (vs knee level).

UATulip

Pictures of the seats can be found at this link.

http://www.cntraveler.com/daily-trav...w-seats-051613

spin88

First, upon some reflection, why is UA not putting direct TV on these birds? People want consistency, yet this locks in the "can't tell what will be on the aircraft" problem. People hate that.

Second, I think that this shows that Direct TV does not pay for itself. I was talking to a very senior CO FA on my transcon yesterday about this, and she says that other than on the transcons almost no one in coach every buys direct TV. You don't want to pay for 2-3 hours and there is no cut in the price. If the metrics where there the Airbus would be getting Direct TV.

Third, this is a very strong sign that management has not changed course. They are still just managing by spreadsheet, and evidently decided to cut some more. Still have no idea that things like CH 9, or having some IFE matters. Or that having power is sort of key if you are not going to have IFE.

All very discouraging to me about where UA is going.

GoAmtrak

From the article:

Has the author even flown recently on the Airbus? I think they've aged quite well. The interiors are nothing exciting, but they're aesthetically neutral in terms of epoch and maintained in consistently good condition in my estimation. Given the comfortable seats (to the extent possible in Y), I'd go so far as to say that they provide the best all-around Y experience of the entire narrowbody fleet. Anyway, whether TLC was needed really has nothing to do with UA's business motivations (increase capacity, decrease fuel cost).

uastarflyer

So what decade are they now with the IFE completely removed?

Really horrid "journalism"

RTWSTARALLIANCE

On my flight into NYC a crew member let me read their internal newsletter which included extensive talk on the Airbus reconfig. I found nothing in the article at all which leads me to believe there is any lift in comfort for passengers. They talk about power not being available in F and looking for a solution. The various IFE systems and internet systems they will have all over UA. The number of F seats is not being increased. The large closet forward cabin is going away. I will continue to avoid this aircraft looking for the 737s. Would have never said that a decade ago on UA. Would love to have gotten this wrong from memory.

chinatraderjmr

I didn't even have to look at who wrote this.....I knew right away

You can be sure that customer comfort was the last thing on the list when it came to picking these new seats.........I would not be surprised if "inflight" was locked out of the meeting. I think anyone that has sat in these seats can attest they are not comfortable. Thats a given but perhaps with a few extra inches of legroom in E+ (which LH, etc don't even have in European C),, it MAY at least be possible to use a lap top or move your knees. All we can do is speculate until the first AB is reconfigured. Regardless, MITCHMU, with your luck, even E+ may not be in your future I would book away from these if I were you.

GoAmtrak

There you go. This might be one of the only clear positives so far based on what we know.

FlyWorld

I don't find the seats on LH to be uncomfortable.

My main complaint is no space in pouch and on LH, nearly impossible to use a laptop.

I would choose this aircraft over an sCO aircraft with the DirectTV crap.

colpuck

Nobody liked the direct tv option, CO made that decision back in 2006/2007 when inflight wifi was just getting started and JetBlue was having massive success with DirectTv. Try to think back, wifi was just starting to become standard and hell even starbucks was charging for it. DirectTv seemed like the right call even though time proved them wrong.

US still gets a decent uptake rate on IFE even though they do not have power.

RTWSTARALLIANCE

The article I read said there would NOT be power at this time in one section of the plane. I believe that was First which made no logical marketing sense at all. Hoping for the best.