halls120

Yes, United is rapidly installing WiFi. Five years after the competition started - and in the case of DL - five years after they finished. That is truly something to highlight as a UA "success story."

Now, if they want to actually become an industry leader, maybe they will select a new BF seat, and start installing it as fast as they can.

CanadaOhMy

It is disheartening, but I guess not surprising, that United did not acknowledge your acceptance of their invitation to have a chance at being selected for their focus group. Further why wouldn't one of United's most valued customers be invited out right instead of being invited to be selected? Doesn't make me think important customers are very important at United. Nor does an invitation two weeks before the event.

United doesn't get soft product at all. I mean how hard is it to reply with a canned "Thanks for responding we appreciate your response but blah blah blah"?

Hard product is all we can depend on especially for customers lower on the customer service (soft product) food chain such as measly 1Ks as I. I don't see a lot of improvement aside from inches longer and wider or more aisle access. But we are not going to see the order of magnitude improvement in comfort or aisle access we did form the barcolounger to any flavor of the flat seat in a 2-4-2 configuration with the next iteration.

I don't know what kind of lifetime they expect from the current flat beds. The barcoloungers were looking a little ratty before they replaced them. IMO more than seven years before any current product gets replaced and maybe a decade plus for the current 787s.

manstein58

So long as configuration remains 2-4-2 with no direct aisle access, no improvement is possible

RandomBaritone

Take a look through the thread: there's consensus that neither of those attributes will be present in the new BF configuration, though it's at least two years out.

gengar

Not surprising given how low the bar has been set for UA expectations. Only UA pax could cheer that UA is doing something in the same ballpark as AA/DL even when it's several years late.

Plus, this is not even mentioning that UA in typical fashion PR'd their large-scale wifi plans all the way back in March 2011. I actually thought they started domestic wifi rollout before the May 2013 date that people are batting around, but if that date is correct, that means that UA was a whopping 2 years behind their PR announcement. I think that coupled with the lag behind AA/DL is what most people are talking about with respect to slow rollout of wifi - because we've been talking about having wifi on UA for ages and have mostly just been waiting.

It's actually really amusing to draw the parallels between the wifi rollout and the new BF seat. Already in this thread we saw some UA FT'ers are happy just that it's not going to be an industry-worst seat.


I agree strongly with pretty much everything else in your post, but just wanted to note that to me, direct aisle access is actually a similar magnitude improvement as lie-flats over barcaloungers.

CanadaOhMy

I buy international business on United now. I didn't with the barcalounger. If the barcalounger would have had direct aisle access I still wouldn't have. I did upgrade every time I could with my SWUs.

I like the reported increase Biz to Coach ratios on the 78J and 35J. I like using my 6 GPUs each year. If I can't use them then that increases my $20k to $30k PQD each year and I status match to another airline or Kayak no matter how easy it is to get up and go to the bathroom.

I would love to have direct aisle access with every seat in BF. I am not going to pay a premium for it.

manstein58

OK will do but those aspects aren't "attributes" in any sense of the word. Until then, I will only fly pmCO777's or GF

RandomBaritone

Not sure I follow. The word "attribute" doesn't carry any positive connotation.

PHLGovFlyer

And as sure as the day is long Ft'ers will be crying the blues about reduced upgrade opportunities when the seating is changed to allow direct aisle access from all BF seats which naturally reduces the number of BF seats that can fit in the cabin.

As much as the 2-4-2 config has some disadvantages, I actually prefer the sUA seat compared to the sCO configuration due to the increased usable length of the seat (I'm 6'5" with large feet). I'll grant you that the middle pair of seats in the 2-4-2 setup is not exactly "lux" but I'll still take it any day as an upgrade from a coach seat @:-)

ETA: Being 6'5" I also have no problem climbing over an aisle seat in the lie flat configuration when I'm in a window or middle seat. So again, direct aisle access for me is not a big discriminator. YMMV!

phkc070408

While I like the amenity of having all aisle access, I would hate to see what the reduction in capacity will do to the price of a seat. Coming from a working-class family with a salary that means flying BF has to be carefully planned, having to pay more for a J seat would probably put us back in Y+. I don't see what is wrong with the pmCO J cabin. I admit the window doesn't offer aisle access, but you will loose all of those window seats, and probably only have the same number of aisle seats as you have now. If you can't get an aisle seat now, you can probably kiss that upgrade goodbye with the new configuration. If you really want all aisle access, go Global First, or pick one of the 4 out of 6 seats in the pmUA cabin that does offer aisle access. In conclusion, I can't see the benefit of cutting capacity to go all aisle.

As I type this, I think that many of the posters are basically asking that the J cabin be replaced with F seats at a J cabin price and name.

spin88

United announced its wifi plans "more than 300 planes in the domestic AND international fleets" on November 7, 2011. http://crankyflier.com/2011/11/07/un...ver-the-water/

Jeff was in charge at this point, now three years later, it will still not be done.

And oh, how about wifi on the hundreds and hundreds of CRJ700s and ERJ-145s that fly very very long flights. Maybe you have missed it, but Delta has Wifi on nearly all of its RJ birds, and has had it there for 4-5 years.

As usual with this big hat, not cattle management team, they are a buck short, and a day late. And a new BF seat will be exactly the same.


bingo. It was a late strategic plan, a failure to execute, and then the plan did not cover the entire (or in fact even half) of the fleet.

cricketer

In TPE right now, having just flown in the EVA Royal Laurel seat - actually my first experience in the reverse herringbone seat. Although the bed length was great, the coffin that your legs slide into restricts leg/knee movement, and made it very difficult for me to sleep in. Ranks right down there with the more restrictive staggered layouts. The pmCO 777 bulkhead and the pmUA current C seats are, incredibly, better for sleeping for me personally. That said, if that one deficiency can be ironed out, then the reverse herringbone C seat would be my seat of choice. Well, apart from the Etihad Residences, of course

ClayPot

My goal is to sleep as much as I can when I am in BF/GF. Aisle access is nice but not if it is at the expense of sleeping comfort. I think the more BF seats there are on a plane the better it is for cost and upgrade chances.

mduell

What direction are they heading?
Qatar is installing the 1-2-1 Super Diamond on their brand new 787 deliveries.
United is installing the 2-2-2 Parallel Diamond on their brand new 787 deliveries.
You think UA is going to toss those PD seats in a few years?

Yes, all 3 are installing the contemporary Super Diamond instead of the Parallel Diamond UA seems content with.

Plane-is-home

Remember when the current seats were put in? UA was years behind their announced completion date. That had even started to charge higher upgrade miles because of the new seats 2-3 prior to actually having it done.