gengar

Agreed, but at 2" per armrest on a 19-20" wide seat, still quite significant relative to the seat width.

Kacee

Yes you're right, 23" sounds a whole lot better than 19".

cova

I am hearing that these new birds will be 3-cabin with current pmUA type of seating. Same GF seat, and same UA business.

UA needs to retain F for the Asia market which is a cash cow out of SFO. My understanding is that United actually sells lots of F in the Asia market, not in the South America, and limited in the European.

Maybe they will just move the seats over from the 744's to the 77Ws?

UA_Flyer

Hope it is not going to be 2-4-2 configuration. Why not maintain the GF cabin and using the 787 2-2-2 improved PMCO BussinessFirst seats in the business cabin?

mduell

I wonder if that's possible without a bunch of IFE work to get the older PMCO LFBF IFE to work with the same onboard servers as the PMUA IPTE IFE.

UA_Flyer

Good point especially if UA is trying to cut capex by moving GF and J seats from retired 744 to 77W.

halls120

Good idea. I'm sure that all of those seats in the 744s are in tip top, just like new condition.

I know Jeff and company are cheap, but I don't think they are that cheap. At least I hope not.

channa

But they have a lot of experience making a brand new plane look old. I wouldn't put this past them.

mduell

Didn't PMCO do this with the 762/764? The BF seats seemed to be far older than the planes were.

Longboater

If this is true, this has the be dumbest thing I've heard in the aviation industry since US Airways tried to sell drinks in the rear. I understand the need for a F Class product on some routes from KSFO, but this management could care less about F class. 2-4-2 in J Class on aircraft being delivered in 2016/2017? Even British Airways is introducing a new J Class product with the 787-9s. This would be the lowest of the low for $misek and Co. This can't be true. They've already selected their new J Class seat, which is very likely the same seat as Qatar is installing on their Dreamliners, A380s, and A350s, which is, in my opinion, the best J Class seat out there right now. Wouldn't the seats be ready by the time these aircraft would be delivered. I know American was able to get their J Class seat on the 77W off the shelf as their own seat was not ready yet. (Which was dumb, their 77W J class seat is perfectly fine for 772 and future Dreamliners and A350s.)

BB2220

They won't fit.

RJNYC

I'm not sure where they came from, but I know that I booked away from the 762 because the J seat was a little too "retro"

tuolumne

Thanks for the information, Cova. I'll be disappointed if they install IPTE (a world class product in 2007, not so much in 2016). With AA already having a new F suite product, it would be nice for UAL to spend $$ on their own new product. I've long been told UAL was considering right-sizing 3-class F capacity and keeping it on select widebody (all A350, select 772, the old 744s, and remove from 763) flights into Asia and Heathrow/Frankfurt, but I always assumed if they decided to go in that direction, that they'd spend the money on a newly developed modern F product. Perhaps their next gen F/J seating can't be ready in time for the 773s, given the long-lead times involved with airplane seats?

LordTentacle

I keep hearing 3 class but not which seats (old or new)

EWR764

The GF seats from the 747 would be incompatible with any new 777 because of the shape of the 747 A-zone. However, the rumored 10 three-cabin A-market 777s being converted to a high-density configuration certainly could be a possible donor of GF seats for a new 77W.

Keep in mind the sCO 767s were delivered new in 2000-2002, so while the BF seat was rather dated even then, 55" pitch recliners were still a reasonable product for an international business class at the time. The 767 BF seats were new hardware, however.

When CO decided to convert the domestic 752s to international in 2006-2007, they refurbed BusinessFirst seats salvaged from the DC-10s, which were essentially the same seats save for a few cosmetic differences.

The IFE is modular and the 744 suite is an earlier version of the Panasonic hardware installed on the sCO 767/777s and sUA 777s (and the same as on the sCO 752 and sUA 67I). Not much of a consideration, if at all.