JOSECONLSCREW28

GF is pretty much dead at UA. Won't be installed on any of the 787s nor will it be installed on the 77Ws & A350s. No plans on installing premium economy on the 77Ws or A350s either.

riphamilton

thanks for that detail.

i thought that E+ would remain 3-3-3, particularly since the rumor (last i heard) is that the hawaiian subfleet will keep that config. going 3-4-3 with a little more legroom destroys a lot of the potential value of E+ and further diminishes the value of status with UA.

Kacee

You'll hear just about everything in these forums

It is interesting that UA chose to go its own way with a new seat. Do we know who the manufacturer will be? More B/E Aerospace? Will be interesting to see if they can improve on the Cirrus or Solstys.

UA-NYC

Yeah this would be interesting - IMO the Cirrus is the best out of all of them (and tough to improve upon). CX said they're updating the seat slightly, but from what I've read, it's really minor.

EWR764

My bet is on a variant of the B/E Super Diamond with some revisions to UA specs.

JC1120

I have heard that the seat is a UA design that can be bid out to the various manufacturers for production. Said another way, it's supposedly not just a variation of any of the patented third party designs out there.

Kacee

Wasn't there a thread about UA doing extensive interest group testing of its new seat concept?

Found it: New UA BusinessFirst Seat Research

kevanyalowitz

It will be interesting to see how this strategy plays out. GF is an important product for HVF that pmUA had and pmCO did not. My guess is a fair number of GS will be moving their premium travel to airlines with either first class or far superior business class. Its unfortunate when companies don't care what their best customers want.

Baze

If you go way back years before the merger you will see many posts where 3 cabin F is called employee class because it rarely filled up with buyers so it got filled with employees. Yes, the employees had to pay something to sit up there but nowhere near the price of a 3 class F seat.

UA-NYC

That would be cool - I'm sure it will be devoid of any stylistic touches, of course (per UA "style"), but the seat itself is very ^

JC1120

If I was flying paid international F (and I'm not) I wouldn't have been flying UA to begin with. And they don't have three cabin on many routes anyway, so I'm not sure the difference will be that dramatic. And wrt to business class, I don't know how many airlines you would consider to have "far superior" business class. The hard product is one of the better ones our there. Soft product leaves more to be desired, but many of us place that concern below the hard product and routing. Honestly, I'd prefer they put extra business class seats in over a mediocre F product any day.

bocastephen

The true HVF is not a UA core customer. This person does not select UA unless there is an extenuating circumstance - they select a global branded carrier.

UA's customer (and this goes for DL and AA as well) is a typical corporate or corporate executive traveler using OPM or the small/medium business owner looking for a "premium class experience" on a discount - ie, P, Z fares and their ST, OW equivalents or has funds to fly domestically in F or high last minute fares due to business needs.

We just booked the spouse of one of the world's most well known business leaders on a trip where one-way was UA BF - it was definitely a one-off experience due to schedule and we're going to wait out the flight praying we don't get a nasty-gram from this important customer.

UA's products are not designed for the Barbra Streisands of the world, but rather the polo/khaki corporate crowd.

Kacee

How many times can the same people have the same argument about whether UA should retain GF???

LarkSFO

How many grains of sand are there in the Sahara?

Always Flyin

Nah. GS are flying UA for route convenience or corporate contracts. They are already stuck with two-class on all the pmCO aircraft. I doubt UA will see much of a tick in the decline in the number of GS passengers, regardless of what they may claim at present.

That's funny. Almost every major airline has a better hard product than UA. In the U.S., just look at DL (fleetwide) and AA on its 77Ws, 787s, and the 767s and 772s that are in the process of being converted.

Internationally? Where to start? Let's just say most of them. Other than BA, what major international carrier stuffs 8-across in C on a 777?

UA only has to be "good enough."

I'd prefer they improve F instead.