kevanyalowitz

Agreed...to the cheapest business fare possible when PN is not available or to a premium carrier.

jeedk

Why is "success" only defined as best in class ? For the record, KE JL EK and Oman Air's new J are 2-3-2. BA LH LX doesn't even have all aisle access. AA isn't entirely flat, while DL has the least J seats in a 77E among the US3.

The "best" customers are also the ones who say "give us a GF that looks like SQ Suites that any J fare can upgrade from using a GPU. I want Dom, Benz transfer, and caviar with my corporate P fare"

mduell

I don't like the choice of a table by my knees or a table by my shoulders. How about a table somewhere I can reach without contorting myself? Like I enjoyed on Swiss last month.

I see how this config barely fits on a 777. How are they going to make it fit on an 18" narrower 787? It seems it's going to end up narrower than the narrowed product they have now.

All recent evidence points to better premium cabin monetization. I think the extensive domestic first monetization is going to spread to longhaul, where they'll take 20 cpm fares before they'll give awards and upgrades.

Agreed here. Put the bloody connector somewhere I can reach without contortions and aren't constantly pulling out.

DL's 1-2-1 on the 777 fits about the same number of seats between door 1 and 2: 26 plus two closets and a galley on DL vs 28 without closets in the thread starter. The 333 is a completely different class of airplane than the 77W, both narrower and shorter; the seat counts are in no way comparable.

DL's 777 herringbone has the same density; it'd have the same seat count between door 1 and 2 if they had the same galley config.

Because this is a new concept that won't be adopted across the longhaul fleet for another 5 years (if ever?). If you're not even skating to where the puck is now you're going to be well behind by the time you finish installing it. It will be like installing decade-old B/E Diamond seats on brand new 789s all over again.

bmwe92fan

I don't think anyone here was expecting best in class anything from UA - just something more competitive than this appears to be - especially since this configuration will likely be around for the next 10-15 years. We all know the soft product was never going to match up to the global standard but I think we all hoped that at least with a decent 1-2-1 a la NH we would at least have a competitive hard product to limp into the future on...

helvetic

I would imagine there'll be some kind of a partition. That'd be the ideal scenario.

jeedk

Have u seen the renderings on reply 80 and 90-something ? This is definitely staggered 1-2-1 with more creative egress pathways.

Here's the feature list I can see / guess :
1. All aisle access
2. No FA intrusion when serving another pax
3. Likely 78" or longer bed, and equivalent footwell space to Solstys
4. 18" or larger IFE, likely with 720p or better
5. Immense privacy at window seat for paid J passengers
6. 60J on 77W allowing for better chances of R and I space

FWIW, NH's highly praised J is a custom variant of the Solstys concept

blackllotus

I'm a bit surprised at the negativity here. Are the seats expected to be much smaller than in 1-2-1 configs? I took a look at Air Canada's 1-2-1 config and it looks like the J seats are similar in size to UA's. If the seats in UA's config are the same size as in "true" 1-2-1 and have aisle access then what's the big deal? Looks good to me.

mduell

I think everyone was expecting the herringbone, reverse herringbone, or one of the stagger products.

This seat seems kinda weird and offers no apparent advantages over the current-gen B/E SuperDiamond that has already been adopted and flying on a number of carriers (AA/CX/QR/etc).

Michael D

I like it.
More BF seats on the plane. Aisle access without having to step over anyone. I think my favorite as illustrated is a window followed by one of the interior two.

It's a step up.
Maybe not as good as some (some say). But if it makes a big enough difference then just fly them. If you can't just be thankful for the small things.

MatthewLAX

This config looks great to me. Great upgrade potential.

cerealmarketer

Look at this seat map.



I see "four seats between 2 aisles"

But it's AA's 787.

Go fly AA for that uber premium experience.

But wait...they don't let their Concierge Key upgrade into revenue fare buckets.

They're cutting their first class footprint by more than half to 20 aircraft.

And only those 20 aircraft have all forward facing Cirrus seats in J.

Their Asia capacity is a third of United's.

ExtonUS

I was never one to care either way about aisle access, but I do care about seat comfort so me it all comes down to the in person test. Please please please let the seat be comfy and the footwell not cramped for a 6'1" passenger!!

bhrubin

Except the Smisek regime is no more. So bringing it up constantly, as others do and you just did, is pointless.

Bolding mine. For business class, 1-2-1 IS industry leading; I can't think of another airline offering 1-1-1- in business.

What we are seeing is the transition of an airline responding to current trends--which too many people herein refuse to acknowledge. United doesn't need to nor shouldn't seek to be a premium global carrier--it doesn't make as much profit that way, which too many dolts herein want to ignore. United does want to be as good as American and Delta, especially with regard to hard product (which we have yet to see for the new BusinessFirst seat) and service. It is in hard product where the US carriers are pretty competitive relative to the world. It is in soft product--particularly service--where US carriers will NEVER be competitive with the best global airlines.

American carriers will never compete with the Asian/Gulf carriers in terms of service--our society and norms are just wholly different, as is the American profit motive.

Apparently, the UA, AA, and DL approach is sound--since those are the 3 most profitable airlines in the world...by a huge margin.

We don't know what this is...since UA hasn't revealed their new BusinessFirst seat. It may be missed for you...but not for any airline. UA service is now better than AA service in my experience...and pretty much on par with Delta's for the most part.

The whining is incessant...but useless.

mduell

Virgin Atlantic

mahasamatman

On other airlines with similar layouts, there's typically a significant barrier between those seats, just like you see in UA's 747 F cabin. I would assume United would do the same.