EWR764

752 for sure, A321 I don’t think so.

I think if UA felt flat beds would drive a premium at SNA, there would already be 757s on the EWR flights. The lack of competition means UA probably isn’t motivated to go above and beyond with its premium product on the route.

cesco.g

Good point re competitive situation, as UA sofar seems to be the only one offering n/s from SNA to the NYC area.

DELee

UA doesn't need to make the SNA-EWR route full t.p.s. What the market would clearly support is at least 1x daily RT with 16J 752s. The GSs, 1Ks and demand is there.

David

JimInOhio

The demand might be there but the competition isn't. UA, like most any other airline, is going to save their p.s. type of aircraft for markets where there's competition and, hence, most needed.

rmadisonwi

Has there been any mention of what the total configuration of this plane will be? The 752 is 16/160 or 28/114 (though the latter doesn’t have slimline seats, IIRC), and the MAX 10 is only slightly smaller than the 752.

So, fudging for the fact that J capacity will be halfway between the two 752s, then correcting for the different exit configurations, the fact that the J seats are different and therefore would have a slightly different density, borrow the 7, carry the 3, divide by the speed of light, etc., I’m guessing it will have somewhere around a 22/140 configuration.

FriscoHeavy

The 752 could (it's a power rocket).

The A321 would have issues as well. The 737-10 will have a taller landing gear, which will help, but like the A321, it won't be able to take a viable payload on that route.

Kmxu

I doubt that the lie-flat seats will take that much of real estate on MAX 10. MAX 9 has 20 FC and 159 economy seat. There are 10 extra seats for MAX 10, compared to MAX 9. These extra spaces plus 20 FC spaces should be enough for 22 lie-flat seats. So, my guess is a 22/160 plus/min 3 configuration.

rmadisonwi

10 extra Y seats is 2 rows. The 20 F seats in a 739 is 5 rows (at slightly higher pitch). However, the 22 J seats in a Max 10 will be 11 rows. So you still need ~3-4 (ish) rows of Y seats to make room for the lie-flat 1-1 J to total 11 rows/22 seats (granted, these are approximations, because the seat pitch of each of these rows is going to be different). 3-4 rows out of a 160 seat coach section brings you down to the neighborhood of 140 or so.

The cabin of the MAX 10 is slightly shorter than the 752 (hard to find exact specs on cabin length, but based on a few online sources, it generally seems to be 7 feet shorter), so if the 752 can only fit 16/160 with lie flats, I don't see how the 737 MAX 10 could keep the economy capacity the same (unless you sacrifice Y+ for regular Y) while going to 22J.

Long Zhiren

Yes. Back in the day. Of course, to this day, I board as last-as-possible on almost all occasions, especially when I am in J. The less time you spend in a plane, the safer you are. Why would anyone want to board early if they can avoid it? The pre-launch beverage is not worth it to me.

DELee

If the topic of this thread - a proposed lie-flat seat plan for MAX - is appropriate, UA would then have a product to use on its "competitive" markets and could then deploy A/C such as 752s that would serve the market at the premiums suggest and can handle the short field required for an airport such as SNA. That's why we've brought up this use.

Avoiding how poorly UA builds on its served markets because they might be shy due to competition is short sighted at best.

David

cmd320

Are you somehow safer in the terminal than in the plane on the ground? Not sure I follow that logic.

adambadam

I know the 737-10s don't have the same range as the A321XLR but will be interesting how standardized they want to make the fleet if they plan to fly the single bodies to smaller European destinations. For instance, I could see them putting in a couple rows of Premium Plus behind Polaris so that they can keep fare classes consistent across destinations and enable more swapping. Given they also sell Premium Plus on the ps routes on the 787-10 frequencies perhaps they will make it's introduction to the market more permanent.

Long Zhiren

Yes. Far safer. A terminal burns a lot slower, and there's more ways out if there's an obstruction in front of you. The terminal is also much less of a confined space, when it comes to spread of contagion. Common sense--minimize the time you spend in compromised locations.

Why are we focused on 737-10's? My Privat Air SA experience was a lie-flat 9 hour flight on a 737-700 going Europe-Asia. The Polaris product is too wide for a 737 fuselage to go 2-2, but there are products that do work.

SFO_FT

UA will want to be able to promote its business class, no matter which aircraft, as "100% aisle access" and likely develop a shell for the seat that looks like their other Polaris seats.

GoSh4rks

This is hardly scientific, but I think it is to narrow to go 2-2(1-1), not too wide.

Check out the video at this roughly 55s.
An angled/straight set of Polaris looks like it is only 2.5 Y seats or so wide.