okrogius

All 747 and 767s are converted. 777s are a mix - I'd guess should be done sometime in 2012 (but until then just avoid this aircraft).

UnitedFlyGuy

Had a chance to fly the reconfigured 763ER. it was awesome. The lie flat seating is fantastic.

FortFun

You can likely find some info in one of these threads / pages:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...-aircraft.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...-2011-a-5.html
Interior_Conversions

FlytheTail

I don't have an answer, but you can chart the progress here: http://www.united.com/page/article/0,6867,52285,00.html. It appears that there are 22 777s left. If they can do 2 per month, then they would be done by the end of the year.

thepumpkin

There was a sudden plane change from an old 777 to a new 777 on UA 653 LAX-IAD on sunday Jan 15.
It caught everyone by surprise (including the United staff) as seat numbers were all over the place --many people asked to check in at the gate for new boarding passes but the new business class was really good...a big change from the old 777 layout.
Many had to get new boarding passes...or had a surprise when checking in.
As there a lot fewer seats people were worried about their confirmed upgrades---
I guess the moral is if you book a 777 flight; be prepared for an equipment change.

bmr12

Had my first experience on a 77D LHR->IAD earlier this month. Fortunately the flight was maybe half-full (back in Y where I enjoyed my pseudo-business class of a window/middle/aisle to myself):

• First, I think UA screwed this one up. They should have put in another row of C at the expense of the first two rows of Y. They would have ripped out 16 Y seats and added 8 C, so only a net loss of 4 seats. Then the upgrade rates would be much higher. (And I suppose it is possibly it would have cost another couple of seats to make the aisle configuration work). There are probably not too many flights where those 8 or so seats would be missed, but the opportunity to sell more C (and provide a few more seats for upgraders) probably would have more than offset the loss.
• The AVOD system was flaky at best. Across my three seats, two of the systems completely went on the fritz over the course of 8 hours. In both cases, the screens stopped responding to button "presses". Of course, I tried pressing pretty forcefully a couple of times, which I'm sure the folks in the seat in front of me thoroughly enjoyed. One of the failures was so complete that even the on/off physical switch failed to work.
• There are 5 lavs in Y on the 77D and crew rest is in the middle section of E+ between the aisles, just before the lavs. On this half-empty flight, lav capacity was not an issue.
• Nobody was seated in the row 32 exit rows. I asked at check-in, but was told they were "all full"--perhaps the agent presumed I'd be happier in my row of three, which I was. I found it interesting that nobody stuck in E- availed themselves of the opportunity to move up (or back, as there were sections of three empty toward the back of E-).
• I'm pretty sure C was completely full based on the announcements in the gate area. I enjoyed the half-empty Y cabin more than what would have likely been a middle seat in C that I'd have gotten for my SWU.
• I was surprised by the recline in my seat that had my seat bottom cushion moving forward as much as the seat back reclined. Not sure how I would like that if the cabin had been full.
• The .bomb showed the "old" Y cabin seating chart until about 30 hours prior to departure. At that point, I tried to move from my favorite old-777 seat of 21J to an exit row. The web site confirmed that change, but it didn't "stick" and on check-in I was back in an E+ window and the exit row was "full". Lots of seats were blocked out on the seat map at online check-in at T-24 that went out empty. Whatever the algorithm is for moving from old config to new, it blocks a *lot* of seats.

All in all, I'll miss 21J.

EsquireFlyer

Huh? 16-8=4 ?

Unfortunately, I don't think this is UA's priority.

Bitterroot

'Way behind reality. There are 28 finished, 2 in work, and 16 to go. The average time per frame is 38.4 days; minimum is about three weeks (if no other program work is involved), and up to about six weeks or more if scheduled maintenance is also part of the drill.

And it usually is.

planemechanic

LOL

None of these airplanes has taken six weeks, except for the prototype. The average aircraft in SFO is 21 days. The average aircraft during heavy maintenance is 30 days. The average time per airplane is NOT 38.4 days. Most of the airplanes are done as stand alone visits, not in conjunction with other maintenance.

EsquireFlyer

Thanks for correcting the information before a rumor started spreading!

Bitterroot

Depends on how you do the math. From date withdrawn from revenue service to date returned to revenue service, it is, indeed, 38 days. (Nineteen total completed during 2011; two out at any given time; that calculates to 38.4 days per frame).

Recent examples: N769UA -- last service prior shopping at PEK was 29 November 2011; return to active service was 11 January 2012. That equals 43 days, which is six weeks; N219UA -- last service prior reconfiguration was 14 November; return to service was 26 December. That equals 41 days; another six week case. Yada yada.

You may be thinking more about the actual time individual frames are on the shop floor. That, however, does not accurately measure the calendar time that's typically required to go through the entire routine. There are some aircraft (N774UA and N775UA for example) that have gotten in and out in three weeks. Not most.

The other factor that affects the math is lags between one aircraft exiting reconfiguration and the next one going in. If there's time lost between the finish of one and the start of the next on the same line, that time is included in the 38 days. The actual time on the floor might be 30 days, but that's not the calendar time that drives when the entire fleet will be finished -- which was the underlying question.

planemechanic

Your math is faulty. Time out of revenue service does not equal time in modification. If UA was to do one airplane in 30 days and then take a 60 day break your math would say the average airplane takes 90 days. That is the wrong way to look at it as it provides a faulty idea of how long the work actually takes to complete one airplane.

N769UA did not start until December 1st, again, that messes up your math. N219UA was the prototype installation of the new Nitrogen Generating System which displaces oxygen in the fuel tanks with nitrogen enriched air. Including that airplane in your average once again makes you numbers off.

2/3 of the airplanes are being done in SFO, with an average time of 21-22 days. That means most of the fleet will be done in three weeks, not 38.4 days. The rest are done along with heavy maintenance in an average of 30 days.

bmvaughn

I think we can all agree that days out of service does not equal days to convert. Given the fluid nature of how airframes are moved around for different routes, the concept of a frame being out of service has no bearing on customer experience.

Bitterroot

But I think you have to agree that the length of time any given frame is out of service -- all together, not just on the shop floor -- does drive the customer experience: it's the average total time each plane is taking to be converted that is driving how long it is taking to get them all done. And that math is undeniably 19 frames per year. It's not 21 days per plane, nor 30 -- it's 38. That's the math that makes a difference to those on this board: how fast will the rest of the as yet unconverted aircraft get done? Until the last XP and the rest of the XIs get finished, it'll continue to be (as another poster noted) roulette on the T7 Pacific routes.....because all the ERs operate interchangeably.

Now, could the 2012 pace pick up? Sure. Right now, it's 31 days against one of the two in work, and 27 days against the other. We'll see how long it is before they're back in service. When they are, the probability math for any given T7 route changes, but not before then.

So, I say again -- it's the length of time between releases of reconfigured planes that drives the customer experience. Doesn't matter to the passenger how long the mechanics actually take to do the work.

bmr12

Oops. Crap. I'll go with "8" as my final answer.