FiveMileFinal

That's an understatement.

I finished my first sector in E+ on the 77Q and I have to say, it felt more like E-. The seats were thin and cramped together. I felt it whenever the guy sitting next to me moved (or maybe he was trying to feel me up. )

I really hope my upgrade on the return clears, but that's not looking so good as I am in a lower class than I was on the outbound, and we're already at Z8 11 days out.

Bring back the Barcalounger!

Gorby

Yesterday we came back home LHR-IAD on UA925 with the new economy config (3-3-3) on the 777. A couple of things stood out which rather surprised me..

The number of restrooms in Y has been cut from 6 to 4. Two in the middle instead of 4. There appears to be 3 but one had a sign that said "Crew Use Only". The lines now were longer. Maybe someone from Ryanair has joined UA design teams (Next refurb we get buckets at the seat.)

The other PITA if you have infants, is the baby changing capable restroom was moved from the center set to the rear. When you have a 14 month with a very smelly diaper, trying to circum-navigate the carts from E+ to the back became quite the challenge. Also, when we boarded junior decided that it was time to do her business big time, but the crew prevented us using the rear restrooms until we were airborne so Mrs. G had to do a balancing act in the disabled room.

On a plus, the seats were fine for me, and I did like the new touch screens, but did notice the $10 for extra viewing options. (I would have paid, but junior decided to practice being a Soprano for the first 5 hours of the flight!)

snic

Uggh, you're right. The new 777 has about 55 economy passengers per restroom, whereas the old one has ~32. The new and old versions of the 747 have 39 and 32 Y passengers per restroom, respectively, and the new 767 has 38.

So, the new 777's ratio of 55 is really painful. And it's way out of line with the rest of the fleet. Does anyone know what the "Crew Use Only" room is, which Gorby referred to? Is it a restroom, or something else?

ORDflyr

Perhaps it's to prevent embarrassing experiences like the one I had this spring ORD - GVA, where I was heading into the F restroom as an FA and the other passenger in F were heading out together. Now they will have a chance to fool around with passengers and other crew in privacy.

ODTheATC

Crew rest bunks, located in the cargo hold.

lhrsfo

It's strange about the lack of restrooms. There were two versions of the 777 prior to conversion, one with 4 restrooms in the center and one with 3, the extra space being used for a crew elevator to their rest area below. The one with 4 restrooms had the crew rest taking up part of the cabin.

My understanding was that, with the new seating, all 777s would have the crew rest below and none in the cabin. I therefore assumed that the center lavatories would remain the same for aircraft where the rest was already downstairs but that, for others, the fourth restroom would be replaced by an elevator.

However, it seems that the fourth restroom has indeed been replaced, but the third has also been replaced by something else. Does anyone know whether that is the case on all versions? Or what it could possibly be?

On a separate note, I cannot imagine the lines for the restrooms towards the end of a long overnight flight... Truly ghastly.

Gorby

One the center restrooms is now only one disabled restroom and is "narrower" than the other center pod (if that's the best way to describe). That pod contains the crew rest access as mentioned above. There were 2 seats by each exit door.

I've emailed UA customer relations with my comments. Doesn't hurt to feedback. Truth is, and this came from my wife, next time we fly this distance and we know this combination is on the run, we may need to go BA or VS. One point after dinner, it wasn't fun holding junior with a smelly diaper crying painfully whilst in a line at the back. At least the one in front of me took pity and allowed me through (or wanted to breath fresh air )

The lines weren't fun prior to landing, that is true.

flyinbob

I wish UA would put a couple of 744s back on routes to Europe. Based on comments here and elsewhere, I'm not looking forward to trying a new 777. I guess I'll keep using other carriers for any paid C or F international travel.

IADtoWhere

Ahhhh, so that explains why there is exactly 0 NC space through End of Schedule on the IAD-DXB route...

snic

I've been trying to parse these comments and am just not getting it. I understand that one of the original 4 restrooms is now the access to the crew rest. What I don't get is what happened to the other one. Have they combined 2 restrooms into 1 "disabled" restroom that's extra large (and hence longer and narrower than a standard restroom)?

If that's the case, I think some really, really stupid decisions were made. The competition does have better passenger:restroom ratios (e.g., the LH 747 has 30 pax:toilet). Although UA Y+ used to beat LH Y hands down, now to my mind they're even, at least if the choice is between the UA 777 vs the LH 747. Restrooms are important, and will definitely affect my choice of airline.


If you're referring to the comments about restrooms, they apply only to the Y cabin. I don't think the restroom situation is so dire for F (8 pax to 1 restroom) and C (20:1).

RichardInSF

The Wiki says only 6 777's are done, and no more are currently being converted. Can I have a summary of the routes they are on? I gather SFO-LAX is included, is that likely to stay for the next few months?

kenhawk

So, does this mean that they will reconfigure these birds to the CO BF layout instead?

SFOTurtle

While the Wiki doesn't indicate that any 777 conversion is happening as I write this, it also doesn't indicate that the conversion process has stopped either. Unless someone has inside info that the conversion has been abandoned, I'm guessing it might just be a day or two before we know the next one in the shop.

lhrsfo

The restroom situation has indeed improved noticeably in C - same number of restrooms but 9 fewer pax. I've now travelled twice on the reconfigured 777 and that aspect is a vast improvement over the previous version.

However, I normally travel in Y (although have not yet in the new config) and the new ratio concerns me greatly. The old ratio was ok - you'd normally have to wait 2 or 3 minutes and that's fine with the need to stretch on a long-haul flight. However, with 55 pax per restroom, I dread to think how long the wait will be, and how bad the crowding in the aisles will be. This is very bad news indeed: if UA gets rid of E+ as well, then I think it will be a done deal to switch to OneWorld.

cheltzel

Not sure what is happening.

I just looked at a cached version of the flyerguide conversion page (the page as it was on Oct 14). The current page shows the completion of the N787UA conversion.

On the cached page, N778UA and N796UA were shown as in progress. On the current page, these are shown as in service with the old config.

Here is a link to the cached page:

http://webcache.googleusercontent.co...=&oq=&gs_rfai=