So all the buzz has been about American Airlines launching a new Business class product with a 1-2-1 business product which admittedly, does look lovely.
However, like everything there is a sting in the tail – enough for me to avoid these birds if I ever fly American Airlines.
And it’s down the back.
Ignoring the obvious of a very nice IFE screen, power at seat, lets look at the downsides.
Firstly, we’re in Slimline Seating Hell. And I’m not a fan of slimline seats to say the least because if you’ve been walking all day, there isn’t much pad to support the back… or backside for that matter.
The second (and more worrying part) is the seating configuration, with this is the middle row. Count the seats.
That’s right: 4 seats, Bringing the seating configuration in Economy to 3-4-3.
Now I have big thing against 3-4-3 in a 777 configuration as it makes the plane as tight as hell. Isles have to shrink and lets face it – seats have to as well. Combined with a usual 31″ seat pitch all I can say is this.
Ouchie.
I know it’s Bankruptcy season at AA, but 3-4-3 is just cramming people in for the sake of a few extra bucks.
Other users of 3-4-3 in a Boeing 777-300ER inculde Air New Zealand, Emirates and Air France, and whilst they may be commercially viable, lets put it like this: I’d choose another option where possible.
For the 777, 3-3-3 is the absolute max if one wants even a modest degree of comfort. 3-4-3 is TERRIBLE.
Agreed. And even 3-3-3 is pushing it to be honest with some of the configs I’ve been in. In some cases I prefer the 2-5-2 configs of old (except if sat in the middle of the 5!)
When looking at the picture I too see four seats in the middle section. What I do not see is the second aisle. What if this is 2x5x2 like AA’s other 777’s? Am I missing something here?
I love the 767. Sorry but I am a 2-3-2 kind of guy.
2-3-2 has a nice mix, and is quicker for doing a service on.
Me? I’ve always been an Airbus A330/A340 style 2-4-2. Far simpler to work with.
I was just about to reiterate what Paul said. Judging from the one and only rendering of Y, how could one be sure that the seat config would be 3-4-3 as opposed to 2-5-2? AA hasn’t really said anything about the actual config of the plane, except the “each seat in J will have an access to the aisle”.
My calculation is this:
Based on an American Airlines 777-200, they’re running at the moment 2-5-2 down the back (http://www.seatguru.com/airlines/American_Airlines/American_Airlines_Boeing_777-200_A.php).
IF (and that’s a big if), they’re going to run 2-4-2, I’d be very surprised. On a current config they’re running 190 in Y. If they were to deploy 2-4-2 on that config, that’s a loss of that’s a loss of about 20 seats. Taking that config the other way, expanding to a 3-4-3 config will result in another 20 or so seats – About 220 or so.
Of course, this is a 777-200 config, and means nothing in the world of B777-300ER config. An example 777-300ER by who run 3-4-3 in a three class config with 304 seats in Y. ( http://www.seatguru.com/airlines/Emirates_Airlines/Emirates_Airlines_Boeing_777-300ER_3class.php ). Stripping out an extra isle of seats (32 seats) would reduce the count to 272 – which in Emriates terms is a fair bit of cash.
I’m going to keep an eye on this, although the isle width between seats does look right for 3-4-3.
If they put in 3-4-2 or 2-4-3… then someone has would have been smoking something odd (although there will be something for everyone!)
Don’t knock slimline seats if you haven’t tried them.
I flew Lufthansa in January in Europe and their slimline seats with thin padding was more comfortable than the old style thick padding. New space age materials sometimes do work better.
Second. Lufthansa slimline seats are some of the best seats I’ve been on.
Whilst slimline is great for legroom, I’ve found the support in them to be… Lacking. Especially on a long haul flight (9 hours or so)…
Maybe they’ve decided to copy ANA with a 2 x 4 x 3 config?! (I shan’t hold my breath…)
It’s a nice idea isn’t it? Sadly with the costs of seats and IFE configs, I doubt it too 😉