787 route announcements are becoming more common with more planes entering service slowly. It seems that United are going to try and take advantage of the “thin and long” concept (thin demand, long flight) with their new 787 by opening a route from Denver International to Tokyo Narita International Airport.
Now don’t get too excited as the route is not due to commence until 31st March 2013, but here’s the schedule:
DEPART DEN 11:15 ARRIVE NRT 15:00+1 DEPART NRT 16:40 ARRIVE DEN 12:30 Booked equipment: Boeing 787 Operates Daily
Now a few little nuggets have come up from this, especially after consulting airroute.net who have GDS Maps.
Business Class will be from the looks of it in a 2-2-2 configuration. However my interest sadly is down the back.
Economy Plus makes up nearly half the cabin with 63 seats, whilst Economy is 120 seats. However, economy is configured in the one way that makes the 787 a pleasant method of travel that it is today to a living hell.
It’s configured with 3 seats on the left, 3 in the middle, and 3 in the right – That’s right – GhettoIFE’s most hated wide body configuration – 3-3-3.
Fitting 3-3-3 into a cabin is tight for the passenger as you get 19″ (48cm) of width in a 2-4-2 configuration, where as in the 3-3-3 config, you get 17.2″ (44cm) of space. So this is one flight to probably avoid doing in plain United Economy.
It seems that the beloved Jeff Smisek thinks this probably a change you’ll like to be crammed into a sardine composite tin.
That reminds Mr Smisek. When was the last time you flew in the last row of one of your planes in Economy Class on a 10 hour TATL? And whilst we’re here Mr Smisek, have you compared your amenities to the passenger to say other carriers who traffic those routes?
Or is not doing anything another “change I might like”?
That is a lot of time in the air to depart NRT and then arrive NRT. How much does that go for?
787’s are designed for this sort of work – low loads and long routes. FRA-HND was the best part of 10 hours + with a low load.
I’ve haven’t done the math yet. I believe it is ticketable at United.com if you want to scare yourself silly…
Yes, it will be 2-2-2 up front, just like the seats used on the sCO 752s and 772s. And it will be 3-3-3 in the back, with a pretty sizable number of E+. I’ll take pitch over width every time, but I’m also not particularly wide so I guess that makes sense.
If you want to see a rendering (from 6 months ago!) which happens to be almost a perfect rendition of the seat map check out my post here: http://boardingarea.com/thewanderingaramean/2011/08/an-updated-estimate-on-the-united-787-seat-map/.
Shall we file this under “Changes we might like?”
In an ideal world, width and length would had been perfect – but if United really wanted to introduce a game changer, they should had considered 2-2-2 at the front, 2-4-2 for E+ (so E+ gets both width and length) and 3-3-3 down the back.
Make Economy almost “premium”.
Heck, they could make it a separate fare class.
That might make the accountants wake up…
Still not as bad as AA’s new 777 configuration with 3-4-3 at the back! As someone who has only ever flown transocean routes in coach, I don’t like this trend.
That 3-4-3 move on a 777 still makes me bang my head against the wall. Is that many extra backsides on seats in the back of a plane going to make that much difference to the bottom line?
Bear in mind the 767 has a lot of history and back from the 767, designed to take 2-3-2 normally or 2-4-2 in a charter configuration.
The width of a 787 isn’t that much wider. A 767 is 15ft 6, whilst a 787 is 18ft. That’s 1ft and half extra. Enough for one more seat. With two extra It’s going to be as tight as hell.
Oh well, nothing like making the economy class traveller suffer a bit more.
Emirates has been flying 3-4-3 in 777 since early 2006 – I flew them then from JFK to DXB. Last year I flew IAH-DXB, LAX-DXB (twice) and they like having the 3-4-3 in their 777 and I am not a fan. I like KLM and AF 3-3-3 much better in their 777 planes.
Apparently sardine tins are the way to go for most airlines in the world.. Most triple-sevens seem to be rolling out from the factory with 3-4-3 in economy.
For some reason I’m suddenly less sad over my lack of long haul flying.
I flew CDG-LAX-CDG with AF on their 777-200ER in 3-3-3 Economy with ancient, worn very-much-non-slim-seats in 2009.. It was well survivable, but not really enjoyable. Apparently they are since swapping out the seats to newer and more enjoyable ones now, but at the same time transitioning to 3-4-3 -.-
Most of their 777-300ER have been 3-4-3 from the start I guess, same goes for KLM.
Apparently there is one exception to the cramming rule. If I understood it correctly, BA was one of the first experimenting with 3-4-3 on the 777, but then listened to the voice of the public and went back to 3-3-3 (I might have dreamt this, but do think I actually read it somewhere).
I think BA had 3-4-3 for some of their leisure routes out of LGW the following config – C28 (2-3-2) Y338 (3-4-3).
It was total 3 aircraft – And they found it didn’t work and refitted them back into 3-3-3 for fleet commonality.
Personally, give me an A330 in 2-4-2 config. Or a 787 in 2-4-2. But not in 3-3-3 please….
Has anyone not noticed the typo? Hence my first comment?