United boosted its orders for new Boeing 737s for a total of 65. (Photo: Chris McGinnis)
As United Airlines puts more 787 Dreamliners onto international long-haul routes, it will remove 777s from some of those markets and reconfigure them with higher-density seating for domestic flights, according to USA Today.
The newspaper said United confirmed that the plan calls for 19 of its 777-200s to get an extra 20 seats, including nine planes that are already used domestically — mostly to Hawaii — and 10 coming off international service. By switching from nine-across, 2-5-2 seating in economy to 10-across in a 3-4-3 layout, the reconfiguration will boost the planes’ total seat count to 364, with 336 in coach and 28 in business class. Those extra dreaded middle seats will be 17 inches wide versus the current 18-inch width.
United’s current domestic 777-200 configured 2-5-2 in economy is used primarily for Hawaii flights (Image: United)
Other than Hawaii, the report didn’t indicate where the higher-density 777s might be used. It noted that American Airlines also has some 777s with 10-across seating, and so do some foreign airlines (such as Emirates); it also said that about half of the 777s Boeing delivered last year had 10-across economy seating. The work is expected to take a little over a year, and will also involve the installation of in-seat power ports and Wi-Fi for streaming entertainment. New business class seats will recline to a fully flat position. The new economy seats will also get mobile device holders for both tablets and phones, the newspaper said.
Meanwhile, United this week also announced plans to buy another 25 new 737-700s for delivery starting at the end of next year, in addition to the 40 it has already ordered. The company said the orders will help it move its fleet toward “larger, more efficient aircraft” as it continues to phase out 50-seat regional jets. “United expects to have fewer than 100 aircraft in its 50-seat fleet by the end of 2019,” a spokesman said.
The new 737-700s will feature larger overhead bins and the new “Boeing Sky” interiors with sculpted sidewall panels and LED cabin lighting with soothing colors.
Finally, United said it will move up the delivery dates for some additional widebodies – four 777-300ERs and five 787-9s – to start in 2017, in order to speed up the retirement of all remaining 747s from its fleet. Those 747s should all be gone by the end of 2018, United confirmed this week.
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I did the same thing… had a ton of miles from flying internationally on UA (SFO-LHR or SFO-FRA in the 747… with Biz class upstairs… nice ride, even after they did the rear-facing seats 🙂 )… I consistently hit UA Premier Exec –not quite enough for 1K… then when they added in Continental, I was routinely at Platinum… but then I got tired of getting shoehorned into seats… getting ‘moved’ due to last minute ‘equipment changes’ out of the Economy Plus seats that I’d reserved sometimes months in advance…
I’ve actually gone back to AA (it’s actually not as bad, as long as you stay off the ex-US metal)… and have been Delta Gold/Platinum consistently for about 12 years now…
You know what is a real shame.
United could of made a nice statement toward economy plus by keeping that section nine across and changing the regular coach ten across.
They didn’t do that, to damn greedy to put as many seats as possible instead of giving people something to pay extra for.
In writing to United about this they say it’s too hard to manage having economy plus at nine and regular coach at ten.
Hey right. GREED, GREED and more GREED.
Time to boycott United for things like this.
I have 100,000 United miles earned primarily using Continental Airlines before the merger. I plan to use these miles soon and then stop flying on United unless there is no other reasonable way to get to my destination..
I doubt that you will find a 777 being used for short haul flights.
I wish this web site would get more involved in steering us in the direction of airlines with better seats. It’s really becoming important, as everyone has said on this blog, the combination of United’s new slimline seats with ten across is close to inhuman.
I would love to stuff some of the United executives in these seats and see how they do with it.
Sorry United is going way too far on this….
The only way to remedy this is to vote with your dollars where possible– fly the airlines with nine across seating and avoid the airlines with ten across.
10 across in United new slimline seats, which have to be some of the most uncomfortable seats I have ever sat in. Not unless I have to or it is a really short flight.
Sculptured sidewall panels and LED cabin lighting with soothing colors will be very nice, but not if you have to sit sideways in your seat to avoid spilling over into your seatmate’s space. At some point airlines should just start equipping flight attendants with giant lubricated shoehorns to get passengers into their seats. It’s one of the reasons why I tend to drive now for trips of 8 hours or fewer. Flying economy is just too horrible these days.
The list of reasons not to fly United continues to grow.
Lot’s more “joy” from United in screwing us again. They don’t really care, again until people start saying enough is enough and flying Hawaiian air to Hawaii instead of crowded United planes.
But the sad news is the damage has been done when the U.S. government allowed United, Delta and American to merge. What that has done is set up a scenario in which there is nothing the traveling public can do. We have to either not fly or put up with it.
It’s easy to say this won’t ever happen again, there is no more airlines to merge. Just have to hope that airlines like Southwest and Jet Blue grow and have a heart for the traveling public.
I wonder what it will take for the U.S. government to step in and say this is “barbaric” conditions like this on long haul flights.
Another bad move consumers.