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United cramming more seats into its 757s

United plans to put more economy seats in its 757-300s. (Image: BriYYZ/Wikimedia Commons)

A few months ago, we reported on United’s plans to refit its international 777-200 fleet by adding about two dozen seats per aircraft, as it installs its new Polaris front cabin and reconfigures economy seating from nine-across to 10-across. And now it is cramming more seats to another aircraft model.

According to a report this week in FlightGlobal.com, United will turn to new “slim-line” economy seats to boost the overall seat count in its workhorse 757-300s from 213 to 234.

Because the slim-line seats are less bulky than traditional economy seats, airlines can fit more of them into the main cabin, generating more revenue and reducing unit costs. United has been replacing the economy seats on its smaller single-aisle planes with the slim-line version for several years.

United’s new slim line seats. (United)

The economy cabins on United’s 757-300s will have 210 seats after the refit, FlightGlobal said, while first class will remain unchanged at 24 seats. There was no immediate word on how much, or whether the 757 refit would affect seat pitch.

United has 21 757-300s, which it uses mostly on high-volume routes out of its hubs at Chicago O’Hare, San Francisco and Denver.

Thoughts, please on those slimline seats! 

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Comments

  1. Forget seat pitch… What will be seat width? I recently flew SAN-OAK with a fat man next to me, and it was the longest 70 minutes of my life. And that was on Southwest with 17″ of width, where at least the employees smile and I don’t get nickel-and-dimed for a single carry-on.

  2. Oh and btw….charging 8 bucks for satellite TV on a flight these days should be grounds for prosecution.

  4. Horrible. I just did an SFO – FLL round trip on a 737-800 and I thought Chris was talking about that plane at first because he decribed perfectly the hell that is the back rows of that plane. With no heads midship, the lines for the bathrooms are horrendous and omni-present. Maybe fellow travellers would be sympathetic and show some respect while waiting…? Nope. Asses in faces, hair shaking in faces, apparently the isle in the rear of the plane is a yoga studio, watching what I’m watching on MY screen, staring at my kids who are better behaved than they are. And I swear the same 20 people lined up over and over again. I don’t want to call out anyone whos got urinary issues, but if you have the need to pee every 45 minutes…get a seat near the freakin’ bathroom. UA can do it better for customers but have chosen not to.

  5. well not a complimentary comment that i can find and deservedly so united is now a crappier version of continental and this BASIC ECONOMY bs is just an advertising ploy they don’t care about the common man any more in fact, i don’t think they care about anything but their bottom line

  6. Norwegian and SAS premium economy have WIDER seats along with more leg room; they just don’t fly everywhere. Southwest is pretty civilized. I’m 70+ years old. Life is too short for flying United unless at gun point or using award points. Business class in my SUV is looking more attractive. No waiting, no security check, fire arms permitted, beverage and food service frequent. Have flown millions of miles for business. Now domestic travel in my car is starting to look smokin’ hot. Forgot – last time I walked through IAH from gate to gate the only people that almost knocked me down were UA pilots and crew and contract employees.

  7. I am not a fan of United’s Slimline seats. I fly LAX-BOS-LAX a lot, and my butt always hurts after an hour.

  8. Um you’re so uninformed. United was the last carrier to include the extra seat across on 777, and slimline seats are thinner. Do the math. Extra square footage is a by product. Seats are the same distance apart. Please become informed.

  10. Flew A320 slimline seat past week just on an hour flight and it was horrendously small and uncomfortable in terms of width and size of actual seat. Flew Southwest on the way home and their new all-blue seat felt luxuriously comfortable in comparison. Same pitch.

  11. First, United’s first & biggest problem is the employees attitude. I fly using United regional, Skywest, out of the local airport, only single leg or a United partner like Air Canada to my destination. In airport staff is contracted out. Skywest is very pleasant, makes for a pleasant journey even in small regional jet. With the exception of Southwest (flights generally 1-2 hours) the thin seats are not comfortable. The problem I find with the additional seats is on & off loading is slowed even more. By my calculation the added seats add 10% more passengers. The airlines aren’t adding overhead space, more restrooms, more seats in the waiting area or more staff offloading bags.

  12. “There was no immediate word on how much, or whether the 757 refit would affect seat pitch.”

    Wait. What? Unless you believe that United is planning to add an upper deck on the 757, then pitch must decrease. It’s possible, maybe, that legroom will stay the same because of thinner seats. But pitch is guaranteed to decrease.

  13. Wait until you see Frontier’s seat bottoms! It’s an actual metal bottom with a thin leather (pleather?) cover over it.

  14. Let them cram, into the overhead bins if they want. The important point is that I won’t be on board.

  15. Experienced both the A319/320 and RJ slimline seats on UA a few times, no complaints. I actually find UA’s old A319/A320 seats to be worse. More padding =/= more comfort. These slimlines seem to be contoured better, especially in the lumbar area, for shorter people.

    I will say that whatever seats UA has in their 767’s, those are the best!

  16. The seats are fine. It’s United Airlines with their surely, entitled employees that I hate!

  17. United’s slimline seats are worse than both Delta and American. They are similar to sitting on metal bleachers at my son’s high school football game

  18. Ugh. I sat in a slimline seat on United’s A320 on a cross-country flight a few years ago, and it’s not an experience my back will have again if I can help it. That was despite having extra legroom in Economy Plus and United’s choice of the “comfort package” on the seat (additional padding beyond the manufacturer’s base offering). It will probably be even more uncomfortable on the 757, with its narrower cabin. The 757 tends to fly long, transcontinental or Hawaii routes, so this will be particularly unpleasant.

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