jfergusonjr

Warning: DO NOT take the nonstop Continental flight from Dulles to Paris (probably the same applies from Newark or JFK to Paris) because you will be flying in a "cattle car" for more than seven hours each way. Unlike the United flight I'd taken for the prior six trips, when I booked on the United web site this time, it turned out to be a Continental flight using the 757-200 airplane, a single-aisle plane with three seats on each side, instead of the 767, a wide-body, dual-aisle plane. Believe me, you DO NOT want to fly the 757-200 on this trip (or ANY OTHER intercontinental trip).
I WILL NEVER use Continental again or any other airline that stuffs passengers into single-aisle planes for intercontinental flights!! I will pay whatever premium to get the 380 or 767/777 planes for those trips. So far, only Delta/Air France uses these for the Dulles to Paris flight. Needless to say, I will be flying these lines ONLY.
Consider yourself warned about United/Continental's gross disregard for its passengers!

qwovadis

www.airlinequality.com/Airlines/UA.htm

for some balanced reviews

have flown both nowhere near as bad as your

firstimer all negative "grudge" post very biased

seatguru.com seatexpert.com might be some good

sites to review next time

I do fine 3 abreast with try for the exits over the wing

for most leg room...

Air France is better rated 4 star not cheap

Delta no better according to reviews and lots more expensive.

A family of 4 can pay $200 per leg just to fly their bags

Skymiles are now known as "Peso Miles" they are worth nothing

But choose the correct configuation and you will be fine.
both carriers

cwra

I noticed that United did make this change on their flights from Dulles to Paris. I can't find much information as to how the 757-200 compares to the bigger planes. The original post obviously hates it and the other message had a couple of worthless links.

Anybody else have any first hand experience with this plane.

Thanks.

travelgourmet

<i>Anybody else have any first hand experience with this plane.</i>

It is what it is. The 3x3 seating is tight and means lots of middle seats. Not that much worse than a 777 in a 3x3x3 configuration, but still worse. Maybe a bit better than some of the tighter 747 configurations or a 3x4x3 777, but not much better.

Aside from the tight seating, the old CO planes are pretty well kept and feature a nice AVOD system. I find CO service to be solidly okay. Not a whole lot of major complaints, but service is still perfunctory in coach. Food generally stinks, but that is the case for pretty much all airline food in coach, at least among the European and American carriers.

In business class, a lot of folks really like the 752. It has brand new, flat bed seats that are pretty nice and the cabin is small (16 seats), giving a "private jet" feel. While I prefer a more spacious cabin, I would not hesitate to take this plane in biz and would rate the overall product comfortably above that offered by Air France, as Air France does not have flat beds in biz.

All in all, in coach, I'd say this is a B- product. For comparison, I'd say coach on Air France would range from a B- (lower deck 747) to a B+ product (A380 upper deck). In biz, I'd give this plane a B+, maybe an A-.

doug_stallings

There is a web site www.seatguru.com that will give you information on the type of plane. I hate to tell the OP this, but many airlines now use the 757 on international routes. I also don't like that plane, but it's common on Delta and Continental flights. USAirways also uses them, but not exclusively and not on all routes. The real trick is you need to find out which plane is being used on your route before you make a blanket condemnation of an airline. But coach is pretty bad across the board so I don't know that it's all that much worse in a 757 as opposed to a 767, especially when you're in a middle seat. You're probably less likely to get one of these planes on a major business route like Paris if you fly from ORD or JFK or LAX. But Continental's (and to some degree Delta's) flights to secondary airports in Europe are done almost universally in these 757s.