United says that the current C seat is 23.45" wide and that the new seat will be 'up to' 23.5" wide. Both including a dropdown armrest (which I don't recall ever seeing on 767 or 777). I don't know how they are measuring it.

Seatguru says 19" wide on the existing 767 and 20.5" on the 747 and 777.

One flyertalker, comparing it with the BA seats, figured that it will be easier to get out of the new UA seats than the old ones when the aisle passenger is reclined.

Because the seat pitch on the new seat is 16" to 23" longer than the exisitng seats it should be easier to get out of a window seat, esp. on the 767.

I agree with rizzuto's last post, LOL. Problem could be in the last row of business class in seats that face aft. If they don't have, good, solid curtains the periperal view could be disturbing.

I agree with rizzuto's last post, LOL. Problem could be in the last row of business class in seats that face aft. If they don't have, good, solid curtains between C and economy the periperal view could be disturbing.

I thought it was possible to edit a post if you go back and re-post. ?

Mr. W, only if you hit the back button (to where you wrote the post) then choose preview, edit the post, then post it... And sometimes in my experience it still doesn't work!

By the way, love your comment - it would be especially disturbing if Bob and Andy were in Economy!

Go look at those seatmaps more carefully. On the 772s, because of the already narrow width, the ends of the seats don't overlap. But on the 744s and 763s, in order to save space, the feet of passengers on sequential rows are next to each other. Now look how hard it is for the window seat passengers on both the 744s and 763s, as well as the two middle passengers on the 744s to get out?

For those trying to upgrade on the 744, your upgraded seat may face backwards, have no view, is very narrow, and you have to climb over two persons' feet to get out.

But yes, you get a flat bed. :)

I looked at the diagrams again and still don't see a problem. Nobody is ever going to have to climb over two people. The seats are four-across.

The triple-7 has a narrower body than the 747, so the seats don't overlap. It actually looks like there is room between the opposing video pedestals for a person to walk between them. That is, maybe from 9G you can go between the 9G and 9H videos and then between the 9H and 10H video pedestals.

In all the window and center seat cases, the passenger just stows the legrest and footrest and they have all that space between the chair and the video pedestal to stand in. And none of that space will be used by a person reclining into it.

This is far better than the existing UA C (or other airlines' business or BF) where the seat in front of you reclines into the space in front of you.

IMHO, they ought to start the upgrade with the 747 that flies LAX-SYD. And then the 767 that flies IAD-EZE.

Thanks for the tip, Kathie, I know I've done it before. it does work

Try to keep in mind that most UA planes will not have the new seats for another 18 months.

When the first of the a/c have been introduced, then perheps we'll be fortunate enough to get some first-hand reports from those who actually fly in the business class cabin. In any event, the new seats cannot help but be an improvement over the antiquated and worn-out seats UA currently uses (and which I avoid at all costs).

mrwunrfl - The climbing over is for the 744 and 763. Not 772. I think I stated that pretty clearly.

mr w

We've been planning BA for several yrs just never had the time. I'm jealous!

Aloha!

I got it, rkkwan. I suspect that the middle pax on the 777 will also have to climb over, that the space on the diagram between video displays is not wide enough in reality to get through (the seat drawing on the 777 diagram is different from the 747 diagram: it has one section less).

What is also clear is that you think that a middle passenger on the 744 will have to climb over two pax feet to get out. It only requires stepping over one person's legs. The overlap on the 744 is only the video pedestal and not the lower leg extension. The middle pax will be able to get balance with the table between seats and the video pedastal (not the seatback in front) when stepping over the legs of the (one) aisle passenger.

The view will be pretty good because it will be of the 15.4" video display with AVOD and capable of display pix and home movies stored on your iPod.

ht, I've been planning my 3rd trip to BA for every January and November for the last couple of years. Would be the perfect route to use a SWU.

I want to show you guys a picture of a BA 744:

www.airliners.net/open.file/1242176/L/

BA gives their seats a little more shoulder room by placing shoulders next to feet. But just tell me how narrow the UA seats will be with 8-across shoulder-to-shoulder on a 777 that's narrower than the 747?

I'm not yet sure that the new seats on United will be an upgrade. I also can't imagine how they would fit 8 across in a 777.

ht, ua has been having a sale on B.A. fares for about a week. And AA had cheap fares ($680 or so a/i) from SFO.