Economy Plus is here to stay

Hey now, I called it a year ago. I've maintained since the original announcement that CO and UA would offer reciprocal upgrades and that CO elites could sit in UA E+ that CO would eventually get E+. Glad to see I was right!

Welcome to MP! Thanks for the amazing news.. Now let's keep three-cabin F, please

Will you replace the CO seats for the new E+?

Sweet!!! This is very exciting news, and I think it's the right decision.

Oh, I'm sure there will be other changes to complain about.

Economy Plus was the core argument about why a bunch of people over at FT said they were going to defect to AA. It's going to be fun to lurk over there and see how much they enjoyed their AA experiment and how fast they'll be back at UA.

Wonder if crow will be a dish mentioned in the "let's eat" thread.

Scott,
Welcome to MP as UA Insider, glad to see you here and glad to hear that E+ will come to the CO fleet.

Talk about receiving a lot of likes for a first post

You did call this a long time ago. I'd been a naysayer for a long time about this issue. I said then that I'd be happy to be wrong if they kept it. I am not happy to have been wrong.. I'm delighted to have been wrong!

unless they take away F seats in favour of more E+...

I hope they keep F the way it is and not shrink it, it's already hard enough to get upgrades even as a Plat.

You don't fly UA, so why would you care?

Instinctively I am thrilled that E+ will remain. Although thinking back over my travel on UA, I can think of only twice in the last two years that I've sat in "regular" E+, rather than bulkhead or exit row with extra space.

Still a godsend for last-minute bookers and 2Ps.

Really fantastic news. Pretty hard to imagine losing rows of F in UA's Airbi, but one wonders about the 757. On the CO side, from Seat Guru it looks like the 738 and 739s have 4 or 5 rows of F vs. UA's 2 or 3 on the A319/319.

I'm delighted you were wrong as well.

Hey, nice to see you around again!

It should be relevant even for you. I honestly don't think that paying for UA non-ps domestic first is ever good value compared to E+, even if one is wealthy. I've been in E+/exit row seats with more legroom than F on the same plane. Sure the seat is narrower but I value the legroom more.

Now here's my unofficial answer to "Why wait to 2012 to start?" For the same reason that the two year conversion of international aircraft to the new configuration was supposed to be finished by the end of 2009, but is still only 60% or so done.

Agreed, and although I think I only sat in E+ (much less E-) once in 2010, it's still nice to know it exists, sort of like Long Term disability insurance. Hope I never need it, good to know it's there.

So your point is, let's wait to start because we're going to screw it up?

If that is the case, they should start immediately if they want to finish this decade...

Reducing F to make room for E+ is a bad idea. In fact UACO should be adding F seats to UA 319 and 320 to have 4 rows of F and adding a 4th row of F to the CO 737-700. I could understand not touching the older CO 737-500's if they are even still in use.

And I certainly hope they don't get their common certificate and start swapping CO planes without E+ or with fewer F seats for UA E+ planes unpredictabley

Congrats UA, you've just announced the biggest retention tool in your toolbox. #changesilike

Hey Scott,

I noticed something in a re-read of this section: you note that 1P, 1K, and GS can select E+ at time of booking currently. My experience last year as a lowly 3P was that I could select E+ at time of booking, and I believe this extended to 2P elites as well. Now that I have booked and paid for a couple of MRs to secure 2P for the express purpose of continuing to be able to select E+ seats on UA equipment (so I can find a place I fit, somewhat), I'm wondering if you're able to comment or clarify on 2P elites being able to select E+ at booking, at least through the 2011 and 2012 program years?

Thanks!

Thanks for the update Scott! This is definitely good news.

Yay for us lower tier members!

And for us 1Ks who travel internationally - 6 SWUs only on W and above do not go very far! But with E+, it makes long flights tolerable even in Y, and makes the UA offering so much better than the others.

I wouldn't think UA planes would lose any F seats, especially since they already have E+. The Airbuses already are at the bare minumum of F, and the 757s have an F section consistent with Continental. (And the Y seats forward of door 2 are just weird -- a la US.) I would think the CO 737s with 16 and 20F seats may be at risk.

This would be much harder than just taking Y seats out to make E+. Back when UA originally added E+, they could remove a row of Y and have the cabin adjusted overnight. If they were to try to do it by taking out an F row, it would be much more complex as bulkheads would also have to be adjusted. There are also some planes where with the location of the lavs this wouldn't make sense, like on the 757.

Praise Jebus and pass the biscuts!

Excellent news!