News and Notes from Around the Interweb:
- Scott McCartney writes in the Wall Street Journal that United has squeezed its seat pitch down to 30 inches (ouch) on some aircraft, although they claim slimline seats – which I find uncomfortable – create an extra 1.8 inches of legroom. United has also eliminated a lavatory in its new 737-900 configuration, increasing the number of coach passengers per lavatory by about 70%.
- Turns out the cause of the flooded Qantas A380 was the cleaning mops.
- Next time you see TSA in line for a coffee… consider that DHS employees charged over $30,000 at Starbucks on their government purchasing cards. (HT: Tocqueville)
- New American Airlines routes launching in May: New York JFK – Birmingham and Edinburgh in the UK and Miami – Frankfurt. They’re also launching a second Los Angeles – London flight at the end of March.
- Celebrating KLM’s 95 Years.
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Gary, I haven’t seen any indication of a new 737-900 configuration at UA. These are keeping 4 lavs onboard.
However, there was an oddball 737-800 layout with 20 first class seats and 3 lavs for Y (total 4 lavs onboard). The mid-cabin lavs are being removed in favor of the new standard configuration of 16F/150Y with 2 Y lavs, which is the same number of lavs as the AA/DL 738s.
That DHS/Starbucks article has a misleading title. According to the actual text, one use that makes up a huge chunk of that $30k is several large purchases of coffee to stock a Coast Guard ship before a lengthy deployment. Their former USG “expert’s” claim that it would have saved money to have a lengthy bidding process for some coffee is emblematic of all that is wrong with government processes. Whichever side you’re on, I think we can all agree this debate is a different one than the title implies. Obviously these purchases aren’t venti vanilla lattes for TSA agents.
I took one UA flight with a new config. Toilet was a rediculous squeeze, kinda like they only expected children to use it.
A380 being cleaned by the Sorcerer’s Apprentice?
Agreed on the slimline seats. The shorter seat pitch isn’t the issue, but rather the concomitant reduced _seat depth_. The back of the leg gets no support, and it’s very uncomfortable, even for a relatively small guy like me!
I got these twice last year on BOS-SFO, but not at all this year. I assume they’re keeping them on short-haul flights to prevent riots. They’re really awful seats, and shouldn’t be used on flights over 2 hours.
On Tuesday I got one of those rare mid-lav 757-300s. How opulent for an airline today — 3 mid-lavs and 2 in the back!
I’d agree with Alan on the Starbucks thing. Trying to pull it into yet another semi-tired TSA swing is pretty misleading. It has nothing to do with TSA other than happening to share a common umbrella within DHS.
AAs 2 new JFK-UK flights are on 757s !
Ugh… I’m not flying TATL on a 757 🙁
Does anybody know if AA is doing the UK flights with PMAA 757s with shell biz seats or PMUS 757s with the Envoy angled lie-flats? Not a big difference in the product, both angled lie flat, but just curious.
The slimline seats equals sore a$$/ but*
I will not book them and will seek alternative carriers at all costs