I recently flew on 767 International Configuration with the rear facing seat. At first, I was not prepared, and there was a bit of motion sickness. Obviously, every g is reverse force, and this is odd. Another passenger refused to be seated in rear-facing business class, and had to be moved economy plus in this United Flight. After a while, with my nice entertainment system, it was fine and the flight was smooth. Would prefer forward facing.

UA views AVOD as a premium feature? And there it is, ladies and gentlemen, a public admission of poverty in the face of overwhelming competition that offers AVOD in all classes on newer aircraft deployed on the most lucrative routes in United’s system. Namely, just about every city they serve across the Pacific.

Old 747s, “B-Model” 777s (2nd generation) and 767s averaging 20+ years each? If they don’t provide an incentive for the steerage class to at least stay with them thru this economy then those same people who MIGHT return to premium cabins when the economy gets better will have already gone elsewhere.

@Bobber –

I think the last time I traveled backwards was on one of those suicide drop rollercoasters. Can’t get THAT feeling out of my head, mate! LOL

- UA also have NOT upgraded or reconfigure the overhead bins on any of the 767s,
and they do NOT plan to upgrade or reconfigure them. UA did look at overhead
bin changes, but even upgrading only the C & F class overhead bins was
considered far too expensive by UA.

Otherwise a nice article.

There really isn’t a great deal of difference, mate. There is a slight tendency for you to lean forward at take-off, but throughout the rest of the flight it’s as per, really. I’ve flown ‘backwards’ in military transporters when I was an air cadet (in the last century!), as the RAF have their VC-10′s and Tristars configured that way throughout – better crash survival, allegedly. Anyway, I think it’s the fact that the new C class suites are that much better than before that’s the real difference, not the pleasant change it makes to be looking the wrong way!

Give us a rundown on what it feels like to be facing backward on take-off and through all the turns and vectors both leaving and arriving at an airport, please? I’m still not sold on that mode of travel on anything other than a fast train.

767 – old 67 Y+ and 84 Y (44% Y+)
new 71 Y+ and 80 Y (47% Y+)

747 – old 88 Y+ and 172 Y (34% Y+)
new 70 Y+ and 240 Y (23% Y+)

777 – old 83/84 Y+ and 114 Y (42% Y+)
new 107 Y+ and 114 Y (48% Y+)

Wankers. This shows the short-sighted nature that is United Airlines. Economy has a higher density configuration, making the larger overhead bins probably more important in the economy class cabin than in the premium cabins.

Brett, are you certain about the % of seats in Y+ on the reconfigured 763s? I thought I’d read United was shrinking the Y+ cabin (F and C also have fewer seats than before the reconfig). It was my understanding that to help pay for the cabin upgrades, UA planned to shrink the premium seats (in theory, to get more people to pay to sit in them), reduce what UA described as “excessive” upgrading, and increase overall density by adding more Y- seats. Then again, maybe that applies only to the reconfigured 744 version.

call it a ‘Friday bonus’ post and take tomorrow off ;)