[respconsumer]

Buyer beware: If you are hoping to enjoy the fully-reclinable seats in the newly configured 777s that UAL has been touting, I would advise either waiting until all the planes have been updated, or just book with another airline.

I booked a roundtrip trans-Atlantic flight in business class. I made sure with the (very helpful) reservations agent that it would indeed be the newly configured 777s, as some of the old 777s were still in circulation.

Unfortunately, on both legs of my trip, the plane was changed at the last second to the old plane. The planes were old, the worn seats had lost their stuffing, and were not fully-reclinable. I found out that only a fraction of the 777 fleet had, as of yet, been updated, and that most of the newly configured 777s fly the trans-Pacific route.

Of course I know that the airlines can't guarantee the type of seat. But the difference in between the new and the old 777s is so disparate, I feel sort of ripped off. If they know that only a small percentage of the new planes are flying, I feel like UAL should let you know up front that it's very likely that you will not get to fly in one.