ALL QF's 330's to get lay flat Business seating - Including Domestic

[mannej]

According to the crew I spoke with in May, the last 332 with the gen 1 slantbed on the BNE-NRT route went in for refurb last month. I believe it’s slated for the new business suites fit out.

Well overdue. On the flight I took the IFE failed to start for well over an hour and all seats in J lost power when a breaker went, meaning no recline, IFE or charging for a good 45-50 mins. The interiors in the old birds are falling apart.

Fingers crossed the rest of the fleet gets similar treatment going forward.

Galley talk isn't always the most accurate, as both EBG and EBL have been in regular service which means they haven't been getting refitted yet.

 

[stevenaus]

Galley talk isn't always the most accurate, as both EBG and EBL have been in regular service which means they haven't been getting refitted yet.

My understanding is that the first of either EBG/EBL will be start in Sept 18 and the other next year by April 19. This would work in with the post requiring having 2 or 3 of the 330-200's with tech crew rest and two loo's up front completed first before work could start on EBG/EBL.

 

[moa999]

A few recent posts on airliners.net suggesting a few aircraft will be reconfig'd to the 332L for Longhaul config first, before EBG EBL get reconfigured.

EBS is the first and entered BNE maintenance on 4-Jun. Unsure how long the reconfig will take - would be usual to combine it with general maintenance.

EBG / EBL will get the new Business Suites upfront and downnback have the Rockwell Collins IFE removed and replaced with iPad holders plus WiFi and the Internet aerial

 

[Tom/PER]

What I don't understand about this whole refurb process is why EBG and EBL can't be reconfigured consecutively, meaning there will still be an orphan floating around the network causing grief and annoyance until April 2019. Is there a supply issue with the J suites maybe?

Are the current Y seats in these 2 completely overhauled or replaced during the refurb?

 

[moa999]

Not sure where stevenaus got his info, but typically the refurbs are scheduled alongside other scheduled maintenance to minimise downtime, so perhaps this is the reason.

I believe the other WiFi 332s just got new seatcovers and back to hold the iPads

 

[flightobserver]

Helping a family member to book a reward flight, I noticed that the seatmap was for the updated A332L config (27J/224Y). In J a toilet has replaced 5K while row 6 has been moved aft into the mini-cabin and now consists of a full row. Row 8 has been deleted. In Y, the rows are now numbered 23-37 and 45-58. Row 37 consists of D/E/F/G seats only, rows 55-58 are in 2-3-2 config.

 

[whughes3]

Still no reference to this on the QF website though?

 

[moa999]

The seat maps only tend to get published when the new 'type' enters service.

 

[Tom/PER]

27J/224Y, if correct that's obviously -1 J seat (which we knew was going to make way for the extra lav) but surprise there is the removal of 19 Y seats compared to the current total of 243Y.

At a guess one would have to assume these are having a proper crew rest facility installed and not just some curtained off seats which -EBG and L have.

Looking forward too seeing the finished product as limited details have been so far been released.

 

[moa999]

A bit more details from qf002 on airliners

They are removing row 1 in J (which is just the centre pair) to make way for a larger forward galley and pilot rest area, and 5K to make way for a second toilet ahead of the R2 door. There will then be an extra two seats in the second J cabin making 2 full rows of 4.

In Y they are doing some rearranging but effectively losing 16 seats in the forward cabin and 3 in the rear (the last centre set at the very back of the aircraft). I’m not sure what is happening with the toilets in Y but I do know that the rear galley will be larger than it is now.

Crew rest seats have not yet been blocked in the GDS - 27J/224Y is the short haul configuration while the long haul will be 27J/220Y.

 

[Melburnian1]

Losing 19 Y seats is quite a few. Sure, the J yield is far higher but nonetheless someone has to 'pay' for the lost revenue.

 

[Rangalad]

Speaking with the crew today, it appears 5G will be directly opposite the new loo. We tested it out as I was in 5K

 

[milehighclub]

New A332L seat map

Row 6 goes from the forward cabin.
5K becomes a toilet (but door is opposite a galley, not a seat)
Row 6 and 7 now behind doors 2, the galley and tech crew rest
A toaster and espresso machine are being installed
37AB and JK are blocked for crew rest on international flights, but on domestic sectors when they can be sold, have 34 inch of leg room.

 

[Rangalad]

That’s good to know. Thought it might be a similar issue to the CX A350 forward loo.

 

[whughes3]

Losing 19 Y seats is quite a few. Sure, the J yield is far higher but nonetheless someone has to 'pay' for the lost revenue.

It is still 16 more seats overall than the old international 332 config (36J/199Y).

 

[mannej]

But 9 less J seats.

 

[whughes3]

But 9 less J seats.

Vastly superior J seats though.

 

[mannej]

I am not sure the beancounters see it like that

 

[whughes3]

I am not sure the beancounters see it like that

They apparently were happy with a reduction to 28 J seats, so one more removed should not cause too many tears; fewer award seats and upgrades should do the trick. Looking around, around 250 seats seems fairly typical for 332's in international service.

 

[snooze]

Do you think itll be flown on the Jakarta and trans tasman routes? or will they be left to the 'Domestic' configured -200's?