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#961848 by dmc
29 Jun 2023, 00:41
Has anyone else noticed an increasing number of faulty seats in Upper Class on the 787s lately? It seems most of my recent flights have had at least one seat with an issue. A couple of days ago I returned from Austin on G-VWHO (VS232) and there were at least 4 seats not working properly, with a completely full cabin.

The crew were very apologetic, but it's not great if the seat can't be converted in and out of bed mode easily on a night flight (I think the crew were able to do it manually with some fiddling) - once back in seat mode those passengers were stuck with their seats in fully upright mode with no recline available.

David
#961849 by mitchja
29 Jun 2023, 04:41
It’s probably down to lack of available parts as that seat was never an ‘off the shelf’ product. I don’t even think the company that supplied that seat even exists any more?

High time VS started ripping that seat out and replacing with the current A339 seat.

It’s not just the B789’s though as my last A339 (G-VJAZ) flight had at least 3 broken seats in J including one of the Retreat suites :-O. Lucky the cabin was less than half full as pax could swap to other seats.

I believe BA also have similar seat parts issues with their older generation J seats that are still in service as well.
#961852 by CommanderB
29 Jun 2023, 10:31
mitchja wrote:It’s probably down to lack of available parts as that seat was never an ‘off the shelf’ product. I don’t even think the company that supplied that seat even exists any more?


Didn’t that company become a wholly owned subsidiary of VS?

Fun fact. The only other airline to use that seat is Air New Zealand. They have a white/cream version which is kinda cool.
#961860 by Claphambear
30 Jun 2023, 03:37
VS owns the company that makes(d) the parts so no issue with sourcing as such

Air New Zealand keep theirs in tick tick condition (buying via VS) so its not sourcing as such is is down to $£

I still prefer to previous seats to the awful A330 Neo or A350 - we are glad our lane home form JFK in a few days has switched from A350 to 787 as can get some sleep !
#961862 by deep_south
30 Jun 2023, 09:46
We flew from LAX over a year ago, and two of the seats had the same fault. The staff were very apologetic and were able to move the seats manually with an awful lot of fiddling using a special tool. They said then there was a problem with a switch in the control mechanism that was in short supply so it isn't a new problem.
#961873 by Kraken
30 Jun 2023, 19:45
I think it's a microswitch in the seat that detects whether the tray table is locked in place of not, as you often see the crew playing with the table. Then out comes a knife (meal service one, so not dangerous) & a safety card to reach around / under the seat to play with the microswitch.

My all time classic was when travelling with a friend to MCO on the 747 and his Upper Class seat would not budge. The crew did their fiddling and - I assume inadvertently - ended up removing the tray table from the wall of his seat. They joked that they would write up the maintenance report as "see attached" and tape it to the table, which was removed to the galley.
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