How old is the aeroplane you are flying on?

“They’d rather wait for stuff that gets shaken down and they know it works,” Brancatelli said. “It’s like anything, do you really want to be in a restaurant the first night it’s open?”

The plane is the first major airliner to be made mostly of composite materials, making it lighter and more fuel-efficient. This also means the plane’s testing will be quite rigorous to see how the material will behave in service, Aboulafia said.

Last month, United announced it has requested 25 Dreamliners, though the airline won’t take delivery until 2016 at the earliest.

Boeing is touting the new plane’s sweeping arches, wide aisles and larger lavatories as features that will make travellers more comfortable, but experts said economy class passengers likely won’t see much relief when it comes to personal space.

It will be up to each airline to decide the seat configuration, which is likely going to be similar to what travellers see now.

“The one issue I worry about in any airplane, I don’t care what it is, is leg room, and frankly, if you’re flying in coach, they’re going to pack them in to make money,” Curtis said.