United Airlines' Premium Plus Cabin
During my return trip from Antarctica, the travel company that handles all of the bookings for contractors decided it would be really cool to put me in a middle seat on the 12-hour flight from Auckland to San Francisco. Seeing as how I’m a 6’4 man with broad shoulders, that simply was not going to fly (pun not intended).
I tried to change my seat online, but you can only imagine my disappointment when I realized that the only seats left open on that flight were middle seats. At this point I was left with two options: suck it up and keep the seat I was assigned, or upgrade my ticket to United’s new premium economy class which it calls “Premium Plus.” As you can no doubt guess by the title of this review, I decided to spend the miles and travel in a little more comfort. In hindsight…if I could have switched to a non-middle seat in Economy, I would have just saved the miles.
GROUND EXPERIENCE
Upon arriving in Auckland, I made my way to the international terminal where I printed my new, Premium Plus boarding pass from one of the kiosks before heading through passport control and security on my way out of New Zealand.
United doesn’t have it’s own lounge in Auckland which is understandable considering it doesn’t have too many flights coming in and out of it. Fortunately for me I was able to access the Air New Zealand lounge with my Star Alliance Gold status. Every time I visit a non-American carrier’s lounge, I’m always left a bit sad as I think to myself, “Why aren’t American lounges this nice?” The lounge in Auckland was modern yet elegant with a nice selection of cold sandwiches, falafel wraps, and freshly made short-rib baos. Additionally there was an open bar allowing guests to serve themselves.
Unfortunately, even if you are flying in an airport that has a United Club, flying in the Premium Plus cabin does not get you access into the lounge, rather you can access the lounge at a discounted price. This seems rather stingy of United considering the 787-10 I was flying in didn’t have anything like a true Business class where one generally expects complimentary admittance into the lounge.
CABIN & SEAT
Out of the two seats available when I upgraded, I got 22F, an aisle seat in the middle section of the last row in the Premium Plus cabin. The immediate thing I noticed about the seats was the color: purple. As United continues its rebranding, they have chosen to add the color purple into their color scheme. The color of the seats has caused the Premium Plus cabin to be nicknamed the “purple section.”
The seat itself is very roomy and since the tray tables are stored in the armrests, there is even more room between each seat which meant you don’t have to establish dominance with your neighbor as to who gets more armrest space. On top of that, seats also have roughly 6” of recline, comparable to most of United’s domestic first class products and the headrest with its adjustable “wings” offered enough support to lean your head on as you slept.
The seat’s design does have some shortfalls, the biggest of which is the leg rest. Although it is nice in theory to have a leg rest at your seat, the seat just doesn’t really have the pitch necessary to make it at all worthwhile. Even when fully extended, the leg rest did not come high enough to support my legs. Likewise the tray table at each seat is very small and my 15” laptop didn’t even fit on it without partially hanging over the sides.
Another shortfall in the design is the placement of the audio jack and power outlet. While it is nice that each seat comes with a power outlet to keep your electronics charged throughout the flight, both the audio and power outlets are tucked away awkwardly behind you in a small compartment beneath the left arm rest. The placement of both outlets also made it very easy to pull your headphones or chargers out, and their positioning makes it difficult to plug them back in without getting out of the seat.
By far the most disappointing thing about the seat was that, despite only being in service for 10 months, the upholstery is already worn down and peeling off. While I do understand that the armrests do receive a lot more wear and tear due to being used by everyone, the material looks and feels cheap which is probably why it’s already falling apart.
AMENITIES & IFE
The first thing you notice upon arriving to your seat is a printed menu with the meal options for the flight as well as drink options printed on the opposite side. There is also a pillow and blanket made by Saks Fifth Ave. which seems to be some kind of branding agreement United has made with Saks. The pillow cover itself is very soft, a little too soft in my opinion as I like my pillows on the firmer side but that is just a personal preference thing.
In the backseat pocket in front of you there are also slippers and noise cancelling headphones for you to use during the flight. In the side pocket of my seat was a Star Wars branded amenity kit. United seems to be a big fan of branding with studios as this is the second movie in recent memory that I have seen attached to United, the first being Spider-Man: Far From Home. The amenity kit was fairly basic containing a sleep mask, moisturizer, lip balm, ear plugs, among a few other goodies.
The Star Wars connection didn’t just end at the amenity kit as the pre-flight safety video was heavily influenced by the recently released Rise of Skywalker . The screen in front of each seat comes in at a massive 13.3,” larger than any high-end tablet on the market today. The screen itself is very high quality with great colors, and the IFE system has a “ambient mode” setting, showing peaceful images of forests and beaches. This ambient mode really helps show off the resolution and contrast on this screen.
The IFE’s user interface is easy to use and highly responsive with a huge selection of movies and TV shows including somewhat recent releases like Joker and Terminator: Dark Fate. Unfortunately for me, they did not yet have the new Star Wars movie onboard that I wanted to watch while down in Antarctica, but considering it did just come out two months prior, that’s not totally unexpected. A neat addition I found was the inclusion of a “Do Not Disturb” feature that let’s you opt in to be woken up only during the meal services which is pretty nice and the first time I’ve ever seen this feature.
