p.s. I love you: UA's Revamped Premium Service JFK-SFO in Y

[yflyer]

I just read Carfield’s superb TR on JetBlue’s “Mint” inaugural, which covered B6’s new J product on US transcontinental routes such as JFK-LAX.

The JetBlue “Mint” product looks targeted at a market similar to UA’s transcontinental Premium Service (p.s.) offering, which UA offers between JFK and SFO/LAX. Let us take a look at what UA has to offer.

Earlier this month, as part of an extended trip to Europe and North America, I flew one-way from New York City to San Francisco. For this journey, I snagged a cheap fare for JFK-SFO on UA in Y for an all-in total of SGD 298.





After a weekend stopover in Manhattan, it was time to head to San Francisco.

[yflyer]

I have flown UA on numerous occasions over the years. I believe they remain a leading airline, from the perspective of scale of operations, safety and professional crew and staff amid difficult market conditions, but I don’t see them as leaders for their cabin or soft product.

The fact that the aircraft was a 757, or what I like to call the Flying Pencil, was not cause for excitement either.

So I did not have high expectations for this flight. I prepped for the flight as if for a long train journey. Food, snacks, reading material, a fully loaded MacBook and iPad. All I expected from UA was a seat and a drink.

But what do you know, on this flight, all my pre-conceived notions of a UA flight were overturned.

I did not realize it when I booked the flight, or indeed until I boarded the plane, but on this route, UA offers what they term their Premium Service, or p.s. for short. This is 2013 revamp of their “Premium Service”, first launched in 2004, on routes between JFK and SFO / LAX.

My flight was UA541, a 9.10am departure out of JFK on a Monday morning for a 5+ hour flight to SFO, scheduled to arrive at 12.27pm local time.

Check-in at JFK’s Terminal 7 was fairly quick using the priority check-in counters for UA FF’s and Star Gold members. There were just a few other flights departing from that terminal at that hour, so security queues were short as well.

There was a smallish but fairly comfortable United Club lounge, available to Star Gold members, in the terminal. I didn’t spend much time there, and instead spent my time exploring the airside area where there were a few news stands and shops, and a food court area with outlets ranging from McDonalds to Wolfgang Puck Express.

Boarding was already underway when I got to the gate.

[yflyer]

I was pleasantly surprised to find that this was a reconfigured 757-200 series, with their new 2013 Premium Service (p.s.) product. This 757 had winglets and a new interior in both the front BusinessFirst and economy cabins.

The SeatGuru seat map for the flight can be found here.

While the original “Premium Service” had a 3-class cabin with First, Business and Economy, the revamped premium service, on specially configured 757’s, would have BusinessFirst, Economy Plus and Economy.

The front cabin was BusinessFirst, which is sold as a business class product. This was laid out in slanted 2-2 layout, with 180 degree lie-flat seats. These looked very comfortable. Certainly superior to the old conventional 2-2 business class seat layout common on earlier generation 757’s.





Here is a picture I took of the BusinessFirst cabin later in the flight.

[yflyer]

The Y cabin was laid out 3-3 with new Y seats equipped with state-of-the-art IFE. The front section of Y was Economy Plus, with several inches more legroom (Not premium economy by means, though.)



Legroom in regular Y, where I was seated, was fine.



The seats were comfortable, with reasonable recline, even in the very last row.



There were no IFE boxes under the seats either. Seats came with individual air vents.



The widescreen IFE was of very high quality – with superb contrast and sharpness. This was controlled via touchscreen, and came with USB power. A/C power was also available in Y.

[yflyer]

This being UA, you could also listen in to flight deck comms / ATC..what used to be known as Channel 9. I was delighted to find that this was available in the IFE menu, and that this was turned on for this flight, and I tuned in as we pushed back.



We settled back for the flight across the North American continent...



Menus were handed out. Soft drinks were complimentary, and meals and alcoholic beverages were available for purchase.











I had brought my own food onboard, purchased from the airside food court at JFK, so I didn’t order from the menu, but some of the folks seated around me did order the snack boxes. These looked to be mainly packaged snack food. I did not see many people ordering any of the warm dishes in my section of the cabin.

I asked for a cranberry apple juice, and was given the whole can along with a full cup of ice. Now that’s the way to serve juice!



Overall cabin ambience in the Y cabin was good.

[yflyer]

IFE was very impressive. A very wide selection of on-demand movies and television was provided, all displayed on the sharp, vivid, touch-operated widescreen on the back of each Y seat. I would be happy with this system on a longhaul international flight. It was that good.





Apart from Hollywood hits, these included among these were international selections, including Already Famous, starring Michelle Chong.



There were audio channels as well, but no audio CD’s on demand – just a wide selection of different pre-recorded audio programs.

[yflyer]

And if the brilliant IFE did not provide enough entertainment, there was also onboard wifi available for purchase, provided by gogo.



Unlike the OnAir service offered by SQ, which is billed based on quantity of data (e.g. 5MB or 10MB), the gogo service was billed by duration, i.e. 30 min, 60 min or the full flight duration. There were also monthly passes. There were also two different types of plans,: there are slightly cheaper plans only for mobile devices, and one which could be used across laptops and other devices.

Examples of mobile internet plans:




Plans usable on notebooks / laptops and other devices (including phones).



I thought these price plans were quite well thought out. The cost of internet for the full flight, USD 29.95, was not exorbitant, and the fact that there was no data restriction made it quite appealing. Speed of internet was not great, but perfectly adequate for general browsing and Facebook (No Youtube video streaming, though). The mobile plans were ok for WhatsApp and Facebook on mobile etc.

And for June, it would also enable you to catch up on World Cup matches and scores inflight!



So quite an impressive array of IFE options on UA's Premium Service.

Where does that leave the rest of the UA mainline fleet? The inflight magazine offers a glimpse of what the future holds in terms of IFE, and it is an exciting vision indeed: Wifi, IFE (either seatback video or streamed onto personal devices), on the mainline fleet by 2015.

Also, A/C power at least in the front cabin and Y+, as well as Y on selected fleet types.

[yflyer]

We landed on schedule on SFO.



I had Channel 9 on again – it was quite interesting to listen in on ATC, and from that I learned that at least one plane had to go around, and that an Air Canada plane that was preparing to take-off had to return to the gate because they had a door open indication for one of their doors.



We deplaned at SFO Terminal 3, into a very bright and new terminal area.

[yflyer]

My verdict? Very impressive. Although UA’s Premium Service is available only on a limited selection of routes, such as JFK-SFO/LAX, I was very impressed with what they had on offer.

Apart from the fact that you had to purchase meals and alcoholic beverages, I would rate the hard product as on par with what SQ offers on regional routes. Certainly the IFE and Y cabin is superior to what you get on SQ's refurbished 777’s. I never imagined that a flight on a UA 757 could be so comfortable.

So a thumbs up for UA’s new Premium Service, at least in Y. The fact that I got this for a rock bottom one-way fare of SGD 298, including full FF mileage, was the icing on the cake.

Thanks for reading!

[HUGE AL]

I believe they remain a leading airline, from the perspective of scale of operations, safety and professional crew and staff amid difficult market conditions...

Oh, you KNOW I completely differ in opinion!

[9V-SIA]

Nice TR. Thanks!

After all the complaints by US based flyers, I was expecting the worst

However, I was impressed with the hard product, specifically Y+, which is superior to SQ/MI Y seats

They even offered IFE (direct TV) on ex CO aircraft

Pilots were impressive. Poor visibility but super smooth landings

[CarbonMan]

Thanks, yflyer, for the TR.

This is truly an exception for UA. The routes I fly within the US (IAH-EWR/LGA, IAH-ATL, ATL-EWR, EWR-SEA) are either flown with 737 dash 800s and the Embraer RJ145. Terribly tight seats. And with no status on UA and possibility of a free upgrade, I have to either use my miles to get upgraded to their F/J especially on longer routes or pay a few extra dollars for Y+ (which is actually a good deal until I realise that I've paid over US$1K for a 4-hour IAH-EWR flight, which happens if I book late).

[Kyo]

Will definitely consider booking UA p.s. on that route in the future - what a steal at that price, I'd be thrilled to find it sub-$300 also. However, knowing my luck with United, something's inevitably bound to go wrong. VX my first choice where possible... thanks for the TR!

[cscs1956]

Will definitely consider booking UA p.s. on that route in the future - what a steal at that price, I'd be thrilled to find it sub-$300 also. However, knowing my luck with United, something's inevitably bound to go wrong. VX my first choice where possible... thanks for the TR!

Agreed. Price is really attractive. A SGP to LA cab be up to S$1000 different. Assuming 5 trips a years, I can save S$4 to $5K.

[yflyer]

Will definitely consider booking UA p.s. on that route in the future - what a steal at that price, I'd be thrilled to find it sub-$300 also. However, knowing my luck with United, something's inevitably bound to go wrong. VX my first choice where possible... thanks for the TR!

On UA.com, for JFK-SFO one-way, some dates in April 2015 are available for SGD 268 one way ! Very restrictive fares, of course, but at that price, who can complain?