United Airlines Premium Plus Review Details:
- Date: August 2023
- Flight Number: United Airlines 331 (UA)
- Route: Paris (CDG) 5:00 PM – Washington (IAD) 7:35 PM
- Aircraft: Boeing 767-400ER
- Duration: 8 hours 35 minutes
- Seat: 23K and 23L
- Miles and Points Redeemed: 50K United MileagePlus Miles
Introduction
After flying Starlux and Cathay Pacific as part of our trip to Paris the long way, it was time to return to the United States. While I’ve been fortunate to fly in United’s Polaris Business Class cabin a number of times, I had yet to review United’s Premium Plus (International Premium Economy) product.
For this flight, we spent 50,000 United MileagePlus Points for our Premium Plus Seats. 50K is about the lowest I’ve seen on this route with Premium Plus usually charging at a 10,000 to 20,000-mile premium over the economy saver rate. Expect the award cost to be much higher when saver awards are not available. You could also look to utilize PlusPoints to instantly confirm an upgrade to United Premium Plus.
For cash rates, Premium Plus typically comes in at a $800 dollar or more premium (round-trip) compared to economy on this route. Depending on fare inventory and your destination, Premium Plus can get down to a couple of hundred dollars more than Economy and in some cases even cheaper than Economy. When booking a ticket with United, I’d always recommend checking the price of Premium Plus compared to Economy just to consider the fare difference.
Is United Premium Economy product worth the additional cost? Read our United Premium Plus review below to find out.
United Premium Plus (Premium Economy) Cabin Details (767-400ER)
United’s 767-400ER that would be taking us from Paris to Washington includes 4 rows of Premium Plus seats in a 2-2-2 configuration for a total of 24 seats. The advantage of flying Premium Plus on the 767-400ER over United’s other widebody aircraft such as the 777 and 787 is that no one ends up in a middle seat. By comparison, the 787 features a 2-3-2 configuration and the 777 features a 2-4-2 configuration.
I would recommend looking at the Premium Plus seat map before booking to see what seats are available on your flight. Personally, I’d be less inclined to pay for a Premium Plus upgrade if I was going to end up in a middle seat.
On the 767-400ER, United’s Premium Plus seats offer 38 inches of pitch, 6 inches of recline, and 19 inches of width. You can review this against United’s Economy Plus and Economy seat specifications below.
If you are comparing this against the competition when traveling to Paris from the US, American’s 787-9 and Air France’s 777-300ER match United’s Premium Economy seat specifications. Similarly, Delta’s Premium Select product on its 767-400ER also offers 38 inches of pitch but half an inch more of width at 19.5 inches.
United Premium Plus Seat Review
Boarding began about 15 minutes behind schedule, and we got to board in Group 2 as Premium Plus passengers. We made our way to seats 23K and 23L which is in the last row of Premium Economy on the right aisle side of the 767-400ER. We faced less foot traffic from other passengers in row 23, which I prefer. However, if you select a seat in row 20, you’ll have a bulkhead seat with some extra leg room but do note you are in close proximity to the galley and lavatory.
United’s Premium Plus cabin utilizes a purple color scheme which is shown on your mobile boarding pass, seat, and amenity kit (now replaced by Therabody).
United’s Premium Plus seat provides controls for adjusting the seat recline and the leg rest. You’ll also notice the footrest underneath the seat in front of you. While it’s nothing compared to the comfort of a lie-flat business class seat, I did find that the combination of seat recline and the leg rest/footrest took a lot of stress off my legs and made it easier to fall asleep compared to Economy.
Next to the seat controls you’ll find the remote for controlling the 13-inch entertainment display.
Aft of the seat controls and remote, you’ll find a storage area to place a tablet or your laptop, along with a headphone jack and universal outlet.
Between seats, you’ll find a console holding drinks or smaller items. I appreciated the extension that you could open at the front for some additional surface area.
Each seat includes a tray table for dining and a foldable slat for propping up a phone or tablet. As you’ll see my tray table was not the cleanest and I used a cleaning wipe on it 🤢
The tray table could easily fit my 14-inch Macbook Pro and WiFi speeds on my flight were adequate for browsing the web and checking email.
Overhead, you have bin space that is technically designated for Premium Plus passengers but I assume Economy passengers may put something up there if bin space becomes full. With Group 2 boarding in Premium Plus, we boarded pretty early and ended up having the bin space to ourselves for the flight. This was nice as I could easily retrieve items from my bag throughout the flight as needed while keeping my leg area completely free. This is not always as easy to do in Economy especially if you end up in a middle seat or bin space is limited when you board.
Finally, you will not find any individual air nozzles on the 767-400ER which I would have appreciated as I found the cabin to be a bit too hot at times during the flight.
Overall, United’s Premium Plus hard product is perfectly competitive with what you’ll find on other airlines flying between the US and Europe. Carriers in other markets such as Japan Airlines, Air New Zealand, and Emirates offer 40+ inches of legroom (compared to United’s 38 inches) so you may find the legroom to be on the smaller side if you have flown with one of these airlines.
Is the Premium Plus worth the extra cost compared to United’s Economy seat? Obviously, this is a very personal preference, but I typically struggle to get any kind of good sleep in Economy, while with Premium Plus I was able to fall asleep for about 4 hours on this flight which I attribute to the greater room and leg rest. When flying between Europe and the US East Coast, I find Economy perfectly tolerable with flight times typically from 6 to 8 hours even if I don’t end up getting much sleep. However, if I was traveling from the US to Asia or Oceanic destinations where flight times are 10 to 15+ hours, the Premium Plus upgrade would be worth it for me so I can arrive at my destination better rested.
United Premium Plus: Amenities
At our seats, we found a Saks Fifth Avenue pillow, blanket, an Away Branded amenity kit (now replaced by Therabody), and headphones. I find United’s bedding to be top-notch and perfectly adequate for a Premium Economy product.
The headphones are the same as what is included in Polaris Business Class but would recommend using your own noise-canceling headphones instead if you have them.
The amenity kit was pretty well stocked with socks, a dental kit, earplugs, lip balm, hand cream, and an eye mask. I could do without the #myunitedjourney on the eye mask but that’s just me 😂
United Premium Plus: Takeoff and Departure
The safety video was played and our Boeing 767-400ER began its taxi for departure. However, our flight ended up returning to the gate and was delayed about an hour. I think United typically does a great job in its mobile app of explaining delays to customers compared to other airlines that would indicate just a general delay. In this case, United’s description was a little vague as shown in the image below.
During the boarding process, a Premium Plus passenger seated near us was upgraded to Polaris Business Class, and then a non-rev passenger ended up taking the now empty Premium Plus seat. In the middle of our taxi, the pilots announced we had a weight and balance issue, and we returned to the gate. Ultimately, the non-rev ended up having to get off the aircraft and the passenger who was previously upgraded to business was now downgraded back to Premium Plus.
It seems odd to me that this weight and balance issue was discovered during the taxi and would ideally be discovered before moving to avoid delaying the flight and disappointing the downgraded passengers and non-rev passengers. I’m sure there’s more complexity to the situation than I’m aware of but I wonder if anything could have been done more efficiently or if this is the standard protocol. A number of passengers ended up misconnecting in Dulles due to this delay.
At least I enjoyed the view from the wing as we waited for things to be sorted out.
United Premium Plus Review: Food
About 45 minutes after departure the first meal was served.
In Premium Plus you’ll find an “elevated” dining experience compared to Economy. While technically better than Economy, United is not known for catering so “better” food is not a reason I would factor into whether you upgrade to Premium Economy.
In Polaris Business Class, United provides passengers with a menu card outlining the meal options available to order. This was not the case in Premium Plus so the cabin crew had to continuously repeat the available food choices to each row, which seems inefficient to me. Meal options included chicken, pasta, or a vegetarian option.
My partner requested the chicken option and I requested the pasta option for comparison. As we were ordering our meals, the flight attendant working the other aisle yelled over to the flight attendant taking our meal orders asking if any pasta was left, as a “Premier 1K Passenger in Business Class” ordered it and “she would have a fit” if she didn’t receive it.
As a non-elite member traveling on United, I don’t have a problem with elite members being prioritized over me for their meal selection. However, there has to be a more customer-friendly way to communicate this beyond yelling across the cabin and in front of the passengers who would no longer get the meal they just requested 🥲. In the end, no big deal, and I gladly accepted the vegetarian meal instead.
Our meals were served on a single tray. We found the chicken entree to be quite dry and the bread was stale. The vegetarian option ended up being the better of the two meals but still quite bland. The highlight of the meal ended up being the packaged dessert which was delicous.
About 90 minutes out of Washington Dulles the pre-arrival snack was served which consisted of a ham and cheese sandwich and a side salad. While nothing to write home about, I did find it more enjoyable than our main entrees served earlier in the flight.
United Premium Plus Review: Pilot Debrief
United offers a perfectly acceptable Premium Plus (Premium Economy) product on its international flights that I wouldn’t hesitate flying again. The seat offers a good amount of additional space compared to Economy, which some passengers will value more than others. For me personally, this led to some additional sleep that I would likely not have gotten in the Economy cabin. I’d be more likely to pay an upgrade to Premium Plus on flights longer than 10 hours where I value more rest but on shorter flights between the US and Europe I’d tend to save the additional cash or miles.
Unfortunately, United’s overall food quality and service experience across all cabins tends to be lacking so I would not consider these factors when deciding whether to pay for an upgrade to Premium Plus. While food and service can vary from flight to flight, I’d generally recommend Air France or Delta as better Premium Economy options from the US to Paris if you have flexibility.
Overall, I was happy to try United’s Premium Plus product for the first time and hope this review helps you to evaluate an upgrade decision to this product. If you are curious how Premium Plus compares to United’s Polaris Business Class experience be sure to check out my recent review.
