United Launching Premium Economy This Year

The percipient Brian Sumers of Skift reports that United is telling its employees that it will launch a premium economy cabin called ‘Premium Plus’ later this year.

Here they follow American and Delta which have both started offering the international cabin between economy and business class, similar to domestic first class, though American is much farther along in offering it across much of their international fleet.


American Airlines Boeing 787-9 Premium Economy


American Airlines Boeing 787-9 Premium Economy

What we know so far about United’s product reflects fairly standard premium economy amenities, “including meals served on china, alcoholic beverages, a Saks Fifth Avenue blanket and pillow, and an amenity kit.”

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Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  1. I wonder if they’re gonna refit their 777-300ER’s that are brand new. My guess is that since Polaris is taking so long on the 777-200/200ER’s/767’s they said, “f*** it, might as well install this while we’re at it.”

  2. The million dollar question will be what this means for economy plus and GPUs. I guess we will find out how bad they hate their 1K members…

  3. @Doug if UA wants to be innovative, they should give elites a choice of, say,

    4 economy-to-business class GPUs, or
    2 economy-to-business GPUs and 4 economy-to-premium GPUs, or
    8 economy-to-premium GPUs

  4. Do you think this means the end of elites being able to book the “blue” (extra legroom) seats for free on United? Being able to do so is why I moved my business to United; Delta started to consider these seats an “upgrade”. 🙁

  5. Maybe using a GPU on a G to S fare will upgrade to Prem Plus while W and higher still upgrades to Polaris. Maybe a GPU can upgrade any fare class from Prem Plus to Polaris. Will be interesting to see what the mileage upgrades will cost (miles + $).

    I’m nervous they will remove Econ+ from international flights that have Prem Plus.

  6. This seems like a late decision.
    UA: Crap people hate narrow seats 10 across in Y? We need a PE product to stay competitive stat!

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