Premium Economy across the Atlantic on United

Hi everyone!  I got a new job back in May, and now I work in MedTech. As such, travel has been sparse for a while.  In September, I had to take a short trip home to see my parents in Richmond.  In October, I’m taking a trip to the US for a vacation and a conference.  The second trip will have potentially more interesting flights, since I had more flexibility.  For this September trip, I will be covering the outbound flights in this post.  I slept through the entire return flight and don’t have much to say about it.

I booked myself a ticket on the 10:25 am UA15 flight from London to Newark, connecting onto UA3479 from Newark to Richmond at 3:40 pm. 

This is the first time in a while that I’ve booked a flight specifically from the UK to Richmond and back.  There are, therefore, two things of note: 1- I’ll have to collect my bag in Newark and recheck it to continue onward and 2- I have a reasonably good chance of clearing an upgrade from Newark to Richmond (spoiler, it cleared 5 minutes before boarding started).  United is currently offering a promotion to current elites to requalify for their elite status for 2022.  United and American’s prices were the same, and I haven’t flown United in a while internationally, so it seemed like a good time to try it out.

Since I’m living in Ealing currently, I was able to take the TFL rail directly to Heathrow Terminal 2, a journey of under 20 minutes.  The walk from the train station to terminal 2 took almost half as long as the actual train…  Upon arrival, I made my way to United’s premier check-in desks, where they checked my COVID test certificate.  This was the first time I’d flown United internationally since the US added the testing requirement, and although they don’t use the same Verifly app that American and British Airways use, it didn’t take any longer for the information to be checked manually.

After clearing security, I made my way to the Lufthansa lounge. This was my first visit to one since a brief visit in 2020, but I’ve never particularly liked their lounges.  I flew premium economy, but I had lounge access thanks to my United Premier Gold status.  I would’ve preferred to use the Singapore Airlines Lounge or the United Club, but they were both closed, and so the Lufthansa lounge was my only option. 

I arrived at the gate shortly after boarding had begun.  I stopped to get a picture of the gorgeous 787-10 (N12012) that would be taking us on our relatively short flight to Newark Airport. 

I boarded at the very end, as I often do when I don’t need overhead bin space, especially now during COVID.  I originally booked the ticket into coach, but the United app had a ‘day-of’ upgrade for $247.  I generally value an upgrade at around $50/hr, so that seemed worth it for this 7-hour flight.  The seat map was showing an empty middle seat as well, which was a nice bonus.  The last time I booked a premium economy seat on United was in January 2020 for a day-time flight from Newark to London on one of United’s ‘High-J’ 767-300s, and I got a free operational upgrade to Polaris Business Class, which was great.

Waiting at my seat were a small amenity kit, normal (non-noise cancelling) headphones, and a Saks Fifth Avenue pillow and blanket (no gel pillow though!).  WiFi was offered on the flight, but the price seemed a bit high to me, and the ‘use miles’ option gave a value of 0.5 cents/mile, which is very poor value.

Shortly after take-off, lunch service began.  I ordered the chicken and couscous dish.  The main plate was spiced well, and I enjoyed the vegetable medley, but the chicken was a bit dry.  The salad was simple, but fresh, and the bread was cold and hard, as seems to be standard on airplanes recently for me.  The ice cream was great—the treacle toffee flavor was something I would’ve never tried in another situation, and I enjoyed it.  I was given a tiny bottle of white wine to go with lunch.  After the food was served, a second flight attendant came around to see if we wanted any more drinks.  I ordered a Gin & Tonic but was told that spirits weren’t being served ‘in the main cabin’.  After I reminded the flight attendant that this was ‘Premium Plus’ and not economy, she reluctantly said she’d go check.  She came back a couple minutes later with a small bottle of gin and tonic and no words.

I spent my time on the flight catching up on movies and working off-line a bit on my laptop.  United had a very good selection of movies and TV shows, and the ads were skippable, which was a big plus. The screen stopped working randomly at one point during the flight, but I found a different flight attendant, and she reset it quickly.

About an hour before landing, they came around with a pre-landing snack of a tiny, warm turkey and cheddar sandwich.  It was a nice little snack but nothing particularly noteworthy.

Upon landing, we taxied in, and I cleared passport control instantly thanks to global entry and the fancy Newark kiosks that don’t require you to even scan your passport.

Since I originally booked this flight in economy, I earned United miles based on the price of the economy ticket, at a rate of 8 mi/dollar, thanks to my Premier Gold status.  This flight earned me 4 704 redeemable miles and 588 PQP of the 1400 I needed. I also earned an additional 247 PQP for the upgrade, but no redeemable miles from it.  I bought the ticket using a combination of left-over travel credit and my Chase Sapphire Preferred card, which earns 2x points on travel.

In summary, this 7-hour flight was a comfortable and simple way to cross the Atlantic. The Lufthansa lounge was the same as all the others and was fine. I specifically didn’t intend to spend much time there anyway (3/5). The plane’s seat was a standard recliner seat, but it was very comfortable for a daytime flight and still felt very new (5/5). The food was solid (4/5), but the in-flight service left a bit to be desired (3/5). The inflight entertainment was great, but the WiFi was a bit pricy (4/5). Overall, I’d give this premium economy flight a 19/25.