Hi Everyone, I know we’ve all been on the edge of our seats regarding the fate of our Economy Plus product, and I believe the headline and
press release says it all. Economy Plus is here to stay.
Specifically, we will be retaining our Economy Plus seating on all current United aircraft and will be adding an Economy Plus seating section to our fleet of Continental aircraft starting in 2012. To set expectations, this will be a multi-year effort, and the specific timing won’t be provided until we have a better sense of our modification schedule. Factors including aircraft availability, hangar schedules, are still being determined.
I’ll do my best to answer some your questions, starting with some obvious ones below:
- Why wait until 2012 to start? As with any major cabin retrofit program, there’s a fair amount of engineering and planning that needs to be done before we can start on the first aircraft. This is the amount of lead time we need to get the process started.
- Will Economy Plus be installed at the expense of First Class or Economy Class seats? This is yet to be decided. It’s an important decision, especially for our domestic fleet, and one we’re putting a lot of thought into.
- Will Elites still have complimentary access to Economy Plus? The short answer is yes. As many of you know, Continental and United Elites have different policies for accessing extra legroom seating. Currently, on Continental-operated flights, extra legroom seats (select bulkhead and exit row seats) are complimentary to OnePass Gold/Platinum/Presidential Platinum and Mileage Plus Premier Executive/1K/Global Services members in advance, and to all Elite members from both programs at check-in. On United-operated flights, Elite members of both programs have access to Economy Plus both in advance and at check-in. We will be harmonizing this policy in the coming year as we further synch up our two loyalty programs.
- What about the p.s. transcon product, 3-cabin First Class, and other configuration decisions? There are indeed several more aircraft configuration blanks to fill in, which we expect to announce throughout the year. Stay tuned!
I think those are the key points, but if I've missed anything please let me know.
Scott O’Leary
Managing Director, Customer Solutions
United Airlines