United MileagePlus (Consolidated) - In seat power

We came back to CLE recently from SAN. The first leg was on an A 320 that appeared to be new, but had marginal IFE (I don't care about that; my habit is to turn it off), and no in seat power. The second leg was on a 737-500 which had no in seat power.

I asked an attendant on departing the first flight if the lack of power was temporary, but she seemed to think it would exist on some planes, while others had power.

I'm wondering if UA, which says it caters to business travelers, feels that in seat power is not a necessity. I don't usually carry enough batteries to run my pc effectively without power, and got no work done on this flight. Flying on the A 320 was like flying in a coffin, except the coffin has lie-flat seating. The web site is useless for planning as it just says power is available on some planes.

I was already exercised with their coy description of food service. What is a snack? It seemed like a light lunch to me, but the flight attendant called it a dinner. For health reasons, my diet is critical, and there is a material difference between a light lunch and a bag of chips.

We came back to CLE recently from SAN. The first leg was on an A 320 that appeared to be new, but had marginal IFE (I don't care about that; my habit is to turn it off), and no in seat power. The second leg was on a 737-500 which had no in seat power.

I asked an attendant on departing the first flight if the lack of power was temporary, but she seemed to think it would exist on some planes, while others had power.

I'm wondering if UA, which says it caters to business travelers, feels that in seat power is not a necessity. I don't usually carry enough batteries to run my pc effectively without power, and got no work done on this flight. Flying on the A 320 was like flying in a coffin, except the coffin has lie-flat seating. The web site is useless for planning as it just says power is available on some planes.

I was already exercised with their coy description of food service. What is a snack? It seemed like a light lunch to me, but the flight attendant called it a dinner. For health reasons, my diet is critical, and there is a material difference between a light lunch and a bag of chips.Power on UA? Clearly not a priority. It's available on internationally-configured planes with new seating (lie-flat) but the old empower stuff on 757s has largely been boarded up (pretty much literally; plates have been placed in front of the receptacles). It's not something you can depend on.

Not sure everyone will agree that a 320 is a flying coffin; I rather like that plane. Wider seats in Y than the 757, row 7 (again in Y) is awesome. Seats in F don't have much going for them but they're still nicer than what's in back. Food? If you've got health issues that restrict you to eating on schedule or perhaps something healthy, the airlines aren't the only place you've got to bring your own. :o

Nothing new here; have you just started flying after a lengthy hiatus?

Their are details for every plane/every flight. Do research on united.com and it will tell you. The 735s dont have power and won't get power. Most being sold this year.

All airbus planes are getting power.

A fellow FT'er maintains a very good fleet resource:

https://sites.google.com/site/unitedfleetsite/mainline-fleet-tracking

Probably more info than you ever cared for.

the old empower stuff on 757s has largely been boarded up (pretty much literally; plates have been placed in front of the receptacles). It's not something you can depend on.

I haven't seen a working empower port for about a year. Most of the time the ports have a plate covering them. So I gave up expecting to do much work on my laptop since its battery is old and doesn't last long.

... So I gave up expecting to do much work on my laptop since its battery is old and doesn't last long.new laptop batterries can be found on ebay for $20-$30