I haven't seen any reports of non-lie-flat seats on Premium Transcon flights, except in the extremely rare case of IRROPS. I personally fly Premium Transcons many times per year (probably fifteen flights per year), and only once in the last ten years have I experienced IRROPS that resulted in a switch to 757-300 with recliners.

Does anyone know when 1A opens up for seat selection on the EWR-SFO/LAX transcons? I'm guessing 72 or 48 hours out? Thanks!

To answer my own question, it looks like 1A opened around T-60 for my upcoming flight.

Any idea why the 757-200 seatmaps on EWR-SFO show 4AB as blocked? They are still selling full cabin, as with every other seat taken & 4AB blocked, it's still J2.

Always blocked on this plane type. Will be released at check-in. Pilot rest for TATL; blocked.

I have flown EWR-SFO in business twice this year, Once in April , once in August. 777-200 & 777-300 3L.

Starting with the positives:

-The seat, bedding, and amenity kit. There is very little to complain about when you have the privilege of flying a window Polaris seat across the USA. I find the Polaris seat to be extremely comfortable along with the duvet and two pillows (especially the gel pillow.) It makes a 6 hour journey fly by. I am indifferent about an amenity kit. In my opinion it is a nice addition and probably wouldn't miss it if it wasn't loaded on my next flight.
-Entertainment - United has never disappointed me with the entertainment selection, I am always able to find something to keep me entertained. Having seat back entertainment is great as well as I am able to have plenty of space to work as well.
-Service - I know there are mixed opinions, but I have had a really good run of some great crews with United this year on all of my flights except one. Both my transcon flights had friendly, attentive, and efficient crews. No complaints there.
-United Club access- Even though I am already a UC member, this is a great perk with EWR being fully open with 2 brand new clubs and one a little over a year old.

The negative:

Food.....................
I've learned from many seasoned travelers that you don't fly for the food. While that is a fair statement, the meals that I have had on United this year on my transcon flights have been absolutely atrocious. I don't think it can get much worse. The options have been terrible and flavorless. I remember on my flight in August, I had the butternut squash ravioli and I could just feel my blood pressure rise with the amount of salt that was on the dish, assuming that it was making up for the lack of flavor that it had. This has to improve... You can't brand this "premium transcontinental" and offer only two dishes that could barely pass for prison food. Pre-pandemic, United offered a multi-course meal on these routes with an appetizer, salad, and three options. I remember having a couple of different meals that were pretty good. I have flown this route 12 times since October 2020 and not a single time have I had a passable meal.
Unfortunately, I can't speak to the ice cream sundaes because in April they weren't loaded on the plane and my August flight they had a catering confusion and there were limited sundaes were loaded on the plane and understandably the GS and 1K's got priority.

I will be flying this route again next week and hope the positives remain. As far as the food is concerned, I might just fill up in one of the UC's ahead of the flight and get a snack box and wait for the pre-arrival "snack."

Agreed on all points. Unfortunately, fewer of these flights are using Polaris-equipped planes more recently, and are on the 16J 757-200.

753 with recliner seat is back again!

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...348ae5368.jpeg

Yuck!

This was not scheduled as such, and was swapped for 757-200 due to IRROPS?

Another one, these downgrades to recliner seats in J are becoming a daily occurrence on ps routes!

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...b85750db4.jpeg

The fleet is so tightly scheduled, all it takes is one lie-flat aircraft out of service.

TLV flights suspension should have freed up at least a dozen widebody aircrafts for UA every single day.

Good point!

No idea what United's plans are with regards to available aircraft, not only with TLV being freed up under unfortunate circumstance, but also with a scale back winter flying schedule. On the flip side, however, United is scheduling a lot of maintenance during this time of the year, voluntarily or otherwise. For example, two widebody aircraft went down for the count just last week, one was in an accident, and the other got sent to XMN. Also last night, a 752 went mx, and United had to get another 752, and likely took the replacement 752 out of its near term schedule rotation. Yes, I know 752 is not a widebody, but it went mechanical while being scheduled flying SFO-EWR - flight got delayed for 3.5 hours and left around 1am Pacific.

(on the bright side, that particular flight -930pm scheduled time- usually arrives before 5am at EWR, would have been before 4am yesterday with daylight savings time change...not sure why United did not change schedule)

From what I can remember they served dinner on these red-eye flights, but I just noticed “Snack”, is this a system error or they actually removed the meal from these flights?

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...00a7ad4e2.jpeg