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Cross Country Comfort: Introducing United Airlines’ New Transcontinental Service

Old May 31, 2017, 10:05 am
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Last edit by: blueman2
Cross Country Comfort: Introducing United Airlines' New Transcontinental Service

Premium transcontinental service EWR to/from SFOLAX and BOS to/from SFO (Boston service starting 1 July 2017)
  • Flat-bed seats with custom-designed duvet & pillow provided by Saks Fifth Avenue
  • New amenity kits featuring Soho House & Co's Cowshed Spa products
  • Featured cocktail, Moscow Mule
  • Hot towel service offered after take-off & prior to landing
  • Seasonally refreshed menus
  • Dining will be topped off with items from United Polaris' dessert menu.
  • Before arrival, snacks such as Boulder Canyon potato chips & Madik’s almonds will be served.
  • Note: These routes are not CPU eligible (with need to use RPU/GPU/Miles+copay)

Complimentary hot meal and beverage service for customers seated in Economy Plus.

Also adding United Club access before flight and after arrival, just like ps
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Cross Country Comfort: Introducing United Airlines’ New Transcontinental Service

Old May 31, 2017, 11:39 am
  #46  
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Originally Posted by FlyHighInTheSky
Just got an email about this. The branding for this new service is very strange. In the email they are very inconsistent with at least 3 different ways of naming this service...What is it actually called?

- Expanded Transcontinental Service?
- next generation of transcontinental service?
- cross-country comfort?
My guess: They haven't finished the branding, but felt they had to make an announcement of the new service, since it's starting in just 30 days.
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Old May 31, 2017, 11:53 am
  #47  
 
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I am very happy about the inclusion of E+. Makes a lot of sense to offer more than just more legroom.
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Old May 31, 2017, 11:58 am
  #48  
 
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It's a bummer they couldn't include any of the DC airports. I would have thought that DCA-SFO would have gotten it at the very least. I suppose it has to do with frequency though and available airframes.

Any speculation on whether this will expand to DC in the future (maybe when the MoM comes online)?
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Old May 31, 2017, 12:03 pm
  #49  
 
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being BOS based... very happy with this move! Good job United!
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Old May 31, 2017, 12:09 pm
  #50  
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Originally Posted by FlyHighInTheSky
It's a bummer they couldn't include any of the DC airports. I would have thought that DCA-SFO would have gotten it at the very least. I suppose it has to do with frequency though and available airframes.

Any speculation on whether this will expand to DC in the future (maybe when the MoM comes online)?
A regular topic for other threads, such as,
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...s-iad-sfo.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...ua-follow.html
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Old May 31, 2017, 12:13 pm
  #51  
 
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Originally Posted by notquiteaff

You're not even guaranteed 1 companion as a DL platinum. For example, if you're on an award ticket, your companion is not eligible (unless your companion is also a medallion). DL in this regard is terrible and UA is far superior. I hope that UA is not going to change its elite access to E+ policy to match DL because of the meal service its now introducing. [UPDATE: This policy changed in April, so looks like you would get 1 companion on DL. Thanks LBJ]

As a United elite, I book tickets at united.com without looking at other airline prices . . . in large part because I do think United treats its elite members better than the competition (and that is in large part because of its E+). In effect I, and I would be willing to wager that many others, pay more to solely fly UA over the course of a year. So I do believe United profits from having a competitive E+ with its current access policy. The Platinum /1K family benefit (+8 guests) is wonderful. While I rarely use it, on the rare occasion I have a few companions, its nice that we can all enjoy E+.

If UA keeps its current access policy for elites and the meal service is a bonus then UA would have a clearly superior premium economy offering for elite members which would be wonderful and a very elite friendly move, in which case ^^UA!

Last edited by bmw303; Jun 1, 2017 at 8:29 am
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Old May 31, 2017, 12:24 pm
  #52  
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Originally Posted by NoLaGent
Overall, a huge upgrade for E+!

This was the most interesting tidbit for me:

"This enhancement to Economy Plus is our first step toward a premium Economy offering for our customers."
I'll believe when it happens.
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Old May 31, 2017, 12:27 pm
  #53  
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Originally Posted by MatthewLAX
Originally Posted by goalie
First off, I think it's about time that this change happened ^ and I do like the fact that E+ will get free food and booze ^ but I also remember when PS started and that all pax in Y* received a free meal** but that went the way of the Dodo so I hope say a year/2 years from now, it's still around

*granted it was all E+ back then
**albeit a snack box with a sandwich
Was it really a snack box with sandwich? I recall a full hot meal like int'l Y.
My bad as it was both a hot meal and a sandwich snackbox with the sandwich snackbox being served on redeyes
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Old May 31, 2017, 1:01 pm
  #54  
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Originally Posted by sinoflyer
Unless there is another press release to come, it doesn't look like "Coast," which has been rumored here, will be the new brand name. ^

And Matt, I presume that "Cross Country Comfort" is your description, not UA's?
"...and it's good ol' cross-country comfort in my bones

it's the sweetest sound I've ever known..."


Sorry. My apologies to Sir Elton John.
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Old May 31, 2017, 1:34 pm
  #55  
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My two cents: If you want a Moscow Mule in E+. sit as far forward as possible. UA will not stock to demand.
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Old May 31, 2017, 1:41 pm
  #56  
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Originally Posted by FlyHighInTheSky
It's a bummer they couldn't include any of the DC airports. I would have thought that DCA-SFO would have gotten it at the very least. I suppose it has to do with frequency though and available airframes.

Any speculation on whether this will expand to DC in the future (maybe when the MoM comes online)?
Surprised it took until post 48 for this to come up. Given IAD - SFO is hub-hub, you'd think they'd want to include this route. Maybe in the future, but they don't have the fleet for it now?

Originally Posted by PaulInTheSky
Matching DL, not bad. That gives a reason for any elites on E+ to have the hot food plus the free food item+drink. That's the way to appreciate the elites and people who pay for the E+. Pretty well done.
I think the issue they have is that E- and E+ basically looks like one cabin. Without a curtain or something between E+ and E-, I think you are going to see complaints from passengers in the row behind E+ asking why the people 1 row ahead of them get a free meal, while they don't.

Exit rows could be an issue, though I haven't flown the 757s in a while - are there any E- seats forward of the exit door - maybe not and this becomes a minimal issue, but especially problematic if you skip a couple of rows, and then serve free food/drinks to folks.

Originally Posted by kseaflyr
What will be interesting to see is:

1) If UA does decide to follow Delta in making E+ (C+) a separate class of service

2) How this will play out given UA (in general) has far more E+ seats per plane. My thought is that this plays into Kirby's recent statement - i.e. remove E+ seating and add more E-
Maybe, or maybe they continue to use it to their advantage. We are talking at least in this thread in particular about three business-heavy routes at the moment - I'd guess ones where E+ is typically full with elites/those willing to pay for it. Other routes might make more sense. But they already did this on CR7 fleet a few years ago - almost half of economy (IIRC) used to be E+ (and IME, still, at least on my routes, have zero trouble getting E+, though I usually book at least 2-3 weeks in advance).

Originally Posted by milypan
The strongest argument in favor of UA retaining easier access to E+ than DL does for C+ is that UA's ratio of E+ to E- seats is higher than DL's (or pretty much any other US airline).* Thus we might expect "looser" access on UA than other carriers. I would nevertheless expect some kind of tightening in the future...at least get rid of 8 companions if nothing else.
UA still has a ton more extra legroom seats, so I'd guess they can afford to be looser - assuming they keep this advantage. If they shrink the cabins to the size of DL/AA, then that argument goes away, of course.

Originally Posted by notquiteaff
So what happens if there is a multiple companion PNR with more than one elite. For example, I normally travel with 2 others - 2 golds and our 2yo daughter who has no status since we just started getting her own seats. Maybe I wasn't interpreting the DL site correctly, but I got the impression that in this scenario, you can't have all 3 upgraded - just 2. Is that correct?
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Old May 31, 2017, 1:46 pm
  #57  
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So just out of curiosity I searched for SFO-EWR in mid September and it brought up some $329 flights, UA233 and UA637, both listed as Boeing 777s.

But those are Basic Economy fares. If I choose economy, the price is $380, still not too bad.

They offer Economy Plus Essentials and Economy Plus Enhanced for $150 or $250 each way.

No mention of the hot meals, just the seat, extra checked bag and in the case of the Enhanced, Premier Access and United Club access as well as 500 extra miles.

So elites who are Gold or greater should just choose the Economy seats and should get Economy Plus automatically, with the meal, on this "premium transcon" service or whatever they're going to call it?
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Old May 31, 2017, 1:58 pm
  #58  
 
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Originally Posted by emcampbe

Exit rows could be an issue, though I haven't flown the 757s in a while - are there any E- seats forward of the exit door - maybe not and this becomes a minimal issue, but especially problematic if you skip a couple of rows, and then serve free food/drinks to folks.
Only on the 757-300.

All the 777s have E+ on exit rows behind E- seating with the exception of the 3-class version.
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Old May 31, 2017, 1:59 pm
  #59  
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Originally Posted by bmw303
You're not even guaranteed 1 companion as a DL platinum. For example, if you're on an award ticket, your companion is not eligible (unless your companion is also a medallion). DL in this regard is terrible and UA is far superior. I hope that UA is not going to change its elite access to E+ policy to match DL because of the meal service its now introducing.
Stale info. DL changed policy back in April and companions on award tickets are now eligible for upgrades. If you and companion are on the same award ticket, you clear based on the status level of the higher-tiered member.
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Old May 31, 2017, 2:01 pm
  #60  
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What's interesting is that this doesn't state any new or retrofitted aircraft, as Delta rolled out a few years ago with its premium JFK/LAX/SFO routes.
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