Premium domestic travel arms race intensifies with United Next rollout – Runway Girl

One thousand and two hundred days. That’s how long it took for your author to finally snag a ride aboard a United Airlines narrowbody equipped with its “Next” signature interior after stepping aboard the first aircraft at a media event in 2021. A lot has changed since then, but I have finally been able to fully experience the new United.

The US major has been in an arms race with Delta Air Lines to become the most premium airline in America. Delta is installing full-fleet free Viasat Wi-Fi; United is now doing the same with Starlink. Delta installed seatback screens on nearly its entire mainline fleet; United is now following suit. United opened premium business class lounges; Delta is now doing the same — as indeed is JetBlue.

My experience on this Newark-Seattle transcontinental roundtrip started a few days before departure when United’s iOS app pushed a notification about preordering food and beverages. A relatively new feature for United, the airline allows economy passengers to browse the entire inflight menu while offering the ability to preorder select items.

Unlike Delta, United reintroduced a robust buy-on-board catering service for longer domestic flights, following the Covid pandemic.

The United app warned that “some meals sell out fast, so pre-order now” but — rather counterintuitively — fresh items were not actually available to preorder.

Given prior experiences, where the most desirable items sell out just a few rows into service, this is confusing and disappointing.

Just as the United’s Apple Watch Live Activities countdown feature hit zero, boarding for the Boeing 737-8 MAX began right on time.

The -8 was United’s first fleet type to get the full United Next treatment, featuring the Boeing Sky Interior with enhanced mood lighting, Space Bins that truly swallow up the carry-on bags, Viasat-powered Wi-Fi, full AC power at each seat and a Panasonic Avionics seatback screen with Bluetooth audio capabilities.

What a welcome change for a frequent United passenger accustomed to having none of these features.

The 30” seat pitch that is standard across United’s narrowbody fleet was sufficient but nothing special. The narrower seats of the 737 are definitely noticeable on a long transcontinental flight.

It’s far from being the roomiest economy class seat in the sky, but at no point did I find myself thinking the seat was uncomfortable.

Middle seat passengers should watch out, though, as extra under-seat equipment makes it so that even a modestly sized backpack doesn’t fit.

Passengers might also want to consider staying away from the last few rows on this MAX variant, as the -8 has only two lavatories in the rear of the economy cabin resulting in a line forming in the aisle for a good portion of the flight.

The main attraction of United Next is the return of seatback entertainment screens. United’s user interface welcomes passengers and asks them to customize their experience. Each monitor includes two 3.5mm headphone jacks and a USB-A port, though at this point I would rather see a USB-C port included as an option.

United’s entertainment interface is quick, polished, engaging and helpful. When a movie or TV show ends you are presented with options that can be completed before the estimated arrival time, or you can simply chill out with the relax mode and watch some scenery clips. The system was loaded with plenty of movies and full TV show seasons.

The new system also marks the return of United’s beloved Channel 9, which promises a live air traffic control audio stream from the flight deck. Unfortunately, this feature either was inoperative or disabled by the flight crew on both flights.

A major talking point of United’s inflight entertainment deployment is the inclusion of Bluetooth audio, a feature I have personally been very excited about. While I have used this feature multiple times on competing systems in premium cabins, I had not yet used the feature on a Panasonic Avionics IFE system or in crowded economy class.

Pairing my Apple AirPods Pro 1 was easy enough, though I experienced audio breakups and dropouts throughout both flights. The audio issues got bad enough that I resorted to using the Bluetooth audio dongle I always travel with, and experienced no issues with that.

Whether there is an issue with Panasonic’s Bluetooth implementation or simply too much RF interference for the embedded system to handle is to be determined (Panasonic reached out to me after the flight to gather some information and investigate the issue), but improvement is needed for sure.

On both of my flights (and going by the onboard announcements, the preceding flights), the Viasat inflight connectivity system suffered from major reliability issues. The Wi-Fi cut out somewhere over North Dakota on both flights and each time took hours to come back online.

The cabin crew submitted a refund request for any passenger who paid for access (per US law), and the pilots apologized about the situation. Whether the issues were caused by a satellite capacity crunch or some other system instability, it was, alas, a very poor and surprising showing for Viasat. The system streamed video in standard definition quite well when working, but the extended downtown was disappointing.

With United not accepting preorders for fresh food, I packed some food for the flight but still wanted to indulge if possible. Thankfully, it turned out that the 7am flight to Seattle had plenty of fresh food items still available by the time crew members reached my seat in row 25 (towards the very front of the regular economy cabin).

However, a catering snafu led to cheeseburgers being loaded instead of breakfast sandwiches or the Mediterranean Egg White Skillet. After realizing the mixup and having a good laugh with the flight attendant, the “breakfast burger” was comped. 

The Illy cold brew coffee, an item I was particularly excited to enjoy, was the only item I preordered and was delighted to see this option available!

The return flight offered a lunch menu including a cheese and fruit tray, an Italian sub sandwich, and cheeseburger. This time, in row 24, I snagged the last remaining item for sale, but only after making sad puppy eyes at the flight attendant a few rows ahead to secure the Italian sub.

Everyone in rows 25 through 38 was out of luck, a common and frustrating experience. The sandwich had all the right flavors, but was a bit too soggy and greasy. I was happy to get anything, though, as Delta still hasn’t bothered to restore its full pre-Covid catering on longer flights.

Overall, I am excited about United muscling into the premium domestic travel space and am confident that it can match or perhaps even exceed Delta in this regard given enough time and focus.

There is still a long road ahead of the airline to finish the years-late Next refurbishment process, but this generally positive first impression shows that progress so far is real.

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All images of United Next credited to the author, Jason Rabinowitz