United premium cabin passengers are now assured of enjoying fully flat seat comfort and enhanced IFE offerings on all flights departing from the carrier’s eight North American hubs, as well as on the flight from Seattle to Tokyo Narita.
United Business First
Walter Dias, managing director, Greater China and Korea, United Airlines, told Business Traveller: “With a lot of airlines, it could be hit or miss if you were going to get the new product. As of last week, we can say with confidence that the flat-bed seats are now on all the aircraft used for international services departing from our North American hubs – New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Huston, Washington DC, Denver and Cleveland and from Seattle to Tokyo Narita.”
United Global First
Dias explained the last batch of unveiled seats signalled the final phase of a major US$550 million upgrading programme (see news for details) announced in March 2012 that came on the heels of the historic merger between United and Continental. This has involved outfitting 180 aircraft, whose seats put together amount to about 7,039. He added: "Studying the data issued by our competitors, we can say that United offers more flat-bed seats fleet-wide than any other US carrier."
United is also nearly through revamping the transcontinental "p.s." Premium Service fleet of 15 B757s that ply the high-demand routes between New York JFK and Los Angeles and San Francisco. "We're 93 per cent done and will finish up by the third quarter," said Dias. "Customers on these flights have certain expectations that those on shorter, domestic flights may not have. And we aim to offer them the best product that we can." These include the fully flat-bed seats found on international services, faster wifi and personal IFE systems.
For more details, visit www.united.com
Margie T Logarta
