United Airlines has a new television ad out for their Premium Service (p.s.) flights between New York JFK and Los Angeles/San Francisco. Narrated by Matt Damon and showcasing United’s new BusinessFirst® lie-flat seats on the route, the ad compares a p.s. flight to an international flight, specifically emphasizing meal service.
It is a curious ad. Many have attacked it, but I don’t think it is so bad. I do think it is uninspiring, but that is the direction the Continental management team has decided to take and Darren from Frequently Flying argues that United’s ads should focus on the hard product. Note that while lie-flat seats are being installed now throughout the p.s. fleet, this retrofit is not scheduled to conclude until the end of 2013, so you may find yourself in the old non-lie-flat reclining seat over the next several months.
I still like the inspiration of United’s old “It’s Time to Fly” campaign and the incredible ads of Virgin Atlantic, Delta, and British Airways.
I was surprised to see that United is still using the p.s. term–I was sure they were going to abandon it.
Trip Report: United Airlines First Class San Francisco to New York JFK
The problem is that Delta and American also have lie-flat service coming (though not yet–AA has three-cabin A321s coming to these routes and Delta is intalling lie-flat seats as well) and good food on the routes. So what distinguishes United from the pack? An ad highlighting the new lie-flat seats but also pointing to United’s historic link to JFK, hubs in both SFO and LAX, and/or emphasizing how great service on the route will differentiate it from the competition would have been a better tactic to win customers in my humble opinion.
Do you like the new ad?
I’m not sure which AA you’re flying, but AA does not have lie-flat on the JFK-LAX/SFO routes. The seats are probably older than some of the readers of your blog quite frankly.
And I believe Delta is in a similar boat, the DL birds were using the Recaro seats that Virgin America uses, which also is not a lie-flat product, rather an angled seat.
Yes, but they aren’t here yet so saying that they already have it is a bit misleading. As hard as it may be to swallow, UA is in the lead on this at the moment.
Did they switch to the PMUA ad agency? It sounds familiar
@Fozz–A321s coming to AA wil have lie-flat service on these routes and Delta is installing lie-flats as well. UA’s retrofit is just starting.
That’s why I clarified my post…
And why would that be “hard to swallow”? UA does many things better or I would not have flown nearly a MM with them. I’d still take UA over Delta any day on that route, even with lie-flat seats on both.
The ad itself its uninspiring and as far as hard product comparison UA vs AA I like AA’s new A321’s configuration and business class seats.
Fozz, UA has a whopping 3 reconverted PS plane in service: https://hub.united.com/en-us/news/products-services/Pages/united-to-add-three-more-premium-service-aircraft.aspx
So while UA is in the lead, it’s not saying much at the moment.
At least they’re keeping the “p.s.” brand name.
@FoZz DL already flies5 767-300 w/ lay flat sseatson the lax-jfk route and have offered lay flat on this route for at least a month if not longer now!SFO is due for lay flay seats by the end of the year along w/ Seattle. Sea-jfk currently has 1 lay flat biz cabin a day from jfk and a few from msp as the flights begin in msp and continue to asia. Also do not forget DL has offered the a330 and b777 from lax to atl for 2 yrs+. The 777 w/ true layflat and the a330 w/ angle flat . so in actuality Matt was correct
Andy, I don’t think PMUA would have ever done such a simple/bland ad…
Still not as good as their “It’s Time to Fly” ads. The retired man and the rose are my 2 favorite old-school UA ads.
And yes, like Rocky says, Delta probably has more 767s flying from JFK with lie-flats than United does 757s, though no one is complete just yet. I just flew a 777 in BusinessElite from ATL to LAX on an economy award ticket so I’m not complaining there either.
@Amol: I love the rose ad too, but the retired man is my favorite.
@Rocky: Looking at the schedule for today, Delta flies only four of the seven flights to LAX on a 767 and three of them are still 752s. And SFO is still exclusively 752s, so out of twelve flights between SFO and LAX (each way), only four of them have lie flat. This isn’t exactly a lot of capacity and not nearly eclusively lie-flat as you imply.
As to your comments about LAX-ATL and ex-MSP flights, the discussion was about PS (which is exclusively JFK-LAX/SFO), so i’m not sure why your comments are even relevant.
@Fozz: Point is Delta has MORE flights w/ domestic lay flat seats than UA. And even with 4 767-300s from LAX-JFK, DL currently offers more domestic lay flat options than UA does (in terms of capacity & routes). DL 767 have 26 direct aisle access biz elite seats vs UA 757 w/ 28 2×2 biz seats. In this case I think DL offers a better hard product.
Also maybe you need to reread what I said earlier, I never said nor applied they routes are exclusively lay flat. However, by the END of the year, per early press releases they should be!
“…SFO is due for lay flay seats by the end of the year along w/ Seattle. Sea-jfk currently has 1 lay flat biz cabin a day from jfk…”
Why did I bring up msp/atl. Because again, it shows there are OTHER routes w/ lay flat seats that fly domestic
In the end doesn’t matter though, because as of right now, NO airline offers exclusive full flat business seats between the two markets.
@Rocky The DL 767 is a temporary fix for the route between JFK and LAX/SFO, and are going away once they converted the 757s with lay flat seats, going back to 16 seats 2×2 with no direct aisle access for window seat passengers.
@patcha per delta.com the transcon fllet from seattle sfo and lax will be a mixture of 767 & 757 when the fleet refresh is completed.
http://news.delta.com/index.php?s=43&item=1757
does anyone know the name of the actor in the new united airlines commercial? he looks so familiar but I can’t recall his name.