As I mentioned yesterday, I flew from Hong Kong to Bangkok in premium economy (what United brands as Premium Plus) on a Boeing 787, a short but pleasant daytime flight.
United 787 Premium Plus: Closer To Economy Than Business Class
It was fun to check out the Hong Kong United Club again, which I had not been to in over a decade. It’s one of only four United Clubs located outside the United Sates, the other three being in London Heathrow, Mexico City, and Tokyo Narita. It brought back many memories…
United flies a tag flight between Hong Kong and Bangkok each day to better utilize its 787-9 aircraft before it returns to Los Angeles. As a Fifth Freedom flight, United does sell tickets exclusively between HKG and BKK, though the tend to be more expensive than competitors (even than Cathay Pacific on my dates). Fares originating in the USA, however, are very reasonable. My one-way fare from Los Angeles to Bangkok via Hong Kong was only $319 and it was not even a basic economy ticket.
I attempted to use PlusPoints to upgrade and because I was booked in a fare class lower than W, it would have taken 80 PlusPoints just to move to business class on this route (and 20 PlusPoints to move to premium economy). I missed the business class upgrade (fittingly, on my last flight as a Premier 1K), but did get an upgrade to premium economy class minutes before boarding. Considering it was a 2.5 hour flight, I was okay with that.
Onboard, the Premium Plus section is located behind business class and features 21 seats in a 2-3-2 configuration. I was assigned an aisle seat in the center section of the first row and the middle seat stayed empty.
These seats are purple (not my favorite color for an airplane seat) and are wider than economy class with extended recline and leg rests (the leg rests in the first row flip up from the seat rather than come down from the seat in front of you in the second and third row of the cabin).
For a short flight, this seat is fine…heck, even for a much longer daytime flight this seat is fine. But I do think it is much closer to economy class than business class and sleeping on this seat would be hard (though I do appreciate United provides neck pillows).
The purser walked into the cabin and introduced himself to passengers, welcoming us onboard and providing some light details…a nice touch.
Breakfast was served after takeoff, with a choice between congee or scrambled eggs. I had eggs, served with sausage, potatoes, a side of fruit, and a digusting shelf-stable croissant that was not warmed up. The eggs and fruit were excellent, though.
Although the flight is blocked at three hours, flight time was closer to two hours.
I’ll offer more details on the seat features, IFE, W-Fi, service, amenities, and lavatory situation in my full trip report.
In short, premium economy on United Airlines is a nice upgrade over economy class, though still quite a leap from business class.
At least you were in business class on the LAX-HKG segment.
Well, I missed the upgrade on that flight, but thankfully re-routed via SFO to score the upgrade.
All your recent trips to Asia seem to have me confused on what you flew lol
Either way, at least your flight across the Pacific was in business class…though a PE review of that nature could have been interesting.
You’ll get the full premium economy review on this flight in due time.
Was booked LAX-HKG-BKK, flew BUR-SFO-HKG-BKK.
@Matthew: “…extended recline and leg rests (the leg rests in the first row flip up from the seat rather than come down from the seat in front of you in the second and third row of the cabin).”
You might want to clarify that the first row seats have leg rests and foot rests that flip up from the seat, while the other rows have foot bars only.
IMHO, UA does a decent job with Premium Plus. They could’ve made it better by having the PTVs in the bulkhead and adding leg rests to all rows. While Polaris F&B isn’t ideal for J, P+ gets some of their mains/apps, which is great for a PY product. I’d definitely choose UA for PY over say, LH.
Correct!
Premium economy is sad poor mans biz class. Especially have to loo into business and realize all your missing
Or in this case, go to the back of the aircraft to use the lavatory.
I’ve never flown Premium Plus (or the equivalent on other airlines). I went from coach to extra legroom coach to F/J. The extra 2″ seat width is nice, but the one thing I very much like about the seats is you get a physical barrier below the armrests. No widebody pax can flow into your space. Plus, I could snag the last row, still get full recline, but nobody behind you to comp,ain or knee your back.
That looks like the same breakfast we were served in Polaris HKG-BKK recently. The eggs and sausage were gross, I didn’t touch them.
I not only touched them, I ate them and I thought the sausage and the eggs were excellent…a very good breakfast on UA except for that nasty croissant.
I actually slept great in this seat on HKG => SFO but it was admittedly at the tail end of a fairly exhausting trip
This flight is perfect. For a 2 hr flight the service is more than enough. I’ve done both the HKG-vietnamand HKG-Bangkok. Full service on 2 hrs flight. It’s literally a quick up and down.
There is nothing to complain about and the catering in HongKong, Vietnam and Bangkok is amazing
A pointless and lame flight.
A pointless and lame comment!