The first United Airlines 737-800 is now flying with a refreshed “United Next” interior.
First United Airlines 737-800 With Refreshed Interior Now Flying
This week, the first 737-800 (73Y) featuring United’s modern new interior has taken to the air. It follows the completion of the first Airbus A319 and A320 retrofits.
United is refreshing its domestic narrowbody fleet with upgrades including:
- New Boeing overhead space bins (similar to the 737 MAX aircraft) with room for everyone’s larger bag
- New first-class seat with wireless charging under the center armrest
- Seatback monitors plus streaming entertainment
- Bluetooth connectivity for headphones
- New LED lighting
- Refreshed lavatories and interiors
These planes will be rolled out gradually, with the complete fleet refresh taking several years. It took nearly two years from the United Next announcement in 2021 for the first aircraft to be retrofitted, but supply lines are now in place such that the process can begin to move at a quicker pace.
Concurrently, United has taken delivery of a number of Boeing 737 MAX 8 and MAX 9 aircraft with new interiors factory-installed.
CONCLUSION
The first United Airlines 737-800 aircraft has been retrofitted with a new interior, as part of the United Next rollout. This marks an important step, but now it is time for United to run with this and get the project done. In the meantime, I recently flew on a 737 MAX 8 with the new interiors and can say that they make a huge difference. These interiors are quite attractive and in the case of the 737, make an old plane look very new.
Hopefully, retrofits will now pick up pace such that each new retrofit is no longer a news item.
Finally, the retrofitted aircraft number is 3259, tail number N73259. It is in Miami today with no flight scheduled.
Serious just call it DL past interior. Good luck keeping those screens running, awful pivot.
Awful pivot? It seems that is what customers want and UA hopes it can squeeze a revenue premium for nicer cabins, as DL has managed…
I though I read somewhere that these are made so the screens can be easily replaced if they break or become obsolete
That is correct. No wires. Just remove and replace.
Hopefully this means that we will soon see the MAXes have the very latest version of IFE. While the A319 has the latest, the MAXes don’t because they lack a Type C port in Economy.
Looks like a nice ambience to endure hours and hours of tarmac delays, gate reshuffling, and the other operational snafus that make United, at least for this frequent flyer, a hard and enduring pass.
Should be N73259. In Miami since 4/30. Looks like a MIA-MIA test flight on 7/15 as UA3828.
Matt,
You can see progress and tail numbers on the United fleet website.
https://sites.google.com/site/unitedfleetsite/united-next-progress_1
That’s a helpful tool KC, though I am having trouble reading it. Can you discern the tail number for the 738 retrofit?
It’s the one highlighted in gray at the bottom of the 738 column, Tail number N73259.
Thanks KC!
That picture that you put on the top of the article… Is that an actual picture of inside N73259 or is that just a MAX cabin picture?
That’s a MAX 9 I took in Denver. Itinerary will look identical, though.
What is the point of nicer interiors when the soft product is so far behind DL and about every other airline?
These planes are for domestic flights primarily, so who’s their competition that has a better soft product?
Delta? Most people would probably say so
American? I never fly them but I can’t imagine
Southwest? Nope
Jetblue? Sometimes
Spirit, frontier, allegiant? Not a chance
I would also say this puts them at number 1 for hard product among this group when it’s completed
Is there somewhere you can look up which airplanes have the new interior? I’m flying a MAX 9 on Saturday, would love to know if it’ll have it!
Nevermind, found KC’s link above. Looks like mine will be updated!
Nice TVs with old movies no live TV. DL has 8 main live channels CBS,NBS, ESPN, CNN etc. What if the big game is on and we only have a 1995 movie to watch. Want to keep up with live events and hope they get it
There’s this thing called “Internet”. I heard it’s full of fresh content.
200+ planes by 2026? UAL has about 600 narrowbody aircraft. By the time the entire fleet is converted, USB-C, the current wireless charging standard, and possibly Bluetooth will be as relevant as EmPower outlets are today.
USBC and Bluetooth will be the standard for years to come. And if you want to worry about outdatedness, Delta has not even introduced type C since their NEOs only have the older type A
It’s going to help, particularly with the overhead bin space issues, but it’s very much lipstick on a pig as 800s don’t have a fore economy lav and they’re still extremely loud. I hate that they’re not just towing these things out to the desert. Very annoying but better than nothing.