I flew from Houston to Chicago in economy class on the very first Airbus A321neo commercial flight for United Airlines, an enjoyable journey that turned out a bit different than I had anticipated.
Inaugural Flight: United Airlines A321neo Economy Class Review
I already gave you a sneak peek of what United’s swanky new A321neo looks like onboard, but this review covers what the economy class experience is like onboard.
United held a press event in Houston yesterday to highlight its new baggage system, break ground for the new Terminal B airport expansion project, and showcase its new A321neo. I had booked a ticket to Houston and back, but decided at the last minute I might as well join the inaugural flight.
Thankfully, the weather forecast called for a tornado warning and a flight waiver was issued. With that flight waiver, I switched my nonstop to a routing home via Chicago, including the inaugural flight. I wound up with a seat in “regular” economy class, not even Economy Plus let alone in first class, but I was just happy to be on the inaugural flight.
I wound up #8 on an upgrade list of 112 people…
Thankfully, the forecasted tornado and lightning shower never appeared.
The gate area was bustling even an hour before the flight, with many av-geeks euphonious about the inaugural flight.
Boarding began 35 minutes prior to departure after a few remarks at the gate by Kevin Peters, a Director of Commercial /Fleet Strategy at United.
UA 321
Houston (IAH) – Chicago (ORD)
Thursday, November 30
Depart: 05:30 PM
Arrive: 08:13 PM
Duration: 2hr, 43min
Distance: 925 miles
Aircraft: Airbus A321neo
Seat: 12C (Economy Class)
At the boarding door, I was offered a commemorative bookmark highlighting the first A321neo flight on United.
Stepping onboard, I was greeted by a flight attendant and found my way to my seat.
I love the accents in the forward galley!
Before takeoff, Captain Steve Bogert welcomed everyone onboard explained a bit about the aircraft, and gave us an idea of our flight plan. Rather than do this from the flight deck, he stepped out into the first class cabin so that everyone could see him. It was a very nice touch.
Seats
United’s A321neo has precisely 200 seats onboard, including 20 first class seats (United’s newest generation of domestic first class seats, which have “wings”) and 180 seats in economy class, divided between Economy Plus (57 seats) with extra legroom and standard economy class (123 seats).
First class:
The divider between cabins is a soft screen.
Economy class:
Interestingly, the aircraft configuration includes regular economy class seating sandwiched between two sections of Economy Plus:
- Rows 1-5: First Class (seat pitch 37 inches, width 20 inches, recline 5 inches)
- Rows 7-11: Economy Plus (seat pitch 33.5 inches, width 17.5 inches, recline 3 inches)
- Row 12-19: Economy (seat pitch 30 inches, width 17.5 inches, recline 2 inches)
- Row 20-22: Economy Plus
- Row 23-26: Economy on ABC side, Economy Plus on DEF side
As you might notice in the pictures, the rows are staggered on the basis of this division in seat pitch.
Booking so late, I grabbed one of the only aisles I could, seat 12C, which turned out to be just fine for the two-hour flight to Chicago. I’m 6’1″ and found the legroom tolerable, though I would want an Economy Plus seat on a longer flight.
There are two A/C universal plugs for every three seats, but each seat also has a USB-A and USB-C charging port on the bottom of the monitor.
All seats have individual air vents.
Each row has raised Braille lettering, a recent accessiblity-friendly feature that is coming to all United aircraft.
I love the mood lighting and attention to detail, including the ceiling accent down the center aisle and in the forward galley.
This aircraft is also equipped with “space saving” overhead bins in which there is theoretically room for 200 large carry-ons when stacked upright instead of placed on its side.
In-Flight-Entertainment + Wi-Fi
Each economy class seat features a 12-inch, 4K touchscreen display with the latest generation IFE system on it, a big leap forward in terms of interface and snappiness.
I love the details.
In the bottom right corner of the IFE screen is an indicator such that you always know how much flight time is left, a very helpful feature. It will also remind you to fasten your seatbelt when the seatbelt light goes on (though thankfully it is not like a car that can sense when your seatbelt is unfasten).
This system also listed all the complimentary snacks and drinks as well as the food and drinks available for purchase, foreshadowing perhaps a future in which passengers can order snacks and drinks from their seat.
The system also featured an extensive library of movies and TV shows as well as an expanded selection of audio selections.
A moving map was also available and both the overhead reading light and flight attendant call light could be controlled from the screen.
Complimentary headphones were provided, but this new system also has Bluetooth connectivity, which makes it easy to connect your own headphones. In my case, I easily connected my Apple AirPods.
I will note that the Bluetooth system cut out a few times (went silent) but always re-connected seconds later.
Internet was available for purchase ($8 for MileagePlus members or $10 for non-members) and I quickly connected and found download speeds of up to 9 Mbps (though an upload speed of less than 1 Mbps).
The flight turned out to be productive. I was expecting this might be like other inaugural flights I have been on in which folks spend most of the flight standing up and chatting, but that was not the case here.
It turned out to be a rather bumpy flight with the seatbelt light on for most of the journey and a long period in the center of the flight in which flight attendants were instructed to take their jump seats.
Food + Drink
The big innovation on this aircraft compared to other United aircraft is a self-serve snack area in the rear of the aircraft. It features drinks and snacks and is intended for passengers to help themselves during the flight. United plans to make this feature available on flights of over 800 miles.
We hit quite a few bumps after takeoff, but eventually flight attendants appeared and offered a choice of beverage and a snack (chocolate quinoa crisp or pretzel mix).
As a 1K member of the MileagePlus program, I also receive a free food item and alcoholic drink onboard. I skipped the drink but did order a tapas snack box (normally $10), which served to tide me over quite nicely.
Lavatory
The United A321neo features four lavatories onbaord, including one in the front of the cabin for first class passengers, one in the front of the economy class cabin:
and two in the rear of the cabin in a “space-saving configuration,” with one located behind a jump seat:
The bathrooms are small and I could not locate the paper towels, but at least the faucet did not splash like on the Boeing aircraft with similarly small lavatories.
Inaugural Swag
In addition to the moment card, first class passengers received a United-Airbus keychain, fan, and sticker. Economy class passengers only received the fan and sticker.
CONCLUSION
We landed at 7:58 pm in Chicago and taxied for about 10 minutes before arriving at the gate. The first flight was in the book. I said farewell to Captain
It was great to run into so many readers and I appreciate that many of you stopped to say hello. I love the frequent flyer community and hope we can chat again soon.
27″ pitch in First class? Brutal !!! 😉 Love the photos of the people before boarding, I see a handful of my United coworkers!
What a difference 10 inches makes!
Yep…1st on this aircraft is extremely tight and you can barely fit a bag under the seat. Great to see seat back entertainment but United continues to chip away at their premium cabins.
Excellent report! Well done.
Great review, but might want to update ‘water’ to ‘weather’ towards the beginning of the article, unless you did that on purpose. “Thankfully, the water forecast called for a tornado warning and a flight waiver was issued.”
Wonderful review. Really excited to fly on this soon.
All these domestic economy flights recently – I don’t know if I can stand many more in 2023. The only thing that could be more shocking would be Augustine showing up with a Mohawk.
Hahaha. Stay tuned for a premium economy and first class review next week followed by a fun premium cabin trip report.
I flew to Houston in first class and home from Chicago in first class. You want my thoughts on those flights? 😉
Lovely review.
How many people were pre boarding as GS 1K on this flight haha
A whole lot…
My parents were in England in June 1995. My dad called UA while in England to switch his flight and that is when he was told by the agent his flight from London to Washington was the Inaugural 777 flight, not just for UA but the plane itself. They must have switched out the DC-10 for the new 777 but didn’t tell anybody. My dad still changed his flight. When he told me, I said I wouldn’t have but he didn’t care. I guess they didn’t announce it in advance because my dad didn’t know until a few days before the flight when he called to change it.
Is the 777 the 2nd most important widebody after the 747. I think I read the DC-3 and 747 are the 2 most important commercial planes. I wonder where the 777 ranks because I think that is the first twin-engine plane that could fly overseas.
767 and 757 were twin-engine planes that have flown across the Atlantics.
Delta and Air Canada also flew 767 across the Pacific Ocean from the West Coast of North America.
Airbus 310 have done EU-Asia routes.
Airbus 330 was introduced 3 years before 777, and have flown between continents ever since.
So in other words there is no difference in the economy seating. Still mind numbing uncomfortable, but hey, buy first class, 4 times as much but if your wealthy who cares.
Call me back when and if ever airlines improve the comfort of economy seating. I’m growing very tired of airlines throwing all at business and first, but nothing for the regular folk that can’t afford luxury.
Huh? If you are referring to pitch, it’s there in the form of Economy Plus. Otherwise the economy pitch is in line with peers. Your budget decides comfort. You don’t shop in a Smart car showroom for heated seats. In relation to seat back entertainment or improved snack offering, they are covered within the article.
My 2008 Smart car had heated seats…
Thank you for such a wonderful review. I’m a United Airbus Captain…and was fortunate enough to be trained by Captain Bogart when I became a Check Airman on the ‘Bus, myself….it’s even more of an honor to call him a friend. To say he is a legend within the United pilot ranks is an understatement. No one on that flight could have been in more capable hands!
No one wants to see an economy review that looks like any other plane; please do premium reviews
Simple rule: don’t like it, don’t read it.
You’re such a boor
SharonKarenTomKevinI know it’s semantics, but at 6′ I’d never call 30″ pitch “fine”. Livable, doable, not-crippling maybe. Everything else about these planes seems nice, and I’ll be happy to fly E+ on them. But I’ll never be “fine” in that seat, even for 2 hours.
I am 6’0” and my knees or shins come nowhere near touching the forward seat at 30” pitch.
Does the plane allow you to listen to communications with air traffic control? Good to hear that there were no brawls in the aisle!
So where are the paper towels? And were there 2 captains? Great review kiddo 😉
My wife just flew on UA1321 from PHX to ORD this morning (1/8/24). She’s a 1K, had exit row (20C) and her initial impressions of the experience were not positive (and not really covered in your article).
1) They scheduled 50 minutes for boarding (7:05am boarding for a 7:55 flight). That seemed excessive.
2) Seat cushioning appeared to be even less than the 737MAX seats. Note that she’s not the average chunky American, and maybe the airlines are considering all of the “personal cushioning” that people are bringing onto the planes when deciding to skimp on the seats.
3) The jumpseat on the rear bathroom is just bad design for the FAs. She said that people don’t want to bother them when they’re sitting, but there’s no way around it. She also noted that the door with the jumpseat is significantly thicker than the standard lavatory door…probably needs to be in order to accommodate the weight being added, but still. Bathroom was “tight.”
4) Hopefully, this is an anomaly, but they also required an additional 10 minutes at ORD after landing to do something to get the cargo off of the plane before they could bring over he jetbridge to deplane. One of the FAs said it was specific to that plane’s design. I don’t know. Sounds odd to me. She’s stuck on this leg for two more weeks and maybe points #1 and #4 here are just them working out the kinks.
I’m going to follow up to my comments above, as my wife was stuck on another 321Neo on her return flight from ORD to PHX on 1/15/23 (UA321, ironically).
The geniuses who chose this plane did NOT equip it with a way to defrost the water lines for the lavatory or galley (something the 737s have). So, the plane sat overnight in below-freezing temperatures and magically discovered the issue in the morning. (Don’t get me started on how EVERY carrier will leave problems overnight instead of fixing/addressing them in the evening, only to start looking into them on the first flight of the day.)
The ONLY way to thaw the water lines was to “superheat” the plane to the point where they would thaw. That involved everyone deplaning for an hour as they heated up the plane. By the time they started reboarding the plane 90 minutes later, it was like a sauna. Considering how United’s primary hubs are Chicago and Denver, you’d think that someone would have been aware of what winter weather is like there. Guess not.
She was in 1st class on this flight and said that the seating area was not nearly as roomy as any of the 737 variants and that there was noticeably less room under the seats. Considering she brings the same bags for each trip, with the same stuff in them, I’d think she would be a fair observer of this.
Anyway, I doubt anyone is going to read this, since the original article is now six weeks old. Suffice to say, she’s not a fan of this 321Neo and will be doing her best to avoid it in the future.