United Airlines already has “premium economy” on domestic flights…it’s called first class.
I’m not saying that to be facetious. Honestly.
But the one image we have seen thus far of what United’s new premium economy class product will look like is nearly identical to United’s current domestic first class seat–
United’s new “Premium Plus” premium economy product
United Airlines Domestic First Class Seat
The only difference is a footrest.
Yesterday, United President Scott Kirby mentioned that United was exploring the introduction of premium economy on domestic flights.
Practically, I doubt we will ever see a new type of seat added to domestic aircraft, especially when economy class is already segmented between United Economy Plus and United Economy. United Economy Plus may see the addition of meals on more routes (like United has added on premium transcontinental flights) but I just cannot imagine much more.
When Delta sells its premium economy class seats (“Delta Premium Select”), it seats passengers in “first class” on their domestic connecting flight. Perhaps we might see something like that on United.
Imagine if United gave these domestic first class seats a “clever” name, like “United Sirius” or “United Vega”. It could offer a “seamless” travel experience by offering this standardized seat on all mainline aircraft.
Only I doubt this will work for two reasons: capacity and confusion.
Forget about upgrades: the first problem for this way of branding first class is that there are simply not enough premium seats on domestic connections for everyone seated in premium economy and Polaris business class.
Second, there is still a sizable segment of the market who travels domestically only and buys “first class” tickets. Take away that term with a confusing new name and United’s remarkable success in selling first class seats (over upgrading) would be cannibalized.
CONCLUSION
With all the recent first class catering cutbacks instituted by Kirby, we might as well call the domestic first class product premium economy. But don’t expect a separate premium economy cabin with different seats anytime in the future on United domestic flights. If anything, we’ll see enhanced service for Economy Plus or the rebranding of the “United First” product.
My guess is you’ll see an alignment of Economy Plus with AA/AS/DL’s extra legroom Y products – free booze, maybe a free snack on some flights. MAYBE you’ll see a new premium economy mini-cabin on transcons and AK/HI runs. I doubt we’ll see more than that. Like you said, if any of the domestic airlines were to introduce a separate premium economy cabin, all that’s going to do is cannibalize F. Unless they also plan to substantially up their game in that cabin, which seems equally unlikely.
As I mentioned on Seth’s blog yesterday, United and Delta both omitted the name of Economy in their Premium Economy brand names and I think that is purposeful. I fully expect them to eventually call their domestic F products by their PremEco brand names of Premium Plus and Premium Select, respectively. It will provide consistency among products, especially as the big 3 have been charging more in miles/money for the lie flat J/F seats when available on domestic segments.
Also, it may not be called First Class, but ask your average traveler the difference between domestic first class and ‘Premium Plus’ and they probably won’t even know, or better for UA, they would expect Premium Plus to be the superior product.
the only routes domestically where *yet* another cabin makes sense would be those where the premium product has dedicated flat beds – EWR-SFO/LAX, BOS-SFO, and i think most (if not all) of Hawaii from DEN/IAH/ORD/IAD/EWR.
But if it’s a worthless half-baked solution like “Comfort+”, then no thanks.
@MeanMeosh I’d love to see free booze in blue seats IF we still get them for free (and have a shot at a real upgrade).
But my opinion doesn’t mean a thing in the grand scheme of things!
United already has premium economy on SUA 8 across 777-200 but they mislabeled it as Polaris Business
The domestic first class seats pictured are newer/more advanced than what we usually see on domestic routes in Houston — we’re dreaming of footrests (they run a ton of 737’s out of IAH, even to the coasts, especially now that the 787 base was moved to IAD)–I would love to see these seats or the E+.