My flight from Los Angeles to Los Cabos was delayed due to a wiring issue onboard my beautifully retrofitted “United Next” Airbus A320 jet. Hopefully this is just a little growing pain and not a sign of what is to come as United Airlines continues to retrofit its narrowbody aircraft.
Beautiful New “United Next” A320 Interior, But Wiring Scuttles My Flight
We boarded my flight to Los Cabos on-time and I was pleased to see a beautifully retrofitted A320 with a “United Next” interior including mood lighting, screens behind each seat, power ports throughout the aircraft (instead of just in first class and EconomyPlus), and new overhead bins capable of accommodating a large carry-on bag for every passenger onboard.
My upgrade did not clear (I ended up at #3 on the upgrade list), but I had a whole row to myself in economy class, which was more than bearable for the 2.5 hour flight to SJD.
I loved that the walls had been replaced as part of the retrofit (the yellowed walls and broken window shades were replaced and new bulbs were placed in the overhead passenger service unit).
We boarded and I settled in for the journey, only for the purser to announce there was a slight delay to a mechanical issue. I’ve flown with Douglas many times and he’s a great purser. He took a few moments to highlight the features of the retrofitted aircraft and advised us to sit back and relax.
But five minutes later the captain appeared in the cabin and announced that the plane would be going out of service. He explained that the emergency exit lights would not light up…a key safety requirement. He further explained that the maintenance team would have to go “seat by seat” to address this issue and that it would be a lengthy process. I appreciated his clear and precise explanation.
We deboarded and waited in the gate area replacement aircraft to be found. Snacks and water were offered.
Finally, we did get underway when a replacement A320 (with the old interior) was found. I’ll detail the flight in my next installment of this report. We took off about three hours late.
CONCLUSION
There will be some growing pains as United updates the interiors of its older narrow body aircraft. I certainly experienced that on my A320 from LAX-SJD. While wiring issues are not critical in terms of the safe operation of the aircraft itself, they are essential in case of evacuation and necessitated taking the aircraft out of service.
Way to Dox
Bruce Rowland
Mohamed Golem
Hassan Mendi
Gaddafi Curry and his wife
And others. Now their enemies know their travels.
Yes, this is a joke.
Looks like the first plane was an A320, not a 319.
Yes it was. Wow, my bad.
I find that even more interesting being an A320. I may have missed it but I had only heard of A319s out there with the Next retrofit, so that is encouraging to see an A320.
Matthew, just bad luck really. Haven’t heard of any other NEXT planes having wiring issues directly attributed to the retrofit
Is it United policy to have a flight deck member come up and announce major delays/cancellations.
I think that is a good idea.
Pretty sure I flew that old TED plane.
Jk. But only sort of.