United economy plus vs. premium plus

[Anonymous]

Would you rather sit in economy plus aisle
Or premium plus middle? 14 hour flight.

[Anonymous]

Premium Plus middle. Not even close. Wider seat, more legroom, more recline, footrest.

If you watch it like a hawk, good odds you will be able to switch to an aisle in premium plus.

[Anonymous]

I really struggle sitting in middle seats - regardless of the class - it makes me claustrophobic. So an aisle would be my preference. Are there no premium plus aisles? or is the price outrageous? For 14 hours I would pay for the seat I want. I would also assume you have checked Seat Guru to verify the pitch/recline and any other notes for the plane?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I really struggle sitting in middle seats - regardless of the class - it makes me claustrophobic. So an aisle would be my preference. Are there no premium plus aisles? or is the price outrageous? For 14 hours I would pay for the seat I want. I would also assume you have checked Seat Guru to verify the pitch/recline and any other notes for the plane?

Seatguru is out of date for many airplane types. The best site is Aerolopa

https://www.aerolopa.com/ua-77e

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Would you rather sit in economy plus aisle
Or premium plus middle? 14 hour flight.

I don’t sit in the middle unless a loved one is near the window on any flight. Never on a 14 hr flight. I’d take econo plus aisle Alex for $200.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I really struggle sitting in middle seats - regardless of the class - it makes me claustrophobic. So an aisle would be my preference. Are there no premium plus aisles? or is the price outrageous? For 14 hours I would pay for the seat I want. I would also assume you have checked Seat Guru to verify the pitch/recline and any other notes for the plane?

There are none available.

[Anonymous]

When’s the flight? An aisle or window will almost certainly become available unless the flight is very very soon. Set up an alert at expertflyer.

[Anonymous]

Recently flew to Tokyo in premium economy on a middle seat as two tall teen DS sat on aisle seats. It was great. Take the middle seat in premium economy.

[Anonymous]

Middle premium econ. No question.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Premium Plus middle. Not even close. Wider seat, more legroom, more recline, footrest.

14 hour flight means this is a no brainer for Premium Plus. I reliably can sleep well in Premium Plus, but not in Economy Plus, because the seat is sooo much better. Food probably also will be better on a 14 hour flight, and the screen is bigger. For me, I still would try to use miles to upgrade out of paid Premium Plus, even though that upgrade is unlikely to happen.

[Anonymous]

SeatGuru and SeatExpert are both very outdated. Check UA website for the specific aircraft type and also for the classes of service,

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Would you rather sit in economy plus aisle
Or premium plus middle? 14 hour flight.

I don’t sit in the middle unless a loved one is near the window on any flight. Never on a 14 hr flight. I’d take econo plus aisle Alex for $200.

PP. Actually I reconsider. I hate middle and would do premium plus. It really is a step up on a number of levels from econo plus unless you can get econo plus in the bulk head aisle. If bulk head is an option I’d choose econo otherwise premium plus.

[Anonymous]

I go out of my way on international flights not to fly domestic except maybe Delta. If you compare prices and value UA prem seats such as does AA. I'm flying Singapore Air and the service and seats for premium is outstanding. To answer your question I'd sit middle seat for higher class of flight. Just saying the 17.5 in with 3 in recline in Econ sucks on dom airlines. Flying international on most foreign airlines esp premium is like night and day v UA/AA. Unless you go business it's no question. As for miles you get it on the alliances and via cc points anyway to use on any airline. Consider this option.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I go out of my way on international flights not to fly domestic except maybe Delta. If you compare prices and value UA prem seats such as does AA. I'm flying Singapore Air and the service and seats for premium is outstanding. To answer your question I'd sit middle seat for higher class of flight. Just saying the 17.5 in with 3 in recline in Econ sucks on dom airlines. Flying international on most foreign airlines esp premium is like night and day v UA/AA. Unless you go business it's no question. As for miles you get it on the alliances and via cc points anyway to use on any airline. Consider this option.

I have heard this canard repeated a lot here and other places. It was generally true probably 10 years ago. Now, definitely not the case.

In economy, there is very little difference between seat size/space on any mainline airline. Pretty much all of them have on-demand seatback screens on their long haul planes. Yes you will get better food on Singapore, Air France, ANA, JAL than US airlines, and a bit better service, but still its economy, they aren't gonna cook a special meal for you or anything. On BA, Lufthansa, Iberia, Aer Lingus, the Middle Eastern airlines, there is going to be no substantive difference in your experience in economy vs the US big 3 airlines. And the Delta premium over AA/UA is pretty much gone now, at least for international service. In fact Delta's old 767s they run to Europe are a notable step down in business class from most of AA/UA's reconfigured planes.

Now, in business it's a much more mixed bag. Really depends on airline/route/plane type. BA and Lufthansa are generally worse than the US3, because many of their planes (all, in Lufthansa's case) are an older business class seat that doesn't allow aisle access from every seat. United has a strong consistent seat across their fleet now, and the Polaris lounges are excellent. But their food on board suuuucks. What about Emirates, you say? Well, if you fly business on the wrong plane (not their first seat, which they advertise a ton, but of course is hard to get), you may not even have a lie flat seat. Yes, Singapore is a step above pretty much everyone in the US for their business product, that's true, as is Qatar/Turkish/ANA/JAL. But the gap is much narrower than it used to be as the big 3 have almost fully converted their business class seats to lie flats with all aisle access.

In summary, yes some foreign airlines are better for long haul flights But not definitely not all, or even really most. Depends a lot on specifics. And in economy they are all very similar.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Recently flew to Tokyo in premium economy on a middle seat as two tall teen DS sat on aisle seats. It was great. Take the middle seat in premium economy.

This is my flight exactly.