Review of United Express flight Chicago New York in Domestic First

Airline United Express
Flight UA5946
Seat 3A
Aircraft Embraer E-175
Flight time 01:50
Take-off 22 Mar 16, 15:10
Arrival at 22 Mar 16, 18:00
UA 68 reviews
Rewardflying
Published on 17th May 2016
photo ua stratocruiser cover.

Off to NY to board Asiana's A380 to Seoul the next day. I'm excited to fly the A380 sitting in the upper deck so I am making the trip to NY, which I'd otherwise avoid. United and American love to make connections out of JFK but fly you in to Newark or LaGuardia because they don't. American has 1 flight a day, UA none. Of course UA does't have any flights out of JFK anymore. I decided on LGA and it was a good choice. There is an Airporter shuttle that runs every 15 minutes or so for $14. I did Uber from my app, $30, nice driver and a fairly quick trip at rush hour. Driver told me Newark to JFK is 90 to 120 minutes. Won't be doing that one.

Being a United Express flight it departed out of Terminal 2 at O'Hare which is a mad house. Fairly nice United lounge however. Nice view of south side of the airfield. Have to love the mural on the wall of the old United Stratocruiser. But you can't even get a bottle of water, just a cup filled from dispenser with lemons. Probably tap water.

Times have changed. As years go by the service from Chicago to New York gets less business focused and flown on smaller, much smaller aircraft. In the 1950's economy seats were almost lie flat beds!

photo o-56021695-570.

Back in the 70's TWA served LaGuardia using a Boeing 727. As a young man, my boss took me on one of these flights, my first, first class experience. No doubt champagne was served. In the 80's I flew on a new United Boeing 767 to Laguardia. About the same time I took an American DC-10 to Newark and remember watching the nose camera on takeoff which was so cool. In the 90's I remember the angle flat first class seat to JFK on a United 767 and flew American's Flagship 727 service where breakfast in coach was actually food. Even Midway Airlines flew new DC-9 aircraft with 2x2 first class seats back then and you could upgrade to first for something like $25.

Unfortunately domestic air travel was about to transform itself.

The Chicago to New York route illustrates the transformation perfectly. Business travel succumbed to leisure travel. Less service, smaller aircraft, narrower seats, cattle call boarding, domestic travel as we know it today. From wide bodies the route would now be flown by Airbus A320 and Boeing 737 aircraft with smaller first class cabins. The aura and quality of business travel was missing. Instead of a special experience flying between major cities, it became commonplace. And so goes all domestic air travel.

Yes, occasionally they rotate an international aircraft between the first and third largest cities by US population, but virtually all aircraft on these routes are flown with small narrow body jets. And in recent years a new step down, regional jets. My flight today, on a United Express Embraer 175.

Nice plane. But I had to chuckle as the nice flight attendant was announcing to the crowd that they were on United's newest aircraft with "oversize" storage bins, as my carryon was being gate checked because it didn't come close to fitting in the overhead bin.

It's a 90 minute flight. All I've said in the end really doesn't matter for a short hop. It's the 10 hour flights where first or business class amenities matter. But I have to wonder, what will international travel be in 30 years? Will it degrade as domestic travel has over the last 30 years? We are already seeing first class go by the wayside.

The flight was perfectly fine. It left on time, arrived early, was comfortable and served a typical domestic lunch (I'm sparing you the picture!), even on a 3pm flight when you usually just get nuts. No complaints here.

photo ua e175 seat-1.

The flight offered United's personal device entertainment. As typical of regional jets, the aircraft itself didn't have any video screens or audio. But with PDE you could watch a number of different movies, tv shows or documentaries on your personal device; phone or tablet. Simply download the united app and click on the "entertainment" button. That connects you to the wifi system where you can select to surf the web for a fee or play an entertainment show for no charge. And it worked great! Good job United.

photo priv screen email-1.photo priv screen web page 1-1.photo priv screen web page 2-1.

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Verdict

United Express

6.9/10
Cabin7.0
Cabin crew7.0
Entertainment/wifi8.5
Meal/catering5.0

United Club (Concourse F)

4.5/10
Comfort6.0
Meal/catering2.5
Entertainment/wifi6.5
Services3.0

Chicago - ORD

5.5/10
Efficiency5.0
Access5.0
Services5.0
Cleanliness7.0

New York - LGA

5.3/10
Efficiency5.0
Access5.0
Services5.0
Cleanliness5.0

Conclusion

LaGuardia hasn't changed in 30 years.

Information on the route Chicago (ORD) New York (LGA)

Les contributeurs de Flight-Report ont posté 4 avis concernant 3 compagnies sur la ligne Chicago (ORD) → New York (LGA).


Useful

La compagnie qui obtient la meilleure moyenne est American Airlines avec 7.2/10.

La durée moyenne des vols est de 1 heures et 57 minutes.

  More information

1 Comments

If you liked this review or if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to post a comment below !
  • Comment 348792 by
    KévinDC TEAM SILVER 6668 Comments
    Thanks for sharing. Well written review, but only one photo of the flight? Normally a report with so few actual photos of the flight would be deleted--perhaps it would have made more sense to have this as part of an introduction to the next leg.

    "and served a typical domestic lunch (I'm sparing you the picture!)"
    - Don't spare us, we want to see--it's the whole point of this site :-)

    "LaGuardia hasn't changed in 30 years."
    - Or more, haha. I don't blame people when they say LGA is a 3rd world country--though that's an insult to 3rd world countries. LGA is not worthy, haha.

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