Review of United flight Newark Dallas/Fort Worth in Economy

Airline United
Flight UA1727
Class Economy
Seat 30E
Aircraft Boeing 737-700
Flight time 03:35
Take-off 29 Aug 16, 13:15
Arrival at 29 Aug 16, 15:50
UA   #68 out of 94 Airlines A minimum of 10 flight-reports within the past two years is required to appear in the rankings. 448 reviews
Drewj21
By 1043
Published on 6th December 2016
Hello Friends!
This summer in August, my family moved to Texas from New Jersey because of job relocation. This was a company-booked flight, meaning I had no say over carrier, class, or seating. Unfortunately for me, this meant a middle seat, and unfortunately for you, this means less pictures. There’s only so much you can do in a middle seat.
We arrived at Good old Newark about 2 hrs. before departure, I haven’t flown on Unitental since the merger, so seeing Terminal C with ONLY SELF-SERVE CHECK-IN was a shock.
photo uacheck-in-ewr-compressor


We tagged our bags to DFW and dropped it on the ramp.
After that, we headed upstairs to Security. Remember the big CO sign above the checkpoint that said Work Hard, Fly Right? Now it has a big UNITED logo. Security was pretty short, shocking for Newark.
Unfortunately, no Continental Airlines Presidents Club…. emm. UNITED Club visit for me because we were running late.
Once we were airside, we headed to Gate C70.Our plane had already arrived from IAH.
photo our-plane-compressor

This was the best shot I could get of our bird. This bird is an ex-Continental 737-7 with split scimitars, delivered to CO in 1997. Welcome to Unitental Town! I personally don’t like the hybrid logo.
photo united-town-compressor



Most, if not all birds here are Ex-Con.
photo united-town-2-compressor

An a320 to Denver next to us. I bet it has the new cabin..
photo a320-den-compressor

Boarding commenced right on time (shocking), and priorities were not respected (not shocking). I did not board first even though I am *A Silver, I chose to board with my family.

Mobile Boarding Pass.
photo bp screenshot

Because the company booked all three of us in middle seats, I swapped seats with my sister so I could keep an eye on her.

Its been 6 years since the merger, but they still haven’t retrofitted the seats. It’s the same old checker seats with DirecTV. And they are still ripping us off, 7.99? per screen? I tried to use the BYOIFE with the UA app, but they were smart, they don’t allow personal device entertainment on flights with TV.
photo cabin-shot-during-service-compressor


Instead of paying, I kept it on the moving map.
photo ife-moving-map-compressor

We took off, and Cabin service started. I had a Sprite and the FA was nice enough to give me the whole can! I was also given a Snack Mix.
photo cabin-shot-during-service-compressorphoto savory-snacks-compressor


And that was it in terms of catering..

An hour later, I see the moving map’s destination has changed to Oklahoma, it says the same on unitedwifi.com
The captain comes over the PA and says, there has been storms in the DFW area and ATC has told all aircraft to remain in a holding position over DFW. He also stated that we don’t have enough fuel to hold, so we would be diverting to OKC to refuel. People LOST it! They thought the plane was going to crash. I sat back and silently laughed at their ignorance. We then landed in OKC and stopped at the gate to refuel. We were on the ground for an hour. (Again, best shot I could take from a middle seat.)
photo divert-okc-compressor

The IFE and Safety Demo played again, and we took off, Captain announced a flight time of 33 mins, and that there would be no cabin service due to the short flight. We landed at DFW uneventfully next to another UA jet (couldn’t tell what a/c from where I was sitting) and a NK a320 (in the old, repulsive, ugly livery) taxing by , and an AA 767 ?

photo welcome-to-dfw-compressor

This ends another Flight Report. Stay posted for more!
-Andrew
My Airline Blog
See more

Verdict

United

4.8/10
Cabin4.0
Cabin crew7.0
Entertainment/wifi5.0
Meal/catering3.0

Newark - EWR

3.3/10
Efficiency3.0
Access3.0
Services5.0
Cleanliness2.0

Dallas/Fort Worth - DFW

6.6/10
Efficiency6.0
Access5.0
Services7.0
Cleanliness8.5

Conclusion

A decent domestic flight on UA....nothing to write home about

Related

4 Comments

If you liked this review or if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to post a comment below !
  • Comment 377234 by
    KL651 TEAM 4534 Comments
    Thanks for this FR.
    The 737-700 looks odd with the split scimitar, short and pointy in all directions.
    A additionnal landing & take off is always fun for an avgeek, too bad uneducated people ruin it.
  • Comment 377437 by
    NGO85 SILVER 1972 Comments
    Thanks for sharing this FR!

    "Its been 6 years since the merger, but they still haven’t retrofitted the seats."
    - UA is a mess, it's ridiculous how fragmented their fleet is. You are drawing at straws to see if you are getting a PM-CO or PM-UA cabin. It's even obvious on the long-haul fleet where they have mixed J cabins. AA/US merger has been far better handled with a more rapid fleet homogenization IMO.

    Overall a decent flight on UA, at least you had an IFE (even if it was PPV). A very unusual diversion to OKC, the weather looked so clear in OKC, must have been a very centralized pocket of weather given the proximity of those 2 cities.
    • Comment 377466 by
      Drewj21 AUTHOR 21 Comments
      Hi Michael!
      -UA is a mess
      -It certainly is!
      -Overall a decent flight
      -It was. I was a bit disappointed by the catering, CO gave a sandwich on flights 3hrs+

      Thank you for your comment!

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