This will be a rather brief report compared to my previous ones. I decided to start writing this one mid-flight, so apologies if it's not as well rounded as my previous ones.
Logan Background: Boston's General Edward Lawrence Logan International Airport will be seeing some rather major rearranging soon: UA being the outcast of sorts. The merger of AA/US will see them becoming the largest airline in the U.S. and by certain metrics, the world. At BOS both carriers occupy a vast majority of both sides of Terminal B. B is split into two sides, a north and a south. Both of which are not connected. Massport, the agency that operates the airport, are currently constructing an addition to the ends of both sides of the terminal so that the two sides hopefully will connect. Once merged, its widely speculated that AA/US will take over the south side of B, where US is currently, and then wrap around to the other side of B.
Now this is where UA comes in. Currently UA ops haven’t been consolidated since the CO/UA merger. It's split between terminals A and C. Its been 'confirmed' that they will consolidate and move all their ops to the remaining parts of B. This would be the north side at the end. Terminal A will then become almost entirely DL as they add more routes from BOS. AS also operates from there as well.
In case you were also wondering, the United part of C will become even more space for jetBlue. They’re pretty much taking over Logan. Southwest and Air Tran will continue to occupy a small corner of the International terminal, E.
And now for the flight itself: I was flying back to IAH after spending the Christmas holiday back home in BOS.
Everything looks on time.
The satellite part of terminal A. Entirely DL with AS at one end.
My plane approaching after just having arrived from IAH.
N445UA
Panorama of Terminal A ramp ops.
Panorama of terminal B. [The south part where US operates out of.] U.S. based UltraLLC Spirit Airlines operates out of B4 on the left hand side.
As soon as I boarded I noticed the all grey leather seats in Y. This is the new United Recaro seats that they are retrofitting to older aircraft. This surprise prompted me to write this report. They are significantly thinner, but with use a better more efficient padding. A lot if Int'l carriers are using this model. By reducing the seat thickness, they are actually able to fit an additional row in. The overhead bins also saw a slight increase in their storage height. http://photosynth.net/embed.aspx'cid=7a3606ad-cdfe-4e07-a2f5-02898975d31e
The contents of the seatback pocket are moved to the back of the headrest and behind the tray table. There's a mesh pocked where the pouch usually is. I found this quite useless as it doesn't expand all that much.
Though by reducing the seatback pocket, you gain a little extra legroom around your knees.
It was a sold out flight, but luckily no one next to me in the middle seat.
We then pushed back. The satellite part of A.
A US A320 on her way to CLT.
South side of B (US's gates).
A Pen Air Saab 340.
The new construction in B.
AA's side of B.
Terminal C. jetBlue ops.
Southwest/AirTran's part of terminal E.
The empty international gates on Terminal E. The DL plane there I believe is a A330 that just arrived from AMS. About 20 minutes before we passed, there was the JAL 787 parked there.
(L to R) Gulfstream private jet; jetBlue A320; US Airways A320; jetBlue EMB190 touching down
The taxi to 22R was quite brief. The crushable concrete safety area at the end of 22R.
Takeoff.
Boston harbor.
Castle Island.
KBOS
Deer Island, the sewage treatment plant for Boston. The tanker Hellas Explorer is inbound for discharge in Boston.
Georges Island.
When boarding I noticed that they had the Wifi signal just to the right of the door. Once at FL100, I fired up the laptop and connected to 'United_wi-fi'. When opening up a browser you're shown this page. I had no interest in paying $10 so I just explored their intranet site. You can view your current flight path which I always find interesting.
One F/A came by with their prepackaged food boxes for purchase. The cheapest item is like $7.95. I’ve never been that desperate for food. Then drinks were served. I opted for a bloody mary mix.
About midway through the flight, one of the F/A's came down the isle with a tray of water if anyone wanted them. Then there was a second beverage service. I opted for a Sprite. Flying over Tuscaloosa, AL.
Starting our decent to IAH. We hugged the coast, of sorts. Lake Charles, LA.
Beaumont/Nederland/Port Arthur, TX
On final approach. I thought we were too low to have flaps 0.
Landed on runway 27. They were doing parallel takeoffs from 15L&R. It looked more impressive in person…
After deplaning, I went to the International Terminal, D, to plane spot. Unlike BOS, in IAH you can get around to all terminals post security.
An Emirates 777 landing in the background. A Qatar 777 and a United A320 landing in the foreground.
Singapore Airlines 777 pushing back for her flight to Moscow (you read that right!) Air China parked awaiting her night departure to PEK.
An assortment of exotic luggage containers. (Turkish, Singapore, Emirates, Air China)
AF 777 getting ready for her pushback.
The Qatar 777 from earlier.
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Verdict
United
5.1/10
Cabin7.0
Cabin crew4.5
Entertainment/wifi5.0
Meal/catering4.0
Boston - BOS
6.8/10
Efficiency8.0
Access6.0
Services6.5
Cleanliness6.5
Houston - IAH
6.8/10
Efficiency6.0
Access7.0
Services7.0
Cleanliness7.0
Conclusion
I decided to write this report when I was surprised by the brand new seats. I've read mixed things about them so far. Maybe it's because they are new they are still comfortable. The seatback has been completely rearranged as mentioned above. It really prohibits the addition of IFE unless they go the WN route and have it all stream-able over the planes wifi. An interesting note, the tray table is insanely smaller.
BOS was its usual self and so was IAH. Nothing too note worthy there.
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Thanks for sharing this report. I had no idea that UA was bothering to install new cabins on their A32X a/c. I was under the impression they were going to leave the fleet over the next few years, but I guess that's not the case. Visually, the new cabin looks much better than the ratty old PMUA cabins. Installing slimline seats to squeeze in an extra row in unfortunately a trend throughout the industry. Yes, you get a little more legroom with these types of seats but it usually feel like you're sitting on a park bench, LOL. As far as IFE goes, it seems that US is going against the trend at DL and AA to install IFE on the majority of the fleet. By installing these types of seats US is saying that they have no itention of having IFE...considering that some A32X do transcons, I don't know how smart of a decision that--AA and DL seem more concetrated on differentiating themselved on product, poor UA seems to be the only one still in the race to bottom, LOL. I'd be interested to see what the new F cabin looks like.
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4 Comments
The new seat look very classy but hard, as you say we'll see if they remain confortable overtime.
Nice pics after take off.
The new cabin looks nice
The seats are offering more legroom for the knees but less comfort for the back
Great aerials views
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