#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
Aircraft: A319-131
Tail Number: N831UA
Class: United Economy Plus
Seat: 21A (Exit Row)
I arrived at the relatively quiet Minneapolis Airport an hour before my first flight of this trip to Florida was scheduled to depart. I am talking the long way to Florida, first flying through California, New York, and Chicago before eventually reaching my final destination of Orlando.
The first views of the Minneapolis E gates on this cold winter day. The E gates house Alaska, American, Air Canada, Spirit, and United. My plane, painted in United's EvoBlue livery has not yet arrived.
Here is our 21-year-old A319, registered N831UA, pulling in from Chicago O'Hare. The plane arrived 20 minutes late, however we still ended up departing right on time and arriving in Denver a couple minutes early. Same cannot be said for my connecting flight to San Fransisco…
Soon enough, it was time to board.
I can't get enough of the EvoBlue livery. It really does look amazing on every plane.
The interior on the other hand…
While the seats are new, and slimline, the cabin as a whole is ancient and showing its age. Next time you are on a United Airbus, head to the bathroom and have a look at the wallpaper straight from grandma's house. It really is time for the United Next retrofits to start.
Ample amounts of legroom in seat 21A, an exit seat. All of the Economy Plus seats on United's airbus fleet have ample amounts of legroom, much more than you will find on a 737 and quite possibly comparable to the Economy Plus section of a 777.
The Exit Row is still the best seat in the house if you can happen to snag it. (It usually stays open until standbys get cleared) When flying in the exit row make sure to have enough charge to get you past 10,000 feet since you won't be able to use your charger until then.
Padding on all of the United Economy seats in the Airbus is…minimal but still acceptable for anything under a three-hour flight.
View out of the window at 21A. The Delta A321 is heading to Orlando, just in a much more direct way.
Departure out of Snowy Minneapolis St. Paul making the turn towards Denver. I love flying out of snowy airports.
Shortly after departure, people began to settle in. After we passed through some rough turbulence, flight attendants came though the cabin with a quick drink service however no snack was provided.
I would appreciate if United added a snack service to flights this length, especially since Southwest has it on this same route.
After the drink service was completed, I got up and spoke with the crew. I find this a great way to pass the time and get my logbook signed. This crew even brought it up to the pilots to get more information and have them sign it as well.
Soon after, we began our decent into the Denver area.
First views of the Denver area.
Welcome to Denver International Airport. We made up about 9 minutes in the air and arrived in to Denver early.
The efficiency at this airport will always amaze me.
Thanks for the ride N831UA. Now on to San Fransisco.
And thank you for reading my first flight report. I plan to publish more of these in the upcoming months :).
The United Airbus is a nice ride for a flight under three hours, especially in Economy Plus. The ample amount of legroom and chargers makes up for the old cabin.
However, in regular economy, I don't like riding in the United Airbus as much as there are no power ports (this is the same as the 737-800s).
6 Comments
Wow you really did take the long way to FL! Was this part of a mileage/segment run?
The UA Airbus interior is a weird mix of new seats with old cabin walls and bins making for a generally drab look despite the newer seats, which is a shame. AA and DL have really refreshed their old Airbus fleet, making them look like new aircraft on the inside (especially DL). As you mention, though, UA will have much better cabins once the United Next interiors roll out more broadly.
Thanks for sharing and welcome! Looking forward to future reviews!
Hey! That was one of CO's biggest gifts to UA ;)
Not a Mileage run, just taking the long way for fun :)
Sounds like a year-end mileage run ;)
I’ve never been on a UA A319 yet, but it sounds pretty much on par with the A320s. Most of the legacy UA aircraft are pretty crusty in my opinion, but then again a large portion of UA’s fleet is really old so maybe it doesn’t matter if ex-CO or legacy-UA.
I’m surprised they didn’t offer the standard pretzel/cookie option. If they had time to do a full drink service, then there is time to hand out a 5 cent snack. Sounds like you got a good crew on this flight, were they DEN based?
Yep, they are the same exact thing on the inside. The only good ones are the ex- China southern planes. Those have slightly updated cabins and power through the whole plane.
I’ve heard they now re- started snack service on flights above 501 miles.
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