#68 out of 94 Airlines A minimum of 10 flight-reports within the past two years is required to appear in the rankings.
384 reviews
I arrived at LAX at around 6:40 a.m., about 2 hours prior to my scheduled departure time of 8:40 a.m. I took the complimentary shuttle from the Sheraton Gateway LAX.
United is the exclusive airline out of Terminal 7 at LAX, so that’s where you’ll need to arrive ahead of your flight. Check In has a few different zones: Premier Access, Polaris, Premier 1K, Global Services, and Economy. So, be sure to join the correct line. There are also self service kiosks that you can use if you’re not checking a bag or want to self-tag your bags.
I went to the Premier Access counter to print my boarding pass. I personally like to have a printed boarding pass as a backup just in case technology fails me, and my phone or the app… etc. stops working (It did happen to me once when I was boarding a Delta flight and was super frustrating.)
LAX Terminal 7 has four different lanes for security. There’s a Precheck lane, a Clear lane, a Premier Access/Star Alliance Gold Track lane, and then an Economy lane. I went through the Clear lane and was through security within minutes.
After clearing security, I proceeded up the escalator to the gate area of the terminal.
I immediately turned right, and found the United Club. In my opinion, the LAX club’s exterior with its lighting is one of the coolest exteriors for a United Club.
Note that there is no complimentary lounge access on domestic routes. Except on flights from LAX/SFO to/from EWR in business class. You must be a United Club member in order to access the club domestically, which I am. You can find the full United Club access policy here.
I scanned my boarding pass and was immediately admitted inside of the club, which you have to take an escalator to get to after checking in. The escalator is kind of cool, it features mood lighting, which is nice.
This club is huge. It’s one of the largest United Clubs in the United Club network.
Upon entering the club, you will find a normal seating area with regular armchairs arranged a long the window, along with various seating types in the center of the club, ranging from armchairs to high top tables. These windows offer a great view of the ramp below.
Going deeper into the lounge, you find the bar and buffet area, which featured a number of hot and cold food options this morning. On offer today was the usual assortment of breads with jellies, jams, butter, cream cheese… as well as a build your own breakfast burrito station with tortillas, eggs, sausages, pico de gallo, cheese, and salsa. Fresh fruit, oatmeal, and muffins were also on offer.
On the other side of the buffet and bar is another smaller seating area.
Just beyond that, is the outdoor terrace, where you can go outside and enjoy being outside watching the planes.
While in the club, I grabbed a cup of coffee and a few things to eat, and mostly just stayed in the main seating area next to the window.
At 7:45, I decided to leave the United Club and head to the gate.
Our departure gate today was gate 76A. It will take you about 5 minutes to get to any gate in this pier from the United Club. If you’re departing from the pier with the 80s gates, I would allow an additional 10 minutes of walking time.
When I got to the gate, boarding had already started. Boarding began right on time at 7:50 a.m. I boarded with Group 1, which I get with my United Platinum status, though it should be noted that economy plus usually boards in Group 3.
We boarded through door L1, and I was greeted by a friendly female flight attendant who directed me across the aisle and to the right. Because we boarded through L1, I had to pass through the Polaris cabin, and I have to admit that I got a bit jealous of all those passengers since my upgrade didn’t clear!
The Premium Plus cabin on the 787-9 is arranged in a 2-3-2 configuration. Each seat features 38 inches of pitch, 6 inches of recline, and 19 inches of width.
I quickly found my seat 20L, which is a bulkhead seat on the right side of the aircraft. I personally prefer the bulkhead seats in Premium Plus because the footrest is more comfortable, and you can get in and out of your seat more easily if you need to. This particular seat features 2 windows with a great view of the wing!
The Premium Plus seats feature an IFE screen, and a footrest, along with an adjustable headrest. They also feature a universal power outlet as well as a USB-A charging port.
The seat controls as well as an IFE remote are located in the armrest.
In the other armrest is the tray table.
The only downside to the bulkhead seating is that the video monitor extends from the armrest, meaning that it is unusable for taxi, takeoff, and landing. Additionally, you do need to store all of your luggage in the overhead bin during taxi, takeoff, and landing because there is no underseat storage due to the lack of the seat in front of you.
At 8:31, the boarding door closed.
At 8:32, the captain came on to welcome us aboard, and announce our flight time of 3 hours and 55 minutes.
At 8:33, the safety video played on the monitor located on the bulkhead wall ahead of my seat.
We pushed back right on schedule at 8:42 a.m., and began our taxi to the runway.
During the taxi out, a flight attendant came around to offer us a set of earbuds, I declined as I use my own Bose QC 35 IIs.
At 8:52, we took runway 25L for Departure.
At 9:15, the flight attendant came around to offer me a drink. She did it in a quite rude way by just barking “DRINK?” This isn’t standard for domestic economy in the U.S… I expect flight attendants to still be friendly and courteous.
At 9:19, we reached our cruising altitude of 39,000 feet.
At 9:57, our trash was collected by the flight attendant, and I reclined my seat to relax for the remainder of the flight.
At 2:24 p.m. local time in Washington, about 1 hour and 40 minutes before arrival, the flight attendants came around with another beverage service. But for some reason, skipped me. She asked my seatmate, then went across the aisle, and then moved on. I really didn’t want anything anyways but it would’ve been nice to have been offered. The service on this flight was terrible… I don’t know how else to put it.
At 3:09, the captain came on to announce that we were beginning our initial descent into Washington-Dulles. He also informed us that it was 29 degrees and snowing, which is a stark difference from the 60 degree weather we left back in Los Angeles.
We touched down on Runway 1C at 3:48 p.m., and began our taxi to the gate.
We parked at Gate D 21 today at 3:58 p.m. After deplaning, I made my way to the metro and was on my way home shortly after that.
Overall, the Premium Plus seat on the 787-9 is excellent. It was perfect for this 4.5-hour flight across the country, and I wouldn’t hesitate to fly it across the Atlantic or Pacific for long-haul international travel. The seat itself offered a decent amount of recline and the footrest really helped.
Terminal 7 at LAX is nice and refreshed. The United Club at LAX is also nicely refreshed with some decent amenities. It’s also very easy to navigate.
The only downside to this flight was the service, which was horrible. From a flight attendant barking “DRINK?” to her completely skipping me during the second beverage service. I expect more out of United, honestly. Especially from a crew that flies on the 787-9 and that does long-haul international flights.
In conclusion, I’d recommend United Premium Plus for the seat comfort. But, I have to say that as this was a domestic economy flight, I was absolutely unimpressed with the service.
Les contributeurs de Flight-Report ont posté 8 avis concernant 2 compagnies sur la ligne Los Angeles (LAX) → Washington (IAD).
La compagnie qui obtient la meilleure moyenne est American Airlines avec 7.2/10.
La durée moyenne des vols est de 4 heures et 45 minutes.
More information
1 Comments
Yeah it's super confusing. I never fly UA so I'd never been to T7, but when my parents were flying F back to IAD a few months ago I remember finding it messy to figure out which counter they should use. Then being yelled at by a rude agent to use self-service kiosks--I felt like I'd been magically transported to EWR for a second--it did NOT make me want to switch to UA! Flying mostly AA, AS, or BA from LAX I find their ticket Priority ticket counter set ups much simpler.
As unremarkable as T7 appears to be (from my very limited experience), the United Club looks quite nice, on the contrary. Great views and a terrace! I love that, especially since it's often nice out in SoCal. I believe the *A lounge in TBIT also has an outdoor terrace. I wish one of the oneworld carrier lounges had one!
It's really great to be able to snag Premium Economy seats for free with status on these domestic routes where they don't sell the W cabin. Even though the big US3 carriers all have exactly the same Collins MiQ Premium Economy seat model, I think United's is probably the most attractive visually--totally subjective since I like purple. It's refreshing to see actual colours in a cabin design besides black, grey, and blue.
Thanks for sharing!
Login to post a comment.