United Airlines First - HIT or MISS? Boeing 737-800 First Class Review

Hello and welcome to another trip report. It is just about quarter past four in the morning and I

am just about to leave my hotel here in Atlanta to get the first shuttle to the airport at 4.30

My flight leaves today at 6am and I'll be taking United Airlines between Atlanta and Newark EWR

This is actually my first time ever flying United Airlines in any class and this is part of a longer trip

I've actually booked Atlanta to Newark and then Newark to Los Angeles in California on their 757-200 in their premium service business class

So that's basically their top level domestic first class product with live flat seats

So just a two hour flight today. I've had a quick look and the weather looks absolutely fine. hoping for a few nice views on takeoff and in the cruise as we head from George up to New York

So sit back, enjoy the video and we'll take it from here. So today we're going to be flying on a 737-800 up to Newark, New Jersey

Atlanta Airport has a distinctive lobby but something you might have missed if you pass through here a few times

is this fantastic remembrance wall in the main lobby. It's a great little exhibit and it's fantastic to see some really old medals here

there's even one here from world war one I'm doing this world tour with a bag and so I need to check in here at the domestic terminal

north with United Airlines I have premier access check-in due to the class of my ticket but it's

not too busy anyway at this time of the morning okay just cleared security took about five or ten

minutes which isn't too bad I guess for a huge airport like Atlanta now um not very long until

boarding just about 20 minutes until boarding starts which is really cutting it fine um as far

as i'm concerned i like to be at the gate a long time before the aircraft is due to board however

some good news uh we're actually departing from gate t17 which is in the t part of the terminal

which is the main building so we don't have to go out onto what they call the toast rack

in case you're wondering what i mean by the toast rack i mean this particular arrangement it's quite

popular in more modern airport designs and of course as i said i'm leaving from the t gates

which means I don't have to take the transit train. There is a United Club lounge here

but incredibly, even though I'm travelling in domestic first class and connecting through onto their premium transcontinental domestic business class product

the rules say I do not have access and can't get in. thanks to the short walking time to this gate i there in plenty of time and even have time

to take a little bit of film of this 737 that's going to be our ride to newark this morning

having a domestic business or first class ticket means you will be in group one that's the first

regular boarding group on board the aircraft something i definitely recommend just like

frontier united were measuring carry-on bags in this gauge so do make sure it meets all the

regulations else you could find your bag checked and you have to pay for it come on

i really recommend that you follow me on my other social media i have a twitter account and i have

Instagram and it's on there that I discuss all of my future plans and on Instagram in particular

I live blog all of my trips using the stories function. This 737-800 has two plus two business class seats and they're the old-fashioned armchairs

with plenty of legroom and plenty of padding if however they are a bit past their sell-by date

one thing i definitely hadn't prepared myself for was just how retro this aircraft was going to feel

that's especially the case after i'd flown in the previous day with frontier on a much newer

aircraft as you can see there are personal tvs in the back of the seats but they're absolutely

tiny they must be first generation something american carriers do a lot better than european

carriers is pre-flight service. There's a pre-departure beverage here on United Airlines

and they also hand out some earbuds. It's a really good opportunity for the cabin crew

to break the ice and meet their premium cabin customers. Thank you

As we take off into the dawn sky now a good time to take a look at the route map for today

flight. We're going to be travelling 745 miles up to Newark at an altitude of 36,000 feet and it

will take us just around two hours to make the journey. None of us like getting up early but I

definitely recommend taking dawn flights because I think the views as the sun rises are among

the best that you can have in the air. Let's take a quick look around the seat and the very retro controls that there are on the

arm rests here. This particular one I don't think has been used for years. However there

is a very handy side pocket for storing blankets. Another thing I notice is that the personal TVs have a credit card swipe, something I

don't think has been installed on aircraft for about 10 or 15 years at least

The tray tables in these very comfortable armchairs are stowed in the armrest and deploy quite easily

However, the one at my seat had some kind of weird stain on it. I'm not quite sure what it was, but it was this aircraft's first flight of the day, so there was no excuse for it to be dirty

Now on to something much more positive. And spoiler alert, I found United's connectivity in-flight to be the best of all the American carriers that I tried on this world tour

it's reasonably priced and very fast indeed a lot of people told me in the scoot review video

that united airlines requires an app for you to access the in-flight entertainment that's not true

here's a screenshot from my browser to prove it it's worth mentioning that the in-flight entertainment

is free and you do not need to pay for wider internet access to enable it also on the list

of free functions is the route map and that personally is one of my favorite forms of

in-flight entertainment. After only a few minutes in the cruise, breakfast was served and boy did I

need that orange juice. However the rest of the breakfast left, in my opinion, a lot to be desired

I'm afraid this tomato and feta cheese tart was really not to my liking and I found the fruit

salad to be somewhat lacking as well. It definitely wasn't as fresh as it could have been. This

particular breakfast I didn't enjoy and, unusually for me, I left half of it

The good news is the coffee was a lot better and I felt a lot more human after it

United have a pretty smart in-flight magazine called Hemispheres. And as you know, I like my route maps. That's the first thing I turn to

It's incredible just how many flights there are within the United States

Look at the amount of congestion here in the Northeast Corridor. It also worth mentioning that United do have some code shares on Amtrak trains as you can see here again in the North East Corridor Checking the internet again before I landed I noticed that I was able to look at the status

of my connecting flight from Newark to Los Angeles. I thought this was a really impressive

feature and will really come into its own if you've got a very tight connection at a hub airport

Overall, I thought United's connectivity on board was absolutely world class. as we approached two hours flying time it was time to descend into the new york newark area

it's a beautiful summer morning and i'll just let you enjoy the views from here

so let's talk about the cost of the ticket and my conclusions this flight will set you back around

220 pounds that's 290 dollars one way in business class as you know i booked on a through fare to

Los Angeles and I'll discuss more about the exact cost that I paid for the whole ticket in the next

video reviewing the transcontinental business class service. However for a standalone £220

or $290 ticket I can't recommend this as being good value especially as that's over twice the

price of economy. I just had a general feeling of lacklusterness about most of the service and

the thing that I liked the most, in fact I loved it, was the onboard connectivity and you can take

advantage of that exactly the same in economy. If you are not subscribed already to my channel

please do, and then you won't miss my next video on United's transcon service. And without putting

out too many spoilers, I definitely have a lot to say about it. So it landed punctually and safely

here at Newark, New Jersey. I've got a layover of several hours now until my next flight onto

Los Angeles, California, also with United Airlines. Do make sure you're subscribed if

you're not already i've still got loads and loads more videos to come this channel is going from

strength to strength thank you all so much for your support but until next time see you around