United Airlines has just made a series of passenger experience announcements. I already covered how United will soon take delivery of Airbus A321XLRs, which will operate long haul, international flights, primarily to Europe and South America.
What’s interesting is that this isn’t the only premium A321 variant that United is introducing, as United is also planning a similar subfleet of Airbus A321neos, which will be used for premium transcontinental flights. While we unofficially learned about this several weeks ago thanks to a leak from JonNYC, we now have all the details of what to expect.
United plans fleet of 161-seat Coastliner Airbus A321neos
United is acquiring a massive number of Airbus A321neos, as the airline eventually expects to have over 175 of these planes in its fleet. Up until now, these planes have all had a pretty standard domestic configuration, with 200 seats, including 20 first class seats and 180 economy class seats.
However, we’re soon going to see a new subfleet of these planes. United plans to introduce a special configuration on 50 A321neos, which will specifically be used for premium transcontinental routes, and will be branded as “Coastliners.” The first of these planes should be flying this summer, and the airline expects 40 of them to be delivered by early 2028.
The Coastliners will spot a new livery that “pays homage to the coastal destinations it serves,” so the planes will be easily identifiable.
These planes will feature 161 seats, including 20 Polaris (business class) seats in a 1-1 configuration, 12 Premium Plus (premium economy) seats in 2-2 configuration, and 129 economy class seats in a 3-3 configuration.
As a point of comparison, United’s A321XLRs will feature 150 seats, including 20 business class seats, 12 premium economy seats, and 118 economy class seats. In other words, United A321XLRs and A321neos will have very similar business class and premium economy cabins (except there will be no doors in business class on the A321neos), and the biggest difference is that economy will have an extra couple of rows of seats.
It’s logical that economy will be a bit denser on the A321neos, presumably with a bit less legroom, and smaller galleys, since there’s no need for hot meals in economy on those flights. Fortunately United will still have a little snack bar in the back of these planes.
United will offer Polaris Lounge access on transcon flights
It’s not just the hard product that will be changing on transcon flights, but also the soft product, to some extent. The forward cabin on Coastliner flights will be marketed as Polaris, and United will offer access to United Polaris Lounges when traveling on these flights, which is a first.
United has been the exception by not offering access to its more premium lounges on premium transcontinental flights, as transcon flights just got access to United Clubs. That contrasts to American Flagship Lounge access and Delta One Lounge access for premium transcontinental flights at the carrier’s two biggest competitors. So that’s a great development.
This is a smart, sensible direction for United to take
Going back almost a decade, United executives made it clear that they planned to configure some latest generation narrow body aircraft with flat beds.
At the time, the plan was for Boeing 737 MAX 10s to get these premium configurations, and to be used for transcontinental routes. However, with the plane still not certified, it seems that United has now just decided to do this on the A321neo, since the airline was tired of waiting.
These premium A321neos won’t just replace United’s aging Boeing 757-200s in some premium markets, but will also replace wide body aircraft that currently operate flights across the country (freeing them up for United to get even more of an edge with its long haul network).
A fleet of 50 planes is massive, and should easily cover around 75+ roundtrip coast-to-coast flights per day, conservatively. So of course these planes will fly from Newark (EWR) to Los Angeles (LAX) and San Francisco (SFO). Don’t be surprised to also eventually see these out of Boston (BOS), and also out of New York (JFK), given the deal between JetBlue and United (if that fully materializes).
Here’s the other thing I find interesting — I think it’s smart that United is actually creating a dedicated subfleet of premium transcontinental aircraft, as that’s quite a contrast to what’s happening at American. American is acquiring 40 Airbus A321XLRs, and plans to use those both for premium transcontinental and long haul international flights.
To me that seems like a strategic blunder. Using the carrier’s order of 40 A321XLRs for both domestic and international flights greatly limits American’s ability to grow, both in international markets (which is so overdue, given the premature aircraft retirements we saw at the airline at the start of the pandemic), and in premium transcontinental markets.
It’s another area where American is falling behind before it even starts with a strategy, and will lose more market share to United.
For what it’s worth, Delta is also planning a subfleet of Airbus A321neos with flat beds, which will also be used for premium transcontinental flights. Delta is only expected to operate a fleet of 21 of these planes, so that’s less than half the size of United’s fleet of premium aircraft. On top of that, Delta’s situation has been a bit of a mess, as the airline seemingly can’t get cabins certified, and some planes have now been parked for well over a year.
The situation at Delta is so bad that the airline plans to start flying these planes with 44 first class seats in other markets, since it’s not sure about the timeline with which seats can be certified.
Bottom line
United Airlines has unveiled its new “Coastliner” concept, with the idea being that there will be a special subfleet of Airbus A321neos, which will operate in premium transcontinental markets. The planes are expected to feature 161 seats, and much like the A321XLRs, will have 20 flat beds in business class, and 12 premium economy seats.
The first of these planes should enter service soon, and we can expect a total of 50 of these planes. To go along with this, United is also introducing Polaris Lounge access for those traveling in business class on Coastliner flights, which is great.
While I think this is a logical development, in terms of hard product, this is probably better than the 757s, but not as good as the 787s you’ll find in many transcon markets.
What do you make of United’s “Coastliner” A321neo plans?
