[cssaus]

Earlier this week I flew back to SYD from JFK on UA839 via LAX.

I was pleasantly impressed with the sector from JFK to LAX as it involved flying on one of UNITED's newly kitted out Premier Service 757 planes.

The Interiors all the way from first thru business and onto economy all had new seating throughout with the economy section being all "economy plus" with very adequate leg room.

I was seated in Business class and the seats were all new leather ones with international-style seating pitch offering plenty of legroom and equipped with in-seat power supplies. The lavatories were very clean offering a range of aftershave, moisturiser and soaps (something that you don't find on the cross-pacific UA sectors).

After take off those of us in business class were offered personal Panasonic wide-screen DVD players plus high-quality sound reduction headphones along with a selection of 8 or so DVDs (I managed to watch 3 episodes of "The Sopranos" that I had never seen).

The meal service was exceptionally good and the quality of the food I couldn't faulty. The only criticism I detected (and it was pointed out to me by one of the crew members) is that there is one less flight attendant on the plane compared to the old wide-body transcontinental 767 flights and that was because of the crewing contract that the UA flight attendants have for the 757 aircraft.

Be aware that not all transcontinental flights are Premium Service ones and if planning a flight it's worth double checking the type of equipment.

One thing that did cross my mind is whether or not UA copied the idea from their Star Alliance partner Lufthansa who offer all-business class flights on certain flights in Europe.

Having flown the route countless of times, compared to the old transcontinental flights on the wide-body 767 flights, the new services is a 100% improvement.

Well done United.

[ozstamps]

"ps" as UA calls it has been a big success.