The return of United PS?!

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It looks like United is launching a whole new sub-fleet within its A32X planes and calling them "Coastliners." Near as all the experts can tell, these Coastliners are a dedicated set of premium-configured planes to run between the coasts' largest and most profitable cities. The name seems a bit Amtrak-y, which immediately gives me fears that they'll be chronically delayed, but I digress…

Back in the day (starting in 2004) United had fleet of 757s badged as "Premium Service," and boy do we (and many other plan nerds) have a some fond memories of its legendary, infinite-legroom Row 9. The whole thing sorta fell apart back in 2015 when they started moving heaps of their JFK traffic to EWR (they eventually left JFK altogether). This was right about the time that JetBlue stunned the American aviation market by launching its lie-flat Mint product, the first domestic planes with beds and closing door suites. 

I'll be honest, the rise of Mint coupled with United's customer-hostile attitude meant that we just sorta stopped thinking about PS and our sweet Row 9 and freshly baked arrival cookie. I have no idea what became of those planes, but I'm guessing their giant, overstuffed lazyboy lounger chairs all got ripped out in a remodel and sold for scrap. 

United hasn't officially announced anything, but they have said that they're "waiting for the right plane" to make their triumphant return to JFK. The seat map looks like ten rows of 1+1 lie-flat Polaris (not sure how they'll brand this), followed by a substantial PremiumPlus section, and then Economy. This seems like a special enough plane that they could trumpet it to everyone in their return to JFK. 


Here's a link to some of the tweets. Happy speculating! I'm sure my husband is praying for those cookies to come back (but I'm guessing it'll just be sundaes.) Me, I'm just hoping people in Coastliner Polaris get access to some kind of lounge at JFK and access to the Polaris lounge at LAX. A girl can dream…


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