This summer United Airlines will launch their Premium Service (United Airlines PS) 757-200 on a daily flight between Los Angeles (LAX) and Boston (BOS). The United Airlines PS 757 service will begin July 2, 2015 and is currently loaded in the system until August 17, 2015. Currently, on August 18, the service reverts back to A320/A319 service.
Presently, there is no indication from United if LAX-BOS will receive the upgraded on board Premium Service offering that is provided from San Francisco and Los Angeles to New York. If United did upgrade this route to PS service, beyond just the aircraft with lay flat seats in business class, each first class passenger would enjoy a complimentary amenity kit, noise-reducing headphone, duvet and pillow set, an improved meal and United Club lounge access when booked in business class. If they do not upgrade the inflight offering, then instead the segment would just be served by a PS configured aircraft. This is not unusual, as internationally equipped aircrafts often ply busy domestic markets to increase aircraft utilization rates.
The currently flight schedule which includes the United Airlines Premium Service 757-200 is as following:
- UA528 Depart LAX 0830 Arrive: BOS 1701 Daily July 2 – August 17, 2015
- UA717 Depart BOS 1800 Arrive: LAX 2111 Daily July 2 – August 17, 2015
The flight times are convenient for business travelers arriving the night before meetings in Boston and returning to the West Coast after a day in the office. In addition, the flight time also could connect United passengers onward to Star Alliance partner flights including Lufthansa’s to Frankfurt and Munich, Swiss to Zurich, Turkish to Istanbul, or eastern Canada destinations served by Air Canada.
Los Angeles to Boston Market
The Los Angeles to Boston market is a fragmented market spread out between the major airlines. This summer there will be 15 daily flights between the two cities.
- American Airlines five times daily B737 service
- United twice daily service, one PS B757 and one A320/A319
- Delta twice daily service on B737
- Virgin American three times daily service on A319/A320
- JetBlue three times daily service on A320
Although American Airlines has the competitive edge with the most daily flights between Los Angeles and Boston, United will be the only airline that serves the transcontinental market with lay flat business seats, one upping the competition.
At this time, no other airline has responded to United’s enhancement on the LAX-BOS route, but that does not mean that they won’t. Boston is a major hub for Jetblue and Jetblue could easily launch their transcontinental Mint service which currently is only offered from New York JFK. Furthermore, American Airline ad OneWorld carriers fly transatlantic flights to London Heathrow, Paris, and Madrid from Boston whereas Delta Skyteam and Virgin Atlantic partners serve London Heathrow, Paris, Amsterdam, and Rome from Boston. Therefore both American Airlines and Delta may consider adding a premium aircraft to this route for connecting passengers.
The United PS 757-200 will only be on the route for 6 weeks this summer, but if the hard product is successful with it’s lay flat seats in the forward cabin and updated economy class which includes free personal inseat TVs, we may see Boston become the next battle for the lay flat premium seat coast to coast!
