Honest review of United Airlines Business Class, Washington D.C. to Cancun - The Trendy Diplomat
United Airlines has a deservedly bad reputation for Subpar customer service and a dearth of basic in flight features. In general, my rule of thumb is to avoid flying United at all costs, but perhaps out of morbid curiosity or because United has dramatically increased their flight offerings this summer, we took a chance and purchased round trip business class tickets to Cancun.
The United App - a Flop
I downloaded the app to my phone to try out the functionality and to also have access to in-flight entertainment (more on that later). I have to admit that I was quite impressed by how easy it was to navigate, at least initially. The interface is clean and finding your flight information is fairly straightforward. The app also features a travel ready center to ensure flyers have all of the proper documentation. Although I found the app to perform quite well, I did experience issues when trying to check my husband in who has a green card. The system seemed to crash, all the information was lost and I was forced to input the information again. After it failed to work the second time, I figured we would just check in the old fashioned way at the airport.
The Lounge - A Mess!
The lounge experience is by far one of the most important features of business class travel. I carry premium credit cards in addition to a priority pass to ensure that my family and I have a safe, socially distanced travel experience. On the bright side, United has two lounges, the Polaris lounge for long-haul international business and first class travelers and the United club for short-haul international business trackers. My husband and I made our way to the latter and were greeted by someone who obviously did not want to be there. Undeterred by the lackluster customer service, we made our way downstairs into what felt like the bowels of the airport. Although the lounge was spacious and I think I had the best brownie of my life, unfortunately, it was literally quite dark given the lack of natural light one often finds in premium airport lounges.
The lounge was lacking a little . . . Je ne sais quoi!
The food options included a very small sandwich bar, a salad bar and bowls of fruit wrapped in plastic. Sensing we might need something stronger, my husband ordered two gin and tonics, but the bartender rudely sent my husband to get me since the policy was one alcoholic beverage per person at a time, and she didn’t believe that he ordered drinks for two people. There goes that good ol United hospitality. Before we left for boarding, I made my pilgrimage to the restroom but to my horror, the bathroom was styled after the facilities located at Penn Station in New York. We decided to “hold it” until we made it to a more reasonable bathroom near our boarding gate.
Behold, the auspicious entrance to the men’s bathroom in the lounge. I’ll spare you pictures of what I saw inside :-(
Luckily we did not have to walk far to our gate, and we were soon seated in chairs reminiscent of grandma’s lay-z-boys. Very comfortable, to be sure, but very outdated. Our seats featured electric outlets (that didn’t work) but they did not come with an entertainment system. Ms. United, really? It’s 2022 and this was by no means a cheap flight. At 3 and a half hours, this flight was long enough to fit in maybe two movies. Instead, passengers were encouraged to download the app and play movies from their own devices. This proved a bit finicky for me but I eventually got mine to work whereas the app never quite worked for my husband. Big sigh.
The best thing about the seats was us :-)
Seating snafu’s
I’m always a little afraid that I’m going to be adjacent to some in-cabin drama. On this flight, a white man, his wife and two children board the plane. My husband and I were seated in 4a and 4b. To our immediate right were two men of Indian descent in seats 4e and 4f. The man sat his two children in their seats in row 5, but seemed agitated when he noticed row 4 was full. He proclaimed ver loudly that someone was in his seat. He announced to everyone and no one that his seat was 4f and then made his way to me. I told him our seat numbers after which he turned on his heel to let the men already seated that they were in the wrong seats. The cabin crew thankfully came to the rescue. Turns out United gave two people the same seat …
The fantastic cabin crew fixed the situation quickly and quietly (meaning the Indian men stayed in their seats) but the flight was punctuated by random and frequent appearances of the man who ultimately was seated next to his wife in economy.
The cabin crew were indeed phenomenal. They were extraordinarily kind, gracious, and made all of the passengers feel very welcome. They switched out my meal for me ( because the chicken dish was disgusting) and then gave me a free lunch kit filed with crackers, hummus and cheese.
The best part of this meal was the pie-like cookie on the far-right. The main dish is dry chicken pieces with a spicy tomato sauce over an unidentifiable starch.
The tapas box was delightful and a welcome alternative to the chicken/starch dish.
This was the other business class meal which was a beef ragu and polenta - it was actually tastier than it looks.
The Verdict
We took off and landed safely and really enjoyed the cabin crew. However, at 1500 dollars per person, there are much better business class options to Cancun. United Airlines has some work to do before they can compete with some of the better carriers.
What’s next on the trendydiplomat.com? Check out our upcoming blog about our 4 day, 3 night stay at the 5 star Banyan Tree Mayakoba Resort!
Breakfast at the Sands Beach Restaurant at the Banyan Tree Mayakoba Resort - Reviews coming soon!
