United A321XLR economy review: It’s gonna be a no from me, dawg Those of you in search of a United A321XLR economy review that concludes with the author waxing poetic about how “game changing” it is should probably skip this one. Not only does it end on a sour note, I started veering towards doom and despair not even halfway into it. It was basically one of the most uncomfortable economy experiences I’ve ever had on a long haul aircraft. The seats are incredibly hard Legroom is atrocious I couldn’t even get the headrest in a position that didn’t make me feel like it was pushing my head forward The video screens are real nice though. And the stripes on the seats are pretty cool. But I ain’t doing that again. UA444 San Diego, CA (SAN) – Washington, DC (IAD) Saturday, October 10, 2026 Aircraft: A321XLR Registration: N64322 Duration: 4 hours 33 minutes Seat: 40A (Economy) United Airlines Airbus A321XLR side view illustration by NorebboStock.com Our route from San Diego to Washington Dulles this afternoon as UA444 (with a pretty sweet looking bounce off Ciudad Juárez). My full review of United Airlines A321XLR economy class from San Diego to Washington DC (IAD) I had actually booked a seat in premium economy for this flight. Upon checking in, I was disappointed to see that I had been booted all the way back (past Economy Plus) to basic economy. Frick. They said it was due to an “equipment change”, which was total BS since it was an XLR at the time of booking. At least they had the decency to refund me the difference in price within 10 minutes of landing at IAD. Checking in at SAN With a 12:45 PM scheduled departure time, I had plenty of time to get to the airport. I arrived at 10:26 AM with the plan of grabbing a hearty early lunch, knowing full well that it was going to be slim pickin’s in regard to food and drink once on the plane. Welcome to “DELTA UNITED” territory at the San Diego International Airport! One needs to be cautious in these parts. DELTA UNITED is fiercely protective of its territory, and getting caught up in crossfire between them and AMERICAN ALASKA could put an end to this A321XLR economy review before it even begins. A quick drive-by of the United Airlines baggage drop and check-in area here at SAN while on my way to the security checkpoint. These gang-related references are kind of fun BTW. I wonder if I can keep it going for the entire review? Gangs of people killing time before their flight. This is too easy! And there she is. An aircraft so fresh and new that even the refueler had to Google ‘how to refuel a321xlr’. He looks to be on step 3 at about this point. When the AI overview sends you astray. “The fuel filler door is over there under the wing, bud.” It was hard to see exactly, but I think this guy was straight up asking Chat GPT ‘wtf is an xlr?’ Meanwhile, back in the gate area, nobody seemed to care about the XLR thing. People who book flights based on price and schedule alone (and not how hot / fresh / exciting the aircraft type is) are weird. The boarding process The pessimist in me was expecting a delayed boarding process (you know, because of that whole “new aircraft type” thing). These A321XLRs had only been in service for two weeks at the time of this flight, and we were still watching the ground crew learn all of its quirks and features in real time. Pressure is on. I’ve got but minutes to figure out the DELTA UNITED gang sign that’ll earn me two things. First: the premium economy seat that I had originally booked. Second (and most importantly): respect. I’m happy to report that there were no delays with the boarding process. It started exactly on time, exactly when they said it would. No delays or hiccups. Bravo! The gang sign didn’t work BTW. My dorky ass is still headed straight back to basic economy, just as my boarding pass indicated the moment I checked in this morning. The worst part? I get to spend the next 4 1/2 hours worrying that they’ve put a hit out on me for accidentally flashing a rival gang sign. Whoa. These business class seats look pretty nice! At least nice enough to distract me from the fact that I may be getting popped upon deplaning at IAD this evening. Premium economy. That window seat (in the second row on the right) was the seat I had reserved when booking this flight. It hurts more than you know being deemed unsuitable for PE gang life. Economy Plus. The fact that this is picture number 3 of the interior so far and I haven’t even got to my seat yet tells you everything to know about how poopy it has the potential of being when I get there. United A321XLR economy class cabin and seat overview There are 118 seats in United A321XLR economy, arranged in a typical 3-3 layout. Legroom is abysmal. Have you ever flown United 737-900ER economy? It ain’t any more spacious than that. I have arrived at row 40. Hurray! No poop! It’s important to know that there is very little padding in these seats. While I consider that to be somewhat acceptable for an aircraft which is limited to shorter domestic US routes, it’s downright insulting for an aircraft assigned to long haul international flying. “Oh. I see. Maybe this is kinda poopy.” For those of you who don’t speak pre-teen, “poopy” in this case means very narrow (and very hard) seats with an abysmal amount of legroom. The haphazardly placed backpack under the seat in front of me? Highly indicative of how quickly I gave up trying to fit it under there. Shit’s tight. The lady in 40F didn’t even bother trying to cram her stuff under the seat. I admire her keen sense of situational awareness. These seats feature huge video screens, USB-C charging ports, and full size 110 V electrical outlets. She did miss the fact that there are 110 V electrical outlets down here however. See? All that cramming and stuffing was not in vain! Large video screens? Or small video screens that appear large due to how close they are to your face? Yes. At least the seat back pockets are easy to reach. “What else has this thing got?” Come to find out, it got one of the smallest safety cards I’ve ever seen on a commercial aircraft. Airbus has just as much confidence in the A321XLR as the designers of the Titanic had in their ship it seems. The departure from San Diego The odds were against us in the moments leading up to departure. Not only was this a brand-new aircraft type (which the ground crew was still unfamiliar with), it was raining. Which, if you know anything about San Diego, always causes a ruckus. “Slide the metal end into the buckle, and place the belt low and tight against your lap. Tighten it further to experience the thrill of being sliced in half (rather than crushed by the seat in front of you) if and when we accidentally plow into the side of the Rocky Mountains at 500 mph.” Of all the ways to go out, being crushed by an A321XLR economy seat did sound more appealing than getting popped in the jet bridge at IAD. I loosened my seatbelt and hoped for the best as we pushed off the gate. “What does XLR mean? And why is the guy sitting next to me so excited about it? Despite the potential for delays, they were able to get us off the gate two minutes early. The joke was on us, however, as we were number 16 for departure (ultimately delaying our takeoff time by 37 minutes). Glancing down on AMERICAN ALASKA territory while ripping off runway 27. Looks peaceful from way up here, but the war with DELTA UNITED rages on. In-flight entertainment By far the best thing of this entire A321XLR economy experience was the in-flight entertainment situation. The welcome screen. “Well, welcome right back at ya!” I said, feeling honored to be noticed and appreciated. And I don’t even care that it identified me as “40A” instead of “Scott”. I’ll take whatever I can get these days. The video screens are humongous. Maybe 16 inches? Sure looked like it. And not only that, the resolution was bonkers (in a good way). These are very high-definition screens. These screens made the ones that I recently experienced in United 787-9 Premium Plus look dated by comparison. The size and resolution of the screen were impressive enough, but it was the soft glowing light bar underneath it that got me to raise an eyebrow and nod my head. It’s a neat little design detail. I very much appreciated the free Starlink Wi-Fi. It was super fast and rock solid for the entire duration of the flight. Heck yeah! Free Starlink Wi-Fi! I should’ve used that high-speed Internet access to order a counter-hit on my IAD assassin, but I was unable to resist all of the content in the United app right here on my phone. And look! They identified me by name this time. *feels seen* Food and drinks This was a domestic flight, so no meals were served. It was snacks and drinks only (with snack boxes available for purchase). These XLRs will spend most of their time flying medium to long haul international routes however, and hot meals will be served in economy class. It won’t be much, but it’ll be enough to keep you alive until you reach your destination. A slight break in the action while our trusty airline reviewer mulls over the snack options on today’s flight. And for those of you complaining how long this little break in the action is taking, just take a look at how many options I had to mull over. One bad decision could ruin the entire flight. Lots of potentially bad decisions here on the drink menu. Be careful y’all. All that hemming and hawing only to end up with a can of lemonade and a little bag of snack mix? I didn’t pay extra for any of this however, so I guess that counts for something. Enjoying the hell out of the thought of my IAD assassin being disgusted by the mix of lemonade and pretzel slime gushing out of the belly wound. “God this guy is so weird.” Seat recline and comfort These seats were the most uncomfortable long haul economy seats that I have ever experienced. Padding is extremely minimal. There is no lumbar support. And even I (a scrawny dork who stands no taller than 5’-10”) found the legroom to be borderline unacceptable. Looks pretty cozy and nice back here doesn’t it? What you can’t see is my lower back giving the seat (and this entire economy class cabin actually) the middle finger. The seat recline isn’t even worth mentioning. Yeah, it’ll go back a couple inches. But that’s it. Nope. There was nothing I could do to make this seat comfortable. I can’t remember if I was adjusting the headrest here, or attempting to rip it out of the seat entirely. It wasn’t total doom and gloom however. That light bar under the video screen that I showed you earlier? The way in which it softly illuminates the tray table gave me a sliver of pleasure. “Gee, that’s pretty neat” I said, as I squirmed around in my seat trying to find a position that didn’t hurt. The descent and arrival into Washington Dulles The cabin crew came through the cabin about an hour and 10 minutes prior to landing with another round of drinks. No snacks though. I think it was their way of subtly persuading us to upgrade to premium economy next time. I resisted the urge to raise a finger and remind her of my original intentions for this flight. I’d imagine it was right about this moment that air traffic control started panicking. “WTF is an XLR? And why is it coming straight at us?!” Welcome to Washington Dulles! We touched down on runway 01L 26 minutes until late at 9:05 PM. It was a nine minute taxi over to gate D5, and we were attached to the jet bridge at 9:14 PM. It couldn’t have come a minute sooner IMHO. I was hurtin’. The lemonade and pretzels began to churn in my belly as we inched our way into gate D5. This could be it, folks. Long story short: the hand position required to unbuckle a United A321XLR seatbelt is actually the same as the gang sign for clearing innocent suburban white guys like me of any wrongdoing. I get to live! Those of you hoping to see a bloody end to an airline review needn’t wait long. My big mouth (and awkward hands) will get me into trouble eventually. Pros and cons of the United Airlines A321XLR economy experience If there’s one thing to learn from this entire review, it’s that you absolutely want to avoid the A321XLR on any long haul international route if you’re flying economy. It just hurts. Pros The video screens are straight up amazing. Their huge size combined with the pin sharp resolution makes them the best video screens I have ever experienced in economy class on any airline. The soft glowing nightlight under the video screen is a handy (and good looking) feature. The seats may not feel good, but they sure do look nice. I’m digging the racing stripes. Cons It should be illegal to make a long haul economy class seats this hard. Legroom is borderline criminal as well. Anyone over 6 feet tall is going to be absolutely miserable within 10 minutes of sitting down.

United A321XLR economy review: It’s gonna be a no from me, dawg – SANspotter

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United 757-300 first class review: Forgettable (for reasons I almost forgot) I keep forgetting that United Airlines operates the 757-300. There are 21 of them in the fleet at the time of this writing, making them the largest operator of the type. Yet I hardly ever see any. Turns out that many of them fly between Los Angeles and Hawaii. “Well, shoot” I said, pretending not to be excited. “Guess I gotta do that.” The verdict? I’m almost convinced that even United forgets about them too. First class on the 757-300 looks and feels like a throwback to 2014. There are no video screens. No lie flat seats. No USB charging ports. There is lots of nostalgia, however. That stuff was oozing from pretty much every crevice. UA1221 Honolulu, HI (HNL) – Los Angeles, CA (LAX) Thursday, September 24, 2026 Aircraft: 757-300 Registration: N77865 Duration: 4 hours 48 minutes Seat: 4E (First Class) United Airlines 757-300 side view illustration by NorebboStock.com Our route from Honolulu to Los Angeles today as UA1121 My full review of United 757-300 first class from Honolulu to Los Angeles Seeing this aircraft type listed as an option during a recent search for flights to Hawaii sent a rush of excitement through my veins that I haven’t experienced since discovering Wonder Woman for the very first time at 4 years old. Resistance was futile. Checking in at HNL The problem with being a dedicated airline reviewer with an affliction for vintage aircraft types means that sometimes sacrifices need to be made. In this case, it was a 7 AM flight out of Honolulu bound for the mainland. Good Lord. I strolled into Terminal 2 bright eyed and bushy tailed feeling like ass just after 5 AM. Checking in online the night before negated my need to check-in via a kiosk at the airport. 4:59 AM, departures level, Terminal 2, Daniel K. Inouye International Airport. Queue the sappy Céline Dion song now, ’cause ain’t nobody in this pic (including me) ready to leave the Islands. I am kinda looking forward to trying United 757-300 first class however. Screw Céline Dion. How about a little “Danger Zone” by Kenny Loggins instead? “Hiiiiiiiighway to the danger zone!” *snaps pic of the United check in area* Well, that didn’t last long. I’m back to not wanting to leave. The nice thing about HNL is that the post-security walkways to the terminals are open-air. Consider it one last opportunity to inhale as much tropical air (mixed with jet exhaust) as you can before being yeeted back to the mainland. *inhales deeply* That’s the 757-300 *cough cough* that’ll be taking me to Los Angeles. *cough* “I promise Martha, United 757-300 first class is so much better than Hawaiian Airlines A330-200 first class. You’ll see!” Martha is in for a rude awakening I think. Nope. A domestic first class ticket on United will not get you into the lounge (not even on flights between Hawaii and the mainland). You’re gonna have to sulk with all of the other pasty white mainlanders here at the gate. Running to the window and hoping that your plane isn’t there (or is on fire) is a good way to kill time. Unfortunately for us, this 757-300 looks fully intact, freshly washed, and ready to rock. The boarding process These 7 AM United Airlines flights to Los Angeles out of Honolulu almost always go out full. I was expecting chaos and delays here at the gate, but there was none to be had. They started the boarding process right on time. Showing you my boarding pass? Or attempting some voodoo-like gestures (the kind that would cancel a flight) that I learned on YouTube? I ain’t tellin’. First class passengers board with Group 1. Just know that there are a lot of pre-board categories before getting to that point (active duty military, families with small children, 1K members, etc) so having a first class seat assignment doesn’t mean that you’re going to be first on the plane. I so feel that guy in front of me (the one in the floral shirt hanging his head in what seems to be despair). At least Martha was looking forward to this. Here we go with what will be my first-ever flight on a United 757-300! The frustrated body language of floral shirt guy seems to imply that he’s done this a time or two before. One last look out the window before boarding (checking for last-minute flight-canceling fires or explosions). United 757-300 first class seats and cabin overview There are 24 first-class on the United 757-300. It’s a typical 2-2 domestic first-class layout, with 6 rows of seats. A suspicious “heeeyy, wait a sec” came from behind just as I was getting my first pictures of the first class cabin. Martha was not liking what she was seeing. Warning: These are old-school recliner-style seats. You’ll have to choose a flight on a different aircraft type if you want a lie flat seat. 777-200 business class is probably your best option between Honolulu and the mainland on United IMHO. “Why didn’t you tell me these we’re going to be the exact same seats we had in United 737-700 first class between Sioux City and Chicago 7 years ago?!” She was becoming downright irritated now. I, on the other hand, was pleasantly surprised to see amenity kits and blankets. The generous amount of legroom and seat width was pleasing as well. Martha will come around. Just give her a minute. She’d have every right to bitch and moan about the underseat storage space however. The support bars for the seats are very awkwardly placed IMHO. Oh. What’s that? You were expecting video screens? How dare you expect a 1990’s Boeing 757 to conform to the modern world. In lieu of video screens, United provides it’s 757-300 first class guests the opportunity to ‘Guess the Stain’ on the safety cards in the seat pocket in front of them. Martha blurted out “this is bullshit!” from two rows back. Not a bad guess IMHO. The amenity kit Don’t get too excited about this. They did provide amenity kits to each first-class passenger on this flight, but just know that this is a Hawaii thing only. You won’t get one on flights operated within the continental United States. An amenity kit and a blanket! This was totally unexpected and very nice to see, but I could hear Martha whispering something to her husband about the lack of a pillow. I nodded my head in agreement. She was kinda right. A pillow wasn’t necessary IMHO, but it would’ve been the cherry on top. The contents of the amenity kit included an eye mask, a dental kit, earplugs, and lotions. I was especially looking forward to the opportunity to test out the eye mask. I mean, if I can’t see that I’m leaving Hawaii, am I actually leaving Hawaii? Although, if I don’t leave Hawaii, I won’t be able to enjoy this thick (and very soft) blanket. Life just isn’t fair sometimes. The departure from Honolulu Things were going swimmingly in the minutes leading up to our scheduled departure time. Then came the announcement from a dejected-sounding captain. He said something about an issue with the radar system. We would have to wait while the maintenance team searched for replacement parts. The irony of wishing that I could stay in Hawaii longer while feeling annoyed by our delayed departure. “I DiDn’T meAn iT LiKe tHAt!!” Testing out my theory that jiggling the overhead air vent would somehow resolve the radar system issue they were having up in the cockpit. That’s how these old Boeing 757s work, right? It worked! The radar system is fixed, and we are on our way. Air vents do a lot more than blow cold air, you know. It took approximately 30 minutes to resolve the issue, and we pushed off the gate 36 minutes late at 7:36. From there it was a 16-minute taxi out to the reef runway, resulting in a wheels-up time of 7:52 AM. In-flight entertainment The 757-300 may be one of the oldest aircraft types in the United fleet, but somehow they’ve figured out a way to wire in a pretty decent streaming in-flight entertainment system. There are no video screens in these seats, but you’ll still have access to United’s world-class catalog of movies and TV shows right at your fingertips. Via your personal device, of course. One Boeing engineer to another sometime in late 1978: “Screw the video screens, man. We’re just a couple years away from streaming in-flight entertainment directly to microchips in every passenger’s brain!” They were wrong about the microchip implant thing, but boy did they ever nail the streaming experience. It was pretty snappy on my iPhone. “And then, just when they make a selection, we’ll force them to watch a 60 second United MileagePlus credit card ad!” Even more impressive than the streaming in-flight entertainment is the fact that these old birds feature free Starlink Wi-Fi. It worked perfectly. No hiccups or dropped connections for the entire five-hour flight. Hot take: the credit card ads are actually kind of good. The meal service I was happy to see that Hawaiian-themed meals were available on this flight. I pre-ordered the traditional Hawaiian breakfast about a week prior to departure. It showed up looking hot, fresh, and ready to inhale (the way a pasty white mainlanders inhale freshly-roasted pig at the hotel luau). Kicking off the breakfast service this morning was this perfectly toasted hot towel featuring subtle floral notes with a hint of moisturizer. It was a bit chewy, but still satisfying. Mucho props to those 70s-era Boeing engineers who had the forethought to include these personal device holders built into the tray tables. Very handy indeed. The moment I was presented with my Hawaiian-style pre-order breakfast selection. The chorizo was probably like “all that processing and effort just end up as breakfast for that guy??” Hell yeah buddy. You look good! This was probably one of the tastiest meals that I’ve ever had in United first class. Even though there were five or six other options available, I wouldn’t hesitate to choose this again. Seat recline and comfort It was about 3 1/2 hours into the flight that I started to realize that maybe being forgettable is perhaps one of the best traits of the United 757-300. I mean, the sooner I could forget how painful and uncomfortable these first class seats are, the better. Did you hear about the lie flat seats in United Airlines 757-300 first class? It was indeed a lie. They barely even recline IMHO. Seat recline is minimal. Like, economy class minimal. You’re certainly not going to have to worry about the person in front of you knocking the glasses clean off your face as they slam their seat back. That blanket tho. Everything you’ve heard about how thick and warm they are is true. All of it. An eye mask to block out light from the open window shades. AirPods Pro (with noise cancellation) to block out Martha’s constant bitching about the lack of seat recline. First class lavatory I’ll admit it. The first class lavatory was a little nicer than I was expecting. No, it wasn’t very large, but it was clean. And it looked halfway modern. This kicked the snot out of the lavatory in Delta 757-300 first class BTW. Go United! The first class lavatory. It’s probably best if you don’t think about how many people have used this toilet over the past 24 years. Oh, the things it has seen. Mid-flight snack It was about an hour and 45 minutes before landing that the cabin crew came around with a pre-landing / mid-flight snack. Again, don’t get excited about this. It’s a Hawaii-only thing. See? Martha’s husband wasn’t totally full of shit. Not even Hawaiian Airlines offers a mid flight snack in first class, so this is technically better. Do I? Or don’t I? I do! I also do be the only person in this picture eating, which may be an indication of how enticing a spinach feta wrap was to other passengers. The flight attendant (two rows behind) seems to be having difficulty offloading her remaining inventory. The descent and arrival into Los Angeles I couldn’t see much from my aisle seat, but it was easy to see that we approached Los Angeles from the southwest, turning north before joining the queue for runway 25L. Making the approach into Los Angeles. “You guys need me to jiggle anything else back here?” Things must be getting serious, because we’ve just transitioned from “approach mode” to “dive bomb” mode. *gulp* One last guess about the stain before hitting runway 25L nose first. “Probably blood I reckon.” Welcome to Los Angeles! Just as we were exiting runway 25L, I could hear Martha informing her husband that she was not appreciative of our late arrival. “That’s 16 minutes I’ll never get back” she whined. We touched down 16 minutes late at 3:40 PM. The joke was on us, however as our gate was still occupied. This resulted in sitting out on the taxiway for an additional 30 minutes. Oof. Weird that I didn’t hear anything from her while having to sit on the taxiway for an additional 30 minutes just now. She must’ve been busy filing divorce papers. Martha may have a felt betrayed, but I kinda enjoyed this. Was it comfortable? Nope. But the food was pretty good, and I did enjoy the nostalgia of flying on an old 757 again. One last look at the aircraft that ended a marriage today. That’s a good lookin’ airplane! Pros and cons of first class on the United 757-300 Look. If you’re flying first class on United anytime soon, the 757-300 is probably an aircraft you want to avoid. The seats and overall cabin experience is way behind the times, and you’ll do much better choosing a more modern aircraft type. Unless you want the nostalgia of flying on an old 757 of course. In that case, go for it! Pros There are a lot of first-class seats on the United 757-300 (at least compared to other domestic aircraft types), so it shouldn’t be all that difficult to nab one for an upcoming flight. Upgrade possibilities are much better as well. Although old, they are still legitimate first class seats offering decent width and generous legroom. All of the modern amenities you would expect (such as power outlets and Wi-Fi) do exist. Cons These are old-school ‘recliner’ style seats. They don’t even go close to lying flat. They hardly even recline actually. The 757-300 is one of the few aircraft in the United fleet that do not feature video screens in the seatbacks. While this isn’t particularly a first-class con, just know that flying on an older aircraft type such as this means that there will be a higher probability of mechanical delays. Or even outright cancelations.

United 757-300 first class review: Forgettable (for reasons I almost forgot) – SANspotter