Review: United Airlines Premium Plus

With P2 and I both having Gold status, we automatically get upgraded to Economy Plus on every United flight we take. That’s certainly a nice option, but what happens when you want even more space and comfort? Since our flight to Zurich was our first international trip and longest flight with our baby (so far), we opted to use some of our hard-earned miles to book seats in United Premium Plus for both our departure and return flights from Chicago to Zurich and back again.

In this blog post, we’ll dive into what you can expect from these upgraded seats. Keep reading for our unfiltered review after spending 18 hours (give or take) in the United Airlines Premium Plus seats.

What is United Airlines Premium Plus?

United Airlines touts its Premium Plus seating as their intermediary between business and economy seating. These seats offer extra space on all wide-body planes flying international routes, and they also have some availability on domestic flights.

What are the benefits of flying United Airlines Premium Plus?

Anyone with a Premium Plus ticket is allowed two free checked bags and Premier Access benefits to make their flying experience easier. Premier Access gives priority check-in, priority boarding, exclusive security screenings, and priority bag handling.

On the plane, the seats are wider and offer extra space. There are bigger screens, amenity kits, and a semi-private area to make the flight more comfortable. We’ll get into the details of these things a little later in the post.

How much does United Airlines Premium Plus cost?

As with any flight price, it depends on the route, time of year, and other inputs into the demand algorithm the airlines use to determine their pricing. For reference, our flight to Zurich would have cost $4,217 per person had we not used miles to cover the flight. Coming home from Zurich was priced at just under $3,000 a person ($2,993).

A flight in mid-May 2025 from Newark (EWR) to Paris (CDG) was priced at $2,022 at the time of writing this post while a flight from Washington DC (IAD) to Amsterdam (AMS) in mid-June was $2,678. Based on this small sample, you can reasonably expect to pay at least $2,000 depending on your home airport, end destination, and timing for your trip.

United Airlines Premium Plus Review

Airport Benefits

As mentioned earlier, the benefits attached to Premium Plus tickets are ones we already get. Since we both have Gold status on United, these aren’t benefits we don’t have, so these were not actually a big draw for us in booking Premium Plus. If you don’t have status on United, however, these are definitely a big plus for navigating the airport experience.

The Seats

The seats are in a separate area of the plane from regular economy. It isn’t separated by a door, but it’s a designation similar to what you see between economy and business on other flights.

On our flight, the seat configuration in Premium Plus was 2-2-2. The arrangement is different depending on the type of plane you’re on.

We had the first row of seats in the Premium Plus section. They were much wider than we were used to, and because of the location, came with additional leg room. The screens came out from between our seats and popped up for easy use. Tray tables were stored in the armrest. We had power outlets and USB ports to use throughout the flight. There is a footrest that you can pop out from under your seat, and the seats recline nicely. What’s also nice about reclining in Premium Plus is you don’t feel like you’re completely squishing the passenger behind you because they have more room than the seats in Economy.

Amenity Kit and Blanket

Each seat in Premium Plus received an amenity kit, pillow, and blanket. Inside the toiletry kit was a pair of socks, an eye mask, face wipes, and a toothbrush kit. The amenity kits were the same on both our flight there and home. The pillow and thin quilted blanket were from Saks Fifth Avenue and were a higher quality than what is given to passengers in economy seating. They also had a tag on the blanket noting how you could purchase your own blanket for home if you liked the one on the flight.

Food and drink on the way there

Our flight to Zurich was an overnight flight, so we were served both dinner and breakfast. Dinner was a choice between lemon chicken with potatoes or noodle stir fry. I ordered the stir fry, and it tasted like buttered noodles with some vegetables. I’m not sure what classified it as stir fry as it didn’t look or taste like any stir fry I’d had before. P2 ordered the lemon chicken, and he said it was a bit dry. One of the features of Premium Plus is that beer, wine, and spirits are included at no extra cost with the tickets. We were offered red or white wine with dinner but opted not to drink alcohol on the flight.

Breakfast before we landed in Zurich was a choice between French toast with fruit or egg bites. Both main offerings came with a side of fruit and Greek yogurt. Similar to dinner, the food wasn’t anything exceptional. The flight attendants frequently came around offering water and other drinks from the drink cart. It felt like they brought the drink cart and small snacks (like almonds) around more frequently than we’ve previously experienced sitting in economy on international flights.

Food and drink on the way home

Our flight from Zurich to Chicago left Zurich around 9:30 in the morning. We were offered lunch and a sort of secondary meal. Afternoon snack? Light dinner? Lunch was a choice of stir fry with vegetables and tofu or chicken with asparagus and potatoes. Compared to the dinner choices on the way to Zurich, these options tasted better. The stir fry was actually consistent with my expectations of what stir fry is (albeit on an airplane), and the chicken course had more substance.

The secondary meal was a choice between a cheese pizza roll or a chicken pesto roll with a side salad. These basically looked like hot pockets. We both opted for the cheese pizza roll. The salad was very basic – just some lettuce, a sprinkling of chickpeas, sliced beets, and a few slices of cucumber.

Drinks and snacks were the same on the way home. Nothing to write home about, even in United Airlines Premium Plus, but hey, it’s still airplane food, expectations can’t be too high.

Bathrooms

The bathroom we had access to was right in front of our seats because we were in the first row of Premium Plus. It was bigger than the economy bathrooms and was shared with fewer passengers, which meant there was less time waiting.

Service

While we have never had a particularly negative experience with flight attendants when we’ve been in economy, we did notice the flight attendants were especially attentive and helpful. They frequently asked if we needed anything to drink, even if they weren’t bringing around the drink cart. They offered to put some of our items in the overhead bin if it looked crowded at our seats.

Is United Airlines Premium Plus worth it?

For us, it absolutely was. Now remember we used miles to cover these seats. Paying $3,000 – $4,000 (or more) on seats is simply not in our budget. And while the miles we redeemed were more than we typically use on flight redemptions, the benefits and convenience we well worth it for us.

For longer flights, these seats deliver on the promised extra comfort and space that United advertises.