When most people think of First Class, its something like on Emirates, where there’s endless champagne and caviar. Or at least what it is on American Airlines, with a full course meal and an elongated business class seat. But unfortunately, at least in the US and Canada, the extent of domestic First Class has been quite diluted, likely due to consultants / investors claiming that airlines should cut costs to remain competitive. Completely unrelated, I’d also like to take this moment to point out that the purpose of this trip was meeting my friends, and my law friend had to take the bus to get here while I flew (#teammba).

Booking

To be fair, I shouldn’t be complaining about this journey, as I got an upgrade to “First Class” based on my United Silver Status that I matched over from Marriott Titanium Status. Flights for this route typically got from $200, but can drop to as low as $150 if you book early enough. Business class goes a bit more than that at ~$500, but I wouldn’t book it given…well you’ll see later on.

Flight: UA 3694

Departing: Chicago (ORD)

Arriving: Toronto (YYZ)

Operated by: Embraer 170

Cabin: “First Class”

Airport and Check In

A lot of people tend to like Chicago airport, but unfortunately I don’t: it’s lounge situation is abysmal, the terminal’s aren’t connected to each other, and frankly it’s a bit old. That being said, at least it’s TSA agents are quite efficient…and have a sense of humor.

I thought I was going to have to hang out by the Chili’s when I decided to try my luck at the lounge.

The argument about whether “First Class” passengers get lounge access is contentious, and of course pretentious: the Big 3 airlines (American, Delta and United) do not provide lounges on domestic itineraries, but…for Canada they do? Technically this is international, but most carriers put North America as one region.

Up the escalators I went into the United Club. They are a quiet place to sit, have food and drink, and most importantly use a bar that is somehow always occupied.

The food here is a tad below what is offered in Canada or in Maple Leaf Lounges; however, United does have a more elevated lounge experience, called United Polaris, that blows away most of the competition.

Note that the lunch and dinner portions are much more substantive - given that United flights below a certain distance don’t even get food, I would make sure I fill up before in the lounge.

The drink situation is much better - much like how the US has endless flavors of soft drinks, they also have a wide range of soda, juices, alcohols and…okay maybe not all coffees.

The overall ambiance of the lounge was modern with great wood tones and most importantly for a Friday morning, quiet.

Why write so much about the lounge experience? Well…

The Flight

The small Embraer 170 has 6 first class seats, 16 economy plus seats (which are just slightly bigger) and 48 economy seats. Gasp, you need to sit next to someone in “First Class”. The seatmap is here

I found if funny that when United 1K was called for boarding, at least 5 people stood up - rip their home / personal lives.

My first impressions are that this is a slightly larger economy seat: it had 6 inches more pitch than a standard economy seat (aka how far the other seat in front of you is), along being 6 inches wider than the economy seat.

I will say, as a slightly taller than average guy, the extra pitch / bulkhead did feel nice; however, this bulkhead tradeoff was that I had to stow my bag and bag of snacks on the overhead bins. The seat also featured individual air nozzles (I know some people care about that), charging ports, along with a rather wide armrest.

And there you go, the domestic “First Class” seat. Not worth it.

Rest of the Journey

We taxied off right on time, and arrived on time; after my last flight on United, where it was delayed by 5 hours, I won’t take this for granted. This meant I did get less time to enjoy the views.

One flight attendant took care of “First Class”, although she did take the time to help out with the economy cabin. I asked for a coffee, although I did see a few legends ask for Bloody Mary’s…at 10AM.

For United, flights under 300 miles get nothing, flights between 300 - 800 miles get a snack, and 800+ gets a hot meal; assume that for flights above 2ish hours, you’ll get actual food. And the flight to Toronto was just under 2 hours (even less with flight time), so thus Stroopwaffles were served. I contently munched on them while reading a non-MBA textbook…which turned out to be a book about Venture Capital.

The Point

United First, much like other “First Class” domestic airline seats, is nothing to write home about. It’s slight bigger and better than economy, the flight attendants are slightly nicer, and you may get fed. If paying with cash, I wouldn’t do it unless the flight was over say 3-4 hours, or if you’re really tall. There’s so many better airline seats to spend on…so stay tuned for other flights!