Do you get to pick your seats with basic economy? If you can’t pick your seats paying for another seat is pointless. I could be wrong but I think if you don’t scan the boarding card then the airline thinks you are a no show and can put someone in your empty seat, so I would check with United to ensure that if you scan the boarding card your extra seat remains yours.
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I agree with @sly123. What would be the point of buying an extra basic economy seat, if you can’t select your seats? That makes zero sense. You could have three seats scattered throughout the airplane. I’m hoping that you didn’t actually mean that.
What routing are you taking? Maybe United isn’t the best airline to fly in for comfort. Honestly, as a three decade airline pilot, I only fly internationally on Delta. I would consider someone else if the routing or price was far better, but otherwise, that’s it for me. They often offer deals for upgrades as time goes on.
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I’ve been looking and pricing flights to Europe for this fall.
There’s no way I would book basic economy as stated above, you can’t pick your seats.
I’ve decided to book premium economy for our upcoming trip. 2 years ago we flew economy on Air France to CDG, I wasn’t comfortable. The seating chart looked empty but was full, filled with students. I survived but I’d like to avoid that this time
A couple of things
Premium economy is double the price of economy usually
Look carefully at code sharing. United can be Lufthansa. Delta can be Air France or KLM. Make sure you know which airline you are flying to Europe
I’m flying Lufthansa on the way, United on the way home. I was able to upgrade my premium economy seats to business for $340 a person. Not the best business class experience but for that price I’m ok with it.
So look at booking a flight and hoping you get a decent deal to upgrade one leg. The overnight flight is key, we’ve flown daytime flights back to the US, economy isn’t as bad lol
In a 3-4-3 configuration, book seat A and C for instance, you might get lucky with no one in between. Our last 2 flights to the US, we’ve been lucky. Seat guru is a good site to see the configuration of your flight.
I’d rather fly Delta also but they’ve been double the price of United for our upcoming trip 
sorry this is so long!
Not convenient from where we live.
We are taking an international trip later this year. We are flying quantas economy to New Zealand. I would have loved business class for this trip…but $6000 each way per person was just not going to happen. On the advice of a relative, we have been told economy on this particular flight (JFK to Auckland) will be fine in terms of legroom, and seat reclining.
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I recently flew Premium Plus on United to Europe. Very comfortable and the flight attendant had me put both my bags overhead- she insisted there was room. I still didn’t sleep but from now on I will book these seats. The way home, I booked economy plus, a 2-3-2 configuration and got lucky the flight was not full so my seat mate moved to another row.
Booking an extra seat- I’d be worried they’d put someone in the seat, too like someone noted upthread.
Basic me really just wants to pay for basic economy but I have to remind myself it’s sometimes ok to splurge.
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This!
The one perk of having a spouse that travels frequently for work is having a lot of miles/points. Our last few international trips we were able to upgrade to United’s Polaris pods. There is no going back. The lay flat seats are a godsend on a long flight and for me, means the difference between being a zombie on day 1 of vacation and being able to hit the ground running. It also makes a world of difference for my joints to be able to fully stretch out (I’m short enough that I can do my yoga stretches in a pod).
For non international flights, we always travel in Economy Plus. H is 6’4 and his knees are in his chest in coach. We both also have enough “status” that we get free upgrades to Plus, even me when I’m traveling solo. It helps that we fly United 100% of the time because they have the most convenient flights from our home airport.
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Thanks for all of the suggestions. A few points of clarification - I am locked in to United for this flight (flying on miles) and I just looked at my booking and I guess I’m already one level above basic economy, as I was able to pick our seats (I had selected window and aisle in the hopes that the middle would be empty). Premium plus is too $$ for me, but I am able to upgrade to economy plus for 13k miles each, and it sounds like that’s my best option. Well, that and a shawl, an ambien and perhaps a good travel pillow. Off to explore those options
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The upgrade using miles will be worth it! Glad that’s an option!
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What’s the cash price to upgrade to economy plus? Depending on the redemption value, cash might be a better deal.
I’m not sure about United but I know on Lufthansa you can only upgrade once. So it might be better to wait and see if you get a better offer
Does anyone know the difference between economy and economy plus? I thought it was just seating rows being more forward than economy. No difference on seat pitch or food or space.
There are lots and lots of YouTube videos on flight experiences if you are interested
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Yes, ahead of the regular economy section and has an additional few inches of leg room. No other difference.
$129.99. My goal with this vacation is to minimize the amount of cash spent (booking as much as I can with points and miles), so even if it was a slightly better deal to use cash, I’d likely pay with miles anyway. that said, it seems to be about the same.
United claims economy plus offers additional legroom.
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What aircraft are the flights? As mentioned above, some seats are better than others, so look at the aircraft and then the seats on aerolopa https://www.aerolopa.com/ua and seat guru United Flight Information As I mentioned above, seat guru has not updated its info in several years, so be careful when discerning the seat rows/categories.
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The main difference is extra legroom and built in chargers. You are closer to the front of the plane so won’t have issues with not having bin space and you’ll get off faster for customs and immigration. You are also likely to still have a full choice of meal options.
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787-10 Dreamliner
I have arthritis in my neck and am in pain every day but I found this pillow to be the best for me as it kept my head midline. I didn’t try ear buds with it but over the head headphones won’t work with it.
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United now has in-seat power all through economy on their international flights.
The meal options are also the same in economy plus vs economy.
So the extra legroom (5-6" on international flights) is currently the only benefit of economy plus, in addition to being located at the front of the economy cabin.
There are multiple seating plans for the 787’s. Take a look at the seat maps to figure out which layout yours is. If your itinerary doesn’t specify which 787 layout it is, you can figure it out by looking at your seat map and then looking at the options on the links I provided above.
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My kids fly united basic economy a lot, you can chose a seat but that is an extra cost.
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I flew United Economy Plus to Europe in March. For me, it is fine. A bit more room. Interestingly, many of the seats on the flight were economy plus in the middle section, with the outer sheets regular economy. I ended up father back in the plane than I normally would with economy plus to be close to my friend, flying regular economy. Will not do that again, as between getting up in the middle of the night and a bumpy flight I was not feeling well at the end of the flight. Our other friend splurged on premium economy and yes those seats looked more comfortable.
I do not fly on basic economy since I want the option to change tickets if I need to.
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United basic economy is much worse than Delta and American (unless you have a United credit card or status), because they don’t include a full sized cabin bag on domestic flights, just a small underseat bag.
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