United Airlines’ Aging Boeing 757-300s Finally Getting Much Needed Cabin Upgrade

United Airlines is finally retrofitting its smaller fleet of Boeing 757-300 aircraft, falling in line with their “Next” cabin standard.

According to a tweet from JonNYC, United’s 21 Boeing 757-300s will be retrofitted to feature larger down-down Boeing Space Bins, Panasonic Audio Video On Demand (AVOD) with in-flight entertainment seat back screens in all seats, Starlink Wi-Fi, power outlets throughout the cabin, and updated dividers, seats and finishings to match the “Next” standard.

This upcoming change reverses United’s cost-saving decision to go with a simpler cabin which did away with IFE seat back screens in favor of streaming content and Wi-Fi. The 234-seat cabin was pretty standard otherwise, with the shelf-style overhead bins as compared to the fancier Heath Tecna Project Amber drop-down bins featured on some of Delta’s 757-200s.

Even though the 757-200s have gone through their share of smaller updates, why did they wait this long to update the -300 variant? The biggest setback really was getting the larger storage bins certified as they were never cleared for use specifically on the Boeing 757-300. Given that they only operate 21 of these birds, the 757 was forced to take a back seat as the carrier focused on getting clearances to retrofit its more popular Airbus and 737 variants.

The Space Bins were first introduced on Alaska’s Boeing 737s back in 2015, offering up to 48% more storage space over the traditional shelf bins with upward opening doors.

United’s decision to retrofit these 24-year-old aircraft also signifies plans to hold on to this subfleet just a bit longer as they slowly move towards adopting newer and more fuel-efficient aircraft. The 40 757-200s are expected to be replaced in the next few years as they move towards adoption of Boeing 737 MAX 10s and Airbus A321XLRs.

There are no firm retirement plans yet for the -300s, which are currently used solely for connecting major cities across its U.S. domestic network in mainland United States, and the Hawaiian island chain.

There hasn’t been any indication to suggest a change in the cabin layout, with this update most likely reflecting the same configuration of 6 rows of 2-2 recliner style seats in the first class domestic cabin, and 210 seats in the remaining rows split in the typical 3-3 layout.

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