Flying on United’s brand new A321neo!

Hello guys, I had the pleasure of flying United’s brand new A321neo (not very new anymore) over thanksgiving break. Even though the 757 is a great plane, I was very thankful that my plane switched to an airbus. Today’s route is from Denver to Chicago as I head back home after the holidays. My plane today is a United A321Neo (registration: N44501) which was delivered in 2023 making the airplanes age 1.2 years old. My seat today is 27F and the first thing I noticed was that they don’t have the hemisphere magazines anymore which really disappointed me because I haven’t flew United in quite some time and another thing I noticed was when I stepped on the plane was how nice and modern it was, especially the airplanes roof, I don’t really know how to describe it but it had a really nice pattern with purple LEDs.


One major thing I was excited about was to try the new Bluetooth systems on the IFE which was only available on the United 737 MAX 8 and 9 and the United A321neo. We pushed backed, taxied out and took off of runway 34R.

Our crusing altitude is 33,000ft today and once at crusing altitude, I decided to give the Bluetooth system a go, it is super easy to setup and it works great and I love how you don’t have to use those cheap air buds that hurt when you wear them. Anyways, I also settled with a can of sprite and started watching civil war. (It was bad but it wasn’t good). 2:40 minutes go by fast because in no time, we were decending into Chicago. Lemme tell you, how crazy the scenery changed, from the Colorado and Nebraska dark fields at night to a very bright city, man I love Chicago.

Thank god we are landing on 28C at ORD since if you land on 10C, you won’t be able to see downtown Chicago and the skyscrapers.

We then proceed to land on 28C and it was a great landing, right on the touch down zone and not too hard at all.

It is so different to see ORD at night, there was barely any traffic and the international terminal was empty. Anyways we taxied to our gate and on the way there, I see the longest jet bridge ever. I think it was B11 and B12 but it was super long (go search it up). Anyways it was a very pleasant trip onboard the A321neo and thanks for tuning in!

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UAL discontinued Hemispheres in September, with the last issue available to MileagePlus members through their accounts. From 10/2024 onwards, all editions are digital.

United claims digital issues will be more user-focused and personal. What they won’t tell you is how much money they’re saving.

All good things come to an end. Hopefully, the fleet modernization will make up for it. Glad to see you enjoyed the 32Q; nice trip report.

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Nice! I’ll be flying United’s Neo in spring break!

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Thanks! I know, it’s a shame but hopefully they bring it back, not enough airlines have paperback inflight magazines.

the IFE on their A321neo looks huge, and Bluetooth connectivity? dang awesome stuff for economy…

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Yeah especially cus you don’t have to watch movies from your personal device. All airplanes should have IFE and Bluetooth capabilities. (Never gonna happen).