perk

THERE’S no better flight feeling than knowing everyone is onboard your flight and the middle seat next to you is free.

Well, United Airlines is adding a seating option that will guarantee no one sits next to you.

The seats called Economy Plus will be on sale later this year.

Flyers booking these not only get to keep the middle seat free, but the row has comes with extra elbow room too.

The seats also have one custom table from armrest to armrest across the open middle seats – so there’s more space in front of passengers.

United hopes to include the Economy Plus option on its entire fleet of A321XLR planes which also come with three inches of extra legroom.

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The airline expects to be the only one in the US that offers this seating option.

The new perk from United comes after the announcement of United Relax Row.

The Relax Row seats come with a custom-fitted mattress, blankets, extra pillows and a toy for children.

These will be onboard its Boeing 787 and Boeing 777 widebody aircraft and are expected to be available from 2027.

Andrew Nocella, United’s Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer said: “The XLR is our newest aircraft and not only offers all-aisle access lie-flat seats in United Polaris but now also includes seats in Economy Plus with extra leg and elbow room.

“Our customers are going to love all these new options.”

FOR the past eight years I’ve wasted hours on busy, overpriced trains, travelling between London and my hometown of Devon.

But I recently discovered I could skip the sweaty crowds and do the journey in my sleep for the same price.

While you might have heard of the Caledonian Sleeper from London to Scotland, I bet you aren’t familiar with Great Western Railway’s Riviera Sleeper from London to Cornwall.

The full journey from London to Penzance in Cornwall takes eight hours overnight, compared to the daytime five hour journey.

With the normal route being popular (and often packed with chaotic carriages where I arrive home disheveled and sweaty) I thought I would opt for the overnight option to Devon instead.

It takes just over five hours compared to my usual 2hr30, departing at 11:45pm and arriving at 5am.

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I booked the cheapest seats on offer, paying £47.50 with a railcard, although the cheapest without a railcard is £43.

This got me an upright seat – if I had opted for a sleeper berth with a single or twin cabin, this would have set me back an extra £49 or £59, respectively, on top of the ticket price.

(Although for my journey, I couldn’t find any for less than £200).

The major benefit of booking a cabin is that you can use the fancy lounges – which have showers – at Paddington, Penzance, and Truro, with breakfast also included onboard.

I, however, was not one of the lucky ones, and instead boarded my seat shortly after arriving at London Paddington Train Station at around 11pm.

The train itself is weirdly clean – quite different from your standard daytime Great Western Railway train – and devoid of the usual crowds as well.

Replacing the loud beeping mechanical doors are retro-style doors you need to lean out of the window to open.

Then it comes to the part I was both dreading and anticipating – the seats.

The operator claims they are similar to airline seats and at first glance, look a lot nicer than what you find on Ryanair.

But when it comes to the actual comfort – I think I would have preferred a budget flight middle seat.

It felt like sitting on a stack of squashed cardboard boxes, and bizarrely even more uncomfortable than the daytime GWR seats.

The head rest is annoyingly high, and the promise of extra legroom was unfounded.

Just the same as a daytime carriage you get a tray table, and then you’ll find plug and USB sockets by your feet.

Additions that you don’t get on the daytime trains include an overhead reading light and swish curtain on the window.

So, how did I sleep? Well, I didn’t.

I simply couldn’t get comfortable as the seats are too small to lie across comfortably.

The minutes I did manage to get some sleep was when I put my feet on the seat next to me, I was quickly awoken by someones shouting “FEET” as they walked through the cabin.

I may be just 5″1, but the headrest didn’t help either – I knocked my head a few times just fidgeting and ended up slumping down in my seat to avoid it.

And all of this is without mentioning the disruption of passengers boarding at half-midnight, with the football playing on their phones at full volume.

Even though I saved money compared to a cabin, I definitely would only book this seat again if it was a last resort – I’d rather just stick to the daytime trains (which even in the noise I manage to get quick naps on).

There was one perk to trying this overnight train, however.

My train got into Exeter St David’s around 4:37am and because this was the stop before mine, I was starting to stir.

I also knew what was coming – a section of the track which I believe is home to the most beautiful train journey in the UK.

From Exeter, the train runs past Starcross, Dawlish Warren, Dawlish and Teignmouth with beaches and red cliffs on the left side of the train.

And at this time in the morning, a beautiful summer sunrise adds washes of orange, red and yellow.

While getting up early to see this might not be attractive and of course it depends on the time of year you are on the sleeper train, I would definitely recommend it.

The sea was perfectly calm, with only a couple of people entertaining their dogs on the beach, the sand was untouched and the water reflecting all the bright colours of the sky made it look like something from a postcard.

It almost made the seriously uncomfortable seat worth it… almost.