United Airlines is betting big on premium — even among its oldest and historically most disliked planes.
The carrier announced in March that it was rebranding its 20-year-old Bombardier CRJ-200 planes, which are flown by its regional partner SkyWest Airlines as United Express, as the “CRJ450.”
The 50-seater CRJ-200 is United’s all-economy seating jet. In addition to having no first-class or premium-economy seats, the jets also have no WiFi or overhead bin space for roller bags. They typically run short hops between hubs and smaller cities.
But that oft-disliked plane is soon getting a second life as a premium-focused aircraft with a “private jet”-style first class, closets, larger-than-normal economy bins, and free Starlink WiFi available to MileagePlus members.
The CRJ450 is part of United’s new line of “Elevated” cabins, which it’s also fitting onto future Boeing 787s, Airbus A321XLRs, and A321neo “Coastliners.”
The new high-end offerings come as United triples down on skyrocketing premium demand driven by more people being willing to pay for better comfort. Its premium revenue grew 11% in 2025.
The barebones plane now has first class and plenty of storage
United’s CRJ450 will have just 41 seats: seven in first and 34 in economy. United said in a press release that first class is “designed to evoke a feeling of a private jet experience.”
This includes adding wide recliners with large armrests and headrests. It’s also ditching overhead bins in first class. Instead, passengers in that cabin will use closets to store rollaboard, which the airline says will create a more “spacious, airy” vibe.
In coach, which will feature 18 standard seats and 16 extra-legroom seats, United also redesigned overhead storage to fit larger carry-ons.
It’s rare to see bins big enough for rollaboards on regional planes of similar size; most only have space for smaller items like backpacks and purses.
The changes are meant to ensure passengers aren’t inconvenienced by having to gate-check their bags.
The CRJ450 doesn’t have a snack bar like its CRJ550 sister jet, which United first flew in 2019. The CRJ550 has “among the highest customer satisfaction scores of any regional aircraft,” United says.
United said it will have 50 CRJ450s and nearly 120 CRJ550s in service by 2028.
The CRJ450 is expected to start flying with SkyWest later this year, mostly connecting smaller markets to United’s larger hubs such as Denver and Chicago.
Flyers may not spend much time in the air on these shorter routes, but United is still treating them as premium opportunities to squeeze out revenue it couldn’t before.
Those higher fares also likely help keep these older, less efficient regional jets profitable. SkyWest owns many of its CRJ200s outright, meaning the aircraft carry little or no debt and can be operated more cheaply.
Rivals American Airlines and Delta Air Lines, meanwhile, have retired their fleets of CRJ200s in favor of larger regional planes — like the CRJ700 and the Embraer ERJ175 — with dual-class seating and better economics.
With its 50-seater Embraer ERJ145, which has no first class or WiFi, American will soon be the last among the US Big 3 to fly a plane with no premium seating — though it plans to retire that fleet by 2030.
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