Carfield
Oct 7, 02, 2:40 am
Hi everyone,
I have not written a trip report for while, since school is pretty busy and being a grad student means constant reading and reading and reading. Also, the domestic scene is pretty much the same. Well, I have just flown a RT between JFK and SEA via on UA Business. The RT costs about $270 (including tax), which is a pretty good deal, especially for United. I used miles to upgrade, since I don’t have any certificates left. The flight attendants were pretty friendly and the ground service was okay. I used the self check-in at JFK and SEA, but I had problems on the first sector because the agent who upgraded me mixed up all the sequences. Fortunately, an agent was able to put the sequence back together. At Seattle, it was just easy and the whole check in process was less than two minutes. Finally, there was something positive to talk about United’s check in. Flight service was fine, but cutbacks were obvious. Here were the reports!
October 5, 2002
UA 17 JFK-SFO Lv1415 Arr1716
Boeing 767-300ER N643UA (6343)
The load this afternoon was rather light in all three classes. Even J class had two empty seats, and of course, F was filled up with employees as usual, but Y was really light. I have been thinking that maybe United First will be better if employees are simply not allowed to fly F like CX or SQ. If the cabin will be empty, let it be that way. At least, F class will remain something special and the service can be personalized. Anyway, it is just a thought.
I really appreciate the new Boeing 767-300ER J seats. The PTVs were tiny, but the seat itself was very comfortable. The reclines were good and I managed to sleep very well on both the outbound and inbound flights (also a Boeing 767-300ER). If United’s international Business class’ meals can be like Continental, I will have flown J with UA all the times. Too bad, its international business class service is so sub-standard. A good seat is just not good enough.
As usual, pre-takeoff beverage of orange juice, water and champagne was offered and the noise-canceling headsets were passed out. Unfortunately, Channel 9 was not turned on, so I did not take advantage of these headsets. Due to the light load, the door was closed at 2:02pm, but we did not push back till 2:13pm, waiting for the cargo to be loaded. JFK was relatively quiet at this afternoon hour and we made our way to Runway 31L quickly. We took off at 2:26pm. Flying time was five hours and forty minutes and the flight route took us over to Trenton, which we climbed to 35,000ft, and then onto Harrisburg, PA, Dillon Lake, Ohio, Columbus, Ohio, Des Moines, Cheyenne, CO, and then onto Nevada and onto California.
Dinner was served on this premium transcon flight, and cold mixed nuts and beverage were first offered. I noticed that F/As took individual orders, and no longer used the trolley for the first beverage service. And then, after some refills, the meal trolley showed up, and here was the menu transcript.
To Begin
Shrimp and smoked salmon with Champagne vegetable slaw
Dill mayonnaise and fresh lemon
3 decent shrimps and a slice of smoked salmon, with a cabbage slaw – really fresh and nice appetizer
Windy city salad with Kalamata olives and Parmesan Cheese
Country French or ranch dressing
Never my type of salad… I rather ate the vegetable slaw, and the choices of rolls were white, wheat or pumpernickel.
Main Courses
Seared Filet mignon with green peppercorn sauce
Garlic mashed red bliss potatoes and haricots verts with bell peppers
Or
Spinach and Ricotta stuffed chicken with tarragon cream sauce
Potatoes au gratin and stir-fried vegetables
My choice of entrée… I always had this chicken… the meat was tender and juicy. I did not like the sauce, and the chicken was tasty enough. But the portion was definitely smaller, compared to the same entrée served about a few months ago.
Or
Halibut, shrimp and scallop brochette with lobster cream sauce
Jasmine rice and baby bok choy with red bell peppers
My neighbor has this entrée. It looked pretty good, but only one single brochette was offered… a bit on the small side…
Dessert
Eli’s Tiramisu cake
Nice as usual
The meal service was followed by more beverage service, and personal TV was available, and the choices were pretty lame, but it was fine, since I had tons of books to read. I read Karl Marx’s “Communist Manifesto”… what a strange feeling to read such a book on United Business cabin. I slept a bit too, and the flight soon came to an end. Fortunately, the hot towel service was still there. Descent began at 7:33pm EST, and it was a beautiful afternoon in SFO. We landed on R/W28R at 5:06pm, but it took a while for us to head to the gate, since a couple of aircrafts were using R/W28L for takeoff, which included a beautiful BA’s Boeing 747-400 with one of the World livery, and a brand new VS Boeing 747-400. Then we headed to Gate 89.
UA 1238 SFO-SEA Lv1815 Arr2008
Boeing 737-300 N353UA
Gate 71 was for my flight, and the load for this flight was extremely light. My upgrade did not clear initially, and the gate agent told me to board, but suddenly he paged me again, and gave me a brand new boarding pass. Fortunately this aircraft was not one of the Shuttle liveries, and would continue to Anchorage later in the evening. Our flight attendant today was more than excellent and first, we were offered a full pre-takeoff beverage. Lately, it has already been OJ or water on various midcon and short haul flights. Then channel 9 was available. Boarding began at 5:48pm and the door was closed at 6:07pm. We pushed back within a minute and took off from Runway 1L at 6:18pm. It was a light evening at SFO.
We climbed to 28,000ft and our flying time was an hour and thirty-five minutes. To my surprise, two rounds of hot towels were offered this evening on this beverage only flight. Of course, the unavoidable supreme nut mix bags were offered as our “dinner”. The most amazing part was my simple cup of tea with lemon and sugar. The really friendly F/A had already added a pack of sugar to my tea. It had never happened on an US flight. She even offered to refill my cup of tea. It was my best short haul UA flight till day. Of course, after the seat belt turn was turned on at 7:36pm, and another round of hot towel was offered. We touched down on Runway 16R at 7:53pm, and were hurried to Gate N14. Just a warning for all UA passengers at SEA, the train service closes at 8pm from now on. After 8pm, you will have to take a bus to the main terminal. So please avoid booking those late flights into SEA.
Anyway, I stayed at the Doubletree Seattle/Tacoma, which was nice. I finally got to sleep in a single room, instead of sharijng a room with three other people. A sweet night…
October 6, 2002
UA 1011 SEA-SFO Lv0805 Arr1011
Boeing 737-300 (Shuttle) N383UA
I really don’t like these Shuttle planes – our flight was really full and Ann, our purser, this morning had to find every possible space (even the galley – considered the small galleys on these shuttle planes) for bags… Unfortunately, some bags had to be sent to the belly last minute, and Ann apologized on various announcements. Ann was an excellent F/A and the flight was another excellent one. Full pre-takeoff beverages were offered again. Soon we were off our way. We took off from R/W16L at 8:18am. We climbed to 33,000ft and flying time was an hour and thirty-five minutes. The audio system was not working this morning, despite fresh headsets were placed on the magazine pockets. Anyway, the so-called new breakfast service was best described as “non-impressive.” We were offered a single banana, and a choice of cold cinnamon rolls, bagels with cream cheese, and cereal (Kellogg’s Product 19). Of course, plastic cups were used for our beverages, but metal forks and plastic knives were used. Strange airline… there was no difference between F and Y class breakfast. Really sad! I miss the real fruit plate and warmed bread pastry on Alaska Airlines. Anyway, Ann tried her best to make up for the limited service, and she offered use more beverages and supreme nut mixes prior to arrival. Seat belt sign was turned back on at 9:42pm. It was a beautiful day in the Bay area. Soon we landed on Runway 28R at 9:53pm, and made our way to Gate 77.
UA 852 SFO-JFK Lv1120 Arr1944
Boeing 767-300ER N641UA
Another typical premium transcon flights… the load was pretty heavy this afternoon and boarding began at 10:41am. Typical pre-takeoff beverage was offered, followed by Financial times passing out and menu cards. The F/As took the meal orders for 1K prior to takeoff. She did it discretely, and it was the best way to handle this situation, especially 15 beef (awful dish), 9 shrimp and only 6 pasta were loaded. We took off from R/W1R at 11:44am. Flying time was four hours and forty-nine minutes, and our flight route took us to Stockton, CA, which we climbed to 33,000ft, and then headed towards North Mamm Peak, Aspen, and Mt. Elbert, Colorado, and we then climbed further to 37,000ft, which we headed to Peoria, Ft. Wayne, and began our decent near Allentown, PA.
Beverage and cold nuts began the lunch service. Here was the menu transcript –
To Begin
Black Pepper-crusted tuna with vegetable slaw
Wasabi and Asian seasame dressing
2 slices of tuna with lots of cabbage… UA really likes this vegetable slaw.
Southwestern salad, roasted corn and tortilla chips
Asian sesame ginger or Thousand Island dressing
Better salad with the Windy City salad… whatever it was
Bread choices include French rolls, wheat and pumpernickel breads
Main Course
Braised Short Rib of beef with a red wine sauce
Sauteed vegetable medley with potatoes, carrots and onions
Or
Shrimp paella with a tomato and olive ragout
Sauteed shrimps in brown rice with a bell pepper medley
Nice entrée with 5-6 shrimps and nice brown rice… A little bit spicy…but really tasty
Or
Treccie dell’Orto pasta with wild mushroom sauce
Asparagus, carrots, toasted pine nuts and Parmesan cheese
Dessert
Eli’s dessert – Strawberry cheesecake
Flight went by with no problem. I slept very well and hot towels once made its appearance prior to arrival. We landed on R/W13L at 7:33pm, and parked at Gate 9 in six minutes. It was a successful mileage run.
I hope you will enjoy this trip report!
Carfield http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif
I have not written a trip report for while, since school is pretty busy and being a grad student means constant reading and reading and reading. Also, the domestic scene is pretty much the same. Well, I have just flown a RT between JFK and SEA via on UA Business. The RT costs about $270 (including tax), which is a pretty good deal, especially for United. I used miles to upgrade, since I don’t have any certificates left. The flight attendants were pretty friendly and the ground service was okay. I used the self check-in at JFK and SEA, but I had problems on the first sector because the agent who upgraded me mixed up all the sequences. Fortunately, an agent was able to put the sequence back together. At Seattle, it was just easy and the whole check in process was less than two minutes. Finally, there was something positive to talk about United’s check in. Flight service was fine, but cutbacks were obvious. Here were the reports!
October 5, 2002
UA 17 JFK-SFO Lv1415 Arr1716
Boeing 767-300ER N643UA (6343)
The load this afternoon was rather light in all three classes. Even J class had two empty seats, and of course, F was filled up with employees as usual, but Y was really light. I have been thinking that maybe United First will be better if employees are simply not allowed to fly F like CX or SQ. If the cabin will be empty, let it be that way. At least, F class will remain something special and the service can be personalized. Anyway, it is just a thought.
I really appreciate the new Boeing 767-300ER J seats. The PTVs were tiny, but the seat itself was very comfortable. The reclines were good and I managed to sleep very well on both the outbound and inbound flights (also a Boeing 767-300ER). If United’s international Business class’ meals can be like Continental, I will have flown J with UA all the times. Too bad, its international business class service is so sub-standard. A good seat is just not good enough.
As usual, pre-takeoff beverage of orange juice, water and champagne was offered and the noise-canceling headsets were passed out. Unfortunately, Channel 9 was not turned on, so I did not take advantage of these headsets. Due to the light load, the door was closed at 2:02pm, but we did not push back till 2:13pm, waiting for the cargo to be loaded. JFK was relatively quiet at this afternoon hour and we made our way to Runway 31L quickly. We took off at 2:26pm. Flying time was five hours and forty minutes and the flight route took us over to Trenton, which we climbed to 35,000ft, and then onto Harrisburg, PA, Dillon Lake, Ohio, Columbus, Ohio, Des Moines, Cheyenne, CO, and then onto Nevada and onto California.
Dinner was served on this premium transcon flight, and cold mixed nuts and beverage were first offered. I noticed that F/As took individual orders, and no longer used the trolley for the first beverage service. And then, after some refills, the meal trolley showed up, and here was the menu transcript.
To Begin
Shrimp and smoked salmon with Champagne vegetable slaw
Dill mayonnaise and fresh lemon
3 decent shrimps and a slice of smoked salmon, with a cabbage slaw – really fresh and nice appetizer
Windy city salad with Kalamata olives and Parmesan Cheese
Country French or ranch dressing
Never my type of salad… I rather ate the vegetable slaw, and the choices of rolls were white, wheat or pumpernickel.
Main Courses
Seared Filet mignon with green peppercorn sauce
Garlic mashed red bliss potatoes and haricots verts with bell peppers
Or
Spinach and Ricotta stuffed chicken with tarragon cream sauce
Potatoes au gratin and stir-fried vegetables
My choice of entrée… I always had this chicken… the meat was tender and juicy. I did not like the sauce, and the chicken was tasty enough. But the portion was definitely smaller, compared to the same entrée served about a few months ago.
Or
Halibut, shrimp and scallop brochette with lobster cream sauce
Jasmine rice and baby bok choy with red bell peppers
My neighbor has this entrée. It looked pretty good, but only one single brochette was offered… a bit on the small side…
Dessert
Eli’s Tiramisu cake
Nice as usual
The meal service was followed by more beverage service, and personal TV was available, and the choices were pretty lame, but it was fine, since I had tons of books to read. I read Karl Marx’s “Communist Manifesto”… what a strange feeling to read such a book on United Business cabin. I slept a bit too, and the flight soon came to an end. Fortunately, the hot towel service was still there. Descent began at 7:33pm EST, and it was a beautiful afternoon in SFO. We landed on R/W28R at 5:06pm, but it took a while for us to head to the gate, since a couple of aircrafts were using R/W28L for takeoff, which included a beautiful BA’s Boeing 747-400 with one of the World livery, and a brand new VS Boeing 747-400. Then we headed to Gate 89.
UA 1238 SFO-SEA Lv1815 Arr2008
Boeing 737-300 N353UA
Gate 71 was for my flight, and the load for this flight was extremely light. My upgrade did not clear initially, and the gate agent told me to board, but suddenly he paged me again, and gave me a brand new boarding pass. Fortunately this aircraft was not one of the Shuttle liveries, and would continue to Anchorage later in the evening. Our flight attendant today was more than excellent and first, we were offered a full pre-takeoff beverage. Lately, it has already been OJ or water on various midcon and short haul flights. Then channel 9 was available. Boarding began at 5:48pm and the door was closed at 6:07pm. We pushed back within a minute and took off from Runway 1L at 6:18pm. It was a light evening at SFO.
We climbed to 28,000ft and our flying time was an hour and thirty-five minutes. To my surprise, two rounds of hot towels were offered this evening on this beverage only flight. Of course, the unavoidable supreme nut mix bags were offered as our “dinner”. The most amazing part was my simple cup of tea with lemon and sugar. The really friendly F/A had already added a pack of sugar to my tea. It had never happened on an US flight. She even offered to refill my cup of tea. It was my best short haul UA flight till day. Of course, after the seat belt turn was turned on at 7:36pm, and another round of hot towel was offered. We touched down on Runway 16R at 7:53pm, and were hurried to Gate N14. Just a warning for all UA passengers at SEA, the train service closes at 8pm from now on. After 8pm, you will have to take a bus to the main terminal. So please avoid booking those late flights into SEA.
Anyway, I stayed at the Doubletree Seattle/Tacoma, which was nice. I finally got to sleep in a single room, instead of sharijng a room with three other people. A sweet night…
October 6, 2002
UA 1011 SEA-SFO Lv0805 Arr1011
Boeing 737-300 (Shuttle) N383UA
I really don’t like these Shuttle planes – our flight was really full and Ann, our purser, this morning had to find every possible space (even the galley – considered the small galleys on these shuttle planes) for bags… Unfortunately, some bags had to be sent to the belly last minute, and Ann apologized on various announcements. Ann was an excellent F/A and the flight was another excellent one. Full pre-takeoff beverages were offered again. Soon we were off our way. We took off from R/W16L at 8:18am. We climbed to 33,000ft and flying time was an hour and thirty-five minutes. The audio system was not working this morning, despite fresh headsets were placed on the magazine pockets. Anyway, the so-called new breakfast service was best described as “non-impressive.” We were offered a single banana, and a choice of cold cinnamon rolls, bagels with cream cheese, and cereal (Kellogg’s Product 19). Of course, plastic cups were used for our beverages, but metal forks and plastic knives were used. Strange airline… there was no difference between F and Y class breakfast. Really sad! I miss the real fruit plate and warmed bread pastry on Alaska Airlines. Anyway, Ann tried her best to make up for the limited service, and she offered use more beverages and supreme nut mixes prior to arrival. Seat belt sign was turned back on at 9:42pm. It was a beautiful day in the Bay area. Soon we landed on Runway 28R at 9:53pm, and made our way to Gate 77.
UA 852 SFO-JFK Lv1120 Arr1944
Boeing 767-300ER N641UA
Another typical premium transcon flights… the load was pretty heavy this afternoon and boarding began at 10:41am. Typical pre-takeoff beverage was offered, followed by Financial times passing out and menu cards. The F/As took the meal orders for 1K prior to takeoff. She did it discretely, and it was the best way to handle this situation, especially 15 beef (awful dish), 9 shrimp and only 6 pasta were loaded. We took off from R/W1R at 11:44am. Flying time was four hours and forty-nine minutes, and our flight route took us to Stockton, CA, which we climbed to 33,000ft, and then headed towards North Mamm Peak, Aspen, and Mt. Elbert, Colorado, and we then climbed further to 37,000ft, which we headed to Peoria, Ft. Wayne, and began our decent near Allentown, PA.
Beverage and cold nuts began the lunch service. Here was the menu transcript –
To Begin
Black Pepper-crusted tuna with vegetable slaw
Wasabi and Asian seasame dressing
2 slices of tuna with lots of cabbage… UA really likes this vegetable slaw.
Southwestern salad, roasted corn and tortilla chips
Asian sesame ginger or Thousand Island dressing
Better salad with the Windy City salad… whatever it was
Bread choices include French rolls, wheat and pumpernickel breads
Main Course
Braised Short Rib of beef with a red wine sauce
Sauteed vegetable medley with potatoes, carrots and onions
Or
Shrimp paella with a tomato and olive ragout
Sauteed shrimps in brown rice with a bell pepper medley
Nice entrée with 5-6 shrimps and nice brown rice… A little bit spicy…but really tasty
Or
Treccie dell’Orto pasta with wild mushroom sauce
Asparagus, carrots, toasted pine nuts and Parmesan cheese
Dessert
Eli’s dessert – Strawberry cheesecake
Flight went by with no problem. I slept very well and hot towels once made its appearance prior to arrival. We landed on R/W13L at 7:33pm, and parked at Gate 9 in six minutes. It was a successful mileage run.
I hope you will enjoy this trip report!
Carfield http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif