Trip Reports - Part II - BOS-DEN-OAK on 10/02/02

Well, I am finally back here in cozy SF.

This piece will be on my return home trip from Boston. Although, I am not a seasoned trip report writer - I'll try to be as interesting as possible. :-)

After taking the underground blue line at Arlington station to Logan airport, we took to shuttle bus to terminal C for United airlines.

We headed upstairs to find a long line waiting for check-in. It appeared that there was not a separete line for 1st/biz pax.

So, being that there was nobody at the Easy Check In kiosk, we did just that. How easy and quick the whole process was.

Once we got our boarding passes, we proceeded to gate C18. Security was fast and sped right thru. Thanks to the 1st class line that helped us get to the xray line quicker.

While waiting for our 434pm departure, I saw lots of UA planes at the gates; 763,A320,and even 757. At the other gates were; Lufthansa, BA, NW, and Aer Lingus. Lots of AA too.

Finally, we were boarding our A320 headed for DEN. There was an equip. change to an A319, so there were 8 in 1st & it was full.

Pre-boarding water or oj were given, and there was only the 1 male purser serving the 1st cabin - due to only 8 up front, that made sense to me.

After push back, we taxied to what I think was 27L or maybe 22L, I think it was the former.

Because of high incoming traffic, we held for about 10 minutes. What was neat though was that there was a Virgin 747 on approach that we had to wait for - what a sight to see that coming in and touching down. Incredible.

Also saw an ATA 757 land.

Well, we powered up finally and were off in under a minute. I did not realize how strong those engines are on the A319.

Once airborne, drink orders were taken, and packaged nut mix offered. Why they serve those things are beyond me. YUCK...lol

This was a dinner/movie flight and the service was quick and mechanical. The choices were chicken or ravioli. Served with a small salad, and key lime pie, and the usual bring roll with butter. Funny thing is that everything was delivered on the tray all at once.

The tray had a blue linen on in - BUT, no table linen. ???? I think out purser was being lazy as I saw the table linens being taken out, then put back on the metal cart. Hmmmm....

Too, the coffee cup & saucer were on the dinner tray.

The food quality was completely mediocre. :-(
I chose the ravioli and ate it because I was really hungry. Other than that, on a scale of 1 to 10, it ranked a 4. Sorry UA.

Wine was offered as well. I had white. Drinks were topped off and the purser was quick to remove the tray upon finishing the meal.

Although he was nice enough, I felt as though he wanted to sit down and read his paper. He was about 50 or in his late 40s.

The movie was K-19, now that was a good movie. :-)

I wonder why on a flight of 4hours 21 minutes, the meal service is so below par? I would love to hear from others who have done this same flight and what their service was like.

Soon enough we landed at DEN, with about 15 minutes to spare to run from gate 47 to gate 24. That is a hike. OUCH...lol

This time, our plane was an A320, NEW at that.
Of course 1st was full, 12 pax, and ALL MALE. Too funny.

Yes, as I have heard before, this was a beverage service only flight. The female purser on this leg was about 50+. No personality whatsoever. Again, just there to do her job. Which is fine with me, but where is the customer service in a customer service industry? he he he

At least the interior was gorgeous. I would have loved this jet for my BOS-DEN haul. Oh well...

I had 2 cocktails and then watched the video programming. Next thing we were on approach to OAK. 20 minutes early to boot. :-)

Landing at OAK was hard and we braked almost instantly. I peered through the window & saw the engine widen, the reverse thrust thing and the air brakes fully deployed. Love seeing that in action.

Question: our DEN-OAK flight was at 745pm and was 2 hours 9 minutes. Why no meal in 1st? It's not like it was a 10pm flight or an hour in flying time. Aren't the DEN-SFO flights done with a meal service? And the distance is the same.

Overall, my trip was great & I am glad that I had miles to upgrade the return and a nice new friend upgrade my outbound segments. :-) (you know who you are... :-) ).

Funny thing is that I feel bad for those pax who paid full fare for those flights. OUCH.

Thanks for reading my post.

Mahalo.

ps- sorry for any spelling errors, if any, I am exhausted. :-)



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Patrick A. Inouye

I think there probably was no meal because departure time falls outside of their standard meal hours. I couldn't explain why they might serve a meal to SFO, if they do, but 7:45p is a bit late for dinner on such a short flight for any airline. In fact, most airlines are no longer serving any food, save for peanuts/snack mixes on any flight under four hours.

You're right, it would be a travesty for anyone to actually pay for a First Class ticket at the prices that are typically charged. Rest easy though, probably only 5-10% of the passengers in First Class have actually paid the first class fare. And that figure is probably being generous. I would suspect those that fork over that kind of money are saavy enough to know what they are going to get, in advance. Most people that can shell out that kind of money are experienced travelers. There are always a few, however, that might not be aware that travel isn't quite what it used to be.

Too bad to hear about the Flight Attendants. Service, these days, is the only thing that one airline has to distinguish itself from the competition. Look at Southwest for example. They certainly didn't get where they are because they offer luxury seating and fine dining. Their employees attitudes and the exemplary service they provide is what got them to where they are.

Thanks for the message back... I love it when people shed light on my topics. ;-)

Anyone else have any feedback?

Mahalo...

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Patrick A. Inouye

United had cut meal service in first/biz class on domestic flights where coach recieves a beverage if they departure time is after 7:45pm. This was done to spend money on bringing Breakfast to all flights over 60 minutes up to I belive 10am. Even DEN-SFO, DEN-SEA, DEN-PDX or anything west of Denver (ANC is the exception) after 7:45pm would recieve nothing other than a beverage in first.

In the morning however, if you flew in First class on flights over 90 minutes you would recieve warm breads, flights over 2 hours recieve breakfast sandwiches/burritos and flights over 3 hours get the "popular" egg dishes. In the main cabin, all flights over 90 minutes recieve a snack box on all flights.

The cut of the late night snacks in first allows for the enhanced morning meal service.

On your BOS-DEN flight, that is a midcon. All United midcon flights have a snack service in coach, and in first class, all midcons recieve a single trayed service. This has been part of the meal service cuts. I've had some nice flights with it, and some flights that were pretty...well...subpar.

I think that table linens have been cut on midcons, but Im not sure.

To me, the crew makes the difference in the inflight service. The meal it self is the same one that you'd get if they did it in courses, it is just boarded differently. Again, it all boils down to costs, and when most people are not paying to sit in first class, things like making a single trayed service is what happens.