aw
Dec 19, 05, 4:35 am
UA 1136
SFO - YVR Dept 4:36p Arriv 6:50p
Seat 3C - Boeing 752
Today’s flight was very open judging by the few people waiting at the gate. First class was about half full with 10 people up front (including myself). Boarding started through door 2L about 25 minutes before departure and it was orderly. There were 2 FA’s by the door and a purser in the F/C galley. No pre-departure drinks were offered and about 10 minutes after I sat down one of the FA’s at the door came by to collect the coats to hang them. The Purser did not interact much with the passengers and walked straight to door 2L to join the other FA’s and have a chat.
Departure was on time and after take off the plane followed a northern path passing by downtown SF. Since I was sitting on the right side, I missed the fabulous view of the city at sunset. When the seat belt sign was off, I switched to 6A. For some reason, most of the passengers were seated in the first 4 rows of the F/C cabin and the back was deserted.
Drink service was accompanied by warm nuts in ramekins. It’s been a long time since I have flown UA to YVR and this came as a nice surprise. I noticed that the purser gave a full can of beverage; perhaps he did not want to bother with refills. I learned that dinner is offered on this flight when I called Reservations. This is quite a contrast from AS, which offers nothing. I think it is pretty frugal for any airline not to have some type of meal in F on an international flight. Granted, SFO-YVR is a little over 2hrs, but this is an international route between two major cities that happen to have a fairly wealthy market base. Even SFO-DEN on UA has meals up front.
After the ramekins were cleared, the purser passed by with linens and asked for your choice of meal (another surprise). Now, if UA could provide hot towels just like CO…anyways, the selection tonight was either a Chicken Wrap or Salmon Teriyaki on salad. I opted for the Chicken Wrap and it was fairly satisfying. It consisted of grilled chicken pieces and melted cheese served with a tomato sauce on the side. For dessert, there was a freshly baked chocolate chip cookie already placed on the tray. We had metal utensils except for the plastic knife, but at least it was designed to match with the rest of the ensemble. When the trays were cleared, the purser inquired if there was anything else we would like to drink and that was the end of the service. I guess coffee or tea was on a request basis. A good FA would have made an after dinner run offering coffee, tea or liquors. Our purser was polite but not very proactive. The lack of pre-departure drinks should have served as an indication of the style of service to be expected.
VANCOUVER RENAISSANCE HARBOURSIDE
This hotel came as a surprise, literally. I was browsing through several websites until I found an offer on LastMinuteTravel.com. It listed a deluxe property for $83.67 dollars with a harbour view but because of the name of the property it had to remain anonymous until purchase. Personally I was hoping for the Pan Pacific or The Fairmont Waterfront. Location wise it turned out to be a bit better than the other two properties, since it was closer to Robson and Davie streets, which were the areas that I wanted to hang around. The hotel is on 1133 W. Hastings St. in front of the Marriott Pinnacle. Service was very attentive and because I am a Silver Elite with Marriott, I was upgraded to a Deluxe Harbourview room on the 14th floor. One nice safety feature about this property is that you can not use the elevators unless you are a guest at the hotel. You need your key to activate it. The room had a balcony with a nice view and was average in size. The bathroom was a bit generic and utilitarian but the showerhead had excellent water pressure and the toiletries were better than expected. I loved the lemongrass soap, which produced a rich, creamy lather and the bergamot fragrance of the moisturizer. The brand they used was Lather. The lobby is fairly small but well appointed. There is a lounge area where one can have drinks with an amazing view of the harbour.
It is always nice to come back to Vancouver. The city is compact and has so much to offer. It is relatively cheaper than in the US and the exchange rate was $1.00 to $1.16 CAD (not as good as it used to be). My first night I ate at my favorite Japanese restaurant on Davie and then the following day shopped at the Bay and then had some great Greek food back on Davie. One thing that I really liked about shopping in Canada is the variety of great products one can find in the drugstores. For example, the toiletries display at Shopmart and London Drugs featured more high quality items than its U.S. counterparts. I found an extensive selection of Evian, Vichy and Clarins lines for Men that you would never find in a Walgreens, CVS or Long’s Drugs back in the U.S.
For those who take the Airporter to downtown Vancouver, be advised that there is no longer a desk at the exit of Customs. One has to pay the driver directly and some hotel drop offs require a change of bus once in the city. This is due to winter scheduling, according to the driver. I think the RT fare came out to around $16.00 CAD.
UA 1164
YVR - SFO Dept 6:12p Arrv 8:31p
Seat 3A – A320
I arrived at the airport with plenty of time (3 hrs before dept.). Check-in was smooth and friendly. I was told that the flight might be slightly delayed due to the inbound from Chicago, but it was nothing serious. I then made my way to US Immigration & Customs, which was a breeze. This flight was much fuller than my outbound one since there was a sizable amount of people around the gate and it was Sunday (a return day for those who indulge on a wknd trip).
Boarding was supposed to commence at 5:42p but the plane did not arrive until 6:00p, so the actual boarding time was around 6:30p. I think the YVR ground personnel did a great job in turning this flight in 30 minutes and the pilot concurred with me by praising them when making his announcement before take off. Unfortunately, the plane was unable to provide us with hot water for the coffee and tea so the gate agents made an announcement about this shortcoming. I guess the explanation was that the plane was stationed in BOS the previous night with freezing temperatures that somehow affected the plumbing system of the aircraft. I used the bathroom and there was no water from the sink. Good thing I carry sanitizing solutions just in case. Come to think of it, my toiletries bag is like a mini-pharmacy. :p
Service on this flight was excellent. Our purser did pre-departure drinks offering OJ or water. Nuts were served warm in ramekins to accompany the beverage of choice. Linens were distributed but no hot towels. Again, there was dinner with the same choices as the outbound. This time I chose the Salmon Teriyaki, which was a generous piece of warm salmon on top of greens with watercress, mandarin oranges and green onions with a sprinkle of black sesame seeds. Two plastic containers with the sauce were on the tray. There were salt/pepper packs instead of shakers and the freshly baked chocolate chip cookie made an encore appearance. Jorge, our purser was irreproachable in his service. He was very proactive in refilling our beverages and passed around with a bread basket (I think there were 2 choices: pretzel roll or sourdough). Upon boarding I had to place an item in the closet in front and when we landed, Jorge had my things out in the galley already. Top-notch service. ^
Video programming was available on both segments but I chose to read my book instead. I guess you can tell I have been flying on NW often enough. As usual, Channel 9 was also available, a trademark of UA.
In conclusion, the good level of service offered by UA on this route nicely surprised me. The flight was even better when you have a good crewmember like Jorge. If some improvement can be made, I would love to see hot towels provided instead of linens. For the meals, an appetizer might be nice. The entrée and chocolate cookie look lonely on the set up tray. But I understand that UA needs to watch its costs. Perhaps they should make this “dinner” service a snack one instead. I think a good quality deli sandwich with chips or cheese/fruit plates could be perfectly suitable alternatives for this route
SFO - YVR Dept 4:36p Arriv 6:50p
Seat 3C - Boeing 752
Today’s flight was very open judging by the few people waiting at the gate. First class was about half full with 10 people up front (including myself). Boarding started through door 2L about 25 minutes before departure and it was orderly. There were 2 FA’s by the door and a purser in the F/C galley. No pre-departure drinks were offered and about 10 minutes after I sat down one of the FA’s at the door came by to collect the coats to hang them. The Purser did not interact much with the passengers and walked straight to door 2L to join the other FA’s and have a chat.
Departure was on time and after take off the plane followed a northern path passing by downtown SF. Since I was sitting on the right side, I missed the fabulous view of the city at sunset. When the seat belt sign was off, I switched to 6A. For some reason, most of the passengers were seated in the first 4 rows of the F/C cabin and the back was deserted.
Drink service was accompanied by warm nuts in ramekins. It’s been a long time since I have flown UA to YVR and this came as a nice surprise. I noticed that the purser gave a full can of beverage; perhaps he did not want to bother with refills. I learned that dinner is offered on this flight when I called Reservations. This is quite a contrast from AS, which offers nothing. I think it is pretty frugal for any airline not to have some type of meal in F on an international flight. Granted, SFO-YVR is a little over 2hrs, but this is an international route between two major cities that happen to have a fairly wealthy market base. Even SFO-DEN on UA has meals up front.
After the ramekins were cleared, the purser passed by with linens and asked for your choice of meal (another surprise). Now, if UA could provide hot towels just like CO…anyways, the selection tonight was either a Chicken Wrap or Salmon Teriyaki on salad. I opted for the Chicken Wrap and it was fairly satisfying. It consisted of grilled chicken pieces and melted cheese served with a tomato sauce on the side. For dessert, there was a freshly baked chocolate chip cookie already placed on the tray. We had metal utensils except for the plastic knife, but at least it was designed to match with the rest of the ensemble. When the trays were cleared, the purser inquired if there was anything else we would like to drink and that was the end of the service. I guess coffee or tea was on a request basis. A good FA would have made an after dinner run offering coffee, tea or liquors. Our purser was polite but not very proactive. The lack of pre-departure drinks should have served as an indication of the style of service to be expected.
VANCOUVER RENAISSANCE HARBOURSIDE
This hotel came as a surprise, literally. I was browsing through several websites until I found an offer on LastMinuteTravel.com. It listed a deluxe property for $83.67 dollars with a harbour view but because of the name of the property it had to remain anonymous until purchase. Personally I was hoping for the Pan Pacific or The Fairmont Waterfront. Location wise it turned out to be a bit better than the other two properties, since it was closer to Robson and Davie streets, which were the areas that I wanted to hang around. The hotel is on 1133 W. Hastings St. in front of the Marriott Pinnacle. Service was very attentive and because I am a Silver Elite with Marriott, I was upgraded to a Deluxe Harbourview room on the 14th floor. One nice safety feature about this property is that you can not use the elevators unless you are a guest at the hotel. You need your key to activate it. The room had a balcony with a nice view and was average in size. The bathroom was a bit generic and utilitarian but the showerhead had excellent water pressure and the toiletries were better than expected. I loved the lemongrass soap, which produced a rich, creamy lather and the bergamot fragrance of the moisturizer. The brand they used was Lather. The lobby is fairly small but well appointed. There is a lounge area where one can have drinks with an amazing view of the harbour.
It is always nice to come back to Vancouver. The city is compact and has so much to offer. It is relatively cheaper than in the US and the exchange rate was $1.00 to $1.16 CAD (not as good as it used to be). My first night I ate at my favorite Japanese restaurant on Davie and then the following day shopped at the Bay and then had some great Greek food back on Davie. One thing that I really liked about shopping in Canada is the variety of great products one can find in the drugstores. For example, the toiletries display at Shopmart and London Drugs featured more high quality items than its U.S. counterparts. I found an extensive selection of Evian, Vichy and Clarins lines for Men that you would never find in a Walgreens, CVS or Long’s Drugs back in the U.S.
For those who take the Airporter to downtown Vancouver, be advised that there is no longer a desk at the exit of Customs. One has to pay the driver directly and some hotel drop offs require a change of bus once in the city. This is due to winter scheduling, according to the driver. I think the RT fare came out to around $16.00 CAD.
UA 1164
YVR - SFO Dept 6:12p Arrv 8:31p
Seat 3A – A320
I arrived at the airport with plenty of time (3 hrs before dept.). Check-in was smooth and friendly. I was told that the flight might be slightly delayed due to the inbound from Chicago, but it was nothing serious. I then made my way to US Immigration & Customs, which was a breeze. This flight was much fuller than my outbound one since there was a sizable amount of people around the gate and it was Sunday (a return day for those who indulge on a wknd trip).
Boarding was supposed to commence at 5:42p but the plane did not arrive until 6:00p, so the actual boarding time was around 6:30p. I think the YVR ground personnel did a great job in turning this flight in 30 minutes and the pilot concurred with me by praising them when making his announcement before take off. Unfortunately, the plane was unable to provide us with hot water for the coffee and tea so the gate agents made an announcement about this shortcoming. I guess the explanation was that the plane was stationed in BOS the previous night with freezing temperatures that somehow affected the plumbing system of the aircraft. I used the bathroom and there was no water from the sink. Good thing I carry sanitizing solutions just in case. Come to think of it, my toiletries bag is like a mini-pharmacy. :p
Service on this flight was excellent. Our purser did pre-departure drinks offering OJ or water. Nuts were served warm in ramekins to accompany the beverage of choice. Linens were distributed but no hot towels. Again, there was dinner with the same choices as the outbound. This time I chose the Salmon Teriyaki, which was a generous piece of warm salmon on top of greens with watercress, mandarin oranges and green onions with a sprinkle of black sesame seeds. Two plastic containers with the sauce were on the tray. There were salt/pepper packs instead of shakers and the freshly baked chocolate chip cookie made an encore appearance. Jorge, our purser was irreproachable in his service. He was very proactive in refilling our beverages and passed around with a bread basket (I think there were 2 choices: pretzel roll or sourdough). Upon boarding I had to place an item in the closet in front and when we landed, Jorge had my things out in the galley already. Top-notch service. ^
Video programming was available on both segments but I chose to read my book instead. I guess you can tell I have been flying on NW often enough. As usual, Channel 9 was also available, a trademark of UA.
In conclusion, the good level of service offered by UA on this route nicely surprised me. The flight was even better when you have a good crewmember like Jorge. If some improvement can be made, I would love to see hot towels provided instead of linens. For the meals, an appetizer might be nice. The entrée and chocolate cookie look lonely on the set up tray. But I understand that UA needs to watch its costs. Perhaps they should make this “dinner” service a snack one instead. I think a good quality deli sandwich with chips or cheese/fruit plates could be perfectly suitable alternatives for this route