kyushuman
Oct 27, 07, 4:50 pm
MSP-LAX
NW
On Time
A320 F Class, Seat 1A
Load: 16/16
This was a rather uneventful flight, a standard F class domestic on NW. The only nice surprise was getting the EUA (upgrade) was that it came through quite early, 6 days before the flight. A choice of 2 meals, low-to-mid-shelf wines and liquor, and quite nice FAs.
I had originally booked a later flight with only a 3-hour connection at LAX. Even that made me a little nervous, since I had to switch terminals and airlines, and go though security again. With no delays I’d probably be OK, but I wasn’t in the mood to cut it close. Then, two weeks before the trip, NWA cancelled about 1,000 flights in 3 days due to crew shortage on the 757 (my original flight was 757), which scared me enough to change that flight so I’d arrive with about 6 hours at LAX. Unneeded, as you will see soon.
July 2 (First Try!)
LAX-SYD-MEL, connecting to NZ MEL-AKL
UA 839
B744 F Class, Seat 2A
Load: 5/14
Upon arrival at LAX, I went to check in at the UA counter at Terminal 7 and there were 3 agents at the Int’l F/Global Services counters, and no other customers. Nice! So I checked in. Staff were really friendly, cheerful, and helpful, which was a trend among about 80% of the UA employees I encountered over the next few days.
I had a decent lunch in the terminal, then went up to the International First Class Lounge, staffed by Ms. Rebecca... an absolutely wonderful agent! I mentioned that this was my first flight with UA since 1998, when a diversion, 24-hour delay, and then a luggage fiasco prompted me to switch to NWA, which was a good idea, since I ended up living in MSP from 2001-present anyhow! Rebecca promised me she’d take good care of me, and she did.
I was the only pax in the F lounge for 3 hours, until about 9pm. At 9:45pm, Rebecca came over to tell me that our departure was now “On Decision”, a UA term that means, I guess, that they’re making a decision whether or not to cancel the flight. She offered me a J-Class ticket on QF, since I was a paid C ticket (the UA mistake fare, $810 all-in). But the flight was departing LAX’s TBIT, in about 70 minutes. That would make it a tough haul, from the UA Terminal, thru TSA, and onto the plane. I decided to tough it out with UA; what are the chances they’d cancel a 744 with nearly 400 pax? :)
Well, in about 30 minutes Rebecca told me they’d replaced the part and now had set a new departure time, of 00:30, about 2 hours late.
We boarded the plane, and then suddenly, nobody else came on board. Come to find out, Headquarters sent a command to stop boarding and cancel the flight. Apparently, the plane had been flying for more than a month with 1 of 3 air conditioning APUs broken. They’d reached their FAA limit on “maintenance deferments,” according to the captain, who also mentioned the plane was perfectly airworthy and he and the crew were just as disappointed they were cancelling the flight. He said we’d all be back the following night, as UA 9802, running alongside the regularly scheduled UA839, which was compltely Zero’d out already. Ugh!
One FA told those of us in F to wait; the other came over and told us to get off the plane.... they disagreed, but we stayed--and we were glad we did, since Rebecca came down with all of the F pax vouchers printed out already--Westin Hotel LAX for 2 nights (so we didn’t have to check out till 9pm), breakfast, lunch, and dinner vouchers pre-printed with our names on them. After seeing the 350+ other pax rushing down the terminal to the THREE agents giving out all of their vouchers.
After a 30-minute wait for the Westin shuttle, it came. I was in bed by 145am. The Front Desk manager at the Westin told me that UA had requested 100 rooms, but he said they didn’t have the cleaning staff scheduled to handle it, so only took about 10-20 rooms, I guess.
I rented a car and spent the day in LA, but it wasn’t exactly AKL for the day!
Anyhow, I had to cancel my plans to take Air New Zealand MEL-AKL and QF AKL-MEL, and would be arriving into MEL around the time I would have anyway. Still, I wouldn’t get the miles for NZ’s J class on MEL-AKL, and was throwing away a US$200 QF ticket. Not great! :(
So the following night, I was back at the IFL and Rebecca said things looked better for the flight, UA9802....
July 3
LAX-SYD, UA 9802, Seat 2A, F Class, Load 7/14, connecting to:
SYD-MEL, UA839, Seat 4A, F Class, Load 5/14
There was the same crew as the night before, and again we were handed newspapers, menus, amenity kits, and offered movies for the in-seat players. There were two FAs, and one was amazing--Lynn was her name, and she was top-notch. The other was below average but not terrible.
Food, as I’ve learned from reading the UA forums, was true to form: Excellent first meal service, nicely presented with several course, and then parthetic snack and 2nd Meal. I’m baffled how UA tries to sell F on this route against QF, since they could easily spend maybe $25 per F pax more and offer some nicer food and drink. I can’t imagine who even really buys this ticket--in fact, from what I overheard, on this flight there were 4 upgrades using miles (including myself), one paid F, who’d actually misconnected on JFK-SFO so was sent to our flight instead of SFO-SYD, and two women who paid $650 that day to upgrade from C to F.
Anyhow, the star of the flight was the wonderful F suite, where I slept-soundly-for 8 hours! The longest inflight sleep I’ve ever had. Amenity kits are just OK. I think they could be better, especially after seeing the variety that SQ and LX offer in F.
Here is the menu:
Like I said, it was a really nice first meal, and then amazingly uninspired snack and 2nd meal services. The poor FAs, even if they are good, have embarrassing stuff to serve. And NW’s Pacific flights, which are 2-4 hours shorter, actually have better snacks and second meals --in J! They always have a cold plate of nice meats and cheeses or seafood.
Anyhow, I’d say that, with the generally good crew attitude (surprising, since I’d read on FT that LAX-based crews were some of the worst!) and the new C and F products coming in the next year or two, UA will be a lot more competitive on Pacific routes than they are now.
One possible anomaly: I was asked my meal choice last, after everyone else, including (I did see the manifest laid out on the table inflight) three pax listed as Mileage Plus base members (I’m *A Gold with BD). They still had my meal choice available, but I was told by a 1K that normally, *A Gold comes just after MP Gold, right?
I connected at SYD to UA839, which featured a friendly LAX-based purser who was quite chatty--offering interesting tidbits about how often 744s seem to go technical at LAX. My mimosa was kept quite full and I became quite chatty as well! :)
Arrived into MEL and my bag came right away (NW, how could it be that my Platinum-tagged luggage often comes out after 100+ bags, while on UA in F, or as a *A Gold on TG, SQ, or NH, I get my bags much faster??) Just a gripe. Good job, UA.
A troubling result from the trip was that the UA9802 flight number probably wasn’t recognized by the BD Mileage program, so I will have to send in BPs. UA offered $200 voucher for future flights OR 8,000 UA Miles, which won’t really help me. I’ve been unhappy with how UA handled this afterwards--as NW Plat, I am sure I would have been assauged a bit with probably 25K miles AND at least $250+ in vouchers. After talking to a friend who is a 1K, he said if you’re UA dirt, like me, you are treated as such in irreg ops... so I am just lucky I was in F! :) I haven’t decided what to take from UA; I will see first if I end up getting the miles to post on BD before I decide.
Pros:
1) Wow, those Full-Flat F seats are comfortable--I’m average height and weight (6’0 185) and I do think they might be a bit tight for someone very tall and/or heavy, but I did sleep well, and I sure don’t do that on most flights.
2) Nice first meal service
3) Ground Handling in LAX was quite good: Friendly, perky Ticket Agents at check-in; Amazingly gracious and welcoming Rebecca in the IFL, who really rose to the occasion after the flight was cancelled. Gate agents remained quite friendly and calm, even in the face of some unhappy customers.
4) Despite negative comments about the SYD IFL, I was the only one there--maybe the smart folks went to the NZ lounge? But anyhow, it was quiet, nice view of planes, and a decent snack and fruits/yogurts/breads assortment. I wasn’t hungy so just wanted some tea and fruit. Very warm welcome, too, contrary to the Lounge Dragon reports I’d read!
5) UA’s handling of the cancellation, at least from an F pax’ viewpoint, was quite painless: vouchers in hand while still on the aircraft makes you feel a bit better, though the 24-hour delay was tough.
Cons:
1) Embarrassing F Class second meal and snack for such a long flight (13+ hours).
2) Even with the F Seat movies, still quite poor IFE, and a tiny (6”?) screen--kinda like the OZ F seats’ screen. I flew on the SQ New F seat in April, with a 23” screen.... kinda different, huh? Of course, I felt that one was a bit too big, but still!
3) Really, really bad maintenance issues--why was a weeks or months-old APU allowed to keep flying until the FAA Maintenance Deferral Limit? And then, why did this 744 sit at LAX for 13 hours before they tried the (defective) part and then the (also defective) replacement part?? By then, it was too late for us to transfer to NZ or QF flights. In hindsight, it looks genius on UA’s part to only spend about $75pp on hotel and meals instead of thousands pp toward tickets on NZ/QF, but somehow I don’t think it was an evil plan.
4) Service is sure erratic. On a recent trip including SQ, TG, MH, and NH, (nearly all F Class) I didn’t encounter ONE FA as crabby as the other F Class FA. And, if they are going to have crabby ones, don’t put ‘em in Premium Cabins! If they just want to sling the hash and go sit and read a book, ignoring call buttons, it’s a lot more logical to put them in Y. It must be REALLY hard for the good, gracious FAs like Lynn, or the purser on SYD-MEL, to have to work alongside such horrible coworkers.
5) Just-OK amenity kits. The new Ferragamo SQ F kits are hard to beat, so maybe I shouldn’t compare!
And finally, a question: How on Earth will UA differentiate its F and C offerings next year when the new Full-Flat C beds roll out??? I can only assume that UA will have to upgrade its inflight meals, beverages, and service (maybe eat-when-you-want, Book the Cook, etc), if they want to keep F at all. Why would you book it at a premium when the seats are both Flat and F service isn’t all that special? Any thoughts?
All in all, a great deal for $800 OW. :)
ADDED: UA sent me a US$200 travel credit voucher for use on Domestic Itineraries for my inconvenience. I think this was OK, though friends have told me that, as 1Ks, they would have likely received double or triple that amount--and miles as well. Woe is the non-UA Elite during Irregular Ops on UA!
NW
On Time
A320 F Class, Seat 1A
Load: 16/16
This was a rather uneventful flight, a standard F class domestic on NW. The only nice surprise was getting the EUA (upgrade) was that it came through quite early, 6 days before the flight. A choice of 2 meals, low-to-mid-shelf wines and liquor, and quite nice FAs.
I had originally booked a later flight with only a 3-hour connection at LAX. Even that made me a little nervous, since I had to switch terminals and airlines, and go though security again. With no delays I’d probably be OK, but I wasn’t in the mood to cut it close. Then, two weeks before the trip, NWA cancelled about 1,000 flights in 3 days due to crew shortage on the 757 (my original flight was 757), which scared me enough to change that flight so I’d arrive with about 6 hours at LAX. Unneeded, as you will see soon.
July 2 (First Try!)
LAX-SYD-MEL, connecting to NZ MEL-AKL
UA 839
B744 F Class, Seat 2A
Load: 5/14
Upon arrival at LAX, I went to check in at the UA counter at Terminal 7 and there were 3 agents at the Int’l F/Global Services counters, and no other customers. Nice! So I checked in. Staff were really friendly, cheerful, and helpful, which was a trend among about 80% of the UA employees I encountered over the next few days.
I had a decent lunch in the terminal, then went up to the International First Class Lounge, staffed by Ms. Rebecca... an absolutely wonderful agent! I mentioned that this was my first flight with UA since 1998, when a diversion, 24-hour delay, and then a luggage fiasco prompted me to switch to NWA, which was a good idea, since I ended up living in MSP from 2001-present anyhow! Rebecca promised me she’d take good care of me, and she did.
I was the only pax in the F lounge for 3 hours, until about 9pm. At 9:45pm, Rebecca came over to tell me that our departure was now “On Decision”, a UA term that means, I guess, that they’re making a decision whether or not to cancel the flight. She offered me a J-Class ticket on QF, since I was a paid C ticket (the UA mistake fare, $810 all-in). But the flight was departing LAX’s TBIT, in about 70 minutes. That would make it a tough haul, from the UA Terminal, thru TSA, and onto the plane. I decided to tough it out with UA; what are the chances they’d cancel a 744 with nearly 400 pax? :)
Well, in about 30 minutes Rebecca told me they’d replaced the part and now had set a new departure time, of 00:30, about 2 hours late.
We boarded the plane, and then suddenly, nobody else came on board. Come to find out, Headquarters sent a command to stop boarding and cancel the flight. Apparently, the plane had been flying for more than a month with 1 of 3 air conditioning APUs broken. They’d reached their FAA limit on “maintenance deferments,” according to the captain, who also mentioned the plane was perfectly airworthy and he and the crew were just as disappointed they were cancelling the flight. He said we’d all be back the following night, as UA 9802, running alongside the regularly scheduled UA839, which was compltely Zero’d out already. Ugh!
One FA told those of us in F to wait; the other came over and told us to get off the plane.... they disagreed, but we stayed--and we were glad we did, since Rebecca came down with all of the F pax vouchers printed out already--Westin Hotel LAX for 2 nights (so we didn’t have to check out till 9pm), breakfast, lunch, and dinner vouchers pre-printed with our names on them. After seeing the 350+ other pax rushing down the terminal to the THREE agents giving out all of their vouchers.
After a 30-minute wait for the Westin shuttle, it came. I was in bed by 145am. The Front Desk manager at the Westin told me that UA had requested 100 rooms, but he said they didn’t have the cleaning staff scheduled to handle it, so only took about 10-20 rooms, I guess.
I rented a car and spent the day in LA, but it wasn’t exactly AKL for the day!
Anyhow, I had to cancel my plans to take Air New Zealand MEL-AKL and QF AKL-MEL, and would be arriving into MEL around the time I would have anyway. Still, I wouldn’t get the miles for NZ’s J class on MEL-AKL, and was throwing away a US$200 QF ticket. Not great! :(
So the following night, I was back at the IFL and Rebecca said things looked better for the flight, UA9802....
July 3
LAX-SYD, UA 9802, Seat 2A, F Class, Load 7/14, connecting to:
SYD-MEL, UA839, Seat 4A, F Class, Load 5/14
There was the same crew as the night before, and again we were handed newspapers, menus, amenity kits, and offered movies for the in-seat players. There were two FAs, and one was amazing--Lynn was her name, and she was top-notch. The other was below average but not terrible.
Food, as I’ve learned from reading the UA forums, was true to form: Excellent first meal service, nicely presented with several course, and then parthetic snack and 2nd Meal. I’m baffled how UA tries to sell F on this route against QF, since they could easily spend maybe $25 per F pax more and offer some nicer food and drink. I can’t imagine who even really buys this ticket--in fact, from what I overheard, on this flight there were 4 upgrades using miles (including myself), one paid F, who’d actually misconnected on JFK-SFO so was sent to our flight instead of SFO-SYD, and two women who paid $650 that day to upgrade from C to F.
Anyhow, the star of the flight was the wonderful F suite, where I slept-soundly-for 8 hours! The longest inflight sleep I’ve ever had. Amenity kits are just OK. I think they could be better, especially after seeing the variety that SQ and LX offer in F.
Here is the menu:
Like I said, it was a really nice first meal, and then amazingly uninspired snack and 2nd meal services. The poor FAs, even if they are good, have embarrassing stuff to serve. And NW’s Pacific flights, which are 2-4 hours shorter, actually have better snacks and second meals --in J! They always have a cold plate of nice meats and cheeses or seafood.
Anyhow, I’d say that, with the generally good crew attitude (surprising, since I’d read on FT that LAX-based crews were some of the worst!) and the new C and F products coming in the next year or two, UA will be a lot more competitive on Pacific routes than they are now.
One possible anomaly: I was asked my meal choice last, after everyone else, including (I did see the manifest laid out on the table inflight) three pax listed as Mileage Plus base members (I’m *A Gold with BD). They still had my meal choice available, but I was told by a 1K that normally, *A Gold comes just after MP Gold, right?
I connected at SYD to UA839, which featured a friendly LAX-based purser who was quite chatty--offering interesting tidbits about how often 744s seem to go technical at LAX. My mimosa was kept quite full and I became quite chatty as well! :)
Arrived into MEL and my bag came right away (NW, how could it be that my Platinum-tagged luggage often comes out after 100+ bags, while on UA in F, or as a *A Gold on TG, SQ, or NH, I get my bags much faster??) Just a gripe. Good job, UA.
A troubling result from the trip was that the UA9802 flight number probably wasn’t recognized by the BD Mileage program, so I will have to send in BPs. UA offered $200 voucher for future flights OR 8,000 UA Miles, which won’t really help me. I’ve been unhappy with how UA handled this afterwards--as NW Plat, I am sure I would have been assauged a bit with probably 25K miles AND at least $250+ in vouchers. After talking to a friend who is a 1K, he said if you’re UA dirt, like me, you are treated as such in irreg ops... so I am just lucky I was in F! :) I haven’t decided what to take from UA; I will see first if I end up getting the miles to post on BD before I decide.
Pros:
1) Wow, those Full-Flat F seats are comfortable--I’m average height and weight (6’0 185) and I do think they might be a bit tight for someone very tall and/or heavy, but I did sleep well, and I sure don’t do that on most flights.
2) Nice first meal service
3) Ground Handling in LAX was quite good: Friendly, perky Ticket Agents at check-in; Amazingly gracious and welcoming Rebecca in the IFL, who really rose to the occasion after the flight was cancelled. Gate agents remained quite friendly and calm, even in the face of some unhappy customers.
4) Despite negative comments about the SYD IFL, I was the only one there--maybe the smart folks went to the NZ lounge? But anyhow, it was quiet, nice view of planes, and a decent snack and fruits/yogurts/breads assortment. I wasn’t hungy so just wanted some tea and fruit. Very warm welcome, too, contrary to the Lounge Dragon reports I’d read!
5) UA’s handling of the cancellation, at least from an F pax’ viewpoint, was quite painless: vouchers in hand while still on the aircraft makes you feel a bit better, though the 24-hour delay was tough.
Cons:
1) Embarrassing F Class second meal and snack for such a long flight (13+ hours).
2) Even with the F Seat movies, still quite poor IFE, and a tiny (6”?) screen--kinda like the OZ F seats’ screen. I flew on the SQ New F seat in April, with a 23” screen.... kinda different, huh? Of course, I felt that one was a bit too big, but still!
3) Really, really bad maintenance issues--why was a weeks or months-old APU allowed to keep flying until the FAA Maintenance Deferral Limit? And then, why did this 744 sit at LAX for 13 hours before they tried the (defective) part and then the (also defective) replacement part?? By then, it was too late for us to transfer to NZ or QF flights. In hindsight, it looks genius on UA’s part to only spend about $75pp on hotel and meals instead of thousands pp toward tickets on NZ/QF, but somehow I don’t think it was an evil plan.
4) Service is sure erratic. On a recent trip including SQ, TG, MH, and NH, (nearly all F Class) I didn’t encounter ONE FA as crabby as the other F Class FA. And, if they are going to have crabby ones, don’t put ‘em in Premium Cabins! If they just want to sling the hash and go sit and read a book, ignoring call buttons, it’s a lot more logical to put them in Y. It must be REALLY hard for the good, gracious FAs like Lynn, or the purser on SYD-MEL, to have to work alongside such horrible coworkers.
5) Just-OK amenity kits. The new Ferragamo SQ F kits are hard to beat, so maybe I shouldn’t compare!
And finally, a question: How on Earth will UA differentiate its F and C offerings next year when the new Full-Flat C beds roll out??? I can only assume that UA will have to upgrade its inflight meals, beverages, and service (maybe eat-when-you-want, Book the Cook, etc), if they want to keep F at all. Why would you book it at a premium when the seats are both Flat and F service isn’t all that special? Any thoughts?
All in all, a great deal for $800 OW. :)
ADDED: UA sent me a US$200 travel credit voucher for use on Domestic Itineraries for my inconvenience. I think this was OK, though friends have told me that, as 1Ks, they would have likely received double or triple that amount--and miles as well. Woe is the non-UA Elite during Irregular Ops on UA!