das

UA to Sydney in Intl First and Business

I headed down to Australia for the holidays, finishing up my *RTW in F, and starting a new *RTW in Y (upgraded to C) for the return trip. I earlier posted a few trip reports on some of my RTW sectors in F:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=585705 contrasts LH F on BKK-SGN with UA F on SGN-HKG

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=590133 contrasts SQ F on SYD-SIN with NH F on NRT-LHR.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=595039 is for LH F on MUC-ORD

Anyway onto the report.

UA 941, ORD-LAX, 5pm, B777 (Intl First)

I booked myself on the 5pm departure in order to sit in the Intl F cabin – I’m not sure the service is any different from domestic F, but I figured I may as well enjoy the seat. Check in was quick and efficient, and then I spent some time before the flight in the International F lounge. I was a bit underwhelmed by the lounge; it was a lot quieter than the RCC but the only difference seemed to be access to self service alcohol and beverages. While the receptionist was friendly, I was scowled out by the lounge attendant for making a latte in an espresso cup, he grunted “wrong cup…don’t you know what an espresso is?”…

Anyway, I arrived at the gate once boarding was well underway for the full flight to LAX, and settled into my First suite, 2A. I was a bit worried the cabin would be full of non-revs (because of UA’s “no double upgrade” policy), but the cabin only had one uniformed crew member, and had some pax who were obviously not non-revs, likely either connecting to SYD or connecting from Europe. Push back was delayed slightly because an ambulance that was summoned to the terminal was blocking the alley.

After take off, nuts and beverages were offered, followed by dinner orders. I was surprised there were three choices offered, beef lasagna, chicken with vegetables, or filet mignon. I went with the filet, knowing that UA does a really good job with this dish. Apparently there were some problems with the galley ovens, so the meals were not brought out until about 1:20 after take off, but the F/A kept refilling beverages.

The meal itself had an appetizer salad and the main dish plated together, and as expected the filet was fantastic, with some tasty potatoes and a flavorful sauce. There were several bread choices and I found the rye rolls and foccacia excellent – seconds were offered which was a plus! While there were tablecloths, the tray liner is no longer a table cloth but instead a disposable paper liner. Wine was offered with the meal, the red being a Jindalee Shiraz. Dessert was a chocolate mousse cake, which was much lighter and tastier than the traditional cheesecake – but it seemed to be a cutback from the sundaes that I thought were served with midcon dinners (although I recall reading they aren’t served on widebodies).

I had my own teabags, and the F/A did an excellent job constantly refilling my hot water for the rest of the flight. While I thought our purser was fairly bored with her job, fortunately she was doing galley duty, and the aisle F/A was incredibly friendly, efficient, and on the ball for the entire flight. A far cry from the non-rev party I was worried about crashing. We landed in LAX slightly behind schedule at 7:30pm.

UA 839, LAX-SYD, 10:29pm, B747-400 (First)

On the evening I was flying, the seasonal extra section to Sydney (UA 827) was operating at 8:59pm, but I booked the later flight in order to have a less risky connection, to get time in the Intl F lounge (because who knows when I’ll be flying F again), and to allow for more sleep on board. I was greeted warmly at the lounge, and the receptionist checked my passport to confirm I was all set with the entry requirements for Australia, and also gave me an F tag for my carry on bag (that tag seems pointless).

I thought the food spread was a bit more inspired than at ORD, with a variety of fruit (including mango slices), finger sandwiches, etc. on offer, as well as a full self serve selection of beverages – including old-logo United bottled water. I sat down and did some reading for a few hours.

I think there was a shift change, so when the new receptionist arrived she went around the lounge to check everyone’s documents. This resulted in several people being kicked out of the lounge and sent to the RCC. She also rechecked my documentation for Australia which I thought was unnecessary. Another annoyance in the lounge was that the lounge attendant (the employee replenishing food, picking up plates) was sitting in the bar area of the lounge staring into space. There was plenty of room in the lounge, but I still think it’s tacky for employees to be sitting around in front of customers.

Anyway, around 9:40pm, the receptionist gathered all of us bound for Sydney, tore off our boarding pass stubs, and escorted us onto the plane, bypassing all lines at the gate. This was really a nice touch, and something that I thought was phased out when the F concierges were eliminated. When I flew SFO-SYD in F, the receptionist did not escort us to the plane.

Once on board, the crew greeted us with pre-departure beverages, and put out movies for the PTV and newspapers on the credenza. I was a bit confused – I was scared of being rude by taking a newspaper, so because I was never offered one I didn’t get one. No biggie. Tonight we had 8 of the 14 suites occupied; there were some empties in Business as well so it seems like even though the flight was Y0 there were few if any operational upgrades.

One of the F passengers had ordered a special meal that had not been loaded, and one of the F/As assured her that she would customize the menu in whatever way possible to meet her needs. I think the meal arrived at the last minute. Service was quite attentive, with two F/As serving in the cabin, and another F/A (possibly the purser) working the galley.

I think we departed a few minutes late to get last minute bags loaded, and due to congestion we didn’t take off til after 11pm. By this time I was tired, but ready to enjoy the meal service. Sadly, the menu was identical to the one I had when I flew SFO-SYD in F back in June.

The credenza was artfully set up with wine bottles, wine glasses, and bread plates, and after two rounds of hot nuts and beverages, tables were set for dinner. As many of you know, there is no tray for the main meal in Intl F, but silverware, salt/pepper shakers, and a bread plate are set up on the tablecloth.

Here is the dinner menu:

To begin

Soup
Yukon potato and cheddar chowder

Salad
Fresh seasonal greens
Hot chili-seared shrimp
Country ranch or balsamic Dijon vinaigrette

Main course

Pan-seared filet mignon with port wine sauce

Pecan crusted chicken with black peppercorn cream sauce

The above entrees include your choice of:
Twice baked cheddar potato or rice pilaf with caramelized shallots
Green beans with red pepper and marjoram or mixed vegetable sauté

Pan-seared halibut with Provencal sauce
Double baked potato and sautéed asparagus

Cheese filled ravioli
Tomato vegetable ratatouille

Please advise the flight attendant if you would prefer to have sauce served on the side

Express Dine
Today’s Express Dine features your choice of any of the above entrees, fresh seasonal greens with classic Caesar dressing and Eli’s Crème Caramel cheesecake for dessert


Dessert

Ice cream with sundae toppings
Cheese selection: Kerrygold Vintage Cheddar, Port-Salut, Wensleydale with Cranberry
Fresh strawberries with brown sugar sour cream dip


The soup was fairly unremarkable and not hot enough, but since it is in such a small bowl, I gladly accepted when offered a second helping. The bread was similar to what was served on ORD-LAX, but the rye rolls tasted much staler, like they had been baked yesterday. The salad came out next; as I remember it had a variety of vegetables but a romaine (not mesclun) base. The F/A plated the shrimp on top of the salad from a silver serving dish on the trolley; much classier than the foil cooking dish that was used to serve the shrimp when I flew SFO-SYD.

For the main dish, I picked the halibut. I know fish is risky on board, but the dish came out really well on SFO-SYD, and I really like halibut as well. However, tonight’s main dish was a disaster. I’m not sure it was actually halibut (the fillets seemed too thin and tasteless), and the side of asparagus was steamed, not sautéed. Imagine 10 plain asparagus spears alongside a bland piece of mystery fish. The twice baked potato was too cold, so I just left it. Fortunately the sauce was passable, but overall the main dish was terrible – both in quality and presentation. That said, it was coming up on 2:30am Chicago time by now so it wasn’t a big deal because I wasn’t too hungry.

The dessert service was done by trolley, one with the fruit and cheese, the other with ice cream. Just like on SFO-SYD, both trolleys reached my seat at the same time, so I was a happy camper with my tray piled with cheese, strawberries, and ice cream. Unlike SFO-SYD where they delayed serving me the ice cream (which by that time was mostly melted) til I was done with the cheese, they served me everything at once. Anyway, not a huge deal because I ended up converting the strawberries into my sundae topping.

Overall, the crew was really obliging and friendly, doing the best they could with the tools they had. I stayed up for a few hours to do some reading, and then turned my seat into a flat bed to get some rest. Unfortunately my sleep was rather fitful because I started feeling queasy during the night – I didn’t throw up, so it wasn’t anything too bad, but I began to worry if I’d gotten food poisoning. I felt a lot better after drinking water, but the single tiny Aquafina bottle handed out in F didn’t last me too long, so I kept asking for glasses of water, because only one Aquafina bottle had been loaded for each passenger. One downside in F is that because the cabin is small, F/As roam the aisle less than in Business, so if you want water during the night you need to get up.

Anyway the good news is that whatever illness I had was mended by breakfast time, but I still decided to play it safe and opted for a fruit plate instead of the Three cheese omlette with pomodoro sauce. The fruit plate was fairly low end (slices of melon, some orange segments that tasted like canned, and one strawberry), and was served with a package of strawberry banana yogurt. Given my stomach responded well to being fed, I ordered an extra croissant to fill me up.

The landing in SYD was during a rainstorm and fairly bumpy, I think we were in a holding pattern for a few minutes, but we still managed to touch down right on schedule. We landed after the peak arrival time from Asia, so immigration and baggage claim were really quick – I think it took only 20 minutes from deplaning to exiting customs. However, I managed to get held up at Budget because I’d foolishly allowed for an hour to go through customs and they did not have a car ready for me. (Not to get off topic, but the jerk at Budget, thinking I was an ignorant American tried to pawn off a Toyota Corolla on my midsize reservation – in Australia the Corolla is very small and is considered a compact – when I asked for the car class information in writing she played dumb and gave me a proper car, but made me wait 25 minutes for it.)

A few days later I headed with family to Tasmania (flying on Qantas and Virgin Blue) but for expediency I’m going to omit them from this report. If anyone is curious about those flights or about Tassie, let me know and I’ll write something up.

UA 826, SYD-LAX, 1:30pm, B747-400 (Business)

I booked this flight back in early September, but my SWU upgrade didn’t clear until 3 days before departure. This was really odd as the seat map showed 20+ empty seats during December, but I knew that as a 1K on an H fare my odds would be fairly good on the DM list, so I didn’t panic or anything.

After a crazy New Years Eve (fortunately the hangover wore off), last minute packing, and a huge rainstorm, we still managed to get to the airport two hours in advance for this New Years Day flight. My parents were flying as far as LAX, and their upgrades on my SWUs had cleared long ago because theirs were booked back in July.

Check in was very easy, and the outsourced agents didn’t blink an eye at me checking in the three pieces of luggage I am entitled to as *G (when I fly SQ the same Aerocare agents always seem to challenge me). I then decided to do some lounge hopping while my parents explored Duty Free. First stop was NZ – but the lounge seemed closed (or I didn’t see the secret button to push), next stop was SQ – they didn’t want to let me in as their flight was departing soon and the lounge would close, but they caved when I told them I would leave as soon as they closed the lounge. After about 20 minutes in the SQ lounge, I just headed downstairs to explore the shops; the RCC in SYD isn’t worth my time.

Anyway, I heard my name paged, so I headed over to the gate thinking maybe I’d gotten a double upgrade to F. But because Australia doesn’t enforce the liquids rule, all passengers must have their luggage searched and their body patted down at the gate to ensure no liquids are brought on board. This means you can’t buy bottled water or wine in the terminal. After getting screened, I approached the gate agent and she told me to please wait. I stood for about 20 minutes waiting; the gate area was chaotic as a lot of Y pax were waiting for seat assignments. The agent then asks me if I wouldn’t mind switching seats to the forward main deck Business cabin so that some people can sit together. I knew that cabin has less seat pitch than the rear main deck, but said I’d be willing to move if I could keep an aisle. She then fumbles around and tells me to just go ahead and board. The whole episode was annoying, but I didn’t mind too much. When boarding, one pax was in a big fight with the gate agent about how her wine bottle was confiscated, and their refusal to let her check it. The gate agent got really snappy with the passenger. It was funny to watch all these Aerocare agents fumble around and then have these UA supervisors standing behind them just watching – I never saw any UA supervisors actually helping out anyone or talking to any customer.

I was seated in 24G, near the main deck galley, and a service cart was blocking the aisle when I boarded. I patiently waited and the F/A told me “I was waiting for you to move that cart” – seemed like she was joking – but this nutty F/A never ceased to humor me with her tackiness throughout the flight (call her Ms. Tacky). Anyway this flight was full (assume in all cabins but definitely in Business) and we headed off pretty much on schedule; during taxi out the F/A took meal orders by status. I thought it was cool that the F/A also took my parents (no status) orders immediately after mine, even though they were sitting in front of me.

After the standard drill of beverages and nuts (refills of nuts were offered), it was time to start the lunch service. I was excited because UA’s catering ex-SYD is usually quite good!

To begin

Dried beef and marinated prawns with asparagus tips and tomato
Mustard dill mayonnaise

Fresh seasonal greens
Creamy wasabi or raspberry vinaigrette

Main course

Pan-seared filet mignon with shallot balsamic demi-glace
Potato mushroom casserole and sautéed vegetables with shitake mushrooms

Oven-roasted breast of chicken with blueberry peppercorn sauce
White and wild rice medley, blanched broccoli and roasted pumpkin

Fillet of salmon with lemon myrtle cream sauce
Parslied chateau potatoes and a mixed vegetable sauté

Dessert

International cheese selection
Brie, St. Claire

Hazelnut nougat cake

The appetizer was really nicely presented and the wasabi dressing, while a bit too creamy, was really tasty. I actually prefer the United Business appetizer to the Soup/Salad service in First. The bread basket was offered, and there were a number of tasty choices, I went for a multi grain roll with a poppyseed circle on top. Sadly, the bread basket did not reappear. The F/A (let’s call him Mr. Indifferent) had trouble with my neighbor’s wine order – he asked for the French White, but he ended up pouring the French Red saying “oops, it’s hard to see through the bottle”. The same F/A also managed to place my tablecloth the wrong way.

The F/As then scurried around picking up appetizer plates and delivering mains. No refills of wine or water were offered during the transition, because that would slow down the service too much. My neighbor (who was drinking a French red he didn’t want) got a bit annoyed and asked for some more wine, but he wasn’t given more wine until the F/As completed handing out the mains AND refilling wine from the front of main deck. Basically I had to hold back some of my main to go with my wine refill.

Leaving Mr. Indifferent to refill water and wine, Ms. Tacky (who had managed to spill food on her shirt earlier) was busy preparing the fruit/cheese plates in the galley. I saw her plating the cheese and fruit with her bare hands, and merrily eating pieces as she went along. Seeing how unsanitary her preparation was, I made sure to go for the dessert instead!

Service not withstanding, the main was delicious – I’ve always had good luck with chicken ex-SYD and this dish was no exception – the chicken was moist, had crispy skin, and the vegetables tasted fresh.

I think there was a problem with the dessert trolley, so the fruit/cheese and the dessert were brought around on trays. Another F/A (from F or Y) was helping with this part of the service and she was totally on the ball – the Hazelnut cake was a generous round portion, yet light and full of flavor. As I finished up, Ms. Tacky came around to collect wine and water glasses, not offering any refills. Soon after, Ms. Tacky crashed into my seat while she was walking down the aisle – I engaged her in a bit of conversation – she seems fairly senior (didn’t look too old) b/c she has spent the last three New Years Eves in SYD, and she seems to really like the perks that come with her job, she just doesn’t seem too interested in actually doing her job.

Fortunately, fresh water glasses were passed out after everything was cleared away. Even though I hadn’t slept much the previous night I spent a bit of time reading before catching some shuteye. There was lots of activity in the galley moving carts back and forth between Y and the elevator to the upper deck.

When I awoke, I headed over to check out the snack cart; Ms. Tacky and Mr. Indifferent were on break so I was served by the F/A serving the opposite Business Class aisle. Wow- was she a professional – she offered to bring my drink to my seat, kept checking in on me for refills, saw that I’d forgotten to take a knife to spread mustard on my sandwich and brought it to me. Soon after, she came through the cabin to let everyone who was awake know that we’d just passed midnight in LAX and it was time to celebrate New Year’s again!

I hardly slept at all on the flight, but the Business seat was comfortable and I was fairly pleased that water was refilled about twice an hour (even Mr. Indifferent was on the ball when it came to refilling water). Anyway, 90 minutes out of Los Angeles it was time for Breakfast!

Prior to arrival

Your selected entrée will be served with breakfast breads, butter and fruit preserves

Asparagus and Gouda cheese filled omlette
Grilled smoked chicken, baked roma tomato half

Or

Fresh seasonal fruit plate with creamy yogurt

First off, juice (choice of apple, tomato orange) and hot towels were distributed, and then tablecloths set. Then, trays were served from the cart with a croissant, and coffee/tea cups were handed out. The fruit appetizer for the transpacific breakfast has been eliminated (see: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=642559). No fruit plate mains were left by the time the cart got to my seat, but I saw someone else’s and it looked boring (melon, strawberry, half of a passion fruit).

The croissant looked like it had come from the frozen food section of a supermarket – it simply looked unappetizing and tasted awful – I think the croissants ex-USA are much better, although still not very good. I wasted most of it. Ironic the menu says “breakfast breads” when the only breakfast bread in United Business is a croissant.

The main dish was really good (although Ms. Tacky managed to plop it down); the omlette was stuffed with whole skinny asparagus spears, and the smoked chicken was a nice change from sausage and bacon. No refills on the juice were offered, although there were plenty of coffee/tea refills. I didn’t bother asking for a juice refill because Ms. Tacky had already collected my juice cup with her finger inside it.

While I appreciate that UA delays breakfast service until 90 minutes prior to arrival, it really annoys me how the F/As rush the service - it’s really ironic because SQ manages a full hot meal service in Raffles on a 1 hour flight from Singapore to Penang, and the F/As don’t seem rushed at all! Same with Qantas on Sydney to Melbourne.

We landed in LAX right on time at 8am; however the Tokyo flight arrived before us which meant the Customs/Immigration area was a zoo, and we did not clear customs until 9am in spite of being nearly the first people off the plane. This was likely just bad luck to have SYD and NRT arriving so close to each other. They are scheduled 35 minutes apart, but I see today they again arrived at nearly the same time because the Tokyo flight must be hitting strong tailwinds.

Being New Years Day, the Premier security line was fairly long and it took me about 30 minutes to get through. I then cooled my heels in the RCC while waiting for my connection.

UA 940, LAX-ORD, 11am, B757 (First)

I could have taken the 10am LAX-ORD, but at the time I booked it was an A319 with 6 seats already taken in F, so I figured getting a confirmed upgrade at 11am would make things a bit easier. The flight had posted a delay of 11:15am due to ATC, but we boarded at 10:45am and pushed back around 11:10am to clear the gate, with a target wheels up time of 11:47am; however, we ended up taking off 20 minutes earlier than that.

After beverages, towels, and nuts, lunch was served. The choices today were a shrimp salad or a warm open face chicken sandwich with potatoes. The sandwich sounded interesting, it was a piece of French bread with thinly sliced chicken breast, whole grain mustard, tomato slices, topped with melted cheese. The potatoes were a bit mediocre, but there was also a nice side dish of fruit.

My main complaint about the meal is that wine was not offered with it. I am unsure if this is UA’s domestic F service flow, or if the F/As didn’t offer it, but I usually like to start with water or juice and then have a glass of wine with my meal. I know I could have asked, but the F/As seemed busy running all 24 trays out, and by the time they were done I was too close to finishing my meal to even care about having some wine.

I thought the fruit side was dessert, but was pleasantly surprised to see some freshly baked cookies appear after trays were cleared. I really like it when F/As take the effort to bring out the warm cookies AFTER the meal, instead of letting them go cold on the tray. This crew was really good about refilling drinks for the remainder of the flight, and before I knew it we arrived in Chicago right on schedule.


Overall evaluation –

As usual UA did a good job providing reliable transportation, but they need to make an effort to fix the catering issues and service quality in the International Premium cabins. I am especially concerned that UA’s inconsistency turns off new customers, because overall I think they do a great job, but it’s the luck of the draw. (Also I don’t think the only issue is seniority – on this trip the 60+ y.o. F/As provided far better service than the middle aged ones)

This inconsistency means that I will do my best to avoid UA when flying on a paid premium ticket, and will fly in UA premium cabins primarily on upgrades. I’ll still be a loyal UA customer because I only pay for premium tickets once in a blue moon.

Hope you enjoyed this report! In two weeks, I’ll be flying LH Business class ORD-FRA-LIS-MUC-ORD and will do my best to post some observations.

Happy travels!

BizJet

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8700/4.1.0 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/102)

Great report, as always! Thanks for taking the time to write it up

sobore

Thanks for a nice report!

BiziBB

Great report, Das, the detail and comparison of good v. barely-there service is most helpful. ^

Moomba

Nice report das.

This seems to be a problem with a lot of carriers. I have read reports (and experienced myself) some sub-par performance of flight crew on CX, BA, AA in the past. If I didn't know better I would be turned off these airlines. However I have also had some stellar crews on same.

It is not an easy problem to fix either. It has been often stated on these forum that the crew can make or break a flight.

Obviously the solution for the pax is to fly more to get a better overall picture of the service on offer.

novickd

So, DAS, I will be flying same LAX_SYD in F in march. First timer! What is the "bed" really like, and should I bring my own sheets!

das

I guess my report talked more about food and service than the seat. The F bed is excellent - it's lie flat and the single seats are very private. Bringing your own sheets may be a decent idea because the blanket is a bit heavy and there is no sheet to sleep on, top of either. I think I slept without a blanket most of the night because the cabin was warm.

Overall it's a comfortable F seat if you are looking for rest. Let us know how your trip goes!

homestar

das -

EXCELLENT report - TY TY TY!!!

can you detail a little more on your business seat and accommodations? you said your seat was comfortable, but you had trouble sleeping - more info please.

GREAT job!

das

I didn't sleep much on SYD-LAX because UA 826 leaves at 1:30pm so my body clock was wide awake. I stayed out late the night before, which menat I was tired enough for a quick nap (maybe an hour) after lunch, but then I was basically awake for the rest of the trip.

I slept several hours on the night flight LAX-SYD in the First Suite, and also manage to sleep well in the Business seats on the night flight - although nothing beats a flat bed.

One note is that it's best to avoid the main deck business seats near the galley (basically rows 22 thru 24). This galley is very busy because it has the elevator to the upper deck galley and because there is storage space upstairs, there is a lot of cart swapping that happens during the flight.

Holler if you have more questions.

WindFlyer

...please do ^ ^

Very interested in hearing about Tassie (you can skip the QF and DJ flights)

ua_to_ord

Thoroughly enjoyable trip reports; thanks for writing! ^

sftrvlr

A very enjoyable read. Thanks for sharing. I love Ms. Tacky and Mr. Indifference. I think I may have had them before. Only in my case, Mr. Indifference lost his glasses and couldn't actually read the labels on the wine bottle. Who knows what would have happened if we needed him to open the exit in an emergency. Did Ms. Tacky have a slight limp by chance? Then I would know it was her!

Thanks for sharing.

BenjaminNYC

Nice report. Typical cr@ppy product from UA.

sllevin

I've never understood why the 'final meal' is served 90 minutes out. I've yet on any airline that does this, not seen everyone fed, cleared away, and done with less than 50 minutes to go -- and it's usually more like 60 or 70 minutes.

But that's just me

Steve

AJK1535

Very nice report. I'll make sure to avoid paying for UA F!