chewy3

I'm in the midst of a double RTW trip on oneworld, a LONE4 ex-SYD sandwiching a AONE4 ex-MRU. I will be posting my experiences here for those interested as the trip progresses.

This is the itinerary - flight in parenthesis are my own purchases not included in RTW tickets

(BOS-IAD-LAX) UA 3 class F award - only charged 45k mi due to ICC incompetence

(LAX-SYD-AKL) UA fare mistake deal upgraded to F

(AKL-SYD) NZ purchased on STA for less than $100

LONE4 begins here SYD-(JNB-CPT-JNB)-VFA-JNB-MRU
AONE4 begins here MRU-LHR-IST//ESB*-LHR-DXB//MCT-LHR-YVR-JFK-SJU-DFW-ANC-DFW-JFK-HKG-NRT-HKG-SIN-(BKK-KUL-SIN)-HKG-LHR-NBO
LONE4 picks up again here NBO-LHR-ARN-MAD-ATH-LHR-LAX
return with UA p.s. F LAX-JFK

end of summer (mid sept).

*during IST//ESB we go down to visit DAM and AMM by land

We then have remaining segments for winter/spring travel next year BOS-AUA-BOS-SDQ-BOS-LAX-AKL-ADL-PER-MEL-(AKL-SYD-LAX-BOS) using UA fare mistake to return in F


BOS-IAD
May 25 UA F 737-300
I arrive at BOS C terminal to embark on a 3 month long around the world trip. Check-in goes relatively smoothly with no line—the agent seemed to have some trouble with interlining my bags on QF on the final SYD-AKL leg. Finally, three pieces of flimsy white paper pop out of the machine—my boarding passes (I hate when I don’t get the real card stock boarding passes). Security is a breeze with no one there (surprising as this is Memorial Day weekend). I head to the RCC which is a nice quite place to sit—and nothing more. As boarding time approaches, I head to the gate where there are few seats left to sit. Boarding is called shortly thereafter and I settle into seat 2D on this 737-300.
A pre-departure beverage of my choice is offered immediately and I opt for the cranberry juice. The warm purser brings my drink in no time. Boarding in general is fairly orderly except for a coach passenger trying to put his baggage in the first class overhead bins. The purser quickly corrects this malfeasance. The door is finally closed after a lengthy boarding process on this full flight. We depart about 20 minutes late but the pilot assures us that we will arrive on-time. The flight is mostly uneventful. The purser refers to me by name but butchers it (it’s not that hard—really!).

We arrive into IAD C terminal where my connecting flight to LAX is also departing. I have 1.5 hours to burn so I make my way to the IFL (my LAX flight is right next door). I hand over my boarding pass to the lounge dragon and notice a sign which offers free T-Mobile wireless internet day passes for those who ask. I ask for one after she clears me to enter and she huffs and tells me to step aside until she processes the rest of the people waiting in line. The next two people in line were business class pax and denied entry. The third man was *G and also directed to the RCC. The dragon has to fill out my ticket number and her ID number before she can give me the day pass—she comments at how annoying it is to fill out all that information. The IFL is not impressive and is merely a quite place to sit with a decent selection of snacks and beverages. The shrimp is quite good.
I leave the IFL for boarding and it is a mad-house. There are no seats anywhere and hoards of people are standing making it difficult for people to pass by to other gates. Boarding is called for First, Business, UGS, and 1K pax on this international 777 aircraft (which I later discovered arrived from AMS). Of course, a hoard of people converge to board and some unsavory pax ironically use the economy class line to bypass the regular line.

IAD-LAX UA F 3-class 777 (arrived AMS-IAD)

I settle into seat 1J and a pre-departure drink is offered (annoyingly only water or orange juice). The purser yells at one of the other crew members for leaving a “Vault” drink on one of the first class seats. After a long boarding process we leave about 10-20 minutes late. I should note before I describe the flight that there are two main flight attendants serving me in the F-Cabin, one is a relatively young man who is the purser and extremely professional and an older surly woman who isn’t very courteous from the start. Once we are at cruising altitude, a drink is offered with luke-warm nuts (by woman). I ask for a white wine and was shocked to hear the surly flight attendant say “how old are you?” I responded with the obligatory “21” (too obvious?) and she said she wanted to see my ID! Since I actually turn 21 in a few months I had to “admit” that I didn’t have one and got a cranberry juice—how embarrassing (for her and me). I have never been asked for an ID on a flight in any class of service before. The ancient movie tapes are passed out and I get blood diamond (a decent movie). The purser comes around to offer us beef or chicken (said in more fanciful terms—undeservingly). I opted for the overcooked beef. At least the purser referred to me by name the whole flight without awkwardly looking at the manifest and butchering the name every time. After dinner, both the purser and the woman bring out the sundae cart. The purser addresses me and asks if I want after-dinner liqueur and before I have a chance to respond the woman says in a loud voice “no he doesn’t” and he asks her if he has asked me before and she says “he has an ID problem,” he responds “oh, he looked old enough for me, I grew up in Europe and we start drinking at age 11.” The purser comes over to me after he serves the other pax and personally apologizes for her behavior. He says that United is an international carrier and how he grew up in Europe etc. and said that I should have asked him instead of her for a drink. I tell him that it’s not a big deal (he apologized again profusely later in the flight, saying that “he was still mad at her”). Besides this little incident the flight was of a decent service standard and the food was okay.
We land in LAX on time and I proceed to the IFL where the very nice woman grants me access and offers me a T-Mobile wireless internet day-pass (which I gladly accept, since I got one in IAD that was still valid I will use this one later). She looks at my passport and stamps my boarding pass “OK to board” and says that she will escort us to our flight at around 10 PM—the flight is delayed about 45 minutes because the winds over the Pacific are very favorable and will shorten the trip by that much time. Apparently SYD does not allow flight to arrive before 6 AM. Overall, the IFL is pretty simple—again, just a nice place to sit with some snacks.

LAX-SYD UA F 747-400

When 10 PM comes around, the woman announces that SYD is boarding and to meet her at the desk. A full F-cabin meets there and we walk over to the gate, walks us in front of all the C pax and onto the plane without any fuss. I’m seated in 2A. She later comes onto the flight and thanks each person in F for their business and to enjoy the flight—a nice touch. There are again two main flight attendants service me in F on this flight, both are relatively older women—one of whom is extremely well-mannered and the other another surly UA employee (though not nearly as bad as IAD-LAX). Luckily, the former is the main person serving F-pax. There is also a third woman but she seems to play a secondary role. I found her to be neutral service-wise. Pre-departure drink is offered (water, juice, or champagne) in plastic cups (yuck). After take-off, the surly woman passes out the movie tapes and rudely tells the pax that they not ask her for recommendations as she has not seen any of the movies. The other FA takes orders for dinner. The menu is as follows:
To begin
Soup
Yukon potato and cheddar chowder
Salad
Fresh seasonal greens
Hot chili-seared shrimp
Buttermilk 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 Provencal sauce
Double-baked potato and sautéed asparagus
Cheese filled ravioli
Please advise the flight attendant if you 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
To complete your dining experience:
Ice cream with sundae toppings
Cheese selection: Kerrygold Vintage Cheddar: Port-Salut, Wensleydale with cranberry, Fresh strawberries with brown sugar sour cream dip

Midflight snack
Sandwiches, Lay’s baked chips, Chiradelli chocolate and granola bars
Prior to arrival
Southwestern-style egg blintz with pomodoro sauce
Black Forest ham
Or
Fresh seasonal fruit plate

The soup and salad with hot shrimp on top were both very tasty. For the main course, I opted for the halibut since the filet sounded like the same exact dish I had on IAD-LAX. I was already quite full when the main dish came out (too many hot nuts haha) but the fish was only so so—it seemed like it was sitting in butter for a long time and was very rich. I ate all the asparagus and left most of the fish. For dessert, I ate some cheese, fruit, and crackers with port but had absolutely no room for the sundae (which I very reluctantly declined). I went to sleep after the meal and slept for a good 8-9 hours (waking up only once mid-flight exactly when we were crossing the international date-line and the southern hemisphere at the same time). When I awoke, I watched The Last King of Scotland and ate a plate of fresh fruit (still full from dinner). I talked a bit with the nicer FA while waiting for a bathroom to open up (damn C-pax using the F bathrooms) and asked her how long she had been working with United. She said that she worked with Pan-Am for 17 years and moved to United and has been working there for about 22 years now. The flight was mostly very pleasant, although I had to rewind my tape before I saw the end.
We landed in SYD at exactly 6 AM (10 minutes before scheduled arrival despite the delay) and C-pax were blocked from leaving the aircraft until F-pax deplaned.
I made my way to the transfer desk and cleared Australian security so that I could pick up a boarding pass for my QF flight to AKL. It was about a 15 minute walk since I think I had to walk to a different terminal.
I quickly got my onward boarding pass and continued to the QF J lounge (unfortunately I was only a couple flights away from EXP so could not use F lounge) for a short 15 minutes before my flight was boarding.

SYD-AKL QF J 767-300

Boarding was an orderly process with J pax called first followed by Oneworld Emerald and Sapphire members. The J seats weren’t spectacular but they were satisfactory for this 2 hr and 40 minute flight and there were only about 5 other pax. Menus were handed out and there was quite a selection of breakfasts actually (2 cold and 3 hot if I remember correctly). Unfortunately I didn’t retain the menu but I had a hot cornbread and it was quite good. I think status played a role in the meal selection since I overheard the FA tell a woman in row 1 that there was no cornbread left. I watched a dvd almost the entire flight time on one of their dvd players. Overall, it was a very pleasant flight.
I deplaned in AKL and proceeded to clear immigration and grabbed my bags and headed back to departures area since I was going right back to SYD (I will be coming back to NZ next year). I booked a flight on NZ on STA travel who had a much cheaper price than any other website (AKL-SYD//MEL-AKL for $200.90 all in booked in S and Q respectively).
I checked in with a very nice NZ agent and she allowed me to use the piece system for baggage since I had come from the US that day (after consulting with her supervisor). I asked her if my same-day UA F boarding pass would gain me access to the NZ lounge and she said that it wouldn’t unfortunately. I went there anyway to try my luck but was denied access, she told me to try QF right across the hall. I went into the QF lounge knowing I wasn’t supposed to have access and told her I wasn’t sure if I was allowed access and she said technically you need to have an onward boarding pass on Oneworld but she let me in anyway (I was very surprised). The lounge was well stocked with many different beverages and was a nice seating area (but the view wasn’t great).

AKL-SYD NZ Y A320

The flight was 1 hour late due to late incoming aircraft—it seemed to take much longer for the crew to clean the aircraft and prepare it for us than flights in the US seem to take. Boarding finally started and I sat in 15A window. After flying in F and J for 25+ hours the seat seemed extremely cramped to me and it was completely full (there seemed to be an entire pro football team on board – “the warriors”). There was a dinner service in Y and it was good though sparse (I had the roast chicken – lamb pie was the other choice I believe).

I met my other 2 friends in SYD who had taken other flights. We spent 5 nights in SYD 3 nights at the Marriot Sydney Harbour (via priceline) and 1 night at the Holiday Inn Darling Harbour. We decided to stay out all night the 5th night. I’ll stick to reviewing my flights on this thread however.

SYD-JNB QF Y 747-400

We arrived at the airport at about 5:30 am and they told us check-in for our 10 am flight would not open until 7 am. At 7 we used business class check in and I asked her if there were any exit row seats—she said she would put in a request for me and my (non-status) friends. We proceeded to gate and noticed that the QF lounge was annoyingly very far from our gate. The JAL lounge was much closer but I wanted to try to get both my friends (only technically allowed 1) in the lounge and I thought it would be much more likely in the QF lounge. We arrived at the lounge and I asked them if I could get both my friends and they said yes immediately without blinking and eye (“we’ll make an exception this one time for you”). Big thumbs up for the 2nd rule break in a week (the other being when I was allowed access in AKL). They also processed my request for an exit row seat although I got a window exit row which is red on seatguru (I had originally asked for an aisle); my friends’ requests didn’t clear. I knew it wasn’t a very full flight so I decided I wouldn’t ask for another seat change and just switch onboard if I didn’t like it.

Boarding began with J pax and Oneworld Emerald and Sapphire pax. I came to my seat and saw that it was indeed significantly impeded by the emergency exit door (58A). I sat down until the door closed and it turned out the middle exit row seat was empty (I found out later that the guy who had that seat sat one row behind to get 3 seats to himself). This made my seat a lot more desirable than it had been. It took us a while to takeoff (about 45 minutes late). Once we were airborne, one of the FAs came over to my seat and thanked me and for being a frequent flyer and asked if there was anything that he could do for me (a very nice touch in Y – why can’t AA do this?). The total flight time is approximately 13 hours – again 1 hour less than normal due to the absence of westerly winds. The captain announced that we would be taking a very southern route to take advantage of the wind situation. We flew from SYD down through Tasmania and then to the edges of Antarctica for several hours. The views of Antarctica were spectacular—you could see huge chunks of ice breaking off the continent.
Service on the flight was spectacular and I think status really made a difference. I was always among the first pax to be served food and drinks and never from the cart. It seemed like it was only my row (and probably other exit rows that had the status pax) that was served like this. I was asked 2-3 times each meal service for refills or other drinks. This may have been the best service I have ever had in Y. Besides the meal services (lunch after takeoff and light dinner before landing), I slept for much of the flight. I used the protrusion from the exit row as a foot rest which made it very comfortable for sleeping. When I woke up a few hours before landing and wanted to use the entertainment system, it wasn’t working, but that is about the only negative aspect of this flight.
As we arrive into JNB, we make our way into the arrivals hall and see a mass of people in line for immigration. We find out that there is a major general strike today in South Africa and it is taking a long time to process people. After an hour we finally get through and our bags are waiting for us. We grab them and go to the domestic terminal to catch our connection to CPT on BA (separate itinerary). A man tries to escort us to the domestic terminal expecting us to tip him but we inform him half-way through the trip that we have no money and don’t need his services (and he says why didn’t you tell me from the beginning).
We arrive at an empty BA check-in line and show the young agent our itinerary and passports. She informs us that there is a problem with our flight and had we checked-in 10 minutes prior they could have gotten us on the earlier flight. She goes to her supervisor to ask what to do. She comes back and informs us that we can be rebooked on an earlier South African Airways and upgraded to Business class. We happily accept this offer knowing that we can also double dip on FF miles. We continue with small talk with the young agent for 15-minutes until the supervisor arrives with the new boarding passes and luggage tags.

JNB-CPT SA C A320 (in lieu of cancelled BA Y 737-400)

We arrive at the gate and there is a long line waiting to board. We decide that it doesn’t really make a difference when we board and sit down rather than stand. After 10 minutes they start letting people on with no pre-boarding procedures. We get on and my two friends take window seats 4F and 5F respectively—I’m stuck with a middle seat, 5E (it is a 2-3 config), but I don’t complain as it was a free op-up; the flight is completely full. The service and the seat were quite good on this short 2 hour flight with dinner being served. I opted for the braised beef which was okay (about on par with UA F IAD-LAX). Drink service and dinner took up about 3/5 of the flight so it felt like a very quick flight. There were also real power plugs which were a nice plus, although if both me and my friend had something plugged in it didn’t work properly.

RTW4

This is a wonderful report from a FT who cannot even get a drink on a UA flight. How pitiful.... Incidentally, the upgrade to SA C class in Africa sounds nice...

MACH81

That's a heck of an itinerary. I don't want to know how much it took to put it together! Congratulations! Well done.

saturnino3

Sweet trip. ^ ^

jpatokal

I've seen some pretty crazy itineraries on FT before, but if I'm getting it right this is something else:

BOS-IAD-LAX-SYD-AKL-SYD-JNB-CPT-JNB-VFA-JNB-MRU-LHR-IST-DAM-AMM-ESB-LHR-
DXB-MCT-LHR-YVR-JFK-SJU-DFW-ANC-DFW-JFK-HKG-NRT-HKG-SIN-BKK-KUL-SIN-HKG-LHR-NBO-LHR-
ARN-MAD-ATH-LHR-LAX-JFK-BOS-AUA-BOS-SDQ-BOS-LAX-AKL-ADL-PER-MEL-AKL-SYD-LAX-BOS

That's 140360 butt-in-seat miles according to Great Circle Mapper!

yevlesh2

Thanks for the report and that's certainly quite an itinerary!!

Pilot411

Awesome trip report. It's good to know they treat you with statues. I should start saving miles to get status than free flights. It's good to know they still treat first class passengers well.

Not to nit pick but BA doesn't fly JNB-CPT, Comair does on behalf of British Airways so don't hold anything against BA!

LAX21

yea, makes sense with a 737 for the job