CCayley

Now you'll all have to forgive me: this is my first trip report so no doubt will be poorly written; I forgot to pack my camera so no pictures; and there are no mystical Far Eastern destinations, just some cities in the USA some of which are less well visited by us foreigners than most.

It all started when I snapped up a BA Club return LHR-JFK in their Winter sale and used miles to upgrade the flights to F. My intention was another of my many highly enjoyable visits to the Big Apple and I would no doubt have done nothing more unusual than agonise about hotel choice etc. had it not been for two developments. First UA made me Premier Executive for 2008. Now this must have been excessive generosity on their part as my 2 TATL trips in paid F cannot possibly have accumulated the required miles, so I felt a sense of obligation to the airline. And second I discovered Flyertalk, and the addictive joys of mileage runs, upgrade strategies, deliberately trying to be VDB for the compensation and other interests that my non-FT friends frankly believe to be evidence of my brain beginning to soften...

So instead of the joys of New York I booked myself a round trip on United, visiting bits of the US that I have never had occasion to go to before. My mission: to enjoy myself, and to have a statistically no doubt insignificant number of UA domestic flight experiences to let me judge the fairness or otherwise of that airline's regular panning on FT's UA Mileage Plus forum.

But first I have to get to the states

6/21/08: BA 113 LHR-JFK: 15.40hrs: B747: First class

My second visit to LHR's T5 and the first time (flying J) I hated it. This time I'm still a bit disorientated and assume the lack of business check in applies equally to First. So I drop off my bag at a regular counter and have to ask to get a Priority tag. Silly me, there's a first class zone at the far end but it's too late now. Through security with no queue and off to the Galleries South suite of BA lounges. CCR (for first class PAX) is excellent, with a good range of meals, wines, and facilities. Off to the gate (a tedious journey involving a shuttle train) and on-board and into my favourite seat: 2A. As private and exclusive as it gets on BA, IMHO.

We took off as near to on time as LHR knows and as nearly always with BA, an excellent crew ensured an extremely pleasurable flight. This was a mid-afternoon departure so meal timing was debateable: I should have had lunch beforehand and eaten at dinner time on the plane, but I hadn't so I had the main meal straight away. Now recently I've experienced some fairly ropey F class meals from BA but I was lucky - one of the best selections for a long time. For those who like their detailed meal information:

Wines:
Champagne - Bollinger La Grande Annee 1999.
Whites - Puligny-Montrachet Vieilles Vignes 2005, Vincent Girardin; Chateau de Fesles, Anjou Blanc Sec "La Chappelle" 2004 and Clos du Bois Reserve Chardonnay 2005 (I can't confirm all three were onboard but all three reds were).
Reds - Chateau Leoville Poyferre 1996 , Barbaresco Cascina Bordino 2004, Tenuta Carretta and Baileyana Syrah 2005, Grand Firepeak Cuvee. Please forgive the lack of acute accents in the above list!

Menu:
Starters: Liam Tomlin's poached lobster tail and claw with soy and mirin dressing; or
Warm Shropshire blue cheese and quince tart with creamed leeks

Sweet pepper and tomato soup

Salad leaves with ranch dressing/herb vinaigrette/'liquid gold' olio extra vergine

Main courses: Steak with pont-neuf potatoes, parsley butter, fresh garden peas, tomato and mushroom; or
Fresh halibut fillet (the 'catch of the day') with creamy pesto or dill lemon butter and Anna potatoes, green beans, carrots and mooli radish strings; or
Michel Roux's braised neck and shoulder of lamb in rich jus with spiced vegetable couscous; or
Poached salmon salad with grilled asparagus spears, plum tomatoes and a tarragon and lemon dressing.

Dessert: Strawberries and cream with shortbread or baked vanilla risotto with roast peach halves.

Cheese selection: Coastal cheddar, White stilton with cranberries, Somerset rustic.

I chose the tart and the halibut. Both were excellent. No doubt the steak would have been horrible but I was lucky enough to eyeball the other two main courses as they were served at 1A and 1K, and both looked really good.

The Cabin Services Director introduced herself to the F PAX early in the flight, and she came to see me later on with a message from BA: they had noticed I had recently been promoted to Gold level in the BA Executive Club and wished to pass on their congratulations: a nice personal touch or a tiny bit creepy, you take your pick.

I didn't really use the IFE, but it was working fine, and I skipped the somewhat dubious delights of BA's English Afternoon Tea. An assiduous crew did help me, however, to make a considerable dent on the flight's claret stocks and I was in a decidedly good mood as we landed, bang on time, at New York's JFK airport.

I like arriving at Terminal 7. This time was better than most: there was no queue at all at immigration (it took me longer to walk up and down the empty lanes taped out for the queues than to be processed by the immigration officer). As always, in my experience, the US immigration guy was extremely friendly (I think they like people who fill in the forms correctly) and with wishes for a pleasant stay I got through to the baggage hall where my case was literally the first off! I got into a yellow cab exactly 25 minutes after touchdown, and the biggest single part of the 25 minutes was the taxi to the gate. A record for me, given I had checked luggage.

And so it was in a state of deep love for BA, and for the USA and New York in particular, that I was whisked, not to the usual Sofitel/Four Seasons/Palace/Peninsula but to the less obvious delights of the LaGuardia Marriott, ready to start the whole UA experience early next morning. Now this hotel was fine except for its paper thin walls, so I got very little sleep and arrived at LaGuardia very tired, but interested to see if UA domestic service could maintain the quality I had experienced on BA....

6/22/08: UA 673 LGA-ORD: 09.00hrs : A319 : First class

I arrived ludicrously early because my experience of US security queues is that they either don't exist or go on forever, and I didn't think domestic first status would help much in the latter case. This queue was in the non-existent category so I had a considerable time to enjoy my first visit to LGA.

I spent some time trying to rationalise my thinking: I was about to embark on 6 flights on UA and one on a UA codeshare operated by US. If the UA thread on FT was anything to go by I could look forward to battered and dirty planes, surly uninterested staff, delays, cancellations and possibly a denial of boarding. All very different from my early days (1990s) of flying United when I developed a high regard for the airline. I wanted to see if the FT wisdom that Euopean carriers are better than US ones (I won't even begin to think about Asian airlines..) and moreover that within the US United is one of the worst, is justified.

Most UA flights on the screen were showing as On Time, and I was early enough to watch the boarding of the 8.00 ORD flight by the same GA pair that later handled UA673. These two were very efficient, and made numerous helpful announcements. There was even humour as one GA abandoned his attempts to call out one passenger's name on the ground it had "not enough vowels": as he spelt it out you could feel his pain - I couldn't have pronounced it either. Boarding for my flight was precisely on schedule, and I was the very first up the red carpet! Friendly greeting from the cabin crew to all the PAX on this completely full plane. They helped sorting out luggage stowage and the doors were closed and we were off on time. The pilot explained that the flight time couldn't be predicted accurately since there might be re-routes to avoid weather problems on the way. We were held on the ground by ATC for a few minutes and this he dutifully explained too. Once airborne we made up time easily and had a smooth flight which arrived at ORD a little ahead of schedule.

The A319 seemed to be clean and well maintained. The seat was comfortable, and better than, say, a BA Club Europe seat or, so far as I know, the top grade seat for short to medium haul flights of any European carrier.

There was a drinks round before take-off and another just after. Breakfast was a choice of fruit plate or cheese omelette. I chose the omelette and the meal included a small plate of melon, blueberries and grapes (I think - I only ate the melon and blueberries which were delicious), a croissant (not exactly light as air and but o.k. given the limitations of aircraft food heating), and the promised cheese omelette which came with a sausage, some ham and some breakfast potato. Now this was not michelin star rated food by any means, but it was quite reasonable (the omelette itself was probably the dodgiest bit but by no means horrible) and kept me well fed for the morning.

The Purser did an excellent job. She was really friendly and returned to the cabin every couple of minutes to see if there was anything we needed. The one disappointment was she had not initially offered to hang my jacket, but when she was distributing breakfast she spotted it, apologised and took it saying she hadn't noticed it before. Given it is the same colour as UA's blankets this seemed entirely plausible, and overall the service on the flight was excellent.

6/22/08 : UA929 ORD-PDX : 11.56hrs : A320 : First class

Now this is where some FT etiquette issues arise: is it o.k. to describe the behaviours of airline personnel if they could be identified by the airline, especially if they probably didn't behave strictly by the rules? I don't know but I am going to trust UA with a certain customer service orientation, and proceed, albeit with caution.

This was another full flight. The information screens at ORD give a wealth of information about the flight, both specific to PAX waiting to upgrade or get on on a standby basis, and more generally for all PAX. Vastly ahead of anything I've seen from BA or any European carrier.

Once again the GAs were efficient and made various helpful announcements. There was appreciation from many PAX as the GA said that in view of the length of the flight US's snack boxes would no doubt be available for sale, but that PAX might be advised to use the 20 minutes before boarding to make other arrangements for their food. No doubt not UA policy to say this, but excellent advice given the range of food options at ORD (and the description of the snack boxes in the Hemispheres magazine!).

The flight boarded and pushed back on time. The pilot was friendly and encouraged us to listen in on Channel 9 but since the flight went perfectly to time and without incident, we really didn't hear from the flight crew.

The Purser (who announced he was acting in the role so maybe was acting above his usual grade) did a spectacular job. The sound on the IFE videos was a little distorted and he explained that this had been reported by the inbound crew but that he had decided to go on as rectifying the problem would have meant a substantial delay, and he hoped we wanted to get to our destination on time more than to hear the film perfectly. Audible sounds of PAX agreeing, but no doubt I can read the enquiry about compensation levels on the UA thread even now, if I choose to look....

For those of us in First, service was assiduous and continuous: the couple behind me must have got through 3 bottles of Chardonnay between them during the flight (I was on the red, a Malbec which, whilst quite rough on first taste, becomes quite drinkable after a couple of glasses, like all red wines) with never a suggestion that the catering budget was about to run out.

The one disppointment was the meal. The choice was cold lemon chicken or a smoked turkey sandwich, each with red pepper soup. Whilst the food was fine, it was a bit uninspiring and unexciting and if I flew regularly on UA domestic, I would rapidly grow tired of these options.

Once again the plane was clean and the seat comfortable. Arrival was a little ahead of time. Purser offered me the chance to acquaint myself further with the Malbec as I disembarked (I don't want to say exactly what I mean but you know): a gesture I associate with pre- 9/11 times. This person was truly exceptional. I hope he doesn't have to go on a UA training course to be stripped of his helpful attitude before he can get his full promotion to the role.

Within minutes I was off to the taxi rank for my cab to the Westin. Big mistake: I now discover that for a couple of dollars I could have got a tram to within a block of the hotel, and Portland has the first taxi rates I have come across to rival London or Tokyo for cost. Never mind though, it got me to my (perfectly reasonable) hotel room, and a quick snooze, quicker.

So what to make of the first leg of this rather pointless trip? United's first class domestic service was excellent in pretty much all respects. It can't reasonably be compared with BA's international first, but if these flights are anything to go by it is well ahead of BA's Club Europe. The airplanes and the punctuality were great, but what made both flights stand out was the fantastic attitude of all the UA staff (and I mean all - check in, GAs, FAs and pilots) who were without exception efficient, friendly, positive, helpful and generally appearing to enjoy their job.

Now I'm off to enjoy a day in Portland before the next couple of flights. At present I'm genuinely bemused as to why United comes in for so much grief from its regular PAX, but perhaps things are easier on Sundays or something and I will find out on the next leg of this trip.

hairpeace

Nice work so far! ^

camsean

Good reading so far. Looking forward to the rest.

Camohe

Very well written and interesting report so far.

As to your free bottle of vino, a few years ago on QF SYD-HKG I was the only pax in F (It was Chinese New Year-no wonder I got an award ticket!). There were two quite 'senior' FA's serving F and of course I had them had to myself. Anyway, just before landing one of them gives me a bottle of Dom Perignon from the galley to drink while watching the fireworks from my hotel room!

CCayley

I was in doubt as to whether to continue this trip report, covering as it does some fairly tedious internal flights in UA First that will be familiar to many FTers. But I feel I have to, and if you suspect that the reason is that United couldn't string 6 flights in a row together without severely irritating the passenger, you would be right. But first let's deal with the uncontroversial bits:

6/24/08 : UA 208 PDX-DEN : 10.40 hrs : B-737-500 : First class
6/24/08 : UA 1240 : DEN-OMA : 15.23 hrs : B-737-300 : First class

Two days in Portland constitutes no basis to comment upon the City, but for what it is worth I thought the City proper was vibrant and enjoyable. I can see why it is a popular place to live in the USA, and it reminded me of a smaller scale Vancouver or Seattle (that is intended as a compliment!). I'm not quite so sure about the environs, and in particular the drive in from/out to PDX airport was through some very grey and drab areas. And it wasn't as easy as I expected to find great Oregon Pinot Noir (I found better in Omaha!). Maybe I didn't try hard enough.

The flights to Omaha were largely uneventful. The PDX-DEN flight was in danger of being delayed as the incoming aircraft arrived late, but the UA staff did a wonderful job and the plane pulled back out of the gate a mere 20 minutes after arriving. So I understood that some niceties, such as pre-take-off drinks, were lost in the effort to get back on time. And kudos to everyone involved: the flight arrived at Denver on time. The flight attendants were fine, just not as impressive as the ones I have reported on above.

Lunch on the PDX-DEN flight was a Tuscan chicken wrap or Chef's salad, and the FAs darted about the cabin asking for orders in what was obviously a priority order. I was the last PAX to get a choice. I know from other UA threads that having an actual F ticket has miraculously been promoted recently to being a relevant factor in this process but I have to say my sense was that it was my wholly unearned 1P status, not the several thousand $ laid out for the ticket, that got me that choice. The first person asked for his selection was someone who was upgraded at the gate. Those who were offered no choice asked why, so I assume they were not UA regular travellers i.e. they probably they had actual F tickets rather than status.

The 737 differed from previous aircraft in that it was obviously in need of a deep clean, and the whole cabin was bathed in a sort of yellowy darkness that gave the impression of age and dirt.

Easily the best bit of the flight was the view. Beautiful pretty much all the way.

The 737 from Denver to Omaha took off and landed pretty much on time. The crew were nice and I reacquainted myself with UA's Malbec... Whilst less horrible than the 737-500, the cabin of this plane was also bathed in an unpleasant dim yellowy light and seemed dirtier than, I suspect, it actually was.

The surprise to me was how attractive Omaha and its environs were. I have to say I expected the place to be flat and, er.. flat, but there was beautiful, lush undulating scenery that reminded me very much of the prettier bits of my English homeland.

I had only a short time in Omaha and was impressed by its parks and the friendliness of the people. My arrogant assumption that the place wouldn't be very sophisitcated was also proved wrong, although a cab driver's insistence that I had a French accent irked somewhat! The architecture of Omaha is perhaps a little soulless but overall I enjoyed my stay more than I expected. But before very long I was scheduled to move on, and at this point I was to discover that flying United was an experience that could plumb the depths of misery and despair...

6/26/08 : UA 534 OMA-ORD : B737-500 : 10.50 hrs : First class
6/26/08 : UA 7128 ORD-CLT : CRJ-700 : 18.20 hrs : First class

Checked in at Omaha and everything was sweetness and light. The computer screens are particularly reassuring, showing my flight, as "On Time" even some 90 minutes after its scheduled departure time. There was some weather trouble and the incoming flight was diverted to Sioux City. Fair enough. My 49 minute connection to UA 432 was clearly doomed, but I would be re-booked on the next flight, right!

Well no. No question of transfer to another airline. The GA at Omaha, admittedly trying to cope with around 30 reconnections needed, glared at me when I declined to fly coach on a full plane with no seat assignment. In that case, the best thing he could do was a 6.20 flight operated by Mesa airlines. I hate small planes, and was extremely unhappy, even to the point of preferring to abandon the CLT leg of this rather bizarre trip and return to NYC, but no-one at Omaha could care less. Sort it out at Chicago was their cry.

The flight to ORD eventually took off 2.5 hours late. At ORD the nightmare began. In the post above I compared UA domestic first favourably with BA's Club Europe. I forgot one big difference: no lounge access. Neither of my scheduled flights had any meal service, which is fair enough but also a disadvantage compared with CE. So I mooched around ORD for a few hours before taking the bus across to the dreaded E/F gates. A late gate change provided some needed exercise. And then came the joy of flight 7128. Once again the screens showed it as on time long after boarding was supposed to start, and with no plane at the gate it was obvious there would be a delay. The incoming plane eventually arrived, and the screens again showed we should be boarding. But there was no crew. The GA announced that the plane would be delayed, but that since UA wouldn't answer her call to tell her where the crew was, she didn't know for how long! Eventually the flight was rescheduled for a 21.05 departure.

At this point I gave up and decided that proceeding to CLT was pointless. Why not just go direct back to NYC? The problem was I needed some sort of sensible response from someone at UA. The E/F gate customer service line was horribly long so I trooped back on the bus to the C gates and found a customer services line that would have taken at least 2 hours to clear. Across the underbridge to the B concourse customer service centre where three members of staff were talking to each other, but there was only a short line. I queued for a few minutes and others gathered too. The supervisor came up: "We're closed - go to concourse C". When I said the line there was too long for anyone realistically to hope to be dealt with the response was basically "tough". I could try the gates showing NYC departures but no-one at customer services would do anything.

I tried the gates for the EWR and LGA departures. No-one would deal with anything apart from their next flight from the gate, even though the customer services supervisor promised they would. I tried the Red Carpet Club: just got lied to - "You have an economy ticket there's nothing we can do. Go to concourse B Customer Services". When I said that was closed she said that wasn't true. When I pointed out that A Class, whilst mildly discounted, is very much a first class ticket, I was glared at.

What I realised during this depressing process was that possessing a first class ticket means precisely nothing to UA. The reason I couldn't be rebooked on an earlier flight was hardly likely to be due to the number of F tickets sold, it was due to the number of elites who held confirmed upgrades. There was no special F class desk or assistance that I could identify. I have no idea if 1P status would have helped because I deliberately made no attempt to use it, I was just interested to see how badly UA would treat a first class passenger when difficulties arose. The answer is: abysmally.

Whilst the food in F is o.k., $10 buys you better at any airport I've been through. The seats are better and if, like me, you are on the large size, that may provide a reason for buying an F ticket. But if anything goes wrong my experience suggests UA couldn't care less. And surely this must be a business issue for the airline. If only wealthy big people have any particular reason to buy F tickets, that's a very small market. The costs of providing F as effectively a free benefit to elites must surely be in danger of outweighing the revenues it generates, so driving the airline to make the differentiation between F class and coach smaller all the time. So the problem gets worse...

Anyway this isn't the place for any deep discussion on the merits of the position. In the end I had little choice but to return to flight 7128 which was delayed again and again, eventually arriving at CLT between 1.30 and 2.00 in the morning! People write about crew who distribute one drink and retreat to the galley: this pair did this in spades, actually using their trolley as a physical barrier to ensure no PAX could have contact with them during the flight.

At 10.00 p.m. yesterday I would cheerfully have throttled any member of UA's management and regarded the consequent prison sentence as a small price to pay for the good I would have done the world. But I have calmed down a little. On the whole, the UA personnel on the ground, the flight crew and the GAs, were trying their best to do a decent job. In particular the GAs showed a strong commitment to getting their particular flight away but sadly no interest at all in anything else.

But above this level, the supervisors and the people charged with "customer service" responsibilities at ORD were without exception a complete joke. UA showed that they couldn't care less about F class passengers and I would urge people thinking of travelling F with UA to save their cash and fly coach - or better yet someone like South West, whose agents were far more effective at getting stranded PAX out of Omaha than UA's were, for example.

For myself I haven't quite decided whether UA was just having a bad day or I should just give up on them as an airline and stick to AA in future. Certainly CO looks like a more attractive proposition for the discerning Star Alliance passenger, once they're in the club. Tomorrow is what is currently scheduled to be my last UA flight, but it's a codeshere operated by US. Given comments on that airline I have been dreading the flight, but right now I'm just relieved I won't be depending on UA. Sad.

ZonaFlyer

It sounds like you found one reason as you kept flying. Another might be the comparison between Y and F on UA. From your account, F sounds nice, but if you look at what their Y product is, you will stray away from UA (haha, that rhymes). Charging for bags and food is a real turnoff for a Y passenger when so many other airlines offer these things with the price of the ticket.

Braniff

An astute analysis ! I've enjoyed reading your report very much.

Braniff

I think you may come to appreciate UA following your US flight. Aside from their shuttle operation between Washington/New York/Boston, US is a truly sad experience. Agony Air they used to be called when they still were named Allegheny Air...

CCayley

I haven't written a report because there wasn't a great deal to say, but I actually rather enjoyed the US flight CLT-EWR. It was delayed a little, but the 737 was fitted with huge armchair like F seats and I found it extremely comfortable, although I hadn't seen seats quite like them in use for the last 10 years so I assume they were a bit ancient. The in flight service was rather odd, sort of amateurish and what I would imagine one would get from a charter carrier, but not deeply objectionable.

Now the taxi transfer EWR to JFK with a driver who spoke no English, had an aversion to having both his hands on any of the vehicle's controls at the same time and liked to be 50% over the speed limit, was an experience! Gave me my first visit to Staten Island too, and put the trials and tribulations of flying with UA/US into context: at least there was never a point on any of the flights when I thought I was about to die...

7free

Nice trip report, I enjoyed it very much.^