San Francisco to Indianapolis in United First
Aug 19, 2015, 1:30 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: LAF, VIE
Programs: A3 *G; AA EXP
Posts: 509
San Francisco to Indianapolis in United First
Introduction
This is my first trip report on Flyertalk so I hope you guys like it. Since you can't work with html on Flyertalk, I tried my best to make it readable, for a visually better experience you can read my trip report on my personal website (particularly if you are reading this on a mobile platform)
After an amazing road-trip from Denver to Los Angeles with a couple of friends I decided to tag-on a few days in San Francisco to visit a couple of friends and former colleagues. I am still in love with the city. It is so beautiful that you really need to carry your camera with you at all times to take snapshots. I also finally got around to do a Segway tour...it was pretty awesome and I can wholeheartedly recommend the tour company, which was the Electric Tour Company, a shout-out to Johannes, our tour guide this morning. It is actually pretty easy to ride one of these Segways. The highlight of the Segway tour was probably coming across a group of pre-schoolers. One of the yelled: "Hey! That's a Segway" Pretty tech-savy these Bay area kids.
One thing I did notice this time around, however, is the increasing number of homeless people on the street. I used to work in San Francisco for five months in 2010 and I always told my friends that the homeless were harmless. I think I need to revise that statement as I witnessed people being insulted by some of them on multiple occasions. It also happened to me when I was drinking a coffee at Starbucks. I was on my phone and a clearly deranged lady walked up to me asking me for a coffee. After I told her no, she kind of hit me on the back of my head. It did not really hurt or anything but left a sour taste in my mouth and I think that the homeless problem in San Francisco really needs to be addressed sooner than later.
Booking the flight
Anyway I think it is time to get back to the trip report. Since I had some Aegean miles left in my account, I decided to use them on a United First flight from San Francisco to Indianapolis. Since there was no availability on the non-stop flight, I booked a flight connecting in Chicago. Not ideal but not too bad either. I still don't like the fact that Aegean charges you bogus taxes and fees on domestic U.S. and Canadian flights. I know that there is only a fee of $5.60 on U.S. domestic flights, but Aegean charged me about $30 on top of the $25 booking fee. It also leads nowhere to argue with the agents, as they will push back and come up with bogus explanations.
Availability opened up in First Class on the non-stop flight about 2 months prior to departure and I called Aegean to get the changed done. Let me tell you what I couldn't do: get the change done. Aegean has the most restrictive change policy I have ever experienced. As I now know, Aegean does not allow a change in routing or class of service, meaning that I could only change to a different connecting flight through Chicago. My "Plan C" was asking to be switched to a Business Class seat on a United flight operated by a three class aircraft, which also opened up, but I would have needed to change to Economy class for the ORD-IND flight, so no can do, very frustrating.
OK, my next suggestion was to cancel the flight and re-book on the non-stop flight, but no can do. Since I called on a weekend, the back office was closed and it takes three days for the miles to redeposit and there was nothing the agent could do. She also couldn't put the seat on-hold for me. Great! It didn't help that the line went dead on me twice, requiring me to call again, explaining the whole thing to a different agent. Since there was only one seat available on the non-stop flight, I decided not to risk it and went ahead and booked the flight with my United miles and canceled the Aegean reservation. I know a lot of people criticize the (now old) United website but compared to most other airlines, it is still pretty functional. While Aegean has recently launched a new (and visually more appealing) website, it is still not possible to redeem your miles for Star Alliance flights online.
Getting to the airport
One of the things I really like about SFO is its easy access to BART. Since I stayed in a hotel just two blocks away from Powell Station, I bought a BART ticket to SFO for $8.65 and off I went. It was an uneventful half hour ride out to the airport. My favorite part about taking the train is the arrival into SFO, which takes you near the backside of the international terminal, where a Lufthansa A380 and an Air China 747-8i were parked.
At the airport
I think that the international terminal at SFO is pretty nice, certainly much nicer than (most of) Terminal 3 and Terminal 1. I still have fond memories of taking international flights out of SFO and I even took a Virgin America flight from there once, before they relocated to Terminal 2.
My original plan was to clear security at the international terminal and then try to go to the EVA Lounge thanks to my Star Alliance Gold status on Aegean. It was pretty busy on this Saturday afternoon, however, and a quick look at the enormous line of people at the checkpoint quickly made me change my mind. The line went all the way back to check-in area three and I estimated at least a 30-minute wait.
I decided not to follow the instructions to take the AirTrain to Terminal 3 and went for the walkway instead. I am pretty sure that it would take longer to take the train instead of just walking there. Off I went to the Terminal 3 walkway, which looked a lot less crowded.
The signage is very clear... yep... United ... that is where I need to go. I would probably recommend taking the train to get to Terminal 1 & 2, as that could be a longer hike.
Nothing new in Terminal 3 so far. I considered for a minute using the security checkpoint seen on the left as it did not seem too busy. They even had monitors informing passengers that it would be an about 5-minute wait. Not too bad considering that the checkpoint in the international terminal, not even a five minute walk, had significantly more people waiting. Last time I traveled from Terminal 3, Premier check-in was located in this area, but I guess they changed the setup.
But wait, something else changed half way through the terminal. They re-did the United Premier check-in area and it looks quite nice. I also went past the United Global Service check-in area...maybe one day, not today though.
I really like what they did with the area. It looks pretty nice and definitely a big step up compared to the old Terminal 3. If this is how all of the terminal will look like, well done SFO. The only remainder of the old terminal is the awful carpet, but I hope they will replace that as well in the near future. This is also where United trials the new self-tagging system.
It looked pretty straightforward, but I still think they should offer a "full service" check-in option, particularly for premium passengers.
Terminal 3 was pretty quiet this Saturday afternoon. Since I scouted out the entire land-side terminal, I decided to get in line at the security checkpoint, which wasn't too busy.
If you are traveling with a tablet device this problem will sound familiar. So TSA has a policy of allowing you to leave your tablet in your bag. The problem, however, is that most TSA agents working at the scanners can't tell if it's a tablet or a laptop. This means that two out of three times they decide to inspect my bag and remove the tablet from it, resulting in a delay for me. It's kind of annoying and I wish that they would invest more into training the TSA screeners to properly identify these devices. Anyway, after I passed through security I decided to turn left and check out the old United Club in Concourse F.
United Club in Terminal 3 Concourse F
This part of Terminal 3 clearly hasn't been renovated yet and the entrance to the United Club also looks the same compared to the last time I was there.
I was greeted by the lounge dragon and she was happy with a scan of my boarding pass.
The club was OK, it wasn't too crowded and I am really a big fan of the new food options. The hummus is pretty good and I also like the Pita chips that go with it. And you can't beat the views which were great. They also had some kind of salad and a vegetable soup on offer. All of this is light years ahead of what they used to offer. My favorite new item is the brownie brittle, but it wasn't out yet unfortunately.
The one thing I do have to say is that the furniture looks quite tired and needs some updating. I understand that this club will be re-done in the near future so I hope they will put in new seats.
After twenty minutes or so I decided to leave the club and check-out the new, temporary United Club located in the new Concourse E of the terminal. My flight was scheduled to depart from Gate 64, which is also in the new part of the terminal as well.
United Club Concourse E
I have to say that the new (and temporary) United Club is quite hidden, but I followed the signs and managed to get there eventually.
You kind of have to navigate through hallways and take an elevator but I got there eventually. I did like the retro pictures in the hallway, a very nice touch. The exposed pipes in the ceiling, not so much ...
The Club itself has new furniture and is very similar to the updated lounge at O'Hare Terminal 2. I was really looking forward to some brownie brittle but I guess they only offer it in the afternoon or evening, they only had Skittles out, better than nothing I guess.
You may have noticed that there are no views or daylight in this club. I decided to get a cappuccino from a machine in the club but it wasn't drinkable, what a shame. I did finish the Skittles however.
Since there was nothing too exciting going on in the club, I decided to move on and check out the new terminal area. The entire area looks very nice and modern, they really did a great job here.
The new Concourse E has amenities such as a yoga room, a station to fill up your water bottle and a number of restaurants and cafes. Maybe I was just lucky, but the whole area wasn't too crowded when I got there and a number of seats and lounge chairs were available.
A quick look at the United app confirmed that my flight was scheduled to depart from Gate 64. I was also monitoring the inbound flight from San Diego and while it was delayed by 30 minutes, the estimated arrival time was only 7 minutes past the scheduled arrival time.
I am a big fan of the United app, I think that it is the best one out there. Delta's app is probably a close second and American Airline's app is a distant third. The one thing I miss about the United app is more detailed notifications about gate departure and runway departure times. The United app shows the flight as "departed" as soon as the jet bridge detaches from the aircraft. This can be very misleading as there is often an additional wait at the gate and a pretty long taxiing time to the runway. I think that Delta does a better job at breaking down the arrival and departure process into separate steps and notifications on its app (such as pulled up to gate - runway etc.).
I decide to settle down into a nice lounge chair near Gate 64 after getting a double espresso shot at a nearby cafe. The gate monitor looks good, everything is in order and on time.
I don't know what purpose they serve but the bubbles on the ceiling looked nice, they are probably lamps.
After I settled down, my Apple Watch vibrated ... it was a push notification from the TripIt Pro app that my gate had changed to Gate 60, not the end of the world. It wasn't until five minutes after the TripIt notification that the United app buzzed about the gate change. I still find it puzzling how services such as TripIt are able to notify you way earlier about delays and gate changes than the airline's own app. This has happened to me before on United at O'Hare.
Well since the gate monitor still showed Gate 64 for my flight to Indianapolis, the area near Gate 60 was still empty.
Our aircraft today, an Airbus A320-232 with registry N449UA, was delivered to United Airlines in 1998, which makes it about 17 years old. After a short stint with Ted from 2005 to 2009, it returned to the United fleet when Ted was dissolved. According to the United app, the aircraft was equipped with Wi-Fi and United's Personal Device On-Demand Entertainment System, which is pretty nice on this long flight with a block time of over 4 hours.
On-board
I didn't take any pictures of the boarding process but as soon as people lined up I joined the already pretty long line in Group 1. I think the United boarding process works quite well. Since there are separate lines for each group, people tend not to be in each other's way. After people requiring extra time to board, Global Service members and active military members, Group 1 was called for boarding. Off I went to our aircraft.
As you can see in the picture, the aircraft had a Wi-Fi plaque indicating that the United app did not lie. There was a short line upon boarding, but I could soon settle down into my seat, 2F. Not surprising, the First Class Cabin went out full today (12/12). Economy class also seemed full although I did not venture back. I am usually an aisle guy meaning that I prefer to have the option to get up and walk around whenever I like to. This time tough, I decided to go with a window seat. I do like to stare outside and enjoy the views.
They were still loading some bags and the galley hadn't been catered yet. The flight attendant did manage to provide PDBs to all passengers using the drinks left from the previous flight, which was impressive. Our neighbor, a B737-900 delivered to United (or Continental) in 2012 featured "sharklets" which looked pretty nice.
Soon after takeoff, the flight attendants served drinks and warm nuts. I like the fact that the FA gave me a slice of lime with my sparkling water without asking for it. Another passenger asked for a slice of lemon in his drink but apparently United doesn't cater lemons anymore, talk about death by a thousand cuts...
We reached cruising altitude quite fast. I noticed that the Wi-Fi system which is supposed to switch on at 10,000 feet wasn't available yet. Uh-Oh... I like to browse on the Internet on longer flight as I think it makes time go by faster. But since I selected a windows seat on this flight, I enjoyed "nature's in-flight entertainment" ...
I truly enjoy gazing out of the window and it really helped me forget about the non-functional Wi-Fi. You usually realize quite early whether you have a nice crew or not and I definitely lucked out this time. The flight attendant serving first class was amazing. She addressed all passengers by last name when taking lunch orders and made sure that our drinks were always full. The entire crew (from what I could see) was very cheerful and friendly.
The issue with the Wi-Fi system unfortunately did not get resolved by resetting the system and a FA from Economy class made several announcements apologizing for the non-functional Wi-Fi and Entertainment system. After resetting it three times, the crew gave up on it and they encouraged passengers to submit claims on united.com/appreciation. As it turns out, you could choose between 2,500 miles (that would be a 10% discount for my redemption) or a $50 flight voucher. I took the voucher since I value United miles at less than 2 cents.
Soon it was time for lunch and I was able to choose between a chicken - cheese enchilada or a Thai chicken curry. I decided to go with the curry since I believe that curry is a good meal to be re-heated. The first course today was a salad with some non-descriptive oats fig addition. The salad really wasn't bad. The bread was surprisingly really nice, warm and crunchy. I have to say that United really stepped up catering this year.
Soon after the salad, the second course of today's three course meal was served, the Thai chicken curry.
While the presentation certainly wasn't great, it actually tasted quite good. The meat was moist and the sauce was pretty good. It did not have enough spice for my taste but it was definitely one of the better domestic meals I've had. I took a look at the enchilada which my neighbor ordered and it must have been OK as well since he finished it.
Since I have a bad case of the "sweet tooth", I was really looking forward to the dessert. Unfortunately, the pilots decided to switch on the fast seat-belt sign for nearly an hour and even asked the FAs to be seated. As it happens quite often, we barely encountered any turbulence. I guess they switched on the signs just to make sure. Well, more gazing outside was in order.
After an hour delay or so, it was finally time for dessert.
It hit the spot quite nicely. The mango sorbet was delicious and the flight attendant asked me if I wanted a coffee with it. Sure, why not. What a mistake, I made one sip and decided to not drink the coffee, it was probably the worst coffee I have ever had. It was a great meal, minus the coffee.
It was getting dark outside and soon it was time to land at Indianapolis International Airport. I could spot downtown Indy from my window.
It is always interesting to see Indianapolis at night. If you look closely, it has a very structured layout. All roads kind of merge into the downtown area or maybe I am just imagining things.
What a nice view out from my window. The nice thing about Indianapolis Airport is that the taxiing time to the gates is usually minimal. After touching down, we reached the gate maybe two minutes later.
This was the exact flight-path we took. We landed a couple of minutes behind schedule, nothing too dramatic, around 11:06 pm local time. It was time to get off the plane and say good-bye to the FA. I did send a well-done message to United. So far, I have nearly always had great experience with West Coast based crew. I think that this crew was based out of Denver and San Francisco, although I am not sure since I just overheard a conversation with another passenger.
Not unusual for this time, Indy Airport was pretty much empty, with all stores already closed.
I am not sure when the last flight departs but there certainly weren't any flights on the departure board at this hour.
Ouch, hurts to be on this Southwest flight.
Hmm, something weird was going on with the Southwest flights on the arrival board. The same flight was listed five separate times. Anyway, a four-hour delay is certainly not very pleasant. Southwest seems to have a problem with on-time performance this summer (see my post about the Air Travel Consumer Report, where Southwest ranks pretty low in on-time performance).
After a great flight, I just needed to get to my car which I parked off-airport. Unfortunately, I just seemed to have missed the shuttle and had to wait for nearly an hour. Next time I'll just park at the airport and pay slightly more. I should have paid attention to the bad reviews of the parking place.
To summarize, it was a great flight in United First. The meal was surprisingly good and I would not hesitate to spend 25k miles again on what is essentially a transcontinental flight.
This is my first trip report on Flyertalk so I hope you guys like it. Since you can't work with html on Flyertalk, I tried my best to make it readable, for a visually better experience you can read my trip report on my personal website (particularly if you are reading this on a mobile platform)
After an amazing road-trip from Denver to Los Angeles with a couple of friends I decided to tag-on a few days in San Francisco to visit a couple of friends and former colleagues. I am still in love with the city. It is so beautiful that you really need to carry your camera with you at all times to take snapshots. I also finally got around to do a Segway tour...it was pretty awesome and I can wholeheartedly recommend the tour company, which was the Electric Tour Company, a shout-out to Johannes, our tour guide this morning. It is actually pretty easy to ride one of these Segways. The highlight of the Segway tour was probably coming across a group of pre-schoolers. One of the yelled: "Hey! That's a Segway" Pretty tech-savy these Bay area kids.
One thing I did notice this time around, however, is the increasing number of homeless people on the street. I used to work in San Francisco for five months in 2010 and I always told my friends that the homeless were harmless. I think I need to revise that statement as I witnessed people being insulted by some of them on multiple occasions. It also happened to me when I was drinking a coffee at Starbucks. I was on my phone and a clearly deranged lady walked up to me asking me for a coffee. After I told her no, she kind of hit me on the back of my head. It did not really hurt or anything but left a sour taste in my mouth and I think that the homeless problem in San Francisco really needs to be addressed sooner than later.
Booking the flight
Anyway I think it is time to get back to the trip report. Since I had some Aegean miles left in my account, I decided to use them on a United First flight from San Francisco to Indianapolis. Since there was no availability on the non-stop flight, I booked a flight connecting in Chicago. Not ideal but not too bad either. I still don't like the fact that Aegean charges you bogus taxes and fees on domestic U.S. and Canadian flights. I know that there is only a fee of $5.60 on U.S. domestic flights, but Aegean charged me about $30 on top of the $25 booking fee. It also leads nowhere to argue with the agents, as they will push back and come up with bogus explanations.
Availability opened up in First Class on the non-stop flight about 2 months prior to departure and I called Aegean to get the changed done. Let me tell you what I couldn't do: get the change done. Aegean has the most restrictive change policy I have ever experienced. As I now know, Aegean does not allow a change in routing or class of service, meaning that I could only change to a different connecting flight through Chicago. My "Plan C" was asking to be switched to a Business Class seat on a United flight operated by a three class aircraft, which also opened up, but I would have needed to change to Economy class for the ORD-IND flight, so no can do, very frustrating.
OK, my next suggestion was to cancel the flight and re-book on the non-stop flight, but no can do. Since I called on a weekend, the back office was closed and it takes three days for the miles to redeposit and there was nothing the agent could do. She also couldn't put the seat on-hold for me. Great! It didn't help that the line went dead on me twice, requiring me to call again, explaining the whole thing to a different agent. Since there was only one seat available on the non-stop flight, I decided not to risk it and went ahead and booked the flight with my United miles and canceled the Aegean reservation. I know a lot of people criticize the (now old) United website but compared to most other airlines, it is still pretty functional. While Aegean has recently launched a new (and visually more appealing) website, it is still not possible to redeem your miles for Star Alliance flights online.
Getting to the airport
One of the things I really like about SFO is its easy access to BART. Since I stayed in a hotel just two blocks away from Powell Station, I bought a BART ticket to SFO for $8.65 and off I went. It was an uneventful half hour ride out to the airport. My favorite part about taking the train is the arrival into SFO, which takes you near the backside of the international terminal, where a Lufthansa A380 and an Air China 747-8i were parked.
At the airport
I think that the international terminal at SFO is pretty nice, certainly much nicer than (most of) Terminal 3 and Terminal 1. I still have fond memories of taking international flights out of SFO and I even took a Virgin America flight from there once, before they relocated to Terminal 2.
My original plan was to clear security at the international terminal and then try to go to the EVA Lounge thanks to my Star Alliance Gold status on Aegean. It was pretty busy on this Saturday afternoon, however, and a quick look at the enormous line of people at the checkpoint quickly made me change my mind. The line went all the way back to check-in area three and I estimated at least a 30-minute wait.
I decided not to follow the instructions to take the AirTrain to Terminal 3 and went for the walkway instead. I am pretty sure that it would take longer to take the train instead of just walking there. Off I went to the Terminal 3 walkway, which looked a lot less crowded.
The signage is very clear... yep... United ... that is where I need to go. I would probably recommend taking the train to get to Terminal 1 & 2, as that could be a longer hike.
Nothing new in Terminal 3 so far. I considered for a minute using the security checkpoint seen on the left as it did not seem too busy. They even had monitors informing passengers that it would be an about 5-minute wait. Not too bad considering that the checkpoint in the international terminal, not even a five minute walk, had significantly more people waiting. Last time I traveled from Terminal 3, Premier check-in was located in this area, but I guess they changed the setup.
But wait, something else changed half way through the terminal. They re-did the United Premier check-in area and it looks quite nice. I also went past the United Global Service check-in area...maybe one day, not today though.
I really like what they did with the area. It looks pretty nice and definitely a big step up compared to the old Terminal 3. If this is how all of the terminal will look like, well done SFO. The only remainder of the old terminal is the awful carpet, but I hope they will replace that as well in the near future. This is also where United trials the new self-tagging system.
It looked pretty straightforward, but I still think they should offer a "full service" check-in option, particularly for premium passengers.
Terminal 3 was pretty quiet this Saturday afternoon. Since I scouted out the entire land-side terminal, I decided to get in line at the security checkpoint, which wasn't too busy.
If you are traveling with a tablet device this problem will sound familiar. So TSA has a policy of allowing you to leave your tablet in your bag. The problem, however, is that most TSA agents working at the scanners can't tell if it's a tablet or a laptop. This means that two out of three times they decide to inspect my bag and remove the tablet from it, resulting in a delay for me. It's kind of annoying and I wish that they would invest more into training the TSA screeners to properly identify these devices. Anyway, after I passed through security I decided to turn left and check out the old United Club in Concourse F.
United Club in Terminal 3 Concourse F
This part of Terminal 3 clearly hasn't been renovated yet and the entrance to the United Club also looks the same compared to the last time I was there.
I was greeted by the lounge dragon and she was happy with a scan of my boarding pass.
The club was OK, it wasn't too crowded and I am really a big fan of the new food options. The hummus is pretty good and I also like the Pita chips that go with it. And you can't beat the views which were great. They also had some kind of salad and a vegetable soup on offer. All of this is light years ahead of what they used to offer. My favorite new item is the brownie brittle, but it wasn't out yet unfortunately.
The one thing I do have to say is that the furniture looks quite tired and needs some updating. I understand that this club will be re-done in the near future so I hope they will put in new seats.
After twenty minutes or so I decided to leave the club and check-out the new, temporary United Club located in the new Concourse E of the terminal. My flight was scheduled to depart from Gate 64, which is also in the new part of the terminal as well.
United Club Concourse E
I have to say that the new (and temporary) United Club is quite hidden, but I followed the signs and managed to get there eventually.
You kind of have to navigate through hallways and take an elevator but I got there eventually. I did like the retro pictures in the hallway, a very nice touch. The exposed pipes in the ceiling, not so much ...
The Club itself has new furniture and is very similar to the updated lounge at O'Hare Terminal 2. I was really looking forward to some brownie brittle but I guess they only offer it in the afternoon or evening, they only had Skittles out, better than nothing I guess.
You may have noticed that there are no views or daylight in this club. I decided to get a cappuccino from a machine in the club but it wasn't drinkable, what a shame. I did finish the Skittles however.
Since there was nothing too exciting going on in the club, I decided to move on and check out the new terminal area. The entire area looks very nice and modern, they really did a great job here.
The new Concourse E has amenities such as a yoga room, a station to fill up your water bottle and a number of restaurants and cafes. Maybe I was just lucky, but the whole area wasn't too crowded when I got there and a number of seats and lounge chairs were available.
A quick look at the United app confirmed that my flight was scheduled to depart from Gate 64. I was also monitoring the inbound flight from San Diego and while it was delayed by 30 minutes, the estimated arrival time was only 7 minutes past the scheduled arrival time.
I am a big fan of the United app, I think that it is the best one out there. Delta's app is probably a close second and American Airline's app is a distant third. The one thing I miss about the United app is more detailed notifications about gate departure and runway departure times. The United app shows the flight as "departed" as soon as the jet bridge detaches from the aircraft. This can be very misleading as there is often an additional wait at the gate and a pretty long taxiing time to the runway. I think that Delta does a better job at breaking down the arrival and departure process into separate steps and notifications on its app (such as pulled up to gate - runway etc.).
I decide to settle down into a nice lounge chair near Gate 64 after getting a double espresso shot at a nearby cafe. The gate monitor looks good, everything is in order and on time.
I don't know what purpose they serve but the bubbles on the ceiling looked nice, they are probably lamps.
After I settled down, my Apple Watch vibrated ... it was a push notification from the TripIt Pro app that my gate had changed to Gate 60, not the end of the world. It wasn't until five minutes after the TripIt notification that the United app buzzed about the gate change. I still find it puzzling how services such as TripIt are able to notify you way earlier about delays and gate changes than the airline's own app. This has happened to me before on United at O'Hare.
Well since the gate monitor still showed Gate 64 for my flight to Indianapolis, the area near Gate 60 was still empty.
Our aircraft today, an Airbus A320-232 with registry N449UA, was delivered to United Airlines in 1998, which makes it about 17 years old. After a short stint with Ted from 2005 to 2009, it returned to the United fleet when Ted was dissolved. According to the United app, the aircraft was equipped with Wi-Fi and United's Personal Device On-Demand Entertainment System, which is pretty nice on this long flight with a block time of over 4 hours.
On-board
I didn't take any pictures of the boarding process but as soon as people lined up I joined the already pretty long line in Group 1. I think the United boarding process works quite well. Since there are separate lines for each group, people tend not to be in each other's way. After people requiring extra time to board, Global Service members and active military members, Group 1 was called for boarding. Off I went to our aircraft.
As you can see in the picture, the aircraft had a Wi-Fi plaque indicating that the United app did not lie. There was a short line upon boarding, but I could soon settle down into my seat, 2F. Not surprising, the First Class Cabin went out full today (12/12). Economy class also seemed full although I did not venture back. I am usually an aisle guy meaning that I prefer to have the option to get up and walk around whenever I like to. This time tough, I decided to go with a window seat. I do like to stare outside and enjoy the views.
They were still loading some bags and the galley hadn't been catered yet. The flight attendant did manage to provide PDBs to all passengers using the drinks left from the previous flight, which was impressive. Our neighbor, a B737-900 delivered to United (or Continental) in 2012 featured "sharklets" which looked pretty nice.
Soon after takeoff, the flight attendants served drinks and warm nuts. I like the fact that the FA gave me a slice of lime with my sparkling water without asking for it. Another passenger asked for a slice of lemon in his drink but apparently United doesn't cater lemons anymore, talk about death by a thousand cuts...
We reached cruising altitude quite fast. I noticed that the Wi-Fi system which is supposed to switch on at 10,000 feet wasn't available yet. Uh-Oh... I like to browse on the Internet on longer flight as I think it makes time go by faster. But since I selected a windows seat on this flight, I enjoyed "nature's in-flight entertainment" ...
I truly enjoy gazing out of the window and it really helped me forget about the non-functional Wi-Fi. You usually realize quite early whether you have a nice crew or not and I definitely lucked out this time. The flight attendant serving first class was amazing. She addressed all passengers by last name when taking lunch orders and made sure that our drinks were always full. The entire crew (from what I could see) was very cheerful and friendly.
The issue with the Wi-Fi system unfortunately did not get resolved by resetting the system and a FA from Economy class made several announcements apologizing for the non-functional Wi-Fi and Entertainment system. After resetting it three times, the crew gave up on it and they encouraged passengers to submit claims on united.com/appreciation. As it turns out, you could choose between 2,500 miles (that would be a 10% discount for my redemption) or a $50 flight voucher. I took the voucher since I value United miles at less than 2 cents.
Soon it was time for lunch and I was able to choose between a chicken - cheese enchilada or a Thai chicken curry. I decided to go with the curry since I believe that curry is a good meal to be re-heated. The first course today was a salad with some non-descriptive oats fig addition. The salad really wasn't bad. The bread was surprisingly really nice, warm and crunchy. I have to say that United really stepped up catering this year.
Soon after the salad, the second course of today's three course meal was served, the Thai chicken curry.
While the presentation certainly wasn't great, it actually tasted quite good. The meat was moist and the sauce was pretty good. It did not have enough spice for my taste but it was definitely one of the better domestic meals I've had. I took a look at the enchilada which my neighbor ordered and it must have been OK as well since he finished it.
Since I have a bad case of the "sweet tooth", I was really looking forward to the dessert. Unfortunately, the pilots decided to switch on the fast seat-belt sign for nearly an hour and even asked the FAs to be seated. As it happens quite often, we barely encountered any turbulence. I guess they switched on the signs just to make sure. Well, more gazing outside was in order.
After an hour delay or so, it was finally time for dessert.
It hit the spot quite nicely. The mango sorbet was delicious and the flight attendant asked me if I wanted a coffee with it. Sure, why not. What a mistake, I made one sip and decided to not drink the coffee, it was probably the worst coffee I have ever had. It was a great meal, minus the coffee.
It was getting dark outside and soon it was time to land at Indianapolis International Airport. I could spot downtown Indy from my window.
It is always interesting to see Indianapolis at night. If you look closely, it has a very structured layout. All roads kind of merge into the downtown area or maybe I am just imagining things.
What a nice view out from my window. The nice thing about Indianapolis Airport is that the taxiing time to the gates is usually minimal. After touching down, we reached the gate maybe two minutes later.
This was the exact flight-path we took. We landed a couple of minutes behind schedule, nothing too dramatic, around 11:06 pm local time. It was time to get off the plane and say good-bye to the FA. I did send a well-done message to United. So far, I have nearly always had great experience with West Coast based crew. I think that this crew was based out of Denver and San Francisco, although I am not sure since I just overheard a conversation with another passenger.
Not unusual for this time, Indy Airport was pretty much empty, with all stores already closed.
I am not sure when the last flight departs but there certainly weren't any flights on the departure board at this hour.
Ouch, hurts to be on this Southwest flight.
Hmm, something weird was going on with the Southwest flights on the arrival board. The same flight was listed five separate times. Anyway, a four-hour delay is certainly not very pleasant. Southwest seems to have a problem with on-time performance this summer (see my post about the Air Travel Consumer Report, where Southwest ranks pretty low in on-time performance).
After a great flight, I just needed to get to my car which I parked off-airport. Unfortunately, I just seemed to have missed the shuttle and had to wait for nearly an hour. Next time I'll just park at the airport and pay slightly more. I should have paid attention to the bad reviews of the parking place.
To summarize, it was a great flight in United First. The meal was surprisingly good and I would not hesitate to spend 25k miles again on what is essentially a transcontinental flight.
Last edited by LukasVIE; Aug 19, 2015 at 1:35 pm
Aug 19, 2015, 3:34 pm
#3
Join Date: Feb 2015
Location: SFO
Programs: United Gold (frmer. 1k and GS), AAdvantage Platinum, Alaska MVP Gold, HHonors Gold
Posts: 200
Thanks for the report! How did you get lounge access though? I thought UA's policy was that even domestic F didn't make the cut. Did you use your Aegean status?
Aug 19, 2015, 3:37 pm
#4
Original Poster
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: LAF, VIE
Programs: A3 *G; AA EXP
Posts: 509
Glad you liked my report lesamuel.Yep, I got lounge access through my status on Aegean
Aug 19, 2015, 11:39 pm
#5
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: May 2008
Location: San Francisco
Programs: GM on VX, UA, AA, HA, AS, SY; Budget Fastbreak
Posts: 27,582
San Francisco to Indianapolis in United First
Great TR - I live in San Francisco and yes the homeless situation gets worse by the day. Mental illness is a huge part or side effect. I'm sorry you had an unpleasant encounter. The city govt doesn't have an answer, just like all world governments have no solution about homelessness or refugees or immigration issues. It's just unpleasant all around.
I also am a longtime Ual flyer, and I can concur that there's nothing great about Ual lounge, tsa at Ual lines in SFO, Ual checkin at SFO, and Ual flights out of SFO. Just too many pax, flights, etc so delays, problems, inadequate staffing, and crowds are the norm. I "solved" this by just flying paid f from Vx and AA, which fly out of beautiful (recent renovated) terminal 2 at SFO.
Hope you found better coffee at another USA airport. Tough to compare to Europe but... :-)
Safe travels!
I also am a longtime Ual flyer, and I can concur that there's nothing great about Ual lounge, tsa at Ual lines in SFO, Ual checkin at SFO, and Ual flights out of SFO. Just too many pax, flights, etc so delays, problems, inadequate staffing, and crowds are the norm. I "solved" this by just flying paid f from Vx and AA, which fly out of beautiful (recent renovated) terminal 2 at SFO.
Hope you found better coffee at another USA airport. Tough to compare to Europe but... :-)
Safe travels!
Aug 20, 2015, 10:37 am
#6
Original Poster
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: LAF, VIE
Programs: A3 *G; AA EXP
Posts: 509
Great TR - I live in San Francisco and yes the homeless situation gets worse by the day. Mental illness is a huge part or side effect. I'm sorry you had an unpleasant encounter. The city govt doesn't have an answer, just like all world governments have no solution about homelessness or refugees or immigration issues. It's just unpleasant all around.
I also am a longtime Ual flyer, and I can concur that there's nothing great about Ual lounge, tsa at Ual lines in SFO, Ual checkin at SFO, and Ual flights out of SFO. Just too many pax, flights, etc so delays, problems, inadequate staffing, and crowds are the norm. I "solved" this by just flying paid f from Vx and AA, which fly out of beautiful (recent renovated) terminal 2 at SFO.
Hope you found better coffee at another USA airport. Tough to compare to Europe but... :-)
Safe travels!
I also am a longtime Ual flyer, and I can concur that there's nothing great about Ual lounge, tsa at Ual lines in SFO, Ual checkin at SFO, and Ual flights out of SFO. Just too many pax, flights, etc so delays, problems, inadequate staffing, and crowds are the norm. I "solved" this by just flying paid f from Vx and AA, which fly out of beautiful (recent renovated) terminal 2 at SFO.
Hope you found better coffee at another USA airport. Tough to compare to Europe but... :-)
Safe travels!
Aug 20, 2015, 5:45 pm
#8
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: Treasure Coast, FL
Programs: DL Diamond, Marriott LT Plat, HH Diamond, Avis Preferred Plus, National Executive
Posts: 4,578
[B]
Ouch, hurts to be on this Southwest flight.
Hmm, something weird was going on with the Southwest flights on the arrival board. The same flight was listed five separate times. Anyway, a four-hour delay is certainly not very pleasant. Southwest seems to have a problem with on-time performance this summer (see my post about the Air Travel Consumer Report, where Southwest ranks pretty low in on-time performance).
.
Ouch, hurts to be on this Southwest flight.
Hmm, something weird was going on with the Southwest flights on the arrival board. The same flight was listed five separate times. Anyway, a four-hour delay is certainly not very pleasant. Southwest seems to have a problem with on-time performance this summer (see my post about the Air Travel Consumer Report, where Southwest ranks pretty low in on-time performance).
.
http://flightaware.com/live/flight/SWA3172
That flight definitely had some issues including a diversion and an airplane swap.
Aug 20, 2015, 7:17 pm
#9
Original Poster
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: LAF, VIE
Programs: A3 *G; AA EXP
Posts: 509
Thanks Madone59!
Thank you apodo77! Wow, you really need some serious investigative capabilities to sort this mess out .. that's what I do not like about using the same flight number for five different flights ... it can get very confusing
Enjoyable read. Nothing weird about the SWA flight 3172. SWA often has several originating cities for a single flight. They will usually show all the cities on the arrivals board for a flight number. Here is the flight track for 8-15-15:
http://flightaware.com/live/flight/SWA3172
That flight definitely had some issues including a diversion and an airplane swap.
http://flightaware.com/live/flight/SWA3172
That flight definitely had some issues including a diversion and an airplane swap.
Aug 20, 2015, 7:31 pm
#10
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: IAH
Programs: DL DM, Hyatt Ist-iest, Stariott Platinum, Hilton Diamond
Posts: 12,788
Soon after takeoff, the flight attendants served drinks and warm nuts. I like the fact that the FA gave me a slice of lime with my sparkling water without asking for it. Another passenger asked for a slice of lemon in his drink but apparently United doesn't cater lemons anymore, talk about death by a thousand cuts...
Aug 21, 2015, 11:56 am
#11
Original Poster
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: LAF, VIE
Programs: A3 *G; AA EXP
Posts: 509
Aug 30, 2015, 6:03 pm
#14
Original Poster
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: LAF, VIE
Programs: A3 *G; AA EXP
Posts: 509
Aug 30, 2015, 6:52 pm
#15
In Memoriam, FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 2002
Location: Durham, NC (RDU/GSO/CLT)
Programs: AA EXP/MM, DL GM, UA Platinum, HH DIA, Hyatt Explorist, IHG Platinum, Marriott Titanium, Hertz PC
Posts: 33,857