hockey7711

I had the meal ewr - sfo and asked for the snack box. Got it.

jcacciotti

Flew the 77W yesterday from EWR-SFO. Great new Polaris seat (7A) and really solid service. The Duck Confit ravioli was actually quite tasty. Ice cream was back, as well as some of the other Polaris dessert and cheese offerings, served On offer from the trolley, and not pre-plated. Surprisingly elegant.

So much better in every way from the 752, I'd flown the other direction the day before. Unfortunately, the service quality remains inconsistent, but on the 77W flight at least, the variation was to the positive.

DELee

Did your ravioli have a sauce on them?

David

jcacciotti

Yes, mushroom and duck reduction. That was the tasty part.

DELee

Ahhh. Now I know why, when I had this dish last month, I didn't think too highly of it. It needs its sauce...That being said, the passenger next to me had the same thing and basically stopped eating because of the ravioli's lack of any flavor without the sauce.

Note to self and others: If there's no sauce on your ravioli, ask for it.

David

ocn2ocn

Any idea if these high density 772's are now permanent on these routes? Seems out of character with how they advertise the PS routes -- to use these aircraft which appear to be configured for leisure markets like Hawaii.

wco81

So it seems it's impossible to get a J award on these transcon routes as part of TATL awards out of SFO.

If there is TATL J awards out of EWR, BOS or ORD, that means there are only mixed awards available with a long flight in Y.

Seems like something new compared to previous years. Are they simply not going to give away award inventory on these flights?

Just as an example, I searched for LIS throughout the calendar, a few weeks out to the end of the calendar. In all but maybe one or two cases, the awards all route through BOS and involves TAP flights for the TATL portion.

The exceptions are some close-in flights, 4 weeks or less from departure, on LH routing through FRA or MUC (forget which).

Otherwise the calendar is littered with mixed-awards with a long domestic flight in Y.

Seeing similar things to other European destinations, especially for next spring and early summer.

Anyone having better luck with TATL awards in general? I guess if you're originating out of an East Coast hub, it's not an issue since there seems to be TATL segments in J available on *A.

But for anyone west of the Mississippi, seems like the availability of full J TATL awards is lacking right now.

Are they going to open things up after the new chart takes effect in November?

findark

I wouldn't say so. Finding domestic IN space to position has been next to impossible for quite some time, p.s. or not. The p.s. routes have always been even worse. If flying TATL I always look for an award on an SFO/LAX/SEA (or maybe DEN) flight, both for comfort and simplicity.

They absolutely could offer much more space by marrying the additional I(N) space to the TATL segment, but they don't. It wouldn't be an unreasonable elite benefit if they only did it with IN, either...

wco81

You mean a direct TATL flight out of those cities?

Those seem to be pretty scarce, especially more than 3-4 months out or less.

findark

Yes. I'm SFO based, so i.e. flying either SFO-Europe nonstop, or SFO-SEA/LAX/DEN-Europe. I agree they're not quite as plentiful as awards from the East Coast, but not only is e.g. SFO-BOS-FRA an annoying way to break the trip all in J, if SFO-BOS is in Y, then I flatly refuse to pay for or consider it as a business class award. The long-haul awards crop up, and when they don't low $2,xxx P fares fill the gaps.

Kacee

Definitely not new. Two years ago I started a thread about this. The entire saver award calendar was blank for ps SFO-NYC for months at a time.

wco81

Did any availability open up, like maybe a couple of weeks out?

Are transcon awards just not available?

Kacee

No there's been nothing but occasional, random saver J availability on ps for years (except when EWR was loaded into the schedule, and that was a mistake).

trekwars2000

Am I reading this correct that if I apply a GPU on a LAS-SFO-BOS flight and the GPU clears on LAS-SFO but not SFO-BOS then it will be redeposited?

In most cases, the Global Premier Upgrade will be considered used if any segment of an itinerary is upgraded or flown. However, for travel which includes segments in United Polaris business class or United Polaris first class, the Global Premier Upgrade will be re-deposited if the United Polaris business class or United Polaris first class segment(s) could not be upgraded.

I don't see similar wording on the RPU. Anyone have experiences with this? I've had a GPU redeposit without issues clearing the domestic segment but not int'l.

findark

Reports for applying a GPU to a p.s. itinerary have always been mixed. It was very muddled when the policy said "United BusinessFirst". Now I think it biases against you, because p.s. is not a "United Polaris business" route.