uastarflyer

UNITED 747s never rolled out anything called BusinessFirst. As they are equipped with a separate INTL First cabin and INTL Business class cabin.

those pics bring back great memories. Waiting to board in SFO, HKG and NRT was a joy. And oh that final UAUA safety video - the intro being the notes of Rhapsody set against the beautiful logo splashed on the screeen.

another fun memory from the '00s on the giant projector screen 20-30 minutes from landing: UNITED.... Thanks....You....

warrenw

Wait, what? Then why did my pre-Polaris business class tickets say BusinessFirst on them?

Or are you saying BusinessFirst was a Continental thing?

Either way my point was that his photos looked like when United's lie flat business class product first rolled out.

bvehorn

My first flight on a UA 747 was in Feb. 1972, SFO - HNL. Great memory. I got a United Airlines 12-21 Club card on that flight, hope the pic uploads.

luv2ctheworld

What UA_Flyer is saying is that the seats you see on that 747 (as well as some 777's) were part of the United's IPTE (International Premium Travel Experience):
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...ns-update.html

This was the rollout that updated the widebodies to lie flat seats, and the cursed 4 across the middle seating that you have read/heard countless complaints on.

BusinessFirst is a CO generated marketing spin for when they tried to make people think business was basically as good as first... and slowly remove international first from all aircraft (slowly; like death by a thousand cuts).

EmailKid

Indeed, PMUA, well before merger. UA tried to reintroduce LAX-HKG (OK, they did, it just didn't last) and got my first ride on UP thanks to $500 upgrade (each way) at checkin desk.

IIRC CO introduced Biz1st when they unveiled lie flat Biz seat. They may well have been first ones to do this for Biz in US.

And Int'l 1st is going away not just at UA, even mighty LH has cut back many a/c simply to Biz, though so far not eliminating it like UA plans on doing.

greg99

It's definitely not going away, it has just been rebranded over time.

If you compare to 30 years ago, current business class would be considered broadly competitive with F back then, current premium economy is not that far off from C back then, and economy? Well economy just rots, and was rot then.

nzz

By coincidence ended up on UA889, the last UA 747 out of PEK (N105UA delivered in 1994). Took the plunge and upgraded a G fare good for ~260PQD into an UD window seat. Great way to take what is very likely to be my last ever 747 ride on any airline.

Waiting at the gate I saw the cockpit hatch open and pilots & FAs pop out to take selfies of themselves with the queen. Some ground crew came upto the cockpit to get souvenirs signed by the pilots. They also waved the plane good bye - I know this is common in Japan, but guessing not at PEK.

No PA announcement of the 'occasion' but the UD FAs let the C pax know. Great flight that arrived almost an hour early.

This flight was almost exactly 19 years after my first UA trip: AKL-LAX on the 747, traveling to grad school in the US.

EmailKid

No, days of 3 class planes is nearing the end at UA. Definitely.

With retirement of 747s and 3 class 767s being converted to 2 class Polaris, only some 777 have three classes @:-)

When the last of those is retired, that will be the end of Global First. Unless UA makes them into 2 class planes before that, but don't believe that was announced anywhere.

BThumme

DL is upgauging DTW-ATL-DTW and DTW-MCO-DTW tomorrow to 747s. Would be cool to see UA match, but that will never happen. UA is still quiet on the 747 farewell news.

PsiFighter37

I would venture to guess that the MCO upgauging is perhaps a way to help evacuate more people from Florida due to Irma, not because it's going to turn into a party plane ride...

kevanyalowitz

Thanks for sharing. So many good memories on UA889/888 on the 747.

ORDnHKG

Or the last NW 747 ?

Don�t get confused this plane didnot even build in 1994 as it isn�t even a UA bird afterall, it is a 747-451 that supoosed to be register as N671US !

ORDnHKG

No it is not.

The BusinessFirst name exist before the lie flat biz seat when CO was still with Skyteam (BusinessFirst is the whole product not just the seats), and for sure they are not the first ones to do this for Biz in US, PMUA was with the IPTE product !!! That�s why at the time PMUA can get away with 2-4-2 as nobody in the US has a horizontal flat seat product.

I remembered very well because a friend of mine was CO platinum, when he saw PMUA already had IPTE out but CO was still stuck with the old cradle business first seat (despite good service and good food but the seat are terrible especially on CO 98/99 EWR-HKG), so he asked me to nominate him to be premier associate (ever remember that ?) so that he can jumpship from CO but at least able to get E+ from the beginning. He moved up quickly to be 1K.

ORDnHKG

To this date you didn�t notice what livery are the planes ? It is CO with the united name thats it ! This company runs by CO management, hence they want to retain everything CO !!!

The plane�s livery, the website, the reservation system, the inflight product, businessfirst name to all the chinaware, even the CEO, all are Continental ! The only thing retain is the United name, economy plus, and the name of United�s inflight magazine Hemisphere.

If it is United then it would call C class instead, C as in Connoisseur class.

greg99

I guess I'm making the assumption that UA will not be the only major US carrier without a true Premium Economy on international flights, since both DL and AA are rolling them out, and most other major international carriers also have a premium economy cabin.