Originally Posted by embarcadero1

I flew ICN to SFO in C on Monday. For reasons that are hard to explain, I ended up violating my golden rule: when paying for C, always fly a real airline, never United, especially on this route, where SQ offers a much, much better product.

UA's soft product reached what must be a new low. I dealt with gratuitous, petty aggression from FAs and inedible/undrinkable food/wine offerings. I got by on ginger ale and nuts. The seat was OK and I got to watch some movies that I liked. So, not all bad.

To start: I board and situate myself in my seat. The FA comes over and asks me if I want juice or bubbly. I take some juice. I ask for napkins and some water to clean the IFE screen, covered in some unidentifiable goop and she says "I"m busy now, you can get towels and water yourself in the bathroom."

I can't, because they're still boarding the plane and I'm seated in 9A. A steady stream of passengers effectively blocks the path to the lavatory. Oh well.

FA comes back (no napkins or water, which she was holding in her hand previously when serving pre-flight beverages) and offers to hang up my jacket. I no longer have my boarding stub. "Why not?" she asks me. I just stare in disbelief.

Meal time: no menus on this flight, so we all have to pay attention. I can't recall what the purser said so order fish. It's beyond revolting - the purple potatoes have leeched green color onto the fish. The potato things still have the dried up eyes that should have been removed in cleaning. I send it back. I get some unidentifiable and equally disgusting (but less alarming) chicken thing. I eat the rice. Because I'm late finishing, the FAs have put away the desert carts and tell me I can get desert during the mid-flight snack.

I won't mention the wine other than to say I stuck with the ginger ale after one taste of the "Sauvignon blanc."

I never saw the mid-flight snack, as it wasn't put out on tables when I was up stretching my legs. Maybe it was put out some other time. I did hear, repeatedly, about the FAs and their plastic surgery experiences in Korea and Brazil. The conversations (I'm in 9A) are quite loud and not really of the type I would imagine hearing at 3 AM under any other circumstances. Vintage UA.

During breakfast, the same FA comes by and shouts the choices at the Korean person next to me who clearly speaks no or very little English. He doesn't understand and she gives him the quiche, which he does not eat. I get the same, as I don't understand the choices. FA asks me if I want tea, I say yes, she says "milk or sugar?", I say "both please" and she responds "just milk." I figure she didn't hear me. When she sets the mug down, I ask for sugar. She says "I already asked you that."

Ugh.

I don't know how UA manages to make their soft product so unbelievably unpleasant, but once again I got off a long-haul UA flight and felt grateful that I had not been assaulted by the FAs. That is not exactly the hallmark of good service.

/rant. But I will not soon be violating my own golden rule about TransPac on UA. Only if C is for free. Otherwise, it's SQ.