Hawaii 2014 1: BOS-SFO-KOA in UA Y, 753 and the new 739ER with Sky Interior

.Background: Every December, my family takes a trip to a “warm” place. Two years ago, it was San Diego. Last year, it was the Keys. This year, it’s a trip to Kona, Hawaii. In addition, we’ll be visiting San Diego to see my cousins. It would also bring an opportunity to travel on some new aircraft types. This report will be the first of the following four:

Hawaii 2014 1: BOS-SFO-KOA in UA Y, 753 and the new 739ER with Sky Interior
Hawaii 2014 2: ITO-ITO, open-door helicopter tour of Volcanoes National Park
Hawaii 2014 3: KOA-LAX, in another UA 753 in Y
Hawaii 2014 4: LAX-IAH-BOS Part I: A new 787 to Houston-Bush
Hawaii 2014 5: LAX-IAH-BOS Part II: A vanilla 73G back home

Routing for the entire trip:



Routing for this report:



Flight no: UA1758
Date: 18 December 2014
Scheduled departure time: 8:00 AM EST
Actual departure time: 8:24 AM EST
Scheduled arrival time: 11:50 AM PDT
Actual arrival time: 11:16 AM PDT
Segment: BOS-SFO
Aircraft type: Boeing 757-324(WL)
Aircraft registration: N57852
Aircraft MSN: 32811
Aircraft LN: 995
4th 757 flight
1st 757-300 flight
1st flight on N57852
Seat 40F - window seat behind the wing, last seat last row on DEF side

The day before, 17th December, I checked FlightRadar24 to find the registration of the two flights to Hawaii. We would be on a 757-300 registered N57852 to San Francisco (SFO/KSFO) and a 737-900ER registered N37456 to Kona (KOA/PHKO).

N57852 is a 757-324(WL) that was built and delivered to Continental Airlines (CO/COA) in 2001. 8 days after I flew this, the plane became a teenager . It was handed over to United (UA/UAL) in 2011 after the merger.

I woke up at 5:30 AM for the 8 AM flight to SFO. The cab (2012 Dodge Caravan of Veterans Taxi) arrived at 6:20 AM and it was a 20 min drive over to Logan Intl (BOS/KBOS). UA moved to Terminal B this year, leaving JetBlue (B6/JBU) and Cape Air (9K/KAP) to share Terminal C, with Emirates (EK/UAE) moving from Terminal E in a couple of months.

After entering Terminal B, we weighed our bags and had a problem – one of our bags was 5 LB over the limit of 50 LB. We removed a couple of books and everything was all fine and dandy. We printed our bag tags out at this kiosk:



Security looked like it was going to take forever to get through, but luckily the second lane had just opened when we were about to step through, so it only took two minutes or so to get airside.

Here’s a bad shot of our bird, N57852, to SFO:



As you can see, it was still quite dark at 7:10 AM. I would have got a better shot closer to the window, but we didn’t have too much time to pick up breakfast before boarding. In addition, there’s a glass barrier separating gate B25 (where I took the photo from) and our gate, B24.

Here’s a photo I took from B24:



Our seats were all split up, having 40A, 38C, 37D, and 40F. Luckily, the friendly gate agent was able to assign us seats together in the same row – 40C-F. Obviously, being a geek, I took the window 40F.

Boarding the plane: DirecT(Ad)V in flight lol



We boarded the plane during the assistance boarding lane for families with children 9 and under (my
brother’s 8).

Seat 40F:



Here’s a legroom shot of 40F (for reference, I’m 5’8”):



Safety card of this 753. Does the pink outline have anything to do with breast cancer research?



I was pretty surprised when we got to our seats that the IFE wasn’t playing ads, as I had expected, but instead the Today Show on NBC. The IFE controls were the intuitive kind that’s used on JetBlue.





I then ate my breakfast, a chocolate croissant that was bought from Peet’s Coffee and Tea by gate B24. It tasted excellent, as expected.



The old-style PSU:



Many people aboard the aircraft took a long time to get seated (Americans :P), and as a result we pushed back late. At the gate, I was able to spot a lot of aircraft.

This is a pmUA 752, N526UA (and I ended up getting a shot of the sister craft N529UA which was parked next to our gate at SFO). Unfortunately, due to the rain on the window, this is the best I can get.




Then various types of aircraft:








A British Airways (BA/BAW) 772 out to LHR:





The new safety demonstration/UA ad:



Seriously? A paper plane in a safety video?



A US Express E175:



A Delta (DL/DAL) 717 that probably came from AirTran (FL/TRS) – RIP



A DL A319:



The BA 772 taking off:



Butt of a B6 A320:



BOS terminal:



DL A319 taking off:




Boston skyline:



The 717 taking off (is that angle of attack normal for a rear-engined plane?):



Crossing the runway that we ended up taking off from.



Atlantic Ocean by the taxiway:



Blast zone with approach lights:



Starting the takeoff roll. You can see the rain being blown off the window.



Liftoff!



View of Boston from the air:





This cloud looks like a plane’s wing!





I started reading the book “What If?” by Randall Munroe, who also happens to live in Boston. I highly recommend this book if you’re into science and absurd “what if?” questions. It’s hilarious.



The beverage service came around and I asked for a ginger ale – my signature flight drink.



The lav was tiny as you can see. The photo has no zoom and I was standing with my back to the wall as I took this photo – not an easy task when I went during the roughest patch of turbulence during the entire flight.



The cabin during flight:



Unfortunately, the IFE would just end up playing ads in a loop - it didn’t even let me use the moving map. So for the whole flight, I was left guessing as to where we were flying over.

I had also downloaded a couple of episodes of Top Gear to watch on my Toshiba Satellite E55t-A5320, however I couldn’t hear anything and decided to stop, and instead started writing this TR.



What is this? Is it so frigid up here that the window has collected ice particles?



This aircraft was taking off(?) with a black contrail. It was moving at a high rate of speed and I was very lucky to get the photo. My brother thinks it’s a BA plane but I can’t see the markings from here…



I ate a blueberry muffin, also from Peet’s back at Logan:



This stretch of land looked like a tiled floor:



Crossing the Sierra Nevada mountain range gave us some spectacular views of the terrain below.







El capitano announced that we were 45 minutes out from landing. We passed a beautiful snow-covered patch of the mountains on initial descent.



This is Mono Lake:



Getting rid of some excess speed as we descend by deploying the spoilers:




The flaps extend, and we turn right to continue the descent into SFO.




On final approach over the water – the same path the crashed Asiana Airlines (OZ/AAR) flight 214 took to land. What bridge is that to my right?




Aaand…Touchdown! And with a great view of a 744.



A private jet farm:



The UA hangar with 20th century lettering on it:



An Airbus to my left:



A couple of Korean Air (KE/KAL) LD3s:



Butt of a 744:




Spot the ninja!



N779UA – the 35th 777 ever built:



A new 789:



2 744s in one picture!



Another UA 753. I would actually end up flying this one, N77865, from KOA to LAX six days after I took this photos, and on the 13th birthday of the plane I was currently sitting in.




I asked for a cockpit visit and was promptly rewarded. Unfortunately, I could not get a selfie in the pilot’s seat as this plane had to quickly turn around to KOA (not my flight; this was replacing a scheduled 739ER that had gone to maintenance and was scheduled to leave at 9:50, before I even got into SFO).








UA pilots now get tablets for the operator’s manual instead of the old clunky books.



We left the aircraft to a totally jam-packed gate ready for the flight to KOA. A couple of photos taken from the domestic terminal:





An angry-looking Air China (CA/CCA) 77W pulls up: