Usually every January I am in Paris & Berlin for Fashion Week. This year I decided to opt out of Paris (don't like it in the winter, time better spent in NY) and just go to Berlin for my good friend's birthday.
Luckily being able to plan in advance for this I was able to book a few months in advance and successfully apply my GPUs to clear from coach to BusinessFirst (on the TATL UA legs) at booking.
1) EWR Terminal C + United Club
2) United BusinessFirst EWR-BRU sCO 777
3) BRU The Loft + Brussels Airlines Y BRU-TXL
4) Berlin + Casa Camper
5) LH Senator Lounge + Y TXL-MUC
6) LH Senator Lounge MUC
7) United BusinessFirst MUC-EWR sCO 764
Revamped Newark Terminal C Food & Dining + United Club
Since I didn't have anything to do the day of leaving and given the time with the tunnels heading towards the airport I decided to take the train from Penn Station. I had only done this twice before when I was going to/from Montreal with just a duffle bag and then when I had to go out to Terminal B for my Global Entry interview.
I took a taxi to Penn since I didn't want to bring my suitcase on the subway and this was the first time I was in one of the new boxy London-esque cabs which have a big giant sunroof.
I guess I forgot how quick and easy it can be (and $15 instead of $65-$70). I have taken the subway to AirTrain to JFK once and I wasn't as fond as that. I wanted to check out some of the restaurants at EWR C as they have been overhauled by a new food vendor. When I was there the other week before flying to Telluride it was in the morning so I only visited the Cibo kiosks.
I arrived 3 hours before my flight and settled on eating at Saison which is in the C120+ section which used to be the steakhouse. Now it's a French-ish brasserie. All ordering is done from iPads, the service was pretty friendly, water and break were brought as I sat down. Ordering was easy and you pay when you order which is nice so you can get up and leave as quick as you want.
The food all tasted great, I would say the portions were about 30% smaller than I imagined. I had a roasted red pepper soup, beet salad and 1.5 glasses of wine (when you order wine it allows you to order an additional 1/2 glass then for about 35% of the glass price.
With 2 hours before my flight it was time to retire to the Cheese & Crackers Club by United so I could catch up on a few things on Hulu since I wouldn't be able to use it for a week.
Nothing to see here folks. At least from what I can recall it looks like they redid the chairs since they seemed to have much less wear and tear on them.
United BusinessFirst EWR-BRU sCO 777
It's usually fairly "easy" to find the confirmable upgrade space on flying in/out of BRU. Most of the times when I checked in the past it was sUA 777s which have the 2-4-2 "sardine can" seating in J but this would be a sCO plane that is 2-2-2 which is great so I could take a center seat and have undisturbed aisle access. Also took the front row in the 2nd cabin so I could have the larger footwell.
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This seatmap is from a few days before the flight but J still had a few empty seats, next to me as well which was great, the back of the bus had a several totally empty rows as well.
The crew was friendly enough, smiles and took coats but not particularly engaging. Pushback was on time thought before wheels up it was about 50 min backed up behind a line of other planes awaiting take off (we still landed in BRU early) with a flight time of 6.5 hours.
UA is giving out another set of metal tin amenity kits with destinations on them like they did last year on ex-US INTL flights...alas our flight didn't get them. But it looks like they have tweaked the existing kit a little with color piping on them and lining.
No new kit but color me happy that with the new EWR kiosks I can now buy Itoen green tea before my flights! I drink 1-2 of these a day...also kombucha which I had at the airport but I'm too afraid to take on the plane as it's already ready to burst from the fermentation.
I can't help but think of the Grace Jones song "I've Seen That Face Before" when it comes to this UA menu. I've had everything on it before but I decided to go for the chicken since it can be the more interesting option listed when done right...which it was.
I greedily ate the chicken, it was moist, the beans had flavor and the greens were great. I would have had seconds if offered. As for the rest of it there was a decent amount of prosciutto, the melon was sweet. Salad was lackluster. They had the ice cream sitting out on the cart for about 10 min while they did the cheese cart which meant when we got it they were already getting warm/soft.
I'm not a big breakfast eater so I can't cry over not having a hot breakfast of eggs and what not. But for me on this it was nice all the melon was ripe and not crunchy like honey dew can be in cheap fruit salads. The granola is crud but the yogurt isn't bad. They also brought around cinnamon rolls and croissant which I skipped.
Touch down in a still dark Brussels hoping I have enough time to properly visit The Loft and take a shower...