I had the pleasure of taking a first class reward trip to Melbourne at the end of January, starting off at JFK.

Flew the premium service to LAX and it was an absolute pleasure - ok seats are not the best F seats in the sky but all said and done the service was superb.

And you get the choice of movies for the in-seat video player. Food was far in excess of what I had come to expect from United, in some ways better than on the onward flight to Melbourne and had the sundae. It was actually on a par with Continental's service to EWR from LAX and I found that to be excellent.

I was also offered the box of Godiva chocolates to take away with me - who says being 1K has no perks.

Interestingly, I flew back from LAX in F to IAD on a 747-400 that had come in from the Pacific - service was again first rate, and there were fresh cookies. If only all F flights were like this.

I cannot comment on what its like to be in C on these flights as I have not tried it yet, although if my final segment for later in the year doesnt clear, I'll let you know!