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Flight: UA49 IAD-LAX
Date: 10/3
Class: F

My last trip was on CO and it was fine, but I'm really glad to be back on UA. For me, the grass was NOT greener on the other side.

So after a restful night in a fantastic Hyatt Grand Bed, and a free diamond elite breakfast buffet, I headed back to IAD to get back to LAX so that I can get back to SFO so that I can go to BOS

My Upgrade cleared - yaay.

Was offered PDB of choice, but drank OJ anyways cuz it was morning.

Nice old man sitting in F requested to FA that channel 9 be turned on. Captain came out, said hello and chatted a little, shook hands, gave him 757 trading cards and said he'd be happy to turn it on. A few minutes later, it was on.

Hot nuts and beverage of choice shortly after takeoff.


Another FA began taking meal choice preferences. Started with 1CD back to 6CD, then worked her way up to 1AB. I've never seen this before. I was in 2A but got my first choice. FA ADDRESSED ME BY NAME (hasn't ever happened to me before - done about 20 transcons this year...)

Hot Towels were distributed.

After hot towels picked up, linens distributed (CO didn't do linens for some reason, although the tray had one on it) and lunch was then served.


Asparagus soup - delicious
Steak salad (steak heated up) - good
Roll (crusty on the outside, soft inside, warm) - good
BUTTER served with roll (unlike my recent flight in F on CO with NO butter or even spread!)
Cheese/nut/dried apricot plate - okay to snack on during the movie
carrot cake (served after lunch tray cleared) - better than usual, not dry, good!


Warm cookies and milk (served about 1 hr before landing) - YUM!


FAs did an excellent job on this flight! After the meal service, two of them rested in the galley at a time, but they made sure that one of the three of them kept checking to make sure drinks were full, service items picked up, etc. the WHOLE TIME. They also came around with iced water 2 or 3 times, and did a second beverage of choice service before landing.

The aircraft including the lav was surprisingly clean. This seems to be a trend lately.

The movies this month are TERRIBLE!!! But if you have trouble sleeping on planes like I do, watch the movies - they will put you to sleep very nicely.

We arrived early at LAX.

Thanks for the great report. From what I've read about CO, I don't plan to shift much travel there after 10/27. I'll always favor UA when feasible (especially given E+); CO is just the first backup ahead of US now.

I've been noticing this lately, too. ^ P. 14 of October Hemispheres has a piece on leather seats and other alleged improvements, including that UA have doubled the frequency of deep cleanings.

Thank you for your detailed report.

I realise that this is the pinnacle of service on an American domestic flight but it does demonstrate just how woeful standards are in the USA. Compared with comparative length and cost of similar flights in most of the rest of the world it really does sound dire doesn't it?

^ Ua's been much better lately. The food has been--gasp--tasty!

I do think the amount of effort UA is putting in has gone up. Normally the cake is so bad I take one bite at most and then don't want any more. The carrot cake was actually pretty good - esp. the cream cheese icing.

The soups on all my UA flights have been absolutely delicious.

Though the steak salad was not a very ambitious menu choice, it was executed well. The steak was cooked medium rare, and was tender and juicy!

I hope this trend continues. I have two p.s. roundtrips this weekend.

You all realize, I hope, that in saying nice things about UA you will shortly be visited by a horde of locusts brought down upon you from all of the UA bashers on the Mileage Plus board, right?

I've noticed the same thing over the last 6 months - the planes are cleaner, the food is better, and the cabin crew much nicer. Whoever is pushing these improvements, thanks!