dariust

OK, BEFORE I START MY TRIP REPORT, I JUST WANNA SAY THAT I FINISHED 90% OF IT AND I FORGOT TO SAVE IT AND BAM, EVERYTHING I TYPED WAS GONE WITH THE CLICK OF A BUTTON. >

Anyway ok... I'm just gonna let that go Hi guys! This is my first ever trip report online so please forgive me if I’ve failed to meet your expectations. Let’s begin! So basically, I’m in the Singapore army right now, since all of the guys have a mandatory military conscription of about 2 years. We have 14 days of leave a year and I decided to use about 9 of them for a trip to Hokkaido in Japan. So why Hokkaido? Well, Singapore is extremely hot and humid all year round, so I guess I needed a respite from all the heat. It’s winter time in Japan and Hokkaido being further up north, gets a fair share of snow during this season. I mean c’mon who wouldn’t want to see snow right??? In addition, the Japanese Yen hasn’t been performing well lately, so I was left with some convincing to do and YIPPEE, I was going to Hokkaido for my annual family trip. I’ve gone to Japan many times before but it was mainly to Osaka and Tokyo. This was my first time going to Hokkaido and I was SO stoked. Well, partly because I was going for a holiday, but mainly because I knew that I could try out a new airline. I’ve always collected airline memorabilia since I was young, so I was squealing with excitement when I thought of the possibility of collecting something new from an airline that I haven’t flown with before. So off I went hopping from one airline website to another, and these were the airlines that I had shortlisted:

1. One stop at Tokyo
- Japan Airlines - $800+
- All Nippon Airways - $800+
- United Airlines & Vanilla Air - $640
2. One stop at Bangkok
- Thai Airways - $630
3. Two stops
- Vietnam Airlines & Vanilla Air - $610

My parents wanted to take Singapore Airlines at first since there were chartered flights direct to Sapporo but I just couldn’t find the schedules of the flights on SQ’s website. I guess they were chartered for tour agencies and not for the free and easy travellers like us If we booked through SQ's website, it meant taking an SQ flight to Tokyo and then transferring to another Star Alliance carrier, which was ANA, to Sapporo, it would've cost us a whopping $1000+ SGD. So we sorta decided to go with ANA because I really wanted to try their Boeing 787 in the domestic configuration for the Tokyo to Sapporo leg but since my focus was on collecting memorabilia, I decided against it in the end and chose to go with the United and Vanilla combination. I’ve never flown on either of the carriers before and I thought it would be pretty interesting trying an American carrier that has the reputation of one of the world’s worst airlines LOL. The prospect of trying out a Japanese low cost carrier also appealed to me, and flying with United would save us quite a fair bit of Time since taking the Vietnam flight would mean stopping over twice, one in Hanoi/Ho Chi Minh and the other in Tokyo. So we booked our flights and YIPPEE we were off to Hokkaido. Oh yes, and why not Thai you might ask? I flew on Thai to Bangkok last year and i've collected their stuff already, so... yeah, no thanks

I tried to check-in online the day before but then I reached a page on United's website that said the flight could have been overbooked and they were looking for volunteers to give up their seats. In return, they would be giving free vouchers worth hundreds of dollars (I think?). Well, if I was a solo traveller going backpacking overseas, I probably would've clicked the 'OK' button, but nah not this time. "NO' it shall be Anyway, I tried checking in online using the United mobile app and failed. Either i'm a tech noob or United sucks. I hope it's the latter.

I woke up at 4am and left the house at 4.30am. We arrived at the world's best airport, Changi Airport, (Sorry I just had to say that. I'm a proud Singaporean. ) at 5am and then we waited for our relatives to arrive before proceeding to the check-in counter at row 1 of Terminal 3.

Flight: UA804
Origin: Singapore
Destination: Tokyo (Narita)
Aircraft type: Boeing 777-222(ER)
Registration: N228UA
Delivered: 14 February 2002
Class of travel: Economy

Before checking in our baggage, we got directed to self-service kiosks where we had to print our own boarding pass. There was a not-so-friendly lady at the kiosks assisting the passengers to check in since this was a relatively new feature. The last i've heard, only Jetstar, Air Asia, Silkair and Singapore Airlines passengers got to use this feature. Perhaps Changi Airport is rolling out dedicated self-service to more airlines. I don't know. But anyway, I found it pretty intuitive. So good job Changi ^




Star Wars display at Terminal 3


Grand departure entrance


Garuda Indonesia's check-in counters


Typical Singaporean breakfast. Half-boiled eggs!


Not forgetting kaya toast








Gate B6 for our flight today. We were sharing the same gate holding room with a Singapore Airlines flight SQ241 bound for sydney, that was a codeshared flight with Turkish Airlines as seen on the screen.


Hey pretty


Sorry I just had to take another picture of you


Nice nose you got there babe


Down the aerobridge!


Touchscreen IFE.

Alright, before I continue, just some first impressions. The IFE was responsive and screen quality was pretty good. Headphones provided were of a questionable quality, although I appreciated the fact they UA used rubber for the part of the headphones that cupped the ears instead of the usual ones which were made of sponge and sometimes are very scratchy. Although it was a pretty bad job at mimicking a noise cancelling headset, comfort-wise, good job UA


Head set


Close up of head set


Seat pocket contents


Head rest


9V-SWF in the distance


Either that dude is really tall or he's stepping on his seat. I guess it's the latter since he's Asian (That being said, i'm Asian myself, so uhm yeah i'm no racist. We all know how short we are.)




Oooh, look what we have in the background. An SQ A380 with the SG50 livery. I hope it comes in to park beside us.


And I guess my prayers were answered


Just look at that beauty and how big she is


And off we go


I like big butts and I cannot lie


Just checking the arrival information on the IFE


Bye baby








Liftoff!


Blue skies






There we were


I could see this view all day


UA's fleet


Time for some music

One gripe I have with UA's IFE is that their selection isn't as wide as on other major carriers like Emirates, Singapore Airlines, Cathay, etc. I couldn't choose a specific song by a specific artist. Instead, they were just grouped into categories. But that's okay. I expected worse from United




BREAKFAST. Sorry I love my scrambled eggs and this was just inedible. Bad job UA. The pastry on the top left hand corner was really horrible and tasteless too


Looked pretty good but nah




Approaching Kagoshima

So, 2 meals were served for this 6 hour ish flight to Tokyo. The first being a breakfast meal and the second being a small and miserable cold sandwich. Ok, the size of it was just appalling but it honestly tasted pretty darn good ^ Sigh I miss flying SQ. Next year, next year (Winks)


Hey little thing

So after the snack, I went to the lavatory and as I was waiting in line, this male UA crew started small talk with me and asked me where I was flying to and blablabla. So i told him I was going on a holiday with the family and then we started talking about the life of a cabin crew. It was literally the first time I talked to someone else on a plane other than my family members for a whole 30 mins or so. He told me he was earning close to $9000 USD a month and I was shocked. He was mid 40s maybe? But like, the idea of cabin crew earning that much money never ever occurred to me. Senior crew on Singapore Airlines don't earn that much too. He also told me how asian companies function differently from american companies and how asian companies are a tad rigid at times, while american companies are WAY more flexible. All in all, it was great talk and ive concluded that i'm gonna be working for an American company in the future We'll see how it goes. Another older Japanese female cabin crew started talking to me and I told her about my plans in Hokkaido and she gave me some recommendations on the places to visit. She was so friendly. Wait, no. EVERYONE WAS FRIENDLY. Then it got me thinking. Why is everyone hating on United??? Oh wait, then I realised. I was flying on an intra-asian leg of the flight with Japan-based crew. I mean, Japanese are extremely polite people in general, so I guess that's why the cabin service was so good and personal. I can't wait to try UA again on perhaps a domestic flight within America. I'm hoping it wouldn't be THAT bad as what the critics say. Fingers crossed!


Almost there!!!




Making a left turn


Sick view


And we're here


Touchdown! Smooth landing btw.


Second home of UA, since Narita is one of UA's hub.

To sum it up, UA wasn't that bad after all. Apart from pretty inedible eggs, really small food portions, lack of a menu, lack of a footrest, lack of an amenity kit in economy class, lack of playing cards, pretty average IFE system, seat that lacked a little lumbar support, it scored well in all other aspects such as cabin service, on-time performance, 3-3-3 seating in economy as opposed to 3-4-3 on other 777s, and... yeah I guess that's it for now. I would totally fly UA again if they offered discounted tickets. Thanks for reading guys! I really appreciate it I did a video report on this flight on Youtube too! Here's the link: . Please watch it and leave some feedback! Have a great day ahead! Wait for my next flight segment, Vanilla Air from Tokyo to Sapporo!

HangukStyle

Nice TR, but half-boiled eggs give me the creeps!

goodeats21

Nice report for a first time ^

The meals looked pathetic, but seat comfort is huge and so far all of United's 777 economy seats are 3x3x3...could be worse.

Hope you have a great time in Japan and see plenty of snow!

AirPanda

You reckon that UA eggs are bad? I can't say because I don't take UA. But, CX SIN-HKG Eggs were pretty damn bad. I MUCH prefer KA (Dragonair) catering out of HKG

dariust

Thanks HangukStyle! Ahah yeah they're kinda gooey

Thank you very much! Alright they weren't inedible. I guess I'm just a spoiled brat because I fly with Cathay/SQ/Thai most of the time

CX has HORRIBLE catering for a 5 star airline. Their meals are of meagre portions and of average taste I would say.

psychoandy

that sounds pretty bad!!! however, menu, playing cards (on a flight with personal IFE) and amenity kit in Y on a 6 hr day flight? seems a bit unnecessary. and i don't get the footrests...I had some in Y on a TG 77W, but it didn't make a whole lot of sense with a 32" seat pitch, barely had any room to move around.

at least UA doesn't fly 744s intra asia; IFE is terribly outdated on those.

AA_EXP09

or, you could have contacted me and I could have used award miles (SIN->Japan is only 30K AC miles round trip in C.)
(I used them instead for a RT to HK, which I know is cheaper than a typical trip to Japan.)

AirPanda

I also don't get what a footrest does in Y. I rather have more legroom.

dariust

Like I said, I've been pretty spoilt ever since I started flying as 70% of my flights were on SQ They provide menus and amenity kits even on regional 4 hour flights. I collect airline memorabilia for keepsake so I just found it disappointing that they didn't provide any playing cards, not that I needed to use them. Well, as for footrests I feel it's more of a personal preference kinda thing. I'm not very tall, about 5'7, so I didn't find the footrests eating into my leg space. And yes, thank goodness the flight wasn't a 747, although I would love to fly in one of their jumbos

Wow only 30K AC miles round trip in C to Japan??? Thanks crazy. Are you saying you would've sponsored my air tickets with your miles?

AirPanda

I never fly SQ, though from everything I've gathered, they're really good. Having just flown EVA Air (BR) Y - In a Hello Kitty Jet No Less!, I had no footrest, nor any amenity kits. Though they serve Calpis Water in Y. (My favorite drink, looks like the Taiwanese beat the Japanese). Beside, who doesn't like a Hello Kitty Drink Menu. The food menu, was however digital.

P.S. EVA Air is know for Liqeour in Biz, I found that there was White and Red Wine free in Eco. That being said, I don't know what was catered for the Kittey 773ER

dariust

In case you guys are wondering, my post mysteriously disappeared and i've resent the entire post to the moderators and I hope it will be up again soon. Sorry!

AirPanda

Wierd...

matthandy

This happens when you are a new member. Your first posts are checked by moderators before being approved and then showing up on the forum. This includes edits too. Hopefully everything is showing as expected now.

matthandy
Moderator: Trip Reports

djjaguar64

I have never seen anyone so excited about United, well, good for you that it was an enjoyable experience. Oh my the eggs, wanna make me puke, the smell must be awful. I prefer poached eggs.

caverunner17

What seat you were in? Looks like 35-36A?