JDT1955

I was on 977 last night, DOH-DXB-IAD and overall quite nice with very good sleeping (from Turkey to past Greenland). A few observations:

1) When an almost empty 777 takes off with full thrust, it blasts off like an F-16. FAs said we were airborne after just 1000 feet of runway in DOH. Quite fun.
2) FAs baffled out of DOH. One said no champagne as UA doesn't stock alcohol for DXB-DOH-DXB turn, then purser apologized profusely, said it was a one-time mistake, then FA#1 discovered champagne HAD been stocked for business class, so ultimately no harm, no foul, but not confidence inspiring...
3) Food DOH-DXB was a joke, sandwich wrapped in plastic, which I skipped.
4) Too bad we can't just stay on the plane in DXB, but no, went through two pretty compulsive security screenings, where an ancient, nonfunctional laser pointer was confiscated ("Laser pointers are not allowed!", I learned).
5) Long way to the Senator Club, which was overcrowded and really not worth the hike since I only had 15 minutes there and this put me in the back of the loooong line (premiere line being as long as the other one) for secondary screening where every bag was opened and everyone was swiped in multiple places for nitrate residue (not sure if this is greater screening than usual).
6) DXB-IAD was fine, with great FAs, friendly and engaged and younger than I'm used to seeing in GF. Take-off was quite a bit slower than from DOH!
7) Food was OK but not stunning, served around 2 AM: Salmon cake appetizer with tomato and feta lattice with mint mayonnaise; roasted onion and lentil soup; mixed-green salad with vinaigrette; grilled fillet of red snapper with lemon dill sauce, Lyonnaise potatoes, peas, and pumpkin (better than the usual fish in flight, but not as flavorful as its description); cheese with port; and the usual ice cream.
8) Turn down service was not offered and I forgot to ask for it, so not sure if it was available or not. My wife and I had this on HKG-ORD a couple weeks ago, which made a comfortable sleep even better. Last night I was so tired from a long day that I just crashed after dinner, didn't move from Turkey to off the Norwegian coast, turned over and slept til almost Labrador.
9) Breakfast was better than usual, with a "jardiniere omelet" (filled with fresh veggies), Anna potatoes and (non-pork) sausage link.
10) IAD UA REALLY needs to step up their game, as a) no premiere line in security after customs (no prob today, but very glad to have Global Entry), b) IFL doesn't open until 7:30 with 4 flights arriving around 6, c) no showers ANYWHERE.
11) But the REAL eye-opener yesterday was my two hour flight JED-DOH on QR, where I had the BEST meal EVER on a plane. Appetizer and salad were fine, better than GF, but my main was transcendant, "herb crusted lamb chops with roasted tomato sauce, wild mushroom and morels khichdi, and stir fried sesame beans" designed by two-Michelin-starred Indian chef Vineet Bhatia. FAs were very apologetic for no wine per Saudi law. Now I understand why so many tears were shed when UA and QR got divorced!

FlyerBeek

I believe I had the same crew in GF flying IAD-DXB on Saturday night and they were great! Probably the best and friendliest UA crew I've encountered. They mentioned they overnight in DXB for two nights and fly DXB-DOH-DXB in between before returning to IAD.

Agree with your comments on IAD arrivals. What frustrates me is that they cram all the folks terminating in DC - including the flight crew - into a single people mover, which often means it can take up to 30mins after gate arrival just to get into the immigration/customs area. They really should have a dedicated people mover just for those seated in F and J.

-FlyerBeek

rankourabu

People dont realize how sub-standard UA (and all other North American) premium cabins are, until they fly with a really good foreign carrier. a few times.

malgudi

How difficult is it to make your own "bed"?

glx

Turn down service includes a mattress pad and sheets, so yes, it might be hard to make those from scratch.

star_world

This is why FAs are FAs and not pilots Just under 4,000ft at an absolute minimum when empty, more in DOH due to the higher temperature.

http://www.boeing.com/commercial/air...sec3charts.pdf

1015-1k

The mattress pad is provided upon boarding and convenient to apply whenever one chooses. Are there sheets I'm not aware of? Sorry, but put me in the camp that thinks requesting a special turn down service is pretentious if not downright awkward in mid flight.

On a side note, as one who tosses and turns in sleep, I find the mattress pad to be cumbersome, ending up in a tangled mess with seatbelt and duvet.

glx

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/united...193500804.html

" Upon request, crew members will position the cushion, duvet and pillows within the flat-bed suite for customers. "

Rpcfly

I couldn't disagree more with this. It's part of the service that's offered. I guess you haven't flown many SE Asian carriers that offer this. I'm certainly not needy by any stretch of the imagination and think that UA is trying to catch up to their competitors when it comes to "real" first class service. JAL has a great tempurpedic cover in their F product and I'll take anything over laying on the seat alone to try and sleep on a 12+ hour flight.

5khours

I actually think there is a lot of low cost stuff UA could do to improve F including mattress pads/ turn down service. That said, I do think UA has a pretty comfortable seat/bed in GF, which for me counts a lot.

highflier1979

IMHO, the GF seat --which is very important -- is the only thing United has going for it. The rest of the First experience is sub-par....sadly.

chinatraderjmr

Flew UA internationally yesterday (Thursday) for my first time since I started boycotting them internationally in March. SFO-PVG. Hate to admit it but it was a very nice flight. F & C had 2 full crews (26 employees) dead heading to PVG so I was the only rev passenger in F & C was half rev, half crew, half God knows what . The food was nothing special but I was starving. Had the pork chop which was not bad at all. A few hours later I wanted a snack and the purser, who was really wonderful offered to cook a whole other meal for me (they had extras). Had the Mongolian Beef. The turn down service was nice & the crew was VERY attentive throughout the whole flight. In fact, if it was not for the cheap liquor, I could have been on BA & would not have known the difference.
(What's with the new F amenity bag. It's very nice, not typical,UA at all)

All & all, glad I took UA over CX (because of price difference in F). I'm not saying UA is better then CX

Sulley

Glad you had a good experience. I love the new amenity kit.

Slowly but surely, things are getting better. Hopefully you'll want another UA experience soon?

5khours

Been in F on LH, SQ, TG, NH, and UA in the last month and while on average in flight service is better on the foreign carriers, when you get a good crew on UA the service (except F&B) is better than when you hit a bad crew on the other carriers.

1015-1k

Glx, I'm fully aware of the new mattress pad and turn down service offered. I watched as a fellow F passenger accepted this service. He stood up and waited there awkwardly while a FA layed down the pad that was provided to him in advance. He located the pad he had stored upon takeoff and handed it to her. Very odd experience. I just do it myself and avoid the weird ordeal. (Note that there are no extra sheets as you alluded to...it's just laying down a damn pad, unless there is some maternalistic tuck in going on that I'm not aware of.)

Then again, I'm one to not fully appreciate the hotel's turndown service. I can turn the corner of my own duvet and I never use the slippers. I do appreciate the extra bottle of water provided but they could just provide that at normal maid service.

Superfluous 'extra services' are more often a pain in the butt than they are worth and i'll stand by this one as being in that category.