United's second class first class
 

I had a business class ticket paid by a client from Hong Kong to SFO and thought maybe I would upgrade myself with miles and quite a bit of $$s to fly Global First for the experience. What a joke.

This was no better than business class and in some cases worse. First of all, it appeared (from the online upgrade list) that I was the only one who stupidly paid for my upgrade. Everyone else in the section got upgraded from business for free.

Anyway, upon arrival, it was discovered that the overhead bins are smaller than business class. There was no space for my single carry on. Eventually the flight attendant found a space way back in business class. So I had to walk back there everytime I needed something.

Second, I saw that they had an excellent French champagne they were pouring. I waited my turn until the flight attendant came to me and asked for a glass. By then the bottle was empty. She said they only had one bottle and that if I wanted champagne I could have some from the business class champagne - which was far inferior. Nice.

I observed a French gentleman next to me request that his beef tenderloin be served "rare". The flight attendant said she would do her best but all the food was "precooked". When the dish came the poor man couldn't stomach it and got nothing else in its place.

A lady near me traveling with a small infant asked for some soft food for her child and was told that they had none. She was then informed that if she used up her breakfast congee then she could have nothing for breakfast.

When I asked for slippers I was told United only has that on the Tokyo routes.

In all, this is far away from what one would expect for a first class experience on a major international flight. Its a big mistake to ever pay for it.

So, aside from these issues, how did you find the seat and in-flight entertainment system?

Hey, Jeff has to make money somewhere and since he won't cut his salary he has to cut something and we all know that is the product/experience for the customer. Sorry you had to expience what we have all come to expect on the "New UNITED".

And what were the problems that actually mattered?

I think this has been covered pretty extensively here. That said, it seems that the experience in UA F is extremely inconsistent and almost completely dependent on the given crew. The hard product isn't quite at the level of the "heavy hitters" (SQ, etc.), but it is still quite nice, IMHO.

Do you remember if your crew was HKG-based? If so, then I'm surprised, as I find the HKG crews to be almost uniformly in the "very good" category.

Anyway, I haven't flown in GF in about a year but have two TPAC segments in it this week (ORD-NRT and HKG-ORD), so will be interesting to see how it goes.

Not really sure why you're surprised, plenty of reports found here will outline just how not-special "global First" is.

Beef tenderloin served rare?
No seriously.
Has this person never had airplane food before?


Also,
this is a USA based airline's first class product - what the hell were you expecting?

For the most part staffed with HKG based crews unless they are short crew in which case they will roster from SFO.

If you think GF is bad, wait until you try Business"First". You'll have 50% less personal space. Meals are smaller, wines are worse, service is delivered assembly line style.

In the mid-2000s I frequently got medium rare tenderloin ex IAD in business, especially on 747s. At the same time I knew to avoid getting it ex FRA where it was and still is extremely well done. I rarely (pun intended) see tenderloin on the menu ex-USA these days.

I'm not a United apologist. There's no question that service on Asian carriers in F would be far superior. That said....

1)Not sure how you determine that the other upgrades were free. The passengers may have used miles/ GPU's etc.

2) It's true that there is less overhead bin space in F on the 747 than in C. It sounds like you may have had a larger carry on than what could fit easily near you. I'm curious as to why you didn't remove all the things you thought you would need and store them in the many storage areas by the seat.

3) Food and drink. UA def needs to improve here. I get annoyed that there isn't a default vegetarian option.

I'm curious as to what airline actually cooks, over an open flame, meals onboard to request? I'll admit, food has become more institutionalized over the years, but seats have become far more comfortable exponentially. The chateaubriand had center pieces that were more rare than the ends, but they didn't cook rare, med rare, and well done versions even in the peak of inflight service. But in those day your IFE was a pneumatic tube with at best, a pull down single screen in the center of the cabin. Your seat reclined maybe 30 degrees, with no foot rest and limited space. Yet those are the "glory days". The glory days weren't so glorious. They had better food and shorter skirts with younger flight attendants. That's really the only better thing. Frequency/routings, comfort, IFE, have all improved by leaps and bounds, and the price can still be a bargain. IME, it's smoke and mirrors. Reality and perception have changed. In the 70's so few traveled, let alone 1st class. Today, the unwashed masses travel, and some of them even can afford to upgrade. Galley size has remained constant. There is only so much you can do with limited space, limited, weight, and limit technologies. Today, we have convection ovens. 30 years ago we had a hot plate.

I feel your pain, but let's look at the technologies employed, what regulations impact them, and what one is giving up in exchange for them. Other than a few extremely expensive uber-suites on a few select carriers, the space, the technologies, and the costs are all pretty competitive. No one in the sub $15k/direction is pampering above anyone else. Delivery differs, but the complaints you have aren't impacted much by delivery, but by technologies and space, and again, they are all on the same generation of what each carrier allocates to each of those.

You learned a lesson. Be in C or F, they both have the same cooking technologies, the seat and space in F is better than C, the meals can be better, the IFE is similar, the service in F is more personalized than C, the lunge for F is better than C. You had issue with the size of the overhead space. I'm betting cubic feet/passenger of total space given to F is greater than C as most seats have individual storage spaces that may not accommodate a fully packed roll aboard, but will most likely accommodate the items you will use in flight. My guess is you were on a 747, where the aircraft nose tapers and narrows as you approach the radome. Seatguru.com may tell you the advantages and drawbacks of individual seats as the bin space and personal storage space is impacted differently based on your actual seat. Upper deck on 747 has side storage space that isn't big enough for a roll aboard, and no personal space/seat, and the bins are small. If you are in a window upper deck you have too much side storage, if in an aisle, you have none. Seats differ, research your needs.

As to a free UG for everyone else. Not likely at all. Just think, there might have been someone who paid straight F who felt insulted that you were able to UG for miles and cash vs pay what he/she paid. It's all about perspective when you look at it relative to you vs neutrally.

Thanks, that's what I thought. Actually, after re-reading the OP's post, it seems that the issue was catering shortcomings, not crew indifference/poor service.

I think the "suite" seat only in Global First is the only reason to buy/upgrade over Business First. The UA legacy planes are awful in the BF cabin.

All airlines food are "precooked". The flight attendants reheat the meal in the oven. I don't know any US based airlines equip their planes with grills on board.

One thing I found interesting is that trans Atlantic flights prepare the beef 'rarer" than trans Pacific flights. Is it because of the regional preference?