mkrecek

While I still enjoy the A380, when flying on the upper deck, you forget that there is an entire lower deck below you. (I have to admit that I love the tail camera, especially when they have it on for take off and landing). On the 747 upper deck, the bins are smaller, yet you know you are in a very special part of the plane. (Those side bins are awesome. I have everything I need at my fingertips.) The upper deck is something to aspire to. In 1986 from Chicago to Paris, I was flying with my parents and the flight was overbooked, so they put us on Air France upper deck. It was economy, which in 9th grade, was the only think I ever flew at the time, yet it was the most amazing experience ever.

The nose is something to aspire to also. You arrive at your destination before the pilot does. You almost have a forward view. On my Bangkok - Frankfurt F class flight on Thai (not the new closed off F seat), I felt like I was a part of a shared experience with a select few other people enjoying caviar, Dom Perignon, and the one of many meals we ordered. I wasn't just looking out my window, but I could clearly see out of everyone else's window as we were taking off. You are among the super-elite of the world...likely mostly upgraders and FAs.

Airbus missed the ball on this one. They had 27 orders for the freighter version, yet lost them all to Boeing 747-8 because A380 does not have a nose that lifts up.

To get an appreciation of the 747, be sure to watch Koyaanisqatsi (Life out of Balance): 1:02 - 3:35 (Music: "Vessels", which I often play when talking off on the 747) The scene was shot at LAX.
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x37...els_shortfilms

rmadisonwi

That's not true.

The orders were from FedEx and UPS, neither of which have ordered 747-8s. The A380F was cancelled because Airbus was struggling with getting the passenger A380 into service and thus needed to focus their engineering effort on fixing a lot of the problems (IIRC, mainly due to wiring) for the passenger version.

While the 747F's nose loading capability is a nice feature, I don't know that too many carriers actually use it.

Definitely love that movie. I only found that movie because it was available on Hulu a few years ago, and the screenshot they used for the movie showed an old plane (maybe a 707 or 727?) at LAX, which got me curious enough to click on it and watch it.

The two UA 747s taxiing during the airport scene (which, as I recall, is the longest single uncut stretch of video in the movie) really outlines the beauty of the plane.

Madone59

That livery was my favorite!! I think New UA needs to have some retro planes.

mkrecek

I was going to ask about this, but presumed I was right.

It was colorful, bright, and friendly. "Fly the Friendly Skies!"

Under Tilton: Global First cabin is silver,grey, and cold, like Tilton was in my opinion. So was the plane: Battleship Grey.

Under Smisek: Bland livery, bland blue thin seats; like "United Club", "United.com Club", bland blue carpet, GF boarding pass with Global First in small print like it is no big deal, and boarding with 1/2 the plane in group 1. Oh, and Rainey telling everybody why fly Global First, it's just a slightly bigger seat with the same bland "Old World" "New World" wines.....and the list goes on and on...and on! "uhh, we're friendly too!" Why fly on a unique 747 when you can fly on a bland 737-777. Society continues its path toward a number-crunching / soul numbing path of THX-1138.

MostlyUA

Oh boy!

I am going to miss the 747. I first rode in one back in the early 70's when we flew to Honolulu. My parents were in the 1st class, and the kids were in economy. We were invited to go upstairs(!) and watch the adults smoke and drink.

cerealmarketer

Let's be clear - all that's changed about the actual GF experience since the merger is we now have bedding on the seat, but lower quality wines. The meal service is substantially the same, the planes are same, the crews are the same, and there's one less First lounge in LAX, offset by one gained in LHR.

I love that old Sunset livery - especially on the 747 - wish there was a retro version - but unfortunately what went on inside the cabin wasn't all that magical.

Very telling comment after the story below from someone who flew UA after it took over the Pan Am Pacific routes

http://airwaysnews.com/blog/2016/02/...acific-routes/

(commenter is referring to the UA experience in the mid-late 80s)

"Via the Pan Am swaps, exchanges, sales and other devices, United certainly expanded into a world wide carrier - and quickly.

So, why did United quickly become even less effective (think: profitable) on long-haul international routes?

IMO, it was - and remains - the result of truly horrible, ineffective in-flight services. For the most part, the cabin crews did not give a twit, many aircraft flew in truly filthy condition, even 'front end' food was horrible, IFE systems (marginal in the best of conditions) rarely worked and **many crews made it perfectly clear that they did not care**. Again IMO, many of them still do not care and it shows.

Many, including me, simply quit or when not possible, migrated to foreign carriers; I did and I was shocked by the improvements."

United_727

My only 747 flight was July 4,2004 ORD-LAX . Good old battleship colors . I remember the seat in Y was like sitting on a rock . The overhead monitors were barely watchable . I booked this flight just to get on the 747. I remember thinking to myself how awful a LAX-SYD flight in Y would be .

mduell

When was that a 757 heavy route? What portion of the flights are now in the schedule are 73G?

Do you have any evidence to support your fantasyland assertions? I spent a good bit of time debunking them already in this thread.

In a way I suppose you're right. At least one time a sUA 757 flew DCA-ORD, and at least one time in the future a UA 73G will fly DCA-ORD. The CO 1999 playbook is complete!

RCyyz

Retiring the 747 fleet was inevitable. But I'm sad about this. I've always felt the 747 is a special bird with that big, beautiful hump up top. Undoubtedly the A380 is a more technologically advanced airframe but to me, there's always something very special about the 747.

In a lot of ways, it seems that LH will be the last of *A to fly the 747. But since they didn't buy very many of the 748, I suspect that the end of 747 for all of *A will come sooner than I want!

LASUA1K

The 757 back in 99-09 was very common on ORD-DCA, LGA.

UA_Flyer

Don't forget Air China's 748s are newer than the LH birds.

artvandalay

+1. UA is an airline that can be very useful for business travelers...if their flights were more reliable. On the other hand, their 747s--with the (perceived) "burden" of a first class cabin--don't fit. The passing of this airplane and the absence of a true replacement not only validate this, but also the destiny of three-cabin service on US carriers. (DL made this decision years ago with Leo Mullin. AA is taking a little longer.)

I'll mourn the passing of the 747, but I note with pleasure they lasted longer than Smisek.

halls120

LOL, ^^

Michael D

How many CEOs last as long as a 747?

No plane has to have a first class cabin. Maybe the cost of refurbishing the plane sans first class shortened its life.

There are just not enough people willing to pay for international first. Rainey's statement re first vs business (the same) was true albeit a stupid in a PR or sales sense. More money will be made with additional international business seats and coach seats. That's it.

mduell

Most of those years they weren't even averaging one PMUA 757 day DCA-ORD, and never averaged two or more a day. I don't see how you can reasonably call that "very common".

The delusion is strong in this thread about where PMUA was deploying 757s.