jonsha

I flew domestic first class for the first time in a while and...wow. I was almost shocked at how bad it was. This was a trans-continental overnight flight on United from SAN to EWR.

Years and years ago I remember being on a domestic first class flight with Continental. The meal they served was great...it was breakfast on a morning flight. They took special meal requests in those days. The service and comfort were great. This time around the experience was a lot different.

There were no pillows in first class and the flimsy blankets they provided were the same ones provided in economy class. The seats themselves looked like the same ones I remember from a long time ago. About an hour after takeoff the FA went around asking if I would be "joining them for dinner". Was excited to have a first class dinner but it was a single choice of a meat calzone. No other options. Seriously?? There is nothing first class about a reheated meat calzone. I wasn't interested but they said there would be breakfast next morning...great. But breakfast was a small muffin served on a tiny round plastic plate, 45 minutes before landing. FAs didn't even take drink orders with this tiny breakfast. I had to call the FA over with the button and the drink was served in a plastic cup. The FAs didn't walk by checking on the passengers throughout the flight. There was no entertainment whatsoever on the flight (i.e. no screens or private screening). The wifi did work well however. All in all it was quite disappointing. Is this typical of what first class is these days, or was my flight an aberration?

I feel like, with so much of first class being filled with non-payers these days, there just isn't much money in it for the airlines anymore.

PsiFighter37

If you read FT a lot, you will see that there is plenty of moaning and groaning about not getting CPUs into F. There are plenty of people paying for F, and with discount F fares being quite reasonable, there are going to be more.

(that's without even going into the TOD issue )

simmang

I agree with your assessment. I've been doing some long flights in 737 first class lately... broken, worn seats and dirty. Had some very sassy flight attendants the other day too. But I actually did like the calzone

bmwe92fan

I flew domestic F for the first time this year and can relate - used to be MUCH better experience than now - but then again my expectations are really low for UA these days....

PsiFighter37

I will say that I am surprised with the assessment, though. Last time I flew domestic F (EWR-PHX in late November), I had excellent food (lobster mac & cheese) and great service.

Next domestic F flight of meaningful distance I am flying (as of now) will be IAD-PDX...see how that one fares.

bmwe92fan

I flew two mid cons this week - both were dark 757's - the food was awful - and the service was incredibly indifferent - seems that inflight experience is totally up to the crew - and that is the issue with UA today....

Currently on UA 944 - had two PDB and service so far excellent - won't eat any food but at least the crew seems to care about their passengers....

Kacee

There are relatively few upgrades to F on United these days. F fares have lowered so much, most of the seats are filled with paid customers.

Sounds like you were on a red-eye. Not surprising the meal choices were minimal. That's not really a flight where most passengers are interested in a full meal. UA is actually doing reasonably well these days with their domestic meals on mealtime flights.

Agree though that the absence of pillows and the tissue-thin blankets are a disgrace.

MatthewLAX

Agree on all points.

mduell

"Years and years ago" must have been quite a while, since these are mostly classic PMCO gripes:
- No pillows and gauze blankets
- The "calzone"
- Inattentive FAs
- IFE-less cabins and their deployment on tcons

Also breakfast on a morning flight (first meal of the flight) is typically much better than pre-arrival breakfast.

bmwe92fan

You know what - it's time to let the pmCO and pmUA junk go / it's all on UA now / nostalgic reasons for current awful service is getting old...

mduell

The whole premise of this thread is nostalgia about what domestic F was like years and years ago!

It is all UA now, but that doesn't change where various (dis)service elements came from.

bmwe92fan

Agree / but the fact remains UA owns the service now - and it's a sad statement that things are worse now than 3 years ago / no matter what your affiliation - pmCO or pmUA - as Someone who didn't start flying UA until three years ago ths whole UA versus CO thing is a total joke....

Bruin1K

As someone who signed up for my mileage plus and one pass account the same day and has no bias towards either side, I gotta say I am getting tired of pmCO people nagging all the time. Some act as if all the downgrades have to do with united taking over continental's system. Truth is the only thing united is the name and that's it. SMI/J and the rest of his crew are the ones changing everything and none of it is pmUA.
Btw, my hub is IAH so my sample size of pmCO naggers is very large!!

RandomBaritone

Hear, hear.

OP, you happened to fly perhaps the worst possible route and schedule for F service. Why start a thread called "What happened to domestic first class?" with a sample size of one?

Perhaps a better title might have been "Which routes would provide more luxurious domestic F service than a SAN>EWR redeye?"

Answer: all of them.

Kacee

Maybe we should start a new thread: Worst UA Routes in a "Premium" Cabin.

The ANC routes would have to be included, as well as any Hawaii route on a 753 or dark 739.

For international, how about EWR-BOG on a 737, which is - inexplicably - GPU-only.