mobilebucky

Was on 895 HKG-SIN C 12/28, the map was on but is not active. on 876 SIN-NRT next morning, the map was turn off on 772 but the movie works fine. No crazy check-in procedure at either HKG/SIN either.

iluv2fly

SYD-SFO today.

You (almost) would never have known anything happened.

The only difference was that, as was described before, the map did not update. It was at 00:00 the whole time and showed the little plane at SYD. And no Channel 9.

Other than that, no extra, drama-filled announcements whatsoever. No being seated any longer than usual. Breakfast was served around an hour before landing. Could have personal items and pillows/blankets at your seat the whole trip. Could use the lav right until the final seat belt sign went on (~20 minutes before landing).

Extra security at the gate upon entering the plane, but there were lots of personnel there to do a rather quick and cursory bag check but full wanding. There was elite and non-elite security lines at the gate, so it went rather quickly.

1P

Yes, but the only airlines observing it were BA and VS. The United website has within the past few hours added a note that effective December 31 flights from London will have a one-bag limit too.

dcshungu

Came back last night from SJU on US metal although booked the award travel through UA all in US O class except for one UA XF. LGA->CLT->STT->SJU (12/26), then SJU->CLT->LGA (12/30). Going in, I had checked my bag to be free to spend 4 hours in STT before going to SJU, but coming back I did not check anything in. It was business as usual. Line was long for everyone else but as a *A Gold and in US First I could use the privileged line and was through in less than 15 minutes with my carry-on that was not opened and checked at all.

SJU is not exactly intl, however, it shows that the hype was really muchado about noth'n, as it was exactly the same thing as I did a month ago to BGI on US.


Cheers!

harry5198

Was on YVR-ORD yesterday. No laptop bags were allowed. If you wanted your laptop on board you had to carry the actual machine .

The secondary screening was very intrusive. His hands examined all over.
It really should have been done behind a privacy screen.

Boarding went quickly since no carry ons were allowed

Once on board, it was a normal flight, except no channel 9

PTahCha

A bit late to the party, but partly because recovering from the trip.

Flew LHR-ORD on 12/28 in C. At check-in, the agent informed us of the potential on-board security requirements, including in-seat requirements during take off for the first 2 hours, as well as 1 hour prior to landing. Special tags were given for hand luggage.

The in-bound plane was late, but flight was further delayed, and they made special boarding announcements at the Star Alliance Lounge. Based on what I overhead while at the UA transfer desk to figure out our alternatives for connecting flights, they held off the boarding announcement for lounge passengers as long as possible so people can stew in the lounge longer, despite the fact that the board says "GO TO GATE ##" next to our flight. I thought that was a nice touch. ^

There was a long line outside the boarding area for secondary screening. Despite of instructions from BAA staff, there is a separate red carpet secondary screening line for GS, F, C, and 1K passengers. It's walled off, but once an UA agent came through and asked for F passengers, we waved our C boarding passes, and were ushered to the no-wait separate line. As mentioned earlier, LHR was enforcing 1 hand luggage rules, and there was a pile of gate-checked luggages with hand written tags. My bag was opened and swabbed for explosive residuals (presumably), and I noticed others had pat-downs, although I didn't receive one. At this point, there was no line in the boarding area, and people were getting on board one by one. The flight was delayed by 2+ hours.

There were no noticable changes to on-board service, other than Ch. 9 was off. The IFE was on, with airmap functional. No special restrictions on bathrooms, or any limits on movements after take off or before landing. In fact, the FAs were serving the afternoon tea snack meal 50 minute before landing (as indicated by the IFE). The only snafu was they didn't board clotted cream, and put liquid creamer on the trays instead. This made the British FA very upset. (her quote: "What the bleepy bleepy bleep is THIS?!?!". Note: this was not censored - she actually said bleepy bleepy bleep) I told her that it must've been a security risk to have clotted cream on board.

All of our bags arrived, and UA protected us on the later, oversold flight to LGA, and even protected the upgrade. ^

Clearly not true. Also, noticed they left out Air New Zealand off the list.

Hmm.. we probably crossed path in the *A lounge.

Umm.. what's your point? (which is also another rhetoical question)


Presumably, no US-flagged carriers fly to the US from EMEA through Asia? Alledged terrorists must suffer through the journey before becoming a martyr. Flying on an Asian carrier would defeat that purpose.

dfyant

Anyone know if you can carry your Bose Headphones in your hand (pocket) along with your laptop going Canada-US ?

1P

Well, well, well! So they can make boarding announcements in the *A lounge after all... Hmmm. All those We don't make announcements in this lounge 'welcomes' we've had over the past months since the change to T1 have evidently been nothing more than laziness.

This is good news. If they can do it now, why the heck can't they do it all the time?

I'll be experiencing this in 10 days' time. It will be interesting to see if they're still doing it by then.

ptr120

AMS - ORD on 28/12 moving map on all the way (on channel 9) & no unusual onboard procedures. Procedures in AMS all seemed normal too

ORDBound

Are you allowed to take reading material on the plane? Normal aircraft for this flight is a CRJ with most bags gate checked.

Will the bags normally gate checked need to be checked at the counter now?


213k in 2009/made GS

5khours

What about the swine flu over-reaction Spring last year where we got to sit for an hour on every flight after arrival in the plane while government bureaucrats in bio-hazard suits collected forms and took our temperatures.

bdschobel

Good counterexample!

Bruce

1KChinito

31 Dec 2009 NRT-LAX UA #890. Did not notice any difference except seat belt light came on one hour before arrival. PAXs were still using bathroom as before after the seat belt light came on. Map and channel 9 were both on as before.

pknegten

Yeah, like when I sneezed on the plane and the FA insisted I wear a sanitary mask for the rest of the flight.

Nexus888

Not sure if this is for all *A passengers, but the NZ Lounge in Sydney is now writing down the details of the people coming through.

Came in on UA839 on the 1st and everyone was recorded in a log book via pen.

NZ lady said Annie was informed over the phone about the change and was not too happy about it.

As for the flight, 1 Carry on reg size, 1 notebook backpack packed full (busting) got through IAD/LAX/SYD/MEL no issues, Channel 9 from LAX until HF zone and on landing, SYD-MEL on all the way, no sit downs, no extra security and was green stamped for the 2nd time in a row through the MEL side door.