Think twice about using United miles to Australia
 

I had to vent about my experience with United from the US to Australia. It was absolutely miserable and I only flew United because I could go with miles. I just did this roundtrip route in November 2011 and I can report no improvements have been made since their CEO claimed a year ago that improvements were on the way. The seats and aisles are significantly narrower than United domestic flights. I almost wasted $175 or so to upgrade to economy plus and I'm glad I didn't as I noticed hardly any improvement in space. The absence of personal entertainment units was unacceptable, even if you have an iPad. I couldn't believe they played these violent movies with explosions part of the way. I was trying to sleep a few rows back from the large center section tv on the back of the bathrooms and I kept waking up to the large, bright flames - crazy they would show this. Worst thing was the rude flight attendants that BULLDOZED passengers down the aisle. I was stepped on TWICE with no apology by flight attendants walking faster than necessary up and down the aisle. There is absolutely nowhere to stand to stretch your legs. They tell you at the beginning of the flight not to stand anywhere in the aisles. Very dangerous with deep vein thrombosis risk. if you need to get something out of your bag and want to quickly lean out in the aisle to retrieve something, watch out for the flight attendants that step on you and yell at you to get back in your seat! You are glued to your seat for 14 hours straight. I'm used to finding a few empty seats together when i fly internationally, but I can report these flights were oversold (SFO-SYD) with not an empty seat each way. It's not worth it to use miles to go with United. Pay to fly Virgin or Air New Zealand instead.

next time use your United miles to fly Air NZ or Air Canada to Australia.

United 747s in economy are miserable, no news here...

I'll take the bait......

I agree that the overhead TV screen is horrible... BUT the UA 744's have always been that way and you can see that at seatguru.

Like Rank said... NZ or AC next time!

Just because every seat is occupied in economy-how does that make the flight over-sold?

Quite honestly a little research would have told you what to expect with UA on this route -and a little more would have shown you that you had options to use other carriers within *A too.

I think your suggestion is right on (avoid this trip in coach if you have alternatives). United's own CEO said as much a year ago, discussed at e.g. http://www.ausbt.com.au/united-conti...an-747-service :

He didn't announce specific product or timeline improvements, so you might think twice about making plans to fly this route in coach until you hear a timeline. For most merger-related changes, once UA has announced a date, they have stuck to it or beat it.

This is too late for the OP, but you can actually use United miles to book award tickets on other Star Alliance carriers. There are other options to Australia (for example Air New Zealand), and while availability can be spotty, it can be worth calling in to try to find help.

Of course not you wasted miles on a coach ticket!!!!!! That is a mortal offense on FT ... the gods of heck will punish you for this ... oh wait they already did @:-) .

UA C on that route is quite nice. Sure it is still on the stinkin' 747 but you notice it a whole lot less.

I don't understand people who 1) misuse miles for a long haul seat in Y and 2) choose a flight that has an aircraft with well-known shortcomings in Y.

If you aren't going to do some basic research, don't complain.

Feel better now OP? Welcome to FT. ;)

I'm thinking the only folks feeling better are the members that seem to enjoy putting down a first time poster. :td:

How about this. In 2009 I did Chicago - Hong Kong - Singapore six times, all in economy on the lovely 747. Company was being super cheap and forced us to use absolute lowest fare airline at the time so UA it was.

Like mentioned above, you don't have to look in the weeds very far to realize the Aussie/Asis routes on the UA 747 in economy is bottom of the barrell and that's being generous.

Of course I got screwed with a Singapore Air booking too. Had a low fare (I think Q) that got ZERO miles credited for an SFO-SIN routing. That cost me 1K that year......

The only enjoyable seat I know does not exist on ANY airplaine:D

The soft service and IFE on NZ is better, but I sure wouldn't want to take their 777-300ER in coach on a long haul. 10 abreast seats in a 777 and seat pitch looked tiny.

Can you expand on how much research you did before booking this flight? Seeing that you're a first time poster I'm curious if you read the reviews here or on other travel sites, and, with those clearly in mind, still decided to take your chances and book with UA. Have you flown the UA 747 prior to November?

I did a 747 last month LHR-SFO in the back of coach (no E+, even for a 1K) and can feel your pain. In my case, though, I had a Samsung tablet along that provided video to meet my needs, and didn't suffer as much as you did.

A quick reminder that the new NZ 77W product in Y is not any better - 10 seats across in the back.

Redeeming 67,500 miles for AC or NZ J for a hop across the pond, however, is excellent.

As no one else has said it, welcome to Flyertalk. You can get a lot of good information on this site. Lots of information about the dismal product of UA 747 in coach. Your thread title would be more appropriate if it said Think twice about using United miles in 747 coach as all the 747's are the same in coach and they go a lot more places than just Australia.

So read until your brain hurts and you will absorb a lot if good information. And ask questions. You also will learn to get a thick skin on Flyertalk as some just can't resist flaming people for things. But if you learn to ignore the negative there is a lot of good information here.

Welcome.

OP, you have now learned why most of us work at procuring Business Class or better.

BTW, UA 747's have a large area in the very aft of the Y cabin (storage galley) that can be used for hours of PAX physical exercise on long flights.