how to make tpac y bearable
 

the current thread criticizing ua's tpac y product has got me thinking. given that:

1) most pax in non-gateway markets are limited to ua and nw, by virtue of price

AND

2) it's been established that ua is the better option, by virtue of its superior ff program

i have further resigned myself to the conclusion that i need to try to look past ua's weak points, take my seat, and let them take me for all i'm worth.

the thought of doing so makes me slightly queezy because my last flight, even with the extra legroom and the blocked center seat, was none too pleasent.

as such, my question to the community: how do you do it?

i already bring my own food and plenty of dvds, but i still have trouble tackling those intangibles (water requests greeted with sneers, the smell of third-rate breakfasts, lavatories that require excessive sanitation measures, etc).

i guess i can fly nh more often because, while i loose out on those bonus miles, i still get eqm. maybe the answer to this magical conundrum lies in those small bottles of chivas. who knows? but, i'd like to hear from those of you that have made peace with yourselves over that very large body of water that separates the us from asia.

I spend a lot of time in Y going from DEN to NRT and so far it hasn't killed me, however I do usually do whatever it takes to get a 777 through SEA and get aisle seats in row 17 or in the exit row. If I can make those happen, then I'm generally ok.

To be honest, I generally would prefer aisle seats in row 17 to a middle seat in Business! :)

Having done a lot of transpacs (usually IAD/JFK-PEK/PVG but now will be ORD-PVG -- all UA excpet one ANA PVG-NRT-IAD) I have a few pointers. One thing to note is that for those of us doing this for awhile I think the 777's make a huge difference and more to the point the routing should help. I am very excited that in a couple weeks I will take my first direct flight to China (ORD-PVG). I suspect (dearly hope) that cutting out the three to five hour connecting flight via SFO will be better. Consider my first PEK flight was: IAD-JFK-SFO-NRT-PEK. That was painful. So remember, it could be much worse routing wise.

First, NEVER, NEVER, NEVER drink the water on transpacs. It has been routinely shown to be unhealthy.

My biggest secret (and this helps with jet lag) is to NOT sleep the night before. Typically this has meant that I get on the plane and am out cold until we are past Japan (China bound -U.S.bound I wake up over Alaska). This works best with China./U.S. flights

Second bring a very good book. A page turner that can be engrossing. Think Jack Ryan, or anything else that will really take you in.

Three, burn your dvds to your desktop -- I am told this will help with battery life, which given that there is no empower in Y (unless I am mistaken!) battery life on a 13 hour flight is key.

Four, Avoid alcohol. While initially it will help you relax I think it will keep you from deep sleep, dehydrate you and expose you to infections.

Fifth (ok maybe this should be first or second), seat choice, seat choice seat choice. On the 747 I swear by 59B. Its really a better seat then most everything in E+ and you only have to sit next to one other person. Plus its almost always available even if you have no status, because the secret really isn't out. I am still not as familar with the 777 but will let you know about 17B in a couple weeks.

my boss also swears by the way back because he claims noone else likes to sit there and the chances of having a pax-of-size seatmate are almost zero (the GAs don't want to make large folks walk all the way down the aisle).

however, since e+ usually comes with an empty middle seat, i have a hard time venturing elsewhere (unless someone hooks me up with an entire middle section).

The main advantage of 59B is you are more or less guratneed an empty seat next to you because of the curvage in the fusalge there is empty space to your left of about 1/2-3/4 of a seat, more then enough for a roll aboard.

On the 777 row 17 is great for pax-of-size defense becasue the arm rests can not be raised.

Sleeping pill and ear plugs (or good headphones).

I usually always board early to get some overhead space, put my rollaboard up, and take out a comfortable change of clothes and duck into the bathroom to get changed. I fold my "nice" clothes and pack them up top. I take out my sleeping pills, book, headphones, eyemask & earplugs. Sit down start reading and wait for takeoff and drinks/dinner.

I have a few drinks, and take the sleeping pills at the end of dinner, put the eyemask & earplugs on and plan on waking up 2 hours out for breakfast! This has saved me form the real horrors of QF & UA Y on SYD-LAX/SFO and vv runs. The 8-10 hours of sleeping is key, if you do not want to be jetlagged when you get there. I would like to wait a little longer for breakfast, since it is served at around 3-4am SYD time in that direction, which makes C a little nicer since they serve it later, closer to 5am. After breakfast, I duck back into the loo with my nice clothes and toiletories. I wash up, re do my hair and change clothes. Just doing so makes you much more presentable on arrival...although it would be nice if they had an arrivals lounge in SYD :(

The water's fine. You don't see people routinely getting sick from it.

That only applies to water taken from the onboard storage tanks. If they are serving bottled water (which they will do until they run out, and they have yet to run out in First or Business on my transpacs), you're fine.

1)Buy a pair of Bose QuietComfort 2 headphones. They'll run you $299 direct from Bose and are well worth the investment. You will be amazed at how much less stressed you feel when you have pleasant white noise in your ear instead of loud engine/air/cabin noise that just gets to you after a while. Plus, your movies and audio will sound much better.

2) Avoid the 747 in coach where you can in favor of the 777. The latter is much more spacious, both in terms of leg room and seat width.

3) Drink plenty of water.

4) Sleep. If you deliberately do not sleep the night before, then make sure you that you do sleep a lot on the flight. Otherwise, you will be a colossal wreck upon arrival. And that applies no matter which class of service you're flying.

Happy travels!

If you don't mind looking funny (which I don't), you can sleep better by using ear plugs, an eye mask, and a flu mask.

I agree with most of the suggestions. My main way of passing the flight is sleep. Do what ever you need to do to fall asleep. Comfortable (loose) clothes, take your shoes off, eye mask. try to relax and not be stressed. Be excited about where you are going.

You may be right, but then I have heard enough rumours of FAs refilling water bottles from the tanks when they run out. Does this happen in F or C? I doubt it but the post was about Y. But then I am probably over cautious and paranoid.

Re headphones. I have never tried the Boise NC -- the price, and more importantly the amount of space in my carry on scared me away, but I have been very happy with Sony's in ear fontopia. They don't have noise canceling but they seal the ear blocking enough noise that you can watch movies at about half volume (instead of full). They also cost less then $50.

http://www.sonystyle.com/is-bin/INTE...DREX51LP%2fWHI

The bottled water is fine. The stuff out of the the little fountain in the back has bee nshown a lot of times to be pretty bad (on all airlines)

I know - I'm familiar with the studies. I still don't think it's a health risk.