Posted by Seth on May 11, 2012 under Flying, frequent flyer, points, Review, Trip Reports | 
I found it somewhat strange as I met folks in Puerto Rico last week; many of them wanted to know if it was my first trip to the island and I wasn’t really sure how to answer. Technically it was my third and it was the second time I actually managed to leave the airport, but it was still the only time I’d spent more than just a layover (the previous “visit” was about 3 hours in the middle of the night). Eventually I stopped trying to explain myself and went with the simple answer, that it was my first trip, but that seemed a bit like cheating. It did get me thinking about my previous trips, as well as the current one, and I realized that all three were flown on JetBlue. The first two were part of my All You Can Jet adventures a couple years ago and this time I had a choice – flights were pretty much the same price across a couple carriers – and I quite happily ended up on JetBlue once again.
Things started a bit ugly on Monday morning. The security line at Newark A2 was, as it often is at 7:30am, a complete mess. I could have splurged for the Even More Speed benefit from JetBlue but I managed to use my United elite status to get into the elite line. It helped a bit and soon enough I was inside security, ready to board If the Blue fits… for the 3.5 hour flight to San Juan. The line for departures was reasonably short and very soon after an on-time push-back we were on our way.
Booking on JetBlue I knew there would be no upgrades, something that I almost certainly would have received on United. Not a big deal for the short, daytime flight in general, and with the standard 34″ pitch on their A320s the JetBlue seats were plenty spacious for my needs. Plus, the snack options are way more fun on JetBlue; these were not the only two packs of Animal Crackers I had on the flight.
The flight was completely uneventful. I ate my snacks, read a bit and stared out the window at the Atlantic ocean.
Three hours later we were touching down at SJU, ready to get the week rolling.
There was a minor delay getting a JetBridge operator when we landed. Not a big deal at all as we were waiting on checked bags anyways and we had arrived early.
On the return flight I managed to tease myself a bit by taking a peek at the new JetBlue terminal at SJU. It is going to be a tremendous improvement from the existing facility when it opens later this month.
We successfully navigated the USDA inspection and the TSA process and shortly thereafter found ourselves in the rather Spartan gate area. This is, unfortunately, the one JetBlue focus city/hub where they do not offer free WiFi. Hopefully that gets fixed with the new terminal opening up. The good news is that we didn’t have long to spend in the terminal before we boarded our flight back to Newark.
A couple weeks ago JetBlue’s twitter account had mentioned a new feature beer in their service for the summer: Brooklyn Summer Ale. Given the opportunity to make friends with the flight attendants I rarely shy away and this seemed a perfect situation to play that game. While boarding was still happening I went back to the galley to see if they had actually stocked the new supply. It is a good thing I checked as they had it in the cart but it wasn’t cold. That could have been a disaster.
Seriously, though, it was a great ice breaker with the crew and we joked most of the trip back while I snacked away on cookies and beer – the sort of dinner that frequent fliers eventually come to know and love. Sure, I could have purchased one of the snack boxes for more sustenance, but they really don’t do much for me. I’ll stick with my empty calories, thank you very much.
Despite an evening arrival and weather in both San Juan and the Newark area the flight was, miraculously, on time. Shortly after wheels down I was in a car headed home; I was inside my Manhattan apartment only 45 minutes after we landed. Not bad at all.
For a few years now I’ve maintained that JetBlue offers the best coach class service. This trip further reinforced that notion for me. The product is simple but easy to deliver consistently and with a smile. The crew once again did that, making the few hours we spent together in the air fly by quite quickly and pleasantly once again. Yes, I gave up slightly more valuable points (though JetBlue is working on that to some extent with the upcoming partner opportunities) and I gave up the upgrade. I still had a great flight experience. Some days that’s really all that matters.
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Tags: Dining, elite status, Flying, frequent flier, frequent flyer, IFE, in flight, JetBlue, Newark, PaxEx, points, review, San Juan, United, United Airlines, upgrade
Posted by Seth on May 10, 2012 under Flying, Internet, News |
American Airlines announced that they are moving forward with a retrofit of their long-haul fleet, updating the cabin interiors to improve the premium cabin experience. Mostly. The upgrades will expand the deployment of the new business class product, previously announced for the 777-300s which the company will begin receiving later this year. It will also mean the removal of the first class cabin on those aircraft, continuing a trend in both the global and the US markets to limit the long-haul premium cabin offerings to select markets with demonstrated demand. The retrofits are slated to begin in 2014.
The new business class seats will be retrofit into the carrier’s 777-200ER aircraft and into a portion of their 767-300ER aircraft. The 767-300s which are not reconfigured will be retired from the fleet.
The carrier has also indicated that their Main Cabin Extra configuration, offering an additional 4-6″ of legroom, will be part of the redesign on the 763s and 772s. On the 772s there will be 5 rows of these seats, 45 of the 215 total economy seats. On the 763s there will be only two rows of Main Cabin Extra, 14 of the 181 total economy seats. Customers holding elite status in the AAdvantage program, as well as with oneworld partners, will have access to the MCE seats.
The new cabin configuration will also include major upgrades to the in-flight entertainment systems and in-flight connectivity options. The IFE system for the 772s has impressive spec’s. It will have roughly 700 hours of audio and video available, up to 120 movies, 180 TV programs, 350 audio selections and 30 games. In business class the screens will be 15.4″ while economy will have quite generous 9″ screens. All seats on the 772s will have 110V outlets and USB plugs as well.
UPDATE: AA has confirmed that the regular main cabin seats will be 3-4-3 on both the 777-200 and 777-300ERs, and without any extra pitch. That’s going to be quite tight.
The satellite-based WiFi service will allow for global connectivity for customers. That said, no vendor has been chosen for the implementation yet so there is plenty of time for the company to see how the various options in the market shake out in the coming months, particularly as others add similar service, to pick the correct product for their fleet.
The 763 refits will not include the new IFE systems; the company will continue to rely on personal tablets for business class passengers on those aircraft for the IFE systems. The 763s will also not receive the WiFi connectivity. Combine that with the very limited MCE seating and those might just become the aircraft to avoid in the American long-haul fleet.
I’ve read through the release now a few times, looking for some hint of a magic paragraph previously missed which makes the planned upgrades tremendous. I still cannot find it. The release has many exciting phrases like “among the first in the industry” and “Business Class suite.” These plans, unfortunately, seem to be mostly playing catch-up to the rest of the industry. The “new” business class seats are based on the same product that US Airways just completed deployment of on their A330 fleet. The IFE upgrades are great, assuming you’re on the 77s; the 763s, not so much. And the seating density of the new seats raises a few red flags.
Type for type, United will offer more premium cabin seats (admittedly not all with direct aisle access) and more economy seats with increased legroom., along with a comparable IFE and connectivity scheme. And United is rolling out the seating and IFE config this year, not starting in 18 months. Delta is similarly ahead of American in the offering, both in terms of timing and product.
I have to give AA credit for trying to build a buzz about the announcements. The press conference included a number of bloggers and other social media folks, trying to tap in to the newer venues for sharing such announcements. And the bit I managed to catch on Twitter suggests that it has worked in come circles. Still, the implementation of these changes are 20 months off. It is going to be hard to keep the buzz alive that long.
There is no doubt that it is increasingly difficult to both offer a top-notch product and to do so in a manner that allows a company to remain competitive in the ever-changing market. In this case, however, it seems that American is barely even able to play catch-up, much less leap ahead. And if this is supposed to revitalize the company, inspiring creditors to ride out the bankruptcy and see a strong future for the carrier I’m very concerned about their strategy. The phrase “too little, too late” comes to mind.
For a different, and somewhat more positive, take on the new seats check out Gary’s post here; he was at the event where they were unveiled.
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Tags: American Airlines, bankruptcy, Delta, Flying, IFE, in flight, internet, OneWorld, PaxEx, United, United Airlines, upgrade, US Air
Posted by Seth on May 8, 2012 under Hotel, Review, Trip Reports |
It is hard to know for certain that the room we had at the El Conquistador Resort near Fajardo, Puerto Rico is typical. I say that because the property is huge. It has nearly 1000 rooms scattered across several buildings and a number of different configurations to choose from on the website. We booked a "normal" ocean view room with two beds and that’s exactly what we got.
The front desk agent mentioned an upgrade due to HHonors Gold status; I believe that got us the balcony as not all the rooms I saw had those. Having the balcony was actually incredibly nice. We spent a decent amount of room time out there, listening to the ocean (and the incredibly loud funicular) and watching the days roll by.
We also received two free "welcome drinks" for the Gold status which ended up being just whatever we wanted at a few of the bars on property rather than some specific schlock. That was a nice touch. And two free bottles of water in the room. Not daily, but for the entire stay.
The bathroom portion of the room was surprisingly large. There was a separate make-up table in addition to the wide sink-top counter. Plenty of room to spread out all of our scuba gear to dry after a week of diving.
And the closet is also part of the bathroom; a large, walk-in closet which could probably pass as second bedroom in a Manhattan apartment. Impressive for someone (like me) not used to closets that large.
One strange part of the room is that the bathtub is recessed into the floor. You step down into it rather than over the lip into it. A bit weird, though I suppose having the very high ceiling in the bathroom was vaguely interesting.
No mini-fridge in the room was a bit of a disappointment. We got by, keeping the beer we brought in from the grocery in the ice bucket. Still, it would have been nice to have that option available to keep snacks and such stocked, particularly given the low quality and high prices of stuff out in the resort.
Not the most modern of facilities nor the most amazing room. Quite reasonable and very much in line with what I was expecting, but nothing amazing. I’m generally not a resort person and I cannot say that either the room or the other facilities at the El Conquistador have swayed me from that bias. But it was a very reasonably room overall; definitely didn’t detract from the stay and actually offset some of the other negatives.
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Posted by Seth on March 19, 2012 under Dining, Flying, Mileage Run, Review, Trip Reports |
I never actually bought the ticket from Newark to Brussels. I didn’t even buy a ticket from United Airlines. And yet, on a Friday afternoon, I found myself sitting in the lounge at Newark airport, watching basketball on TV and waiting for my flight to Belgium in the new business class seats that United has on their Boeing 777-200 airplanes.
I originally purchased a flight on Air Canada, connecting in Montreal. I was going to spend the day out sight-seeing prior to my onward journey across the Atlantic. That plan came screeching to a halt when I woke up to an email alert from AC that my flight was cancelled. Oh well. I made use of their excellent online rebooking engine and scheduled myself out of Newark instead. When I got to the airport the agents were chatting about the flights being overbooked and I offered up that I’d be happy to take the non-stop flight on United, if they wanted to free up a seat. Much to my surprise – and great pleasure – they agreed.
Once I had the ticket pushed over to United I was able to apply an upgrade voucher and so it was that I found myself in seat 10K, a rear-facing window, for the hop across the pond.
The Seat
This was my first experience in the new United configuration and my first time flying facing backwards since the party seats on Southwest 737s so it was a good opportunity to try something different. The flying backwards part didn’t bother me at all. I honestly don’t think I noticed, other than while trying to look out the window (not particularly easy from this seat as there is no window aligned with where you are when upright) and during takeoff/landing. From that perspective I’ve got no issues with the United product. There are a couple areas where I do, however.
The width of the seat is pretty tight. The 2-4-2 layout across in business class means that they necessarily have to make the seats narrower to fit that many in. I’d read the specs and understood that, by the measuring tape, they aren’t too cramped, but actually sitting in one it felt like I was. When upright I felt that I was pressed into the side wall of the airplane, with my shoulder resting against it. When in the sleep position the seat was slightly wider thanks to the armrest moving out of the way, but it wasn’t fantastic.
I was somewhat surprised to find that the foot well when fully reclined was a tight fit. It makes sense, I suppose, as when the seats meet each other in the adjacent rows the feet sections can be split between the two sides, reducing the pitch a few inches while still keeping the overall length high. But at the bulkheads, where there is no need to save those 6 inches, the foot wells are still half size, unlike other carriers with a similar product. Probably a few dollars saved on the engineering and manufacturing side there, but a definite loss on the comfort side.
Finally, there is virtually zero storage space available at the seat. The photo below shows my Kindle resting in basically the only place it could. And it was too big to fully fit there. I certainly wouldn’t leave it there longer than a few minutes here or there. Not so great for passengers.
Food & Beverage
Like most business class products, the meal was a multi-course affair. A number of carriers have been stepping things up on the meal service lately (I was quite pleasantly surprised with the Lufthansa meal EWR-FRA a few months ago) and the new United has the advantage of owning the their own catering company with operations in Newark so I was looking forward to trying the meal. The flight attendants took orders by asking for first and second choices, the legacy United approach where they reconcile things in the galley and prioritize by status. In this case it probably worked in my favor as I was one of the last to order, but I don’t know that anyone actually didn’t get their first choice; the cabin was only booked 33/40 so there was some wiggle room.
Like always, dinner started with a beverage and nuts in a warmed ramekin. I don’t get the obsession with this part of the service, other than that some people really love salt. Beyond that, it is really a strange thing to me, I picked out a few nuts and waited for the real meal to begin.
The first course was a salmon appetizer along with a salad. Both were fine, but nothing particularly special. I was definitely missing the Continental version of the appetizers with a few more choices and larger servings offered, especially on the salad.
For my main course I had the Beef Short Ribs. The flavor was actually quite nice, though the meet a tad over-cooked. More sauce would have been useful for helping out with the fact that the meat was a bit dry but no real complaints there. The portion size on the beef seemed quite reasonable as well. The bread basket options were basically white or wheat. No pretzel roll nor garlic bread on offer. Most unfortunate.
Finally, for dessert, the offering was a cheese cart and ice cream. This is a course that I look forward to on most flights. I was rather disappointed. One of the two cheese options (a Manchengo, if I had to guess, and I do because no one knew what they were) was OK. The second cheese was some sort of sun-dried tomato flavored goat cheese-ish spread that seemed more like an Alouette container in the store than good cheese. I like both, but one is for pre-dinner snacks and the other is for dessert with a drink before sleep. This was the wrong one. And the ice cream is just a scoop of ice cream, not a sundae. That was most disappointing. Oh, and seedless grapes, which I like for the convenience, but the flavor of which wasn’t as good. At least the flight attendant was able to find the after-dinner drink I ordered, after initially claiming they don’t stock Grand Marnier on the flights.
Also of note, my seatmate ordered the express meal service. I think he finished no more than 10 minutes earlier than I did. Not that his wasn’t fast but the regular meal service on this particular night was also quite quick, without feeling rushed. I was done well before we cleared Gander, meaning 4+ hours to sleep.
In-flight Entertainment
I was mostly sleeping during the flight so I didn’t play around with the IFE system too much, but I did like what I saw. The screens are large and the movie selection was reasonable. My seatmate watched The Adventures of Tin Tin which meant that I also watched it, though I did so without the audio track. I actually think I came out ahead in that regard, though the animation was pretty good. I’d place the IFE towards the top in terms of relative rankings, though that is also generally pretty low on my priority list. Give me a decent moving map and a plug for my laptop and I’ll stay entertained for hours.
Lounge/Ground Services
The lounge in Newark is nothing special. Never has been. I like the views, but otherwise just somewhere to sit before the flight. I actually got bored and left early to go walk the terminal before my flight. Not bad, just not particularly good. At least I had a couple packs of carrots to up my vitamin intake for the day.
One thing that I’ve always loved about flying Business Class on Continental was the arrivals service they offer. You get access to a shower or day room at most destinations if you’re flying up front. I inquired about this at the lounge (twice, because the first agent was a bit unconvincing) and was told, as usual, to ask at the gate and then again upon arrival in Brussels, but that the facility was the Sheraton hotel (they were reading this out of the DRS screen). I asked at the gate and the lead agent made a call to operations who confirmed that I should ask the arrivals agent and that the Sheraton was the facility. I asked upon landing and the agent confirmed that they had day rooms at the Sheraton and that I should go to the ticket counter to get a voucher.
Imagine my surprise when I showed up at the ticket counter (after a rather ridiculous immigration experience) and the woman informed me that she had never heard of such a thing and that there was no way it was accurate. Oy. After 10 minutes of calling around and checking on various things they confirmed that assessment, leaving me out in the cold, so to speak, without a shower. A rather unfortunate conclusion to the trip on two levels, both that I didn’t get the shower and that no one seems to know what’s going on. The good news is that I was in Belgium for the day and there was plenty of beer and fun to be had.
Overall, I rate the trip as a pretty mediocre business class experience. The flat seats are nice for being flat, but I would imagine that folks taller or wider than me would find them rather confining. And the meal was fine, but nothing special; with both the appetizers and the desserts I think they missed the mark.
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Tags: Air Canada, Belgium, Boeing, BRU2012, Brussels, Dining, Flying, IFE, in flight, Lounge, Lufthansa, Mileage Run, Newark, Photos, review, Trip Report, United, United Airlines, upgrade
Posted by Seth on March 15, 2012 under Flying, frequent flyer, Wandering Aramean Travel Tools |
Welcome to the new United.com website. For folks used to the old continental.com site things should look pretty similar. For folks surprised to find that things are different, well, surprise! There are a few common features that are very useful to be able to do and which are not particularly well documented. So here’s the documentation. I’ve got a couple of these posts in the works and if there are any particular steps you are having trouble with let me know and I’ll put something together for them.
Today’s post is about how to find and book fares on which System-wide Upgrades (SWUs) can be redeemed. There is a check-box on the site that lets you search for generally upgradeable tickets, but that doesn’t limit the search to fares which are SWU-eligible, namely W fares or higher. But is it possible to limit the searches to specific fares, so the new site makes it somewhat reasonable.
To start, click on the link for an Advanced Search at the bottom of the search form on the main page:
Towards the bottom of that form there is a section for fare preference:
The key is to put the eligible fare classes – Y,B,M,E,U,H,Q,V,W – in the box at the bottom there when searching. If you can remember all those and type them in every time that’s great, but there should be a better, easier way to do it. Welcome to GreaseMonkey scripts. Much like the script I built to make searching for upgrade inventory easier, this one makes putting the correct fares into that box automatic. Just load this script into a compliant browser and going to the advanced search page will automatically populate that box:
If you don’t select the radio button then it will still search all fares, but if you’re looking for a SWUable fare then select that button and the results will limit to the appropriate fares.
Combine that with with the script that shows upgrade inventory on the search results page and you’ve got a solution that shows the proper fare and the upgrade inventory all at once.
In addition to booking the fares, sometimes it is useful to be able to find the cheapest published SWU-eligible fares. To help on that front I’ve built another tool that collects the W fares for about 100 North America departure points and 50 or so international destinations and displays them in a reasonably easy-to-read and -parse view. Pick a departure or destination city and compare rates, or just pick a price point and see what’s available below that point:
Click on a city and get:
Those fares are all without the YQ and without taxes, so they are artificially low, but if you are comparing fares to/from a region and looking to know if a nearby airport can save you some cash it can be quite useful. And there are a few improvements coming in the very near future which should help even more.
Happy flying!
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Posted by Seth on March 6, 2012 under frequent flyer, points |
Welcome to the new United.com website. For folks used to the old continental.com site things should look pretty similar. For folks surprised to find that things are different this week, well, surprise! There are a few common features that are very useful to be able to do and which are not particularly well documented. So here’s the documentation. I’ve got a couple of these posts in the works and if there are any particular steps you are having trouble with let me know and I’ll put something together for them.
When you’re ready to spend some of those hard-earned points or upgrade credits on someone other than yourself there are a few extra steps involved in the process. You can call in and an agent will be able to handle it, or you can do it online. These are the steps for handling it online.
- Log in to the site as yourself.
- Go to "My Reservations" on the site. At the bottom of that page is a form where you can put in a PNR and passenger last name.
- Fill that in with the info of the passenger you want to sponsor.
- Below the list of flights is a button to redeem an upgrade:
- Click that and you’ll have the option to use either miles or your certs to process the upgrade:
At this point the flight should clear into the upgraded space if the inventory is available (see here for how to search that out). If the upgrade inventory is not available you should see an additional line in the reservation with the notation that the segment is waitlisted.
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Posted by Seth on March 5, 2012 under frequent flyer, points |
Welcome to the new United.com website. For folks used to the old continental.com site things should look pretty similar. For folks surprised to find that things are different this week, well, surprise! There are a few common features that are very useful to be able to do and which are not particularly well documented. So here’s the documentation. I’ve got a couple of these posts in the works and if there are any particular steps you are having trouble with let me know and I’ll put something together for them.
There are four different types of upgrade space available in the new United:
- Miles/Instrument Coach->Biz (R/RN)
- Top Elite B/M->One cabin higher (PN)
- All Elite Y->One cabin higher (JN)
- Miles/Instrument Biz->First (ON)
While that’s a lot to go searching for, the good news is that it can all be found on the same single search results page, and there are no special custom profile settings or parameters that you need to set, though there is one which can help, detailed at the end of this post.
So, here’s the drill, and it really is quite simple.
- Do a normal revenue search for the flight you’re interested in. One way or round trip doesn’t matter. You just need a REVENUE fare search page that shows the results for the flight/date you are interested in.
- On the results page look in the right-most column. The third row should say something like "Fare Class: United Economy (W)" on it. Note that the words Fare Class are a hyperlink:
- Click that link and you will see all the inventory buckets for the flight:
That’s all there is to it. Piece of cake.
If you want to get a bit more fancy and make it even easier – AND if you have a browser which supports GreaseMonkey scripts – I’ve created a script which causes the inventory to always be displayed for all flights and which highlights the award buckets. The downside is that there is no "X" button to close it (though clicking on "Fare Class" will do it) and it obscures some other information, but I like the inventory info more so that’s how I roll. For more information on that script check out my post here. Version 6.1 of the script is the first to support the new United.com and PSS site in it; older versions need to be upgraded.
This is what the page looks like with the script enabled:
Note the red/green coloring of the award buckets. Easy, at-a-glance information on upgrades and awards without too much effort at all.
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Posted by Seth on February 24, 2012 under frequent flyer, Internet, News, points, Wandering Aramean Travel Tools |
As part of my small obsession with travel I’ve come to build a number of tools that help in searching for good deals, upgrades, award seats, airport lounges, UNESCO World Heritage Sites and many other things. I’ve mostly been focused on the functionality of the sites, trying to get as much data "out there" to as many people as possible, as I think that’s the most important aspect of these tools. But I also realize that there is something to be said for making the tools look good, and that improving the UI and the usability of the site will also increase the odds that someone will use it and find it helpful. To that end, I’m happy to announce a number of updates to the Wandering Aramean Travel Tools website.
Most of the improvements have come to the fare data searches. The data is now sortable on all columns, loads much faster and allows for much faster correlation of the information at hand. The other important aspect of these changes is that they allow me to more quickly add additional types of fare data to the site as I come up with more fun stuff to share.
Here’s what the new interface looks like:
Clicking on any of the column headers will sort the data (though I don’t really know why you’d want to sort on fare basis!?!) and you can page through the data using the controls at the bottom of the dialog.
I’m working on bringing back the flight search functionality that ITA killed off in December, getting fare validity details into the displays and I’ve got a few other ideas percolating about as well. If there’s something in particular you’d like to see added to the suite just holler. If I can find the data there is a pretty good chance I’ll build it.
Finally, I’ve removed the registration requirement from many of the tools on the site. Turns out that I thought it was cool to have at one point but I never actually did much with the registrations so there isn’t much point in walling off the data that way. You’ll still need to register for the automated fare/inventory alerts (otherwise I wouldn’t be able to send the alert emails) but most of the data should be wide open. If there’s something that isn’t that you’d like to see drop me a line.
Posted by Seth on February 23, 2012 under frequent flyer, News, points |
One interesting nugget from an announcement by a United Airlines official caught my eye today: The ability to redeem a Star Alliance upgrade is going offline as part of their migration to the new back-end systems on March 3rd. That the feature is going offline isn’t so surprising – I expect lots of things will off and on over the weekend ad days to follow – but the expected duration of the outage caught me rather by surprise. The function will be offline for "a few weeks."
To be fair, that’s not a feature that I actually care much about since I think the value in upgrades, especially partner upgrades, is very close to nil. But I also don’t have a job where someone else is often footing the tab for full-fare tickets that I can upgrade. I suppose were I in that situation I might be more outraged at this announcement. And having the system down for a few weeks, especially a system that works just fine with the current version of the SHARES platform, seems a bit extreme.
Then again, this undertaking is mammoth by any standards so I suppose things have to be prioritized. No real big deal to me that this is lower on that list.
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Posted by Seth on February 17, 2012 under Dining, Flying, Review, Trip Reports |
Apparently I have a habit of downgrading my travel experience almost as much as I upgrade it. Today’s flight to the Pacific Northwest was another in which the promise of a big, comfy seat on a long-haul flight somehow ended up with me sitting in seat 25E – a middle – in the back of a 737-500. Huh??
It started last night, as I was contemplating the 4am wake-up that would be required for my scheduled 6am flight on United’s p.s. 757-200 from JFK to San Francisco. I had applied an upgrade certificate and booked seat 9D, arguably one of the best in the domestic United fleet. My trip was full of win. Except for that 4am wake-up. It was after 10pm and I was nowhere close to heading to bed. The 6am flight was a bad idea. Fortunately the folks in reservations were able to let me apply the same-day change policy and switch my flight. The only option available was via Houston (more miles!) but also only with a middle seat in coach for the first segment. I decided sleep was more important and confirmed the change.
The new flight was the scheduled 5:25pm departure from Newark to Houston. The aircraft was the 757-200, equipped with AVOD and power. Even stuck in a middle seat, at least the amenities weren’t awful. Besides, it gave me a few hours to hang out at the airport in the afternoon and people-watch. Then I checked the schedule again and realized that if I stuck with the newly booked itinerary I wouldn’t have time for dinner. Not a huge deal and I’m sure I could scrounge something from my bag or the Buy on Board offerings on the flights, but it still wasn’t particularly appealing. Besides, I’d rather spend the time in the Houston airport than Newark; the food options down there are better and the terminal is nicer. Perhaps an earlier flight would be possible.
I listed for the 1:47pm departure as a standby passenger and half-way through the boarding process cleared the waitlist. My seat assignment stayed the same – still 25E – but now I was boarding a 737-500 with no IFE at all. It has certainly been a while since I had a boarding pass print with "Group 7" on it, but they had already called for all passengers so no big deal there.
And so here I sit, somewhere over Virginia if I had to guess by looking out the window, eating and enjoying my Asian Noodle Salad lunch (thanks, AmEx, for the $200 credit!) and generally being happy that I’m getting where I want to be sooner. Sure, the nicer plane is, well, nicer. But being able to have a proper meal on the ground or get where I’m going at a time that is more convenient is even nicer than that.
I’d make this trade just about every time.
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Tags: American Express, Dining, elite status, Flying, houston, in flight, Newark, Photos, Portland, review, United, United Airlines, upgrade
Posted by Seth on February 15, 2012 under News |
Delta has announced major upgrades to their 747 cabin interiors in both the business and economy cabins. One aircraft is already converted and the company expects all their 747s to be in the new configuration by October, 2012. The changes are significant throughout the plane, mostly for the better, but there are a couple potential negatives that come with the announcement as well.
In the Business cabin the new seats will offer flat beds and direct aisle access for all customers. The seats are from Zodiac Aerospace and are the same as those in place on US Airways A330s and Cathay Pacific’s new business class. American Airlines has also confirmed that they will be using the sets for the new business class product on their 777-300s. The seats are nice and the IFE upgrades that will accompany them – 15" screen, more than 300 films, 88 hours of television programming, nearly 100 hours of premium programming from HBO and Showtime, 27 video games and more than 5,000 digital music tracks – are certainly top notch. The layout of the seats is also nice, with both single and "paired" seats so traveling with a partner in the comfy seats won’t mean being isolated from them.
It is somewhat strange, however, that the company is claiming the seats’ 20.5" width is 20% more than the old seats. That suggests the old seats are 17" wide, which is definitely not the case, or there is some other creative math going on. The other significant downgrade that is coming with the new seats is a sharp decrease in the number available on the planes. The current configuration has 65 seats; the new configuration has only 48. That’s going to hurt folks looking for upgrades or discounted business class seats.
In the economy cabin the best news is that the same IFE system that powers the business class cabin will also be available. Other than that, there will be new, slimline seats installed in the cabin. The general idea behind the slimline seats is to provide additional knee-space for passengers without requiring additional pitch in the cabin. This allows for more customer space without removing seats from the plane. I’ve only had one experience on the slimline seats – with Lufthansa on a short flight in Europe – and they were comfortable enough but I’m not so sure how they’ll fare over a 12-16 hour trip.
Definitely upgrades to the product overall, though, like everything else, a few sacrifices to realize those improvements.
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