I flew four days after the finalisation of the United-Continental merger and four days after the new combined reservations system had commenced. Thought I would test things didn’t I? This flight was the 830th I have ever flown in my life and was my 93rd flight with United and/or Continental. The flight itself was pretty okay. It was about what I would expect from the pre merger United so if I was expecting a dramatic leap to being one of the world’s greatest airlines as promised by United CEO, I didn’t see it. I have long regarded United as one of the worst legacy carriers in the world along with American Airlines and US Airways. Two previous posts  Thats it United, and United 757: Uber Fail pretty much sum up my feelings for the airline.  Although I do try to approach every flight with an open mind. Continental, however, I always saw as holding their own in the airline world and keep hoping their influence will influence the merged airline.

Booking: 7 out of 10

I had an existing United LHR-WAS booking.  I changed the date of travel with an agent over the telephone as the online system would let me do it! The agent changed my flight, quoted me the fare change fee, collected my credit card number for payment and emailed me an itinerary. That was the last I thought of the matter. My Mistake!

Check In: 7 out of 10

I attempted to Check in on the new United.com. This site looks and feels like the old Continental.com which I found disconcerting! The system would not, however, let me check in so I called reservations. As I waited on hold, an announcement apologised for the wait, advising that I try after 72 hours unless it was urgent. This call volume was largely due to the change over of systems, a problem reported in quite a few media outlets. I did get to choose a good  seat online!

Unable to use the online system, I got to Heathrow super early and was first in line for check in. The check in agent paused and sighed. It seems I had not been ticketed properly hence why I could not check in on-line. The agent blamed the new reservations system. Annoyingly. the fee I thought I had paid had vanished.  Now I sighed. The next thing I knew, I had four agents serving me as they discussed how best to navigate the “Continental” reservations system to issue a ticket. There was much joking and complaining as the agents worked out the system for 15 minutes. One complained that she felt she was working for  Eastern (the now defunct Miami based airline) because they felt the new res system was so old! Eventually I got a boarding pass. But I was still concerned,  at the airport, that I might have paid two change fees to United.  I was really glad I had come to the airport early though.

Boarding: 8 out of 10

Boarding the 777, was very smooth as the plane was quite empty.  No crew welcomed passengers on board apart from  the couple at the door. This US custom of ignoring boarding passengers always strikes me as counter productive. I commented on how different airlines welcome people aboard last year.

On Board: 4 out of 10

United Economy on this 777 was 2/5/2. Other airlines aim for 3/3/3. This layout gives the impression the plane is more crowded than it is. I pity the person in the middle seat of the economy rows. Of course when there are few passengers then five seats gives a nice stretch.

Seat pitch (the distance between seats is 55″in Business, 34″ to 36″ in Economy Plus and in 31″ in  Economy.  Width is 18″ in Economy and 20.5″ in Business.

First class has ten Flat bed seats.

United provides no amenity kits to Economy class passengers. It has very thin small pillows and miniature sized blankets available.

Takeoff and Landing: 8 out of 10

We pushed back eight minutes early and joined the long line of aeroplanes waiting to take off.  Soon the huge powerful 777 engines roared into life and we were away. The 8 hour 20 minute flight was very uneventful and despite traffic control constraints at Washington Dulles, we landed nine minutes early – in other words, we gained one minute through the flight!

Meals: 3 out of 10

Catering was up to the usual United standard. Awful. Sad Salad. Tasteless over cooked main meal and revolting dessert. Cabin crew were not overly interested. They did do a couple of water runs but were not very engaged with passengers. I checked in mid flight to see what snacks they had. Not much! 

Entertainment: 3 out of 10

To be honest, I was so tired,I fell asleep pretty much straight away and I don’t recall much about the entertainment on this flight! Every seat has a personal video screen ith nine channels and Airshow. First class also have access to a further 14 channels via digital player. I did watch an episode of The Office and Big Bang Theory. I must admit after flying Qantas, Emirates, Air New Zealand etc which all have entertainment systems that give you multiple movies, TV shows and news, it is a shock coming back to United’s offerring. At least its a step up from the single screen in the middle of the cabin! I do know that United are upgrading their entertainment systems.

The Verdict

My rating: 63% (3 out of 5). My overall rating of the pre merger United over many flights, is 3.5 out of 5 so we are about the same. It interests me how many Americans would only experience this level of service and not realise that many European, Asian-Pacific and Middle Eastern carriers kill United in this area. In fact, United’s CEO, acknowledged that United needs to do better,  to the Australian business community. I do note that the Asian carriers and helped by much lower cost structures and many of the Middle Eastern carriers are in fact heavily subsidised.

Positives:  777 (I love that plane), 9 minutes early,- I am really pushing here!

Negatives: Meal, disinterested staff, lack of snacks, seat layout in Economy, no amenities kit

Would I ride them again? I say NO.  Every time I do fly them, I remember why I don’t like flying United. I am still crossing my fingers that the Continental magic will improve their overall performance.

My Last Trip Report: March 20: Thalys-Paris to Amsterdam

Once upon a time there was a USA airline that I really liked.   Texas based Continental Airlines flew to 140 cities with an attitude to service I really liked. Between 1991 and 2001, I flew Continental the equivalent of two trips around the world. I ranked them consistently the best US “legacy” airline for a while

In the same story was Continental’s beau- United airlines.  I have long had a love hate relationship with them. Flew United a lot but don’t ever feel I really bonded – especially when they served me up some of the worst flights I have been on. I have travelled 103,586 miles (166,705 kilometres) with United, the equivalent of four times around the planet.

After two years, tomorrow at 1am, Saturday March 1, 2012, the two airlines stories are finally and totally entwined as the last steps of the merger take place. What will change this weekend:

Branding

This weekend, the Continental name will finally disappear forever from flight numbers,  airports and the web. Interestingly, some of the better elements of the of Continental will survive. As we have seen over the last two years,  the new United  keeps  Continental’s trademark blue sphere logo, their colours and fonts. All of which I liked better!

Websites

Continental.com will disappear in favour of  United.com.  However United.com is like the old Continental site in layout in both appearance and functionality, looking at this mock up of the site.  I always preferred the Continental site so that is a good thing in my books.

Reservations

The most significant and potentially  most risky parts  of the merger will be the transfer of the United and Continental reservations systems  into a new SHARES system, the same system Continental has been using.  Apparently 10 000 employees have been involved in the cutover process and there has been four dress rehearsals leading up to this week.  United plans to have additional staff members on the phones and in airports this weekend.

This could mean you will have a new reservation number but the system will accept both old and new res numbers. (phew). The big question is what will happen Saturday? In the best case scenario, passengers will make bookings, log in and fly as normal. In the worst case, reservations agents and passengers won’t be able to retrieve reservations and the airline will be a sea of chaos. The reality will be somewhere between the two, I think. Even so I won’t be contacting res or flying this weekend with United.

My next flight is Tuesday with them so an hoping all bedded down by then!

Frequent Flyer Programs: MileagePlus and One Pass

Continental’s One Pass name will vanish in preference for into United’s MileagePlus . However, the program will  be using Continental’s membership numbers and not United’s. For Continental One Pass Customers, this means no change. United Mileage Plus Customers- will be assigned a new frequent flyer  membership number.  Customers of both United and Continental who linked their accounts (as I did) will use their existing Continental number. Customers of both United and Continental who have not linked their numbers will of course have two numbers.

Because MileagePlus and OnePass each use different methods for earning lifetime status, United are using a one-time mileage calculation to bring MileagePlus members into the new Million Miler program status levels.My lifetime miles are 250 000!

So good bye to Continental name, Hello to a  Continental influenced United. Heres hoping for a successful marriage!

I use Flight Memory to keep a record of all of my flights- every single one of them since I first flew in 1968.

For my 737th flight, I flew a Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 from Portland to Spokane and had a brilliant flight.
747th was on a Qantas 747 from Melbourne to Los Angeles. The Qantas team put on a great flight- and Qantas even followed up with a souvenir 747 in the post
United Airlines turn came next with flight 757 on a B757 from DC to LAX and it was terrible.

767 is fast approaching on an Air NZ Boeing 767 Business Class from Perth to Auckland.

For my 777th flight, I have a choice between:

Air New Zealand Boeing 777 Auckland to Los Angeles

OR

V Australia Boeing 777 Sydney (or Brisbane) to Los Angeles

Who would you choose and why?

Ever noticed how airlines welcome you aboard? As you go down the jetbridge and through the open aeroplane door, what happens. In Australia and New Zealand domestic travel, crew members check your boarding pass and usually greet you. This is generally the case with international flights. Not so  in the USA as passengers wander onto the plane ignored by cabin crew. These have been my experiences with domestic and international cabin crews.

Air Asia-there were flight crew on board?
Air Canada- Calm cheerfulness
Air France- Gallic hospitality-feel like I am coming home
Air New Zealand – Awesome Kiwi friendliness
American- Surly
British- mix of friendliness and British reserve
Cathay Pacific- Refined Charming
Delta-Down to Earth
Emirates-Extremely welcoming
Frontier- Fun and Friendly
JetBlue- some of the friendliest attendants ever
Jetstar- ugh
LAN- Latino politeness and warmth
Lufthansa- Lovely welcomes every time
Malev-Warm
Qantas- Warm and professional
Ryanair- reserved, resentful,
SAS  -uber Scandanavian reserve
Singapore- almost subservient, almost forced greetings
Southwest- Fun, sometimes manic but always Fun with a captal F
United- Usually grumpy
V Australia- warm and groovy
Virgin America – Aloof coolness
Virgin Blue/Australia – Harried friendliness

What do you think? Whats your experience?

Thanks to Flight Memory.com and my  friend Tony (see blog post), I know exactly how many fights, miles and hours have been spent in pressurised tubes of metal flying around the world. Even after many flying hours, and despite the determined efforts by some airlines to make travel as horrible as possible,  I am still wildly excited about plane travel.

United flight 967 at gate in LAX

Flight 737 on a Boeing 737 with Southwest was a fun experience. Flight 747 on a Qantas Boeing 747 was made very special by the delightful cabin crew. Flight number 757 was United’s turn on one of their aging Boeing 757s and it epitomised the worst of air travel.

In DC for a client conference, the flight back to LAX was my 757th in my life so I sought a Boeing 757 flight.

Thanks to my friend Troy, we found United flight 967 out of Washington Dulles

What went wrong with United 967:

• Modern flying means being cramped
  

  My seat is in red!

  There was one empty seat left on the plane-the one next to me-was I lucky or what? My seat 40C, aisle seat at the very back of the plane was not near the extra legroom room Economy Plus section nor was it in the  757s’ very generous exit rows and despite United automatically wait-listing me for an upgrade it wasn’t  in the First cabin either. Like most United flights, they actually had oversold it (ie sold more tickets than seats on the plane hoping enough people would not show)

• Washington Dulles airport is a horrible trek
  The airport is 41km out of downtown DC. A new metro line is being built and will be finished by 2014 but in the meantime there is a slow local bus or a coach/metro combination or taxi with bad traffic.  I opted for a cab organised by my hotel which was driven by a lovely 20 year old college guy from rural Maryland. Turned out to be driving the cab for a cousin and he did not know the way out to Dulles airport:  ”Dude I am on the left land of the freeway heading toward Richmond, where should I be? “

• Check In Friendly Fail
  I never usually check luggage in but was carrying extra stuff as I was Australia bound. The Premium Economy check in line was fast but the actual human interaction was underwhelming- Mr Check In couldn’t give a damn. It never ceases to amaze me how US airlines fail to support their employees to be friendly at every touch point. I know check in staff are underpaid and stressed but United needs to help them make an effort to make customers feel welcome. I get tired of the videos by United saying what a great airline they are and how happy they are we have chosen to be with them when every employee makes me feel like they resent me being there. The actual welcome aboard was friendly and the Crew even offered to stow some extra luggage in a closet for me.

• My Technology Prowess uber fail
  I had chosen to download the boarding pass to my phone.  As I stood in the security line holding my carry on bag, my passport and my cell phone, I somehow advanced my Iphone screen so the boarding pass disappeared.  There was no cell phone signal in then security area so after 7 minutes of trying and letting people in front of me, I returned upstairs. There I found cell phone coverage and re-loaded the boarding pass. I have now sworn off mobile boarding passes particularly as I have no hard copy evidence of my boarding pass

• On my 757th flight

  United Nil Interest in my 757th flight
  Despite tweeting about it and mentioning it to ground and flight staff,  there was no reaction. Airlines I know are  more focused on more important matters such as safety and viability and not eccentric passenger quirks! Oh well- it excites my dork side!

• Two Hour Weather Related Delay
  The doors closed two minutes after departure time but we sat at the gate while ATC gave us  a “rerouting” to avoid nasty weather. After a while we pushed back, we lumbered slowly around the airport to come to a halt on the tarmac with a line of other planes. Soon there were planes everywhere all grounded because of the weather. After about two hours we finally were cleared for takeoff. As the rain started, we launched off into turbulent skies. To his credit, the captain briefed us 3 times while we were waiting but I think one every 15 minutes would be better -we were given a glass of water and a football show during the wait time

• Meals run out
  With the removal of catering for economy passengers on United, on a 5hr 5 minute flight, the airline sells snack boxes, chips, candies, cookies. At row 36, the crew ran out”that’s right, no food left”nine hours between meals.
  
  

• Movie was single screen – The 757 is an older plane so in seat entertainment is I didn’t engage in watching as my sound was crappy

• Drink service was slow on a fully laden flight with with the poor woman was serving by herself

• Cabin Safety
  

  757 Safety Card on flight

  I love watching approach and landing but the guy by the window in my row was a closed window man. Airlines in Australia and NZ insist on window shades being open for landing saying its for safety. United has no such stipulation. I find it amazing that we can fly over amazing landscapes and passengers snap their shades closed to watch movies set in the same landscapes! He would peek out his window every now and again and when he did I would edge forward and stare outside. Finally he left the window shade for our last 45 seconds of flight. 

When we finally landed in a stunningly smooth landing.  We got thanked for flying the friendly skies. my entire row laughed at this point. If nothing else, the last row bonded!

Luggage return was fairly prompt.  I got to the empty V Australia counter at 923pm for my 1020pm Sydney bound flight to find it was closed.  Thankfully the supervising agent re opened it for myself and two other weather delayed passengers.

Rating: 4/10 for my Flight 757. Seeing my average rating of all flights with United is out of ten -that’s consistent with my overall United experience. I did like being on the 757 and am excited I managed to score another significant flight..now for 767 on a 767.

Okay Mr Jeff Smisek you apparently are producing a great airline—hurry up!

Got an upgrade to business class with United Airlines from Houston to New Orleans but my friend Betty didn’t. She asked me to get her a Baileys. So I ordered a Baileys from the cabin attendant and “snuck” it down to Betty in the economy cabin.

The flight attendant was not amused. She told my friend Betty off in no uncertain terms and then came to me: “we dont allow our crockery into the coach cabin.

Am I banned from United business class for life?

United is reinstating a United 93 as a flight starting 21 May 2011.

The flight used to be  operated by United from Newark to San Francisco using a Boeing 757 until September 11, 2001. On that date, approximately 46 minutes into the flight, hijackers diverted the plane towards Washington, D.C. The asumption is the target was the US Capitol or White House.

The passengers attempted to regain control of the plane from the hijackers  causing the plane to crash into fields in Pennsylvania, about 240 km  from  D.C. killing everybody.

 A movie was made about the hijacking.

United removed Flight 93 after the September 11 hijackings.

The new flight number is a codeshare flight from Houston to San Jose CA and is actually Continental flight CO489. However UA 93 will appear in terminals. It is a 737.

I am not sure I feel okay about using this flight number.

According to Airways Magazine for June 2011, one out of every 350 barrels of oil produced in the world is used by the combined United-Continental airlines to fuel their 1262 planes!

Every increase in oil has gotta hurt.
Whats their long term plan for oil one wonders?
If peak oil theory is correct then they face a very expensive future as oil becomes even pricier.

Dawn in the air

In the film: Up in the Air, George Clooney plays Ryan Bingham, a guy with the goal of earning one million miles with the one airline.

Today, I reached the milestone of one million miles in the air (1.6 million kilometres).  My life does not completely rsemble Clooney’s movie character, however. I actually love being home and I like people but I do like my elite statuses: 

• United Airlines Gold
• Virgin Blue Gold
• Qantas Platinum 

I measure my air life at a great flight tracking tool called FlightMemory.  My friend Tony, who passed away two years ago entered almost 500 flights into the Flight Memory system for me  as a Birthday present. RIP Tony, I miss you. So here is the summary:

You will note, that one million miles represents 40 times around the earth. It is the same distance to the moon and back – twice.

On Board Singapore Airlines A380- my first ever A380

To get to one million miles, I have flown 719 times between 1968 and 2011 on 73 airlines.  One third of my flights have been with Qantas and one tenth with United/Continental.
Some of the airlines I have flown are now:

•  now broke and gone eg Ansett, Independence 
•  morphed eg BOAC into British Airways
•  taken over eg Northwest, Impulse
• much better eg Virgin Blue
• much worse eg United

Most loved airlines are:  Emirates, Virgin America, Air New Zealand and Jetblue

Most hated airlines include:  Ryanair, Delta and United (the irony of having Gold Status with them)

I took this while on a 3 mile run from my LAX airport hotel

I have been transported to 177 airports in 34 countries on five continents. Interestingly, I have been to 46 countries in total in my life with some places visited by train or bus only. Not surprisingly,  two Australian  airports Sydney and Melbourne account for about 40% of all my airports visited. I have been to 54 airports only once. Airport highlights:

• Most northern airport: GRY, Grimsey, Iceland 
• Most southern airport: IVC, Invercargill, New Zealand 
• Most eastern airport: NAN, Nadi, Fiji 
• Most western airport:  APW, Apia, Samoa
• Most visited airport: MEL, Melbourne, Australia
• Favourite airport: SIN, Singapore, Singapore
• Most despised airport: LAX, Los Angeles, USA

I have used 48 different types of planes:-
All the boeings: 707, 717, 727, 737, 747, 757, 767, 777
Airbus: 300, 310, 319, 320, 330, 340, 380
DC 8, 9, 10
Canadairs, Embraers, Fokkers, Saabs. I even been on a Zepplin.
NB Two of those planes, the 737 and 767 represent almost half of all the planes I have flown on!
The only planes not flown are Russian planes eg Tupolovs etc
I love the 777 and A380. I have loved my flights with six exceptions eg having flown through a thunderstorm in a Beechcraft- never again.

I am so fortunate to have seen the sights that I have seen:
Europe : Bruges, Mont St Michel, Taize, Venice, Tour Eiffel, Paris, WW1 Belgian war-fields, Krakow Market Square, Koln Dom, Bilbao, Reykjavik, Auschwitz
USA: Mt Rushmore, Devil’s Tower, Cape Canaveral, climbing statue of Liberty, Grand Canyon,Yosemite, New York, Chicago, Boston, Portland ME, Portland, OR
Middle East: Bethlehem, Nazereth and Jerusalem,
Australia: Great Barrier Reef, Ningaloo, Uluru, kangaroo Island, Coober Pedy, Brokjen Hill, Lake Pedder, The Pinnacles, Uluru, kakadu, Wave Rock,
Canada: CN Tower, Toronto Islands,
New Zealand: Milford Track, Queen Charlotte Sound
Tropical Islands: , Fiji, Hawaii, New Caledonia and Samoa.
Waterfalls: Niagara Falls, Victoria Falls, Russell Falls, Gullfoss
Musuems; Anne Frank House, British Museum, Frick Collection, Guggenheim, Holocaust Museum DC, In Flanders Fields Museum, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Musee d Orsay, NGA Canberra, Powerhouse Museum, Philadelphia Museum of Art, SFMOMA, Smithsonian, Vatican, Yad Vashem

The best part of the travel. Making and staying friends with people who live from the USA to Argentina, from New Zealand to New York, to South Africa Thanks for sharing the journey with me!

Finally, for the last ten years, I have been offsetting my travel buying trees to absorb carbon pollution. Not the best solution but a start. I now offset 110% of my carbon output.

So whats my goal? Another million miles? Not sure yet!

Qantas has announced they will now fly direct to Dallas Fort Worth from Sydney from May, 2011 using a Boeing 747-400ER. It is intended when Qantas finally get their 787s, they will be used on this route.

At 13 879 km (8,624 miles), this will be  the third-longest route in the world! The flights would take about 17 hours. There are three huge pluses about this:

1. We can avoid LAX (my most hated airport) to get to the middle of the USA. DFW is a much more user friendly airport and is well connected to the rest of the USA and South America. I rank it seventh best in world!
2. It will save time. Flights from Syd to DFW take 20-21 hours now via LAX. Currently Flights from SYD to NYC via LAX take 22-23 hours now. Via Dallas this could fall by an hour or two 
3. it connects passengers straight into the middle of the American Airlines network (Qantas and American are One World partners)

The downsides:

1. the airline will drop San Francisco which has not generated enough corporate traffic
2. the flight back will stop at Brisbane which will negate a little of the time saving. This is because the distance si too far and with the strong Pacific winds, there wont be enough fuel reserves to make it to Sydney non stop! Brisbane is 400km closer from Dallas (clearly there is not going to be much reserve fuel!

United are talking about deploying the new 787 on an Auckland-Houston flight, Suddenly, down under and Texas are looking closer!

Watch for Qantas opening flight deals and watch for United and Delta to offer deals between Dallas and Australia!