Greetings from the UnitedClub at SFO.
Introduction to Flights between NYC and SFO:
My website isn’t about aviation or flying but I do follow the Commercial Airline industry a bit and flying is something I find fascinating. When I realized that taking Amtrak round-trip wasn’t that feasible I started researching flight options between New York and San Francisco. This route (along with New York to LAX) is quite interesting because the amounts of premium traffic require the legacy airlines to outfit these planes with both business and first class. American Airlines still flies wide-bodied 767s out to SFO but United in 2004 when the Economy traffic slumped after 9/11 but still with plenty of business traffic rebuilt some narrow bodied 757-200 and rebranded JFK to LAX and SFO as P.S. Premium Service. What’s unique about these planes is that more than half the plane is Business or First Class, (Buisiness Class has an over wing exit row). Significant to me is the entire Economy cabin is branded Economy+ with a generous 34 inches of seat pitch. This past year though United is rebuilding the P.S. Fleet into half Economy- and Economy + plus only BusinessFirst lie-flat seating. The old configuration (although lacking individual seat monitors, the new planes have them) is something I’ve been wanting to try. When I booked my flight JFK to SFO United was the cheapest option at $160 and also with UnitedClub access from my AGR Select+ status the airline choice became really obvious. I thought I might have to wait until check-in for a seat assignment without paying an Economy+ fee but I was able to select a window seat (in Economy+) on their website anyway.
The Flight:
This post begins with me sitting in the UnitedClub. At 7:55 as they page a few San Francisco passengers to go to the gate immediately but not me, I make some hot chocolate in a paper cup to drink before takeoff and leave the UnitedClub to head for my gate. We are at Gate 12 which isn’t that short a walk down an escalator to a lower area. The gate is branded for Air Canada. The flight has already clearly boarded anyone in the gate area (but I’m still before the 15 minute cut-off that gets you denied boarding). There are a few other people waiting on seat assignments. There is one other man ahead of me and a gate agent asks us both to wait with a “Do You have a confirmed seat?”
The gate agents boards the man ahead of me and asks me to wait a minute with “Don’t worry, I’m not doing anything bad.” The next thing I know I hear them discussing 5B and their typing away. I’m getting a free upgrade to Business Class because the flight is oversold in Economy! I wonder if my UnitedClub cup has helped my cause or the check-in agent to the UnitedClub put a flag on my reservation. The agent finally says “You’re going to like this seat a lot,” rips up my old boarding pass and hands me a new boarding pass for Seat 5B winks and I’m down the Jetway to my United 757-200 P.S. Service Airplane.
I walk down the Jetway and walk straight by my seat since there boarding through the slightly rear door between Buisiness and First Class. I then realize seat 5B is right in front of the door, the first row of Buissiness class. I have basically unlimited legroom in what is an old school recliner that feels a bit like a dentist chair. First Class is to the left. On the seat is a large full length blanket and a menu. The options for breakfast:
- Herbed Scrambled Eggs, Potato gratin and turkey sausage
- Cinnamon Swirl French Toast, Turkey Sausage and Maple Syrup
- Cereal and Banana, served with milk
- Served with Cinnamon rolls and croissants with butter and fruit preserves
I decide to start the flight off right with a celebratory Bloody Mary. The flight attendant asks me if I’m 18. I say I’m 23 but the drinking age is 21. Since its pre-departure it comes in a plastic cup with with a United-Branded stir-stick. A basket is passed around with eyeshades, ear plugs and dental kits. No full amenity kit pouches.
I enjoy my Bloody Mary, amazed that I’m actually sitting towards the front of the plane on a P.S. Service aircraft. I’ve flown up front twice before. Once was from MSP to JFK on Northwest when I was 17 after offering to get bumped onto a flight leaving just a little later to LGA (the bump didn’t happen but got the upgrade to asking). The second from Argentina to JFK on American paid for by my college’s insurance company after I was hit by a car and broke my arm down there.
I attract the flight attendants attention again. The flight attendant says “I’m going to send you to the back” before I say just water. I say I don’t want the hot chocolate, its just getting in the way now. I hear the flight attendants taking about the lack of eggs and calling catering.
I watch the door close at 8:26 and I turn my phone off. I’m in an aisle seat. The safety video plays that is just like the old one on Continental with the CEO starting it off. Then it’s employees taking about how much they love United, then we get the usual safety briefing. The flight attendant does this odd walking around, asking my seat mate but not me what I want for breakfast as we taxi. I then realize its because she’s making sure everyone with status gets their first choice. Eventually she comes to me and offers the french toast, or eggs. I say eggs, surprised there are any left. Soon the flight attendants sit down and I have the awkwardness of looking right at then during take off since their jumpseat is directly in front of me as I read the New York Times I took from the UnitedClub. During takeoff the seat in its upright position is really uncomfortable. The issue is the lower headrest is only half-supporting my head.
Were in the air 9:11. I plug my phone into a well positioned plug. I finally can play with my seat. It’s really clunky and finicky, requiring applying pressure in various places to move the various parts. The foot rest is okay but I wish I could just use it as a calf-rest (Amtrak Superliner seat) and keep my feet on the floor (its built in on the bottom to end at a 90 degree angle) I read the paper and soon I get asked if I want a media player. I say yes and It’s a small DigEplayer like Amtrak had a short partnership with a few years ago. It comes with off-brand noise canceling headphones. The flight attendant asks me to plug it in. I decide to watch SkyFall, the James Bond Movie that I never got around to seeing.
Just after I get my media player (there is a conflict of two service carts in the aisle behind me). They come around with the drink car and it’s time for a second morning Bloody Mary in a real glass. I get my only pictures of my flight on my iPhone. I don’t take any others since the galley is directly in front of me and the flight attendants there are always on the move. My foreign seat mate asks if I she can take a picture of me.
Soon my meal arrives on a single tray and I’m disappointed. It is your airline rubbery eggs although the potato gratin is the best part of the meal. A basket is passed around with the cinnamon rolls and croissants. I try a cinnamon roll and their good but incredibly sweat. I wish I had ordered the french toast and realize it would have been quite fitting as a way to compare it with Amtrak’s but that would mean having a breakfast of just bread. I also look at the silverware and on the back the knife says Continental, the spoon and fork United. I finish my meal and enjoy the fact that I’m drinking water in a real glass and not a tiny plastic cup. When the flight attendant comes to remove my tray I ask for a croissant and decaf coffee. Their both good and warm. I would still take Breakfast in an Amtrak dining car with the plastic plates over the tiny portion of rubbery eggs I’ve consumed.
Watching Skyfall there is a scene that takes place in the tube. The station is supposed to be Temple and the line, the district line with it is clearly a deep-level station and deep level tube stock. I assume its the closed Aldwych Station on the Piccadilly Line shuttle branch. As I watch the movie the flight attendant set up a silver cart with the “Light Snacks Available at Anytime Following the Meal Service.” The set up is directly in front of me and JetBlue’s spread of unlimited snacks in Coach Class is definitely better. The set up is of Hersey bars, fun sized cliff bars, pop chips, mixed nuts and bananas. Large bottles of bottled water are put on the lower shelf. I amuse the flight attendants taking a break at their jump seats by trying to get a banana my reaching but can’t quite. As Skyfall ends they walk the silver cart through the aisle offering the snacks to the other Business class rows. My water glass to my dismay (but I don’t say anything) gets replaced by a bottle. After one pass of the cart they then promptly take everything off the snack cart set up and leave fewer items out in a basket in the galley for taking.
After Skyfall I take off the oversized noise-cancelling headphones that block my head from resting comfortably and try to take a nap. I also notice a flight attendant baking a potato in the galley oven. The seat comfortable but I can’t possibly pull of sleeping on my side. I’m a slide sleeper. A lie-flat bed would be a lot better. I zone out to my music as the flight continues. Later on I ask for a ginger ale (my usual in-flight drink) and it is served to me in a real glass (with the United logo etched into it) but I don’t get the rest of the can.
At 1:37 EDT they make a PA announcement that I assume coach hears that we’re 35 minutes from San Francisco and that they need to collect all media players in First and Business class, so they can be accounted for before landing.
At 10:58 PDT we have begun our decent, I return my recliner to the super uncomfortable upright position, turn my phone off and read the newspaper and see the hills of San Francisco coming into view. It’s not my usual entertaining window seat descent though since I’m on the aisle.
11:17 Touchdown!
We taxi into the gate and I’m standing up as the JetBridge is pushed up to the door in front of me. I grab my backpack from the empty overhead bin (shared with only the purse of the woman in 5A, not a crowded economy class bin). I forgot that plains are always (except in an emergency) opened by someone from the outside but soon I hear one of my flight attendants say “Need Help?” and “I’m okay” from the ramp agent on the otherside who is opening the door. I’m the second one to walk up the long jetway (that has a second half midway through). I go straight to the UnitedClub to check it out, arriving at 11:28 and am immediately impressed by its nautical theme and really nice bathroom. Food selection is similar, some breakfast is still out but their also Milanos and Shortbread. I grab some trail mix to eat while I type this and can’t quite finish it
All in all, the upgrade to Business Class was a fun experience although the breakfast left a lot to be desired and the recliner I couldn’t get fully comfortable in for sleeping (for lounging it worked pretty well). During take off and landing I was downright uncomfortable with the location of the headrest. I would definitely not sit in 5B if given the choice, as Seat Guru says “The proximity to the galley may be bothersome.” I would take it any day of course as a free upgrade from the back of the plane.