THE BRIEF
What a mess United created for my trip from Panama to Honolulu. Only two months before my trip was scheduled was I informed that those flights didn’t exist anymore. I spent hours on the phone and website searching for alternate routing. Of course, cancelling the flight would result in a fee that was now in the stratosphere due to post-pandemic conditions.
In the end, I was forced to book the flight I was trying to avoid. A 737 MAX overnighting in LAX. I had to spend the entire night in a dark and closed terminal. Then, to add insult to injury, even though I was travelling business class, United made me pay 60.00 dollars extra to enter the business lounge when it opened in the morning! Welcome to the “Friendly Skies”.
For the money, you get a tired, worn-out, old lounge with a poor food selection. It did have lots of seating and not a bad view of sunrise.
It was time for boarding and I was only too happy to leave LAX behind. As has been the case with United for quite some time, the boarding process is way too slow and time-consuming. In the end, they sent me down the wrong bridge and I ended up in the economy section. The aircraft (777-200) was as old and worn out as the business lounge.
The seat had tiny overhead bins that required stuffing my carry-on into. They employed a strange seating arrangement on this bird. Set in a forward and backward configuration. There was adequate legroom and the seats were comfortable enough for the six-hour excursion.
I ordered Champagne to start the trip off in a proper manner. It came to me in a plastic cup! Would Singapore Airlines do this? Let’s find a little class United. So far, the entire experience has been a disappointment.
We did get an on-time departure which was a surprise considering the very slow boarding procedure. I got comfortable in my seat which had a 76-inch pitch and 19-inch width with a lie-flat position available. It was time for vino and some food.
They served a very nice Cabernet but the water was only available by the glass and that was in sparse amounts which I found annoying.
The lunch was a rather dry egg and spinach omelet. Dessert was a bland strawberry yogurt and a fruit cocktail.
THE DEBRIEF
I have actually had some good experiences with United Flights (see previous posts). On some trips, they are the only game in town, so to speak, for me. As a rule, however, I try to avoid United and any of the other North American carriers unless there is no other way. The big reason is to avoid experiences like this flight. These days your paying premium prices for business and first class and you should expect a premium experience.
