Japan Airlines 60
Osaka Kansai (KIX) - Los Angeles (LAX)
Tuesday, May 31st, 2016
Depart:  5:25PM
Arrive: 11:25AM
Duration:  10 hours minutes
Aircraft: Boeing 787-846 (JA-826J)
Seat: 9D (Business Class)

Like our outbound flight to Japan, we were on a similarly configured 787 back to the United States.  Unlike the outbound flight, the business class cabin was full nor did we have free chocolates courtesy of meal vouchers to offer to the flight crew.

The menu read as follows:

The vegetarian dinner:

The Japanese dinner:

Overall the meal service was quite slow, and the situation made worse by keeping the cabin lights on for an extended period of time.

The flight attendants also stopped by with cookies during the service.  Overall, perhaps due to the cabin being full, service seemed worse than on our outbound flight.  We didn’t get refills of the water we were drinking during our meal courses.

Between the long dinner service and the seemingly early arrival lunch, the flight ended up offering a disappointing amount of sleep for what one might expect.

JAL operates its 787 with angled lie-flat business class seats from LA to Osaka.

Due to our flight delay, we had been given two $20 meal vouchers at check-in.  However, due to the free food at the lounge, we decided to buy a box of chocolates in the terminal to give to the crew.

Overall, service was impeccable, whether due to the half-empty cabin or our gift at the beginning of the flight.

Japan Airlines 69
Los Angeles (LAX) – Osaka Kansai (KIX)
Friday, May 27th, 2016
Depart:  4:33PM
Arrive: 8:39PM
Duration:  8 hours, 40 minutes
Aircraft: Boeing 787-847 (JA-828J)
Seat: 8C (Business Class)

This particular flight featured JAL’s angled-lie flat business class seats.  While unfortunate for a modern aircraft, the seat was fairly comfortable.

For this flight, the menu read as follows:

The drink menu read as follows:

I had ordered the vegetarian meal in advance of the flight, so my starter began with asorted vegetables.

In contrast to the Japanese menu starter:

The next vegetarian course was grilled vegetables, along with a tomato filled with pesto.

The Japanese Kobachi bowls:

The main vegetarian course was pasta with tomato sauce and mushrooms.

The vegetarian desert was a cup of fresh fruit, somehow different from the banana compote on the menu.

To start our meal before arrival, the crew had prepared a thank you note in chocolate for the gift we had given earlier.

Thanks to a United travel waiver for the Northeast, Wideroe was willing to make changes to the otherwise non-changeable mistake bookings.  Rather than try to call Norway, I gave their online chat a try: A few minutes later, I had a new ticket in my email and was ready to go.  A quick call to United and one systemwide upgrade later, I had a seat in the business class cabin.  Online check-in didn’t go so smoothly, though:

That’s not the message you want to see 4 hours before your international flight while it’s after business hours in Norway…  One lengthy call to United (and some fingerpointing between United and Wideroe) later, I was able to check in and obtain a boarding pass.

At Newark Airport, security was a zoo and TSA Precheck was no better.  Right as I passed through the security checkpoint, TSA discovered an abandoned bag, requiring passenger traffic in the terminal be stopped until a police dog could inspect the suitcase.  This left me scrambling to get to my gate where the masses were already teeming but boarding had not yet started.

Boarding eventually started and I settled down into my seat.

United 19
Newark (FRA) – Milan Malpensa (MXP)
Friday, February 14th, 2014
Depart:  6:58PM
Arrive: 8:17AM
Duration:  7 hours, 19 minutes
Aircraft: Boeing 767-424ER (N68061)
Seat: 2K (Business Class)

In addition to the choice of water or orange juice predeparture beverage, the flight attendants came by to offer amenity kits.  Our flight featured the much-coveted (yeah… right.) hub-friendly tins:

Given the few cents necessary to acquire the contents, it’s not clear to me why United thought people would be willing to pay $20 for these.

As I had placed myself on this flight less than 12 hours beforehand, I didn’t have the opportunity to ensure I had a vegetarian meal.  Nonetheless, the menu offered a vegetarian dish so I didn’t have to cobble together a meal out of the salad and sundae.  The menu read as follows:

Somewhat interestingly (given there had been a slight uproar on FlyerTalk over the matter), the wine list made a reappearance.  (During my trip from Hong Kong on United, the wines were conspicuously absent.)

After a bit of perusal of the menu and a bit of a delay departing Newark, it was time for takeoff.

East-bound transatlantic flights (particularly from the east coast) are meant for sleeping, but I figured I would check on the IFE during dinner.  While I ordinarily don’t think much about it, given I prefer to use my laptop or read a book, this was one of the more subpar IFE experiences.

About 50(!) minutes after takeoff, the flight attendants came by with hot towels, finally providing an initial place setting an hour(!) into the flight.

The bread arrived at the 1 hour, 20 minute mark.

Our next course, salad, took another 20 minutes to arrive, making its first appearance at the 1 hour, 40 minute mark.

The entree of ravioli quickly followed, a few minutes later.

I selected a cheese plate for dessert. Nearly 2 hours and 30 minutes since takeoff, the flight attendants made another round afterwards offering sundaes as well

When flying east across the Atlantic, I’ve tried to have one simple guideline:  Go to bed before running out of Canada.   I didn’t quite make it this time.

To the extent I could, I slept through the breakfast service, waking up completely only just before our arrival to Milan Malpensa.

Overall, the flight turned out much better than I had expecting just a day prior.  That is to say, it wasn’t in coach.

While perhaps the Friday night departure made the cabin less full of business travelers in desperate need to catch some sleep before important meetings, I was a bit dismayed that the dinner service took about 2 hours and 45 minutes of the flight to complete.

Once in Milan, I quickly cleared Italian immigration and headed to my hotel in city center.  As part of their BusinessFirst offerings, Continental had long provided arrivals lounges and day rooms in their European destinations.   When I inquired on-board this flight, the flight attendant I asked interpreted it as a question about breakfast before arrival.  As I later discovered by inquiring on FlyerTalk, United does provide day rooms at the Sheraton Malpensa Airport for BusinessFirst passengers, but it requires asking at the gate or lounge (rather than on the aircraft).

For my flight to London, I booked an Avios award in Club Europe for 9k Avios points.  While coach would have been good enough, this decision–similar to my flight from Berlin–was driven by award availability rather than personal preference.

After clearing security, I made my way to the Galleries First lounge.  As I was checking in at the front desk, the clerk suggested I might want to visit the Galleries Club lounge on account of traveling in Club Europe rather than the Galleries First lounge via my Executive Platinum card.

“Isn’t this one supposed to be nicer?”

“Well, yes, it is.”

I’m still puzzled why this conversation happened.

I made my way into the lounge to look into the dinner options I had available.

Terminal 5 would have sweeping views of British Airways’ various aircraft, but most are unfortunately obstructed by the terminal’s architectural features.

With boarding about to commence, I made my way from the lounge to the remote terminal 5 pier.  Virgin Atlantic has taken to advertising in the middle of British Airways’ “home.”

Sadly, not my chariot to Zürich was not a 747.

Club Europe’s legroom leaves a bit to be desired.

Once in flight, I got to discover the joys of children in premium cabins.  A family seated next to and in front of me had brought two children with them.  As to ensure I had a pleasant flight, they took turns screaming, crying, climbing over the seats, and throwing toys throughout the cabin.

We arrived at a remote stand in Zürich.  My luxury car rides to planes aside, it was one of the more pleasant remote stand experiences I’ve had, thanks to stereotypical Swiss efficiency.

For my flight to London, I booked a ticket in Club Europe with 9k Avios points.  This choice wound up being driven by award availability (or the lack thereof in coach), rather than any particular desire to fly intra-European business class.

Between possessing oneworld Emerald status and being ticketed in business class, I was able to fortunately avoid the lengthy check-in line.

As I was checking in, I asked where the British Airways lounge was located and found myself directed back from where I came.  The lounge isn’t very prominently signed nor is it particularly close to the British Airways gate, which is a bit of a challenge by the standards of how small Tegel is.

I also got the feeling that I might have been here before.

As my exposure to oneworld has mostly come from American Airlines, I’m still learning the ropes of what exactly I should expect from British Airways’ “terraces” tier of lounge.  Observations so far?  Juice and wine of unknown quality seem to be on-hand.

After settling into the lounge for 30 minutes, they announced it was time for boarding.

I’m pretty sure I didn’t get my 4.5k extra Avios worth of legroom out of this flight.

While I had booked a K fare for my journey across the middle of the Pacific to Hong Kong, I splurged on a W fare for my return, choosing to play systemwide roulette with United.

When I booked this trip, confirmable upgrade space was plentiful on United’s two NRT-SFO flights for the days I wanted to travel.  As UA78/UA79 service between Tokyo and Hong Kong was dropped in late October, I was left trying to book a flight with ANA unsuccessfully.  Thanks to some quirks in United system’s, it proved impossible to book that segment while staying in a low fare bucket (rather than say full fare coach or business class for HKG-NRT).

Fortunately, my upgrade cleared a few minutes before online check-in opened and I was assigned the last available business class seat on the plane.

I left the lounge when boarding was announced, but nevertheless, group 1 had already become a sea of humanity.

Boarding flights (to the United States, at least) at Hong Kong is somewhat complicated by the thorough bag inspection conducted for every passenger.  Making past the final security check, I settled down in my seat.

United 862
Hong Kong (HKG) – San Francisco (SFO)
Monday, December 2nd, 2013
Depart:  12:30PM
Arrive: 8:25AM
Duration:  11 hours, 55 minutes
Aircraft: Boeing 747-222 (N121UA)
Seat: 6B (Business Class, Lower Deck)

After finally passing an entire 747 of passengers through the bag search gantlet, we pushed back, taxied, out, and took off to the South.

The menu read as follows:

Service began with drinks and warm, mixed nuts.

I had ordered a vegetarian meal; and thanks to my upgrade clearing before the 24 hour mark, I managed to actually receive it.

Somehow, American manages to rather consistently offer small glass bottles of olive oil and vinegar as a dressing choice.  United, rather consistently, offers prepackaged dressings in far less elegant plastic containers.

At United, “Asian vegetarian” secretly means “Indian” for reasons that have never been made clear to me.

After finishing lunch, we still had about nine hours of flying time left before our scheduled arrival to San Francisco.  The majority of flights from (and to) Asia are poorly timed for any reasonable sleep schedule:  3PM is not a great time to go to sleep.

I caught what rest I could before waking up to the beginnings of the breakfast service about an hour before arrival.

Once again, I had a vegetarian meal for breakfast.

While I wanted to catch some good pictures of the San Francisco area from the air during our approach, the fog of the Bay Area was diligently uncooperative.

Seated in 6B, just behind door 1L, I was able to get off the plane quickly and make my way to the United Arrivals lounge.

I booked this trip about two weeks out for my first flight and about three weeks out for my return segment.  My upgrade for this flight cleared a mere 12 hours prior to departure.

As a business class passenger (and executive platinum elite), I had access to the British Airways lounge at Malpensa. The only take away I had was that the wifi was quite slow.

American 199
Milan Malpensa (MXP) – New York Kennedy (JFK)
Tuesday, October 15th, 2013
Depart:  10:25AM
Arrive: 1:40PM
Duration:  9 hours, 15 minutes
Aircraft: Boeing 767-323ER (N346AN)
Seat: 6H (Business Class)

The flight attendants came by with a choice of water, orange juice, and champagne for the predeparture drinks.

The menu read as follows:

Service began with a salad.

About 90 minutes before arrival, we were served a snack.  I picked the Uno pizza.

I’ve talked about the American old business class product several times.  It’s now an outdated and unremarkable product, but I was far happier flying it than taking a seat in coach on United’s 767-424ER.  The United W fare, eligible for systemwide upgrades, was about $650 more for the roundtrip.  Considering my total airfare was about $600, I didn’t bite.

I applied two systemwide upgrades to my itinerary.  For my flight to London, my upgrade cleared a bit over two days prior to departure.

American 98
Chicago O’Hare (ORD) – London Heathrow (LHR)
Wednesday, October 9th, 2013
Depart:  9:45PM
Arrive: 11:25AM
Duration:  7 hours, 40 minutes
Aircraft: Boeing 777-223ER (N775AN)
Seat: 12H (Business Class)

The menu read as follows:

As I was trying to maximize the amount of sleep I could get on this flight, I skipped most of the dinner offerings and selected just a cheese plate to snack on.

With Emirates introduction of JFK-MXP-DXB service, a fare war broke out in the fall, driving base fares for New York to Milan to laughably low levels:  $10 round trip.  Of course, thanks to a $516 fuel surcharge, it’s not a complete steal.  I booked one of these trips with American, giving myself one night in London and four in Milan.

American’s fares had a bit of an annoying quirk in them, requiring transit on AA198 and/or AA199 on the transatlantic leg for “New York” (Kennedy and La Guardia).  As AA198 and AA199 are “direct” flights from and to Chicago O’Hare respectively, one could book somewhat strange looking itineraries such as LGA-ORD-JFK-MXP.  I was interested in visiting London (again), so I picked a departure out of Newark, which allowed me to connect in London on to British Airways.

My upgrade from Düsseldorf to Chicago fortuitously cleared.  In writing this trip report, however, I discovered that I’m missing most of my photos from Big Ben to this picture of our 767 in Germany, as well as those taken on board.

Having enjoyed my time in the lounge, I made my way to the end of the concourse to catch my flight to Newark.

Ordinarily, airport security abroad is a joy.  For our flight, bound to the United States, we got to enjoy another security screening before our gate.  There’s nothing quite like being asked to take off your shoes to give you a little reminder of home.

Lufthansa 412
Munich (MUC) – Newark (EWR)
Sunday, March 31st, 2013
Depart:  3:35PM
Arrive: 6:35AM
Duration:  9 hours
Aircraft:Airbus A340-642 (D-AIHU)
Seat: 3H (Business Class)

Upon boarding, I settled down into my seat in business class.

The menu read as follows:

I had ordered a vegetarian meal, so my service began with a salad and fresh fruit.

Shortly before arrival, we had a light stack, which in my case consisted of cheese and vegetables, along with a bowl of tomato soup.

While immigration was light at Newark when we arrived, Global Entry meant that I spent most of my time walking from the plane to the curb.

Prior to passing through security, I took a moment to go visit the observation terrace.  The weather outside left a bit to be desired for visibility, but fortunately, most of the observation area is covered.

By virtue of having Star Alliance Gold status by being a United 1K, I visited the Swiss-run Senator Lounge.  I previously visited in March 2012 on my way to Bangkok.

The lounge had a number of hot food items available, mostly centered around pastas of various sorts.

Hiding in the back of the food area, there were two soups and bread slices available.

The Senator Lounge has a display of A340 models taking off near its entrance.

After a while, it was time to go to my gate to catch my Lufthansa flight to Munich.  Inside of Europe, business class leaves a lot to be desired.  Our late evening flight was markedly lightly loaded:  We had eight passengers on our 737–two in business class and six in coach.

My trip to Asia last year involved a terrific long-haul flight from Zurich to Bangkok on Swiss, spurring me to choose their business class product again for my flight to Europe.  While it’s definitely hard to find fault with a lie-flat bed in the sky (especially compared to being in the back), Swiss features a two meter long bed, making a good thing–a lie-flat bed in the sky–even better.

Swiss 15
New York Kennedy (JFK) – Zürich (ZRH)
Thursday, March 28th, 2013
Depart:  10:24PM
Arrive: 10:44AM
Duration:  7 hours, 20 minutes
Aircraft: Airbus A330-343X (HB-JHL)
Seat: 5K (Business Class)

As I was settling into my seat, one of the flight attendants came by to offer reading material.  When I visit German-speaking countries, I’m generally pegged instantly as an English speaker.  This trip and this flight proved no different.

The menu read as follows:

As I was planning on visiting the Swiss arrivals lounge in Zurich, I chose to skip breakfast on board to sleep in.

In traveling.to tradition, the flight show:

Drink service was slow to start after takeoff, but the meal service followed rapidly afterwards.  Even from an outstation, the food served was fresh and flavorful.

I had ordered a vegetarian meal in advance, so I received the Swiss gratin from the menu.

The cabin crew left the lights on for about 30 minutes after the meal service ended, but I was still able to catch 5 hours of high-quality sleep–as far as transatlantic redeyes are concerned.

In mid-March, I found myself with Good Friday off without a trip to go on.  As I became spoiled last year by $440 trips to Europe, I wasn’t thrilled by the $1000 coach fares available for a simple weekend trip.  With a huge stash of United miles sitting around awaiting a devaluation in hand, I booked an award trip to get there.

I had the good fortune to see Swiss business class availability open up shortly before the trip for my outbound flight, so I tweaked my trip to give myself an extended layover in Zurich before heading to Munich.

While much has been discussed about free one-way trips to Hawaii on coach award itineraries, Hawaii to Europe business class awards have a small step-up from the continental United States from 50k miles one-way to 57.5k miles.  Compared to building a standalone, premium cabin award to Hawaii at 40k miles one-way, the add-on was a bargain.

Overall, the air travel for this trip ran 100k United miles and $134 in taxes and fees.

A few minutes after I booked this trip, I called the Executive Platinum desk to apply one of my systemwide upgrades expiring at the end of February 2013 to my reservation to upgrade my OGG-DFW-LGA segments.  At the time, the agent suggested I upgrade my JFK-LAX-OGG segments as well, as there was upgrade space available.  At the time, I tempted fate and observed that my upgrade success rate on AA185 was 100% (since making EXP).

As Friday approached, my upgrade hadn’t cleared.  At check-in, I was number 5 on the upgrade list with 2 seats left.  I overlooked two key points:

• AA prioritizes upgrades by time of request.  I booked this trip 10 days in advance.  I generally had 14-21 day advance purchases for my trips in 2012.
• I was traveling on a holiday weekend.

Since AA added Admirals Club access with all business and first class tickets on JFK-LAX/SFO in September (aligning the product with United’s p.s. offering), I’ve kicked around dropping my American Express Platinum card as I mostly fly this particular route on AA and my upgrades generally would clear… until now.  Between this and having access to the Admirals Club during Sandy’s IRROPs, I’ve found it invaluable.  As I entered the club, I inquired as to whether there was an C (three-cabin business class upgrade space) inventory available.  There was, so the agent went about confirming my upgrade and called me back a few minutes later.

While I’ve written about AA’s Flagship Service on JFK-LAX/SFO before, I couldn’t help but notice that even the cheese plates have been upgraded.

American 185
New York Kennedy (JFK) – Los Angeles (LAX)
Friday, January 18th, 2013
Depart:  9:45PM
Arrive: 12:17AM
Duration:  5 hours, 32 minutes
Aircraft: Boeing 767-223ER (N339AA)
Seat: 10D (Business Class)

Since moving to New York, I’ve flown to Los Angeles for Thanksgiving.  To save on airfare, I taken to flying on Thanksgiving morning itself.  While last year’s trip was an uneventful journey of domestic first class, this past year’s was more interesting.

To begin this story, I paid $159.80 for one-way coach ticket between New York and Los Angeles on UA927.  While the absence of complimentary upgrades on United’s p.s. service increases my odds of flying in the back of the plane, I booked the ticket figuring I’d get paid to fly (by being bumped) or get an operational upgrade.  With the flight completely sold out in coach for weeks leading up to the departure, the odds were good.

I made it to the airport and fought off fatigue (6:30AM departures are not my cup of tea!). In light of the holiday, the premium cabins were still on-sale, leaving me to go hat in hand for an op-up rather than a bump.  My inquiry as to “whether we’d need volunteers today” (to dance around asking about my upgrade chances explicitly) lead to a new boarding pass on the spot for 9B.

United 927
New York Kennedy (JFK) – Los Angeles (LAX)
Thursday, November 22nd, 2012
Depart:  6:30AM
Arrive: 9:37AM
Duration:  6 hours, 7 minutes
Aircraft: Boeing 757-222 (N525UA)
Seat: ~~16D (Economy)~~ ~~9B (Business Class)~~ 3C (First Class)

Ah.  Row 9.  The seats with just too much legroom.

I settled in, read the breakfast menu, and began drifting off to sleep.

On our taxi out, the purser came back to the business class section with a simple pronouncement:  “I need 4 volunteers to sit in first class.”  The statement registered and I was moving forward, now to 3C.  With the plane steadily taxing to the runway, I was handed a new menu, which read as follows:

With the plane beginning to turn onto the runway, the purser came to my seat to take my order.  I chose the cereal, making my breakfast markedly similar to the one I had in p.s. Business Class in August.

The two course breakfast seemed better structured than the single-tray approach from August, but having not had a recent business class breakfast service, I could not determine whether this was one of the few distinctions of the first class product.

With boarding for American’s flight to New York called in the British Airways lounge, it was time to head to the gate. As our upgrades had yet to clear, we asked after having our boarding passes scanned.  One seat was left and I was at the top of the list.  I learned two things:

• It’s great to be an Executive Platinum as the airport upgrade list places all EXPs above all non-EXPs.  (It’s far less fun when your companion doesn’t inherit your status and falls into the latter.)
• The UK Passenger Service Charge (not to be confused with the UK Air Passenger Duty) is well worth the price to connect at LHR on the return for increased upgrade space.  In comparison, AA blocks 2 business class seats on its 757-200’s for crew rest (for a single crew member), making an already tough upgrade tougher.

American 171
Brussels (BRU) – New York Kennedy (JFK)
Tuesday, September 18th 2012
Depart:  10:17AM
Arrive: 12:43AM
Duration:  6 hours, 35 minutes
Aircraft: Boeing 777-223ER (N198AA)
Seat: 3E (Business Class)

The wine and beverage lists were the same as those offered on the New York to London flight that I took a week prior.  The meals read as follows:

While American’s flight attendants normally practice FEBO (Front Even/Back Odd) for their starting point in taking meal orders, the purser took orders from the front.  My speculation for the neglected back is the presence of the crew rest in 4AB.  Thus, by the time she reached me, the pasta dish, the lone vegetarian option on the menu, was gone.  The purser told me she’d do what she could.

On AA’s two-cabin international service, business class has a choice of marinated cheese or warmed nuts.

The prepacked roll is a clear sign of a vegan meal.

I didn’t see any black olives as promised by the menu, but this felt far more on-menu than a vegetarian/vegan special order meal.

I chose the cheese plate over the sundae for dessert.

Shortly before landing, we had another meal service.  I opted for the pizza.

Our pilots announced at Brussels that we would likely arrive early to New York, but low ceilings at JFK delayed us ever slightly, eating up the time we had saved crossing the Atlantic.  As the lone apparent arrival at the time to JFK Terminal 8, US CBP was painless.

When this trip was booked in July, I was unable to locate any confirmable upgrade space around the dates we were interested in traveling, so I went ahead and booked the trip with waitlisted systemwide upgrades. While I would normally be unwilling to do this with United (as I’m unwilling to play systemwide roulette to discover I lost and overpaid for my coach seat), American’s systemwides work on any fare so waitlisting (and ultimately clearing) came at no additional cost above and beyond an ordinary roundtrip in coach.

As the date approached, I steeled myself for a transaltantic flight in coach with the solace of having reserved exit row seats at booking.  After a bit of observation in late August and early September, upgrade space in business class consistently opened up on JFK-LHR between 48-72 hours if there was at least two full-fare business class seats for sale.  The upgrades for this flight cleared at 54 hours out.

After enjoying the Flagship Lounge for a few minutes after boarding was initially called, it was time to head to the gate.  While boarding for group 2 (or perhaps 3) was already underway, the PriorityAAccess line still about 10 passengers in line.

American 138
New York Kennedy (JFK) – London (LHR)
Wednesday, September 12th 2012
Depart:  8:03PM
Arrive: 7:28AM
Duration:  6 hours, 35 minutes
Aircraft: Boeing 777-222ER (N765AN)
Seat: 10H (Business Class)

While AA’s business class is far superior to the coach seat I could have flown, its hard product leaves quite a bit to be desired compared to some Star Alliance carriers (or even British Airways).  Once I settled in to sleep, I was left battling the appreciable 10 degree angle-from-horizontal of the fully-reclined seat.  To make matters even worse, a woman with a lap infant was seated across the aisle.

The flight attendant working our side of the cabin passed out menus prior to push back and began taking orders as we taxied.  He was trapped in conversation with 8H, so our orders were taken shortly after takeoff.

Early into the flight, 10E, the middle seat in business class in the row (Yes, American has middle seats in its business class as well) had a broken reading light.  After the two business class flight attendants (rightfully) concluded it was the button on his seat that was broken and distracted themselves from starting the meal service, he sought a full refund for his seat from them.  Ordinarily on a redeye, I spend my time sleeping with a bit of time spent eating sprinkled in if I’m on a transoceanic flight.  Evidently, my priorities have all been off:  Rather than care for a comfortable seat for the $3.5k I’m hypothetically spending to fly across the ocean, I should care only about whether I have a working reading light…

The amenity kit:

The menu read as follows:

The wine and beverage lists read as follows:

I had requested a vegetarian meal shortly after booking.  American’s vegetarian meal also stands in for its vegan meal.  The main annoyance of this comes in the form of receiving margarine, rather than butter, with the meal.

I took the on-menu ice cream for my dessert.

After dinner, I wandered through the business class galley and ended up speaking with one of the flight attendants.  While landing cards were placed on the plane, American’s ground staff at JFK had failed to place any FastTrack immigration cards for London Heathrow on the plane.  With a 2 hour, 15 minute scheduled layover, I less concerned about the connection from Terminal 3 to Terminal 1 and was instead much more concerned about my prospects of having time to stop by the Arrivals Lounge for a quick shower.

I settled in to my seat and attempted to sleep as best as I could, limited by the “early” 7:40PM departure out of JFK and the angle of the seat.  During the dinner service, I had requested the express breakfast option and found myself woken up by the flight attendant about 30 minutes prior to arrival.  In retrospect, I’m reasonably pleased with this decision as I didn’t have a good estimate for how much our early arrival might slip or how bad immigration queues could be for managing to stop by the arrivals lounge for breakfast.

While eating my breakfast, I had firmly convinced myself that I actually hadn’t slept at all on the flight.  The non-EU passport line ended up being marginally longer than the FastTrack line, but it still afforded enough time to stop by the American Airlines Arrivals Lounge prior to heading to Terminal 1, allowing me to convince myself that I was refreshed and had actually gotten enough sleep to make it through the day.

Back in July, a brief fare war broke out across the domestic US carriers for travel from the United States to Ireland in the fall.  Around that time, I wrote a post discussing the process of finding an itinerary to actually use these low fares.

Because simply researching possible itineraries without actually going anywhere isn’t much fun, I booked one for myself and a friend who needed to eventually get from New York to Los Angeles.  This produced a slightly unusual, transatlantic (and backtracking!) way to get to L.A., JFK-LHR-DUB-BRU-JFK-LAX, stopping in Dublin for 5 days and Brussels for 1:

Due to the complexity of the itinerary, I gave up attempting to use multicity and called the Executive Platinum desk.  While this wasn’t actually a mistake fare, the agent placed me on hold for several minutes while verifying that $440/person was, in fact, the correct fare for this trip.

Since matching from Continental Platinum to American Executive Platinum in December 2011, I’ve had 8 systemwide upgrades on AA that I’ve been looking to use.  Up until this trip, I had been sitting at about 90k EQM on AA since May and had little-to-no planned international travel before their expiration date.  While United imposes fare minimums for its systemwides when used on international, long-haul travel, AA has no such requirements, allowing me to fly the entire trip in business class on the AA-operated segments.

Like my trip on United to Europe in January (for $680), $440 for roundtrip business class to Europe plants this trip firmly in revenue rather than award territory.  An award ticket in business class would run 100k miles (plus 20k foregone miles that were earned on this itinerary) and $130, a rather miserable 0.25 cents per mile redemption value.

This year, I’ve largely shifted my New York-San Francisco/Los Angeles trips to American as I’ve been greatly enjoying a phenomenal complimentary upgrade rate.  With my booked September travel completing my Executive Platinum re-qualification, I’ve begun to switch my attention to United.

For most of my travels, I’ve been departing out of Newark and La Guardia for reasons of destination, price, schedule, and the eligibility for complimentary upgrades.  Last weekend, I was flying to San Francisco on p.s.  In an effort to conserve my upgrade instruments, I had confirmed an upgrade for myself only on my redeye return.  Nonetheless, my flight was oversold in coach so I was able to pick up an operational upgrade to business class.

United 397
New York Kennedy (JFK) – San Francisco (SFO)
Saturday, August 4th 2012
Depart:  8:18AM
Arrive: 10:53AM
Duration:  5 hours, 35 minutes
Aircraft: Boeing 757-222ER (N517UA)
Seat: 11C (Business Class)

For now, the hard product on p.s. is unchanged, although it is due to adopt the Continental lie-flat business class product and lose its first class cabin late this year.

My seatmate was no where to be found until two minutes before the door closed, so I wound up using his seat as my example of a business class seat (as I had already settled in and thrown my pillow and blanket into the overhead bin):

Sadly, the “new” United has “aligned” its on-board products including its menus.

Thanks to “alignment,” the menu looks unsurprisingly similar to my Newark to San Francisco flight in May in format.  While the “p.s.” designator is mostly just another marketing term (American uses the word “Flagship” to refer to its service along thes routes), it is still disappointing to see it removed from the product.

My return to this trip was an uneventful redeye back on p.s. to JFK.  While I’m disappointed by the decline of the p.s. soft product and the lack of complimentary upgrades on the route, I still prefer the p.s. business class seats to those on American.

Outside of my hastily put together award trip to Australia and New Zealand and a very brief visit to Montreal, roughly 134k of the 144k miles I flew last year were domestic, primarily flying to Los Angeles and the Bay Area.  This year is no different.

In the past, I’ve written extensively about United’s p.s. service from New York Kennedy to San Francisco and Los Angeles, ranging from the vast legroom of Row 9 to the first class experience.  In December, I completed American Airlines’ Executive Platinum status match challenge from United.  Unlike p.s., which is ineligible for complimentary premier upgrades, American offers its Executive Platinum members complimentary upgrades even on its Flagship Service on JFK-SFO/LAX.

As someone who has made 8 trips to Los Angeles and 6 trips to San Francisco this year, I’m one to appreciate upgrades when I can have them.  Had I not directed the bulk of those trips to American (only 2 of the 14 trips were on United), I would have exhausted my 4 regional upgrades and 6 system wide upgrades that I earned last year with United in April if I used them only for the redeye flights I took.  (Let’s not talk about what I would have done for the next 8 months of the year.)

Nonetheless, I’ve become somewhat complacent and deferred writing up a trip report of the service, so here goes.

American 17
New York Kennedy (JFK) – San Francisco (SFO)
Friday, April 20th
Depart:  7:30PM
Arrive: 10:09PM
Duration:  5 hours, 39 minutes
Aircraft: Boeing 767-223ER (N335AA)
Seat: 11D (Business Class)

The menu read as follows:

I passed on the shrimp appetizer that came with the first course.

Conveniently, American has offered a vegetarian pasta dish with every JFK-LAX/SFO dinner flight I’ve had…  I contrast with the choice of a “cold chicken salad” or a “cold chicken sandwich” that I’ve experienced all too often on United.

I had about an hour before boarding started, so I visited the Senator lounge next to my gate to check up on my email as my hotel imposed somewhat outrageous prices for internet access.

Traditionally, Continental operated the Newark-Berlin route with a mix of 757-200’s and 767-200’s.  Today, United was using a 767-224ER.

United 97
Berlin Tegel (TXL) to Newark (EWR)
Sunday, April 1st
Depart: 9:35AM
Arrive: 12:40PM
Duration: 9 hours, 5 minutes
Aircraft: 767-224ER (N67158)
Seat: 4B (Business Class)

The 767-200’s of Continental are still using the old BusinessFirst recliner style seats (rather than the full lie-flats of the 757-200’s and 777-200’s):

The menu read as follows:

Lately, United has been acting as if “bread” were a course unto itself for its premium cabins, so I must do the same.

I had ordered a vegetarian meal, but the flight attendant taking meal orders offered the on-menu cheese lasagna as well.

Shortly before landing, we were offered another snack service.

While this was a comfortable 9 hour daytime flight, I would have personally put up with the inconvenience of a connection in order to pick up a lie-flat seat for the overnight transatlantic flight.

Since Turkish Airlines was only offering the extended city tour, I had to cut out of the city tour a bit early.  Despite my best efforts to arrive at the airport with minimal time to spare, I still had time to visit the Turkish Airlines business class/Star Alliance Gold lounge.

From the time I booked this award (in December) until departure, Aeroplan was firmly convinced that I was flying on an Airbus A320 series aircraft.  A few weeks before the trip, the then Continental.com website began reporting that Turkish Airlines was operating an Airbus A340 between Istanbul and Berlin, even while Aeroplan (and Turkish Airlines!) were showing an A321 loaded on the schedule.

I didn’t get my hopes up.  Once I arrived at the gate, I was informed that the inbound aircraft was late, so I found a seat for myself somewhat removed from the windows.  When the gate agents began the mad boarding scramble, I looked out the windows and noticed two engines hanging off the left wing:  Continental.com was right.

Turkish 1723
Istanbul (IST) to Berlin-Tegel (TXL)
Saturday, March 31st
Duration: 2 hours, 50 minutes
Aircraft: A340-311 (TC-JDJ)
Seat: 2B (Business Class)

Our flight included dinner.  Normally, I stash my menu in my bag and photograph it off the plane with (hopefully) better lighting.  This time, I left it under my screen and a flight attendant took it back as he was walking through the cabin.

I left the United lounge shortly before the revised, scheduled boarding time.  The flight status TVs throughout the lounge had out of order signs next to them (despite being on) that didn’t exactly inspire my confidence.  Our departure was a bit further delayed, giving me a moment to snap a few pictures of the plane and take a quick walk to the end of the pier before boarding commenced.

Poor business class award availability for this flight notwithstanding, the cabin was quite empty:  15 of the 28 seats were occupied.

Turkish 51
Tokyo (NRT) to Istanbul (IST)
Friday, March 30th
Depart: 12:28PM
Arrive: 6:51PM
Duration: 12 hours, 23 minutes
Aircraft: 777-3F2ER (TC-JJL)
Seat: 2B (Business Class)

Like Air New Zealand’s safety video featuring the All Blacks (when your flight’s IFE is working properly), Turkish Airlines has a slightly off-beat one of its own with Manchester United.

The obligatory, pre-departure flight show:

The menu read as follows:

Since I had requested a vegetarian meal, my appetizer came preplated rather than served off of the cart.

After the meal, the flight attendants closed the window shades and turned on the mood lighting for our long flight across Asia.

About two hours out from Istanbul, we had a second meal service.

Overall, I was impressed by the Turkish Airlines business class product’s superb soft product, but I felt the seat left a bit to be desired.

New planes with new interiors goes a long way at providing a compelling hard product.  When I took this trip in late March, the 777-300ER I was on was about 13 months old; in comparison, the Thai 747-400 I took to Tokyo was about 21 years old.  That said, as a hard product person, the question I had for myself was “who would put up with a middle seat in paid business class in this day and age?”  It’s a question I ask myself every time I see the legacy United’s “new” 8 abreast business class product on its 747’s and 777’s.  (I shudder to contemplate United’s old business class product for long-haul travel, even if I enjoy their p.s. service domestically.)  In comparison, Air New Zealand fits 26-28 lie-flat business class seats, each with direct aisle access, on its 777’s in the same space that Turkish Airlines uses to fit 28 angled lie-flat business class seats, consisting of 8 window seats and 4 middle seats without direct aisle access.

For my hop to Tokyo, I selected the Thai-operated redeye.

Having relaxed in the Thai business class lounge until 45 minutes before departure, I decided to head to my gate.  Boarding didn’t start until around 25 minutes before departure, leaving me standing around the gate wondering how they could manage to board an entire 744 in 25 minutes when United can’t seem to board an A320 in 35 minutes.  Nonetheless, we managed to depart miraculously on-time.

Thai 640
Bangkok (BKK) to Tokyo (NRT)
Thursday, March 28th
Depart: 10:10PM
Arrive: 6:20AM
Duration: 6 hours, 10 minutes
Aircraft: 747-4D7 (HS-TGK)
Seat: 12A (Business Class)

This flight is a surprisingly short flight, until one studies a map:

Bangkok to Tokyo is a 2889 mile direct flight.  For comparison, San Francisco to New York is 2586 miles and Los Angeles to New York is 2475 miles.  While American and United serve a midnight snack (normally a chicken sandwich or a fruit and cheese plate) on their Flagship and p.s. routes respectively, Thai offers two meals on this flight.

The menu read as follows:

Due to the short flight time, I chose to skip the dinner and focus on sleep instead.  Breakfast service started about two hours before landing.

Zürich Airport has a terrific aircraft observation deck prior to the main security checkpoints.  (Since it seems the emergency exits for it dump out onto the tarmac, the area has its own screening checkpoint.)  As I had some time to kill and I preferred to look at planes rather than my laptop inside of the Senator lounge, I spent a bit of time there.

A number of the benches are marked with major cities and their distances from Zürich, including my next destination, Bangkok.

The Swiss Senator Lounge in Zürich was no different than the Lufthansa Senator Lounges I’ve seen, with the exception that chocolates were substituted for pretzels.

Swiss 180
Zürich (ZRH) to Bangkok (BKK)
Tuesday, March 26th
Depart: 10:45PM
Arrive: 2:40PM
Duration: 10 hours, 55 minutes
Aircraft: A340-313X (HB-JMG)
Seat: 10A (Business Class)

First class boards from the forward entry door.  Business class and economy board from the middle door.

Swiss Business Class is configured in a staggered configuration, giving some seats direct window and aisle access.  I chose 10A over the wing.

Unlike every other airline I’ve experienced to date, Swiss provides a card with instructions on how to use the seat.

The seat was superb in all aspects except for its underseat storage as my laptop bag could not be stuffed sufficiently into the opening in front of me to satisfy the cabin crew for takeoff/landing purposes.

The amenity kit was nothing extraordinary:

With tradition, the takeoff flight show:

The menu read as follows:

I had ordered a vegetarian meal in advance, which featured the artichoke ravioli on the main menu.

Dinner ended while we were north of Turkey, over the Black Sea.  I finished watching my movie and went to bed, enjoying the two meter long bed.

I woke up about an hour outside of Bangkok to have breakfast of a croissant, some yogurt, and juice.  (Considering the time change, this wound up being my lunch.)

Overall, I was astounded by the quality of the Swiss business class product, from seat, to cabin crew, to food served.

With an hour and a half to kill before my flight, I popped into the SAS Lounge at Copenhagen Airport. As a Star Gold member, I was admitted to the Scandinavian lounge area rather than the Business Class lounge. While I did have access to the Servisair and Novis Lounges at the airport with my Priority Pass card (from having an American Express Platinum card), the lounge was nice and the Internet connection fast so I had no reason to justify lounge hopping.

The Scandinavian lounge is on the upper level, primarily overlooking the Business lounge.
The upper level has a few seating areas.  One overlooks the concourse and looks into the lounge itself.

Another seating area spanned back to have landside views.

The middle area had a small area for snacks (salads, pita components, drinks, desserts) and a fireplace.

The gate for my Swiss flight was a bit removed from the central part of the terminal (where the SAS lounge was), so I left a bit early only to discover that our inbound aircraft was late.

Swiss 1273
Copenhagen (CPH) to Zürich (ZRH)
Saturday, March 24th
Depart: 8:15PM
Arrive: 9:33PM
Duration: 1 hour, 18 minutes
Aircraft: A321-111 (HB-IOF)
Seat: 6F (Business Class)

The flight was rather empty with 3 business class passengers (for 6 rows of seats) and a mostly empty economy cabin.

For a coach-style seat, the legroom was quite good.

Even for a short, intra-European hop, the flight came with a meal.  I had ordered a vegetarian meal and with the sparse cabin, I didn’t get a look at what the other passengers were served:

The chickpea, pepper, cucumber, hummus, and lime dish had a short life as the best airline meal I’ve ever had.  (The title was seized by the dinner service on LX180, Zürich to Bangkok, two days later.)

As I alluded to earlier, I booked a second business class Star Alliance award with Aeroplan in December during the business class for the price of coach “glitch.”  Coupled with the Aeroplan transfer promotion, the award cost 50k Membership Rewards points (all from my Amex Platinum signup bonus) in addition to taxes and fees.

When I booked my trip to Sydney and Auckland, I transfered 76k Membership Rewards points to Aeroplan.  At the time, Aeroplan was offering a 25k mile bonus if 100k miles were transfered from a single program.  I went ahead and transfered an additional 24k points to Aeroplan, waited a few days for the points to post, and then transfered an additional 26k points to Aeroplan.  Fortunately for me the booking glitch lasted while I waited for my bonus points to post, allowing me to book this Asia 1 business class award (normally 125k miles) for 75k Aeroplan miles which I obtained by transferring 50k Membership Rewards points to Aeroplan.

From credit card signups, promotions, and actual flying, I’ve wound up with globs of frequent flier miles and I want to make the most of them.  Since I was on a United revenue ticket for my trip to Europe in January, I did not make use of my US Airways Grand Slam-obtained Dividend Miles as I had originally planned to.  Since US Airways places Thailand and Singapore into its “South/Central Asia” award category (and thereby requiring 160k miles instead of 120k for first class), planning a trip there using Dividend Miles instead would not be as efficient.

Since this trip was booked roughly three months in advance, scarce award availability on other transatlantic flights and fuel surcharges from Aeroplan on Lufthansa-operated segments led me to pick my routing via Copenhagen and Berlin on United.  As I have never been to Denmark and last visited Berlin in 2005, both stops were reasonable concessions to make.

A further constraint of award travel are the routing rules imposed by the airlines.  IATA-set maximum permitted mileage (MPM) figures between city pairs can be used to validate revenue ticket routings.  The MPM for EWR-TYO is 12511 miles via the Atlantic and 8084 miles via the Pacific.  For comparison, the great circle distance is 6751 miles.

On a similar vein, MPM’s can be used to validate award tickets with some carriers.  United permits the MPM to be exceeded by 15%.  Aeroplan permits a (comparatively) meager 5% overage.  Since this is an Aeroplan award ticket, these rules gave me 13136 miles to work with in each direction for travel via the Atlantic (practically speaking, this means “via Europe” both ways due to distance restrictions and the Star Alliance route structure).  I made the most of it on my outbound leg (at 12979 miles) and comparatively less on my inbound leg (at 10666 miles).

As a continuation of this mental exercise, we could validate the itinerary as a EWR-BKK award.  The MPM for EWR-BKK is 11734 miles via the Atlantic and 10648 miles via the Pacific; the MPM+5% is 12320 and 11180 respectively.  While this works for the outbound journey, my now convoluted return from Bangkok (BKK-NRT-IST-TXL-EWR) exceeds the limit at 13555 miles.

Given these constraints, I arrived at my trip itinerary:  Newark to Copenhagen to Zurich to Bangkok to Tokyo to Istanbul to Berlin to Newark.  Aeroplan permits two stopovers (a stop over 24 hours) in addition to the destination itself; I’m stopping in Zurich, Bangkok, and Tokyo.  I have extended layovers in Copenhagen, Istanbul, and Berlin.

When I was booking this trip in late December, I was able to find business class upgrade space on United 924, the late evening redeye from Washington to London operated with a 777.  Unfortunately, the United 777 fleet is in a state of flux as they update the cabins:  Not all planes have received the new lie-flat business class yet and the forward cabins are smaller than the ones they are replacing.  Further, equipment swaps between the two 777 types can happen at any time.

At booking, I was in the old configuration 777.  For an upgrader, an equipment swap can be disastrous as one could fall from a confirmed business class seat to an undesirable middle seat in economy minus.

The day of my flight, I glanced at the mobile United site over lunch to figure out the nose number of the plane I would be on, from which I could back out the tail number.  The FlyerGuide wiki maintains a reasonably up-to-date page for the state of United’s fleet.  Given nose number 2481, I could determine that I was going to be on N781UA, which by January 12th, had the new business class.

I checked the full United site to figure out my new seat assignment, finding that I couldn’t see it online until I called an agent.  Fortunately, I was still in business class and had managed to get a rear facing aisle seat.  Having tried out the forward facing lie flat seats of United and Air New Zealand on my trip in December, I was looking forward to trying out the rear facing experience.

While my trip originated at New York Kennedy and I did choose to visit the United Club there, those details are written up in my December trip report.

United 924
Washington Dulles (IAD) – London (LHR)
Thursday, January 12th
Depart: 8:00PM
Arrive: 12:15PM
Duration: 7 hours, 13 minutes
Aircraft: Boeing 777-222 (N781UA)
Seat: 7B (Business Class)

The flight show is an important part of any long-haul trip (especially when on an Embraer regional jet).

The menu read as follows:

Concerned for the potential worst of Skychefs, I had ordered a vegetarian meal.

As the main course:

For desert, I opted for the ice cream.

By this time, I realized we were about two and a half hours into the flight with a predicted early arrival to London due to strong winds so I began my attempt to get ever last moment of sleep that I could.  I skipped the breakfast but remained quasi-conscious as the sounds of the breakfast service kept me from falling back to sleep.  Needless to say, I’ve now concluded that meal service on transatlantic redeyes is a trap.

Passport control was quick, although the UK officer felt compelled to guess that my purpose of travel to Ireland was to “visit family” based on my red hair.

As I approached United 1K status last year, I began to eye a possible uses of the 6 systemwide upgrades that I would receive for crossing the 100k mile mark.  Unlike American’s systemwide upgrades which work on any fare, United requires that travel be booked into the “W” fare bucket (or higher).

To quantify this a bit further, the cheapest round trip fare (without concern for validity dates, minimum stay restrictions, and so forth) on United for NYC-SYD is a “K” fare for $798 plus $620 in fuel surcharges.  The absolute cheapest “W” fare is $1698 plus $620 in fuel surcharges.  Given that confirmable upgrade space on United’s SFO/LAX-SYD routes is practically nonexistent, using a systemwide amounts to a $350 lottery ticket (each way) for a chance of sitting in business class on a United 747.

In December, I came across a fare sale from New York (and Newark) to Dublin, Ireland for $392 plus taxes roundtrip.  Even more importantly, W fares were only running $200 more (plus a small bit of additional tax as well) for the roundtrip.  I set off looking for a flight with a confirmable upgrade to business class around MLK weekend to Europe.  The routing rules on United’s fares for this route are quite generous, allowing one to connect in nearly any major European city in addition to connecting at a Lufthansa, Swiss, or bmi hub.

I came across United 924, Dulles to London Heathrow, allowing myself 22 hours to connect to a bmi flight onwards to Dublin.  Having noticed the early evening departures out of Frankfurt to Dulles operated by United, I arranged to fly from Dublin to Frankfurt for a 20 hour connection, allowing me to meet a friend for breakfast.

For those still following this itinerary, it looks like this when mapped out:

Having decided to tough out 9 hours of coach for my return flight, this itinerary cost $641.50 while earning 9433 EQM (18866 RDM; my miles for my bmi-operated LHR-DUB segment haven’t posted yet).  In contrast, a similar award ticket would run 50k miles to Europe (in business class) and 30k miles from Europe (in coach).  Factoring in the opportunity cost of not earning miles on an award ticket, this would yield a 0.649cpm valuation for using my miles.  Better redemption values can be found in domestic coach by comparison.

I got to LAX a bit early (1 hour, 45 minutes or so before departure) and made my way to the premium check-in line.  Since the flight was showing F0J0Y0, I volunteered to be bumped to a rather surprised service manager.  Am I the only 1K traveling in business class who has ever asked about being bumped?

I then made my way to the priority security line to enjoy my Freedom Grope.  (I’m now 8 for 8 in being “randomly” selected for the backscatter at the United LAX terminal in the past 11 months).  I had the (mis)fortune of facing the nonpriority line to notice two facts:  The nonpriority line was markedly shorter and the nonpriority line only seems to have walk-through metal detectors.

As I had about an hour and a half before departure, I visited the United Club where my old standbys awaited me:  Crackers, cheese, carrots with ranch dip, shortbread cookies, trail mix, pretzels, and yogurt-covered raisins.  At least it’s consistent?

An hour before departure, I headed to the gate next door to look into my chances of getting VDB’d where I got to kick off the start of my trainwreck of a p.s. flight.  It seems these days that misadventures in business class are the best first world problems I can muster.

United 912

Los Angeles (LAX) – New York Kennedy (JFK)

Monday, January 2nd

Depart: 11:49PM

Arrive: 7:44AM

Duration:  4 hours, 55 minutes

Aircraft: Boeing 757-222 (N512UA)

Seat: 9C (Business Class)

Row 9 is the stuff legends are made of.

With three agents at the gate, one was busy for 50 minutes “setting up the flight” to avoid passenger questions.  The other two stood around helplessly, talking between themselves.  When it came time to start boarding, the two agents both openly announced to the other gate agent and the passengers in earshot that they did not know the boarding order.  While United has made changes to its boarding order, it’s not especially complex.

I made my way to my seat and began noticing the differences between this flight and my normal experience on p.s.  Three flight attendants were gathered in the galley at door 2R talking amongst themselves rather than greeting passengers or taking jackets.  While my jacket was stuffed into my carry-on bag in the overhead, numerous passengers were sitting with jackets in their laps.  Given the conveniently placed handle on the right (and only right) side of business class in front of 9C that a flight attendant normally temporarily hangs bags on, I can only believe that taking jackets is the rule and not the exception.

About five minutes into boarding, I wandered up to the galley to get something to drink as I wasn’t going to be interested in my choices of water, orange juice, or faux champagne.  One of the flight attendants, annoyed that I had disturbed their conversation, retorted back that my “choices were those on the tray,” gesturing at the three beverages that were prepoured in the galley.  At this point, it’s worth noting that customized predeparture beverages have been available on United since September 1st.

I returned to my seat to be asked by a husband and wife split across 9A and 9D to change seats…  with their 13 year old son seated in 10D.  Going from an aisle seat with practically infinite legroom to a window seat is hardly a fair trade, especially when the son (nor technically the parents) was not exit row qualified.  Needless to say, 9B wasn’t enthusiastic about their offer either.

We had an initial 35 minute delay for pushback because the ground crew was still loading bags.  Having missed our slot for departure, our wheels up time was further delayed by another 15 minutes.   After take off, I opted for the cheese plate as a quick snack while checking up on the Internet before turning in for the night.

While the hard product was every bit as comfortable as it normally would be, the experience on this flight was far below my expectations on p.s. and lackluster even for a domestic flight.

I arrived from the Airbus Express from downtown to the airport and began my trek to find the Air New Zealand check-in desks at the other end of the airport.  I eventually came across a series of Air New Zealand counters and kiosks and got in line before wondering why I hadn’t seen any signs for premium cabin passengers.  I stepped out of line and returned to looking around, finding the business class check-in desk down a bit further and cloistered off from the rest of the airport.

The advantage of the business class check-in desk?  A dedicated passport control line and a slightly faster security line.  Compared to the hassle of a normal TSA security line, anything looks good.

Compared to the cheese and cracker fare at the United Clubs, the Air New Zealand lounge had a good variety of options.

With boarding scheduled to begin shortly, I headed to the gate.

We had a delay in boarding.  With moments to go before our scheduled departure, the gate agents announced that there was a problem with the avionics system and that there was no ETA, advising passengers with lounge access to return to the lounge.  I decided to stick around while a Canadian couple behind me left for the lounge.  As it turned out, boarding commenced shortly after the indefinite delay announcement.  The couple had just reached the lounge when the boarding announcement was made.  “Rebooting” (in their terminology) the aircraft electrical system caused the IFE to not be up and running during pushback and taxiing, leaving the crew to give the safety announcements the traditional way.

Air New Zealand 84
Auckland, NZ (AKL) – Vancouver (YVR)
Saturday, December 31st
Depart: 8:00PM
Arrive: 12:15PM
Duration: 13 hours, 15 minutes
Aircraft: Boeing 777-219ER (ZK-OKF)
Seat: 5A (Business Class)

Once again, I was on a 777-219ER, so the Business Premier cabin was the nearly same as my Sydney to Auckland flight.  The notable addition to the scene is a tightly rolled memory foam mattress pad and a pillow.

The amenity kit came with the standard contents.

Immediately after takeoff, it was time for the obligatory airshow.

The menu read as follows:

Air New Zealand puts quite a bit of attention into describing the alcoholic beverages, especially the wines, served on board.

To open:

I had (obviously) requested a vegetarian meal in advance.

I decided to watch a movie and then asked to have my bed made up.  While the bed was quite comfortable, I had a slight cold and didn’t get the most optimal sleep I could.  When I awoke, the flight attendants were going around serving fruit juices and smoothies.

The egg was sadly a bit over cooked to the point of being browned and crispy in parts.

While my Vancouver layover was originally scheduled due to the mercy of award availability, it afforded me the opportunity to do my NEXUS iris scan on my way back to the United States.

Having finished lunch in Sydney and quickly growing tired of dragging my bag with me, I decided to head to the airport a bit early.  Air New Zealand doesn’t support online check-in on its international routes, so I was left to check-in at the airport to obtain a boarding pass.  Rather unfortunately (and unknown to me when I was deciding to head to the airport), I couldn’t obtain a boarding pass until three hours before departure, leaving me with 30 minutes or so to kill waiting near the ticket desks.

Rather surprisingly for me, the Qantas employee staffing the Air New Zealand desk needed to see a printed itinerary showing that I had a ticket out of New Zealand.  Given Air New Zealand was to fly me in and out of New Zealand, they were privy to both ticket numbers of my Aeroplan award and should have had this accessible to them (or so I would have believed).

After walking through the mall that is the Sydney Airport international terminal, I reached the two Star Alliance lounges, one run by Singapore Airlines and the other Air New Zealand.  I chose to go to the Singapore lounge first.  Upon entering, the desk clerk suggested that since I was flying on Air New Zealand, I go to their lounge and come back if I decided that the Singapore lounge “was nicer.”  Having been to neither lounge, deciding which lounge would be nicer in advance would be difficult.  As a business class passenger with Star Alliance Gold status by virtue of being a United 1K, I was directed to the empty business class lounge.

Besides two staff members who kept checking on the food and drink supply, I was the only person in the lounge.

The various crackers they had out initially were quickly substituted for a wider variety of offerings.

From the seats near the window, I had a rather nice view of a Thai A340 while views of other aircraft were obstructed by various jet bridges.

Eventually, I decided to leave to visit the Air New Zealand lounge.

Initially, the lounge was quite full as many of the passengers were waiting for the United flights to San Francisco and Los Angeles.  Nonetheless, I was able to find a recliner near the windows overlooking the tarmac.

As a testament to the utter confusion that code shares can cause passengers, a group of travelers sitting next to me near the window began debating when their “Continental plane to Los Angeles” was going to show up.

As the boarding calls for the United 747’s were made, the crowd thinned out.  I was quite appreciate that even while reasonably busy, the wireless internet remained speedy.

Air New Zealand 118
Sydney, Australia (SYD) – Auckland, New Zealand (AKL)
Wednesday, December 28st
Depart: 3:45PM
Arrive: 8:45PM
Duration: 3 hours
Aircraft: Boeing 777-219ER (ZK-OKA)
Seat: 3A (Business Class)

Based on the scarce award availability on this route even right up to the flight, I expected the business class cabin to be reasonably full.   I was very mistaken.

I was the only passenger on the left aisle.  Three other passengers were seated on the right aisle.  Most seats had a dedicated overhead bin, virtually assuring space for passengers in business class without resorting to placing bags in the various closets of the aircraft.  One of the business class flight attendants greeted me, introduced herself by name, and offered a Auckland paper while offering a predeparture beverage.  I took the orange juice.

Taxiing brought us past N197UA headed back to San Francisco having flown to Los Angeles and Melbourne since I left it.

The safety video featured the All Blacks rather than Richard Simmons.

Upon takeoff, it was time for the initial flight show.

The menu read as follows:

I had requested a vegetarian meal in advance.

Upon arrival, we had to wait a few minutes to deplane for our jetbridge to be brought up to the aircraft.  Overall, customs was quick and painless (and didn’t require use of the express card handed out by the flight crew).  The immigration officer asked me what I was doing in Sydney: (“Being a tourist” sufficed.  The biosecurity officer asked me what sort of science I do:  I started to offer an explanation, but he quickly passed on hearing it.

After finishing exploring the Star Alliance lounges of SFO, I left for the gate to snap some predeparture photos of the plane in old-new livery.  I was slightly foiled by the pattern in the glass.

United 863

San Francisco (SFO) - Sydney, Australia (SYD)

Saturday, December 24th

Depart: 10:39PM

Arrive: 7:51AM

Duration:  14 hours, 12 minutes

Aircraft: Boeing 747-422 (N197UA)

Seat: 14K (Business Class)

Ordinarily, I’m an aisle seat person, but I chose a forward facing window seat on the upper deck.  Extensive analysis on FlyerTalk puts the length of the bed in this particular seat at 75 inches.  My laptop bag and a book from my rollaboard suit case comfortably fit in one half of the window bins of the seat.

The overhead bins on the upper deck are quite small, however, and could not accommodate my suitcase.  The flight attendant noticed me staring at the overhead bins for a moment before suggesting I remove anything I might want during flight and he would stow it in the closet.

After stowing my bag, the flight attendant returned with a tray of predeparture beverages (water, orange juice, and sparkling wine).  I picked the sparkling wine and settled in.

As the third passenger to board the plane, I had some time to kill before boarding finished.  I started by reading the menu before turning to a book I had with me.

As I had requested a vegetarian meal, I was served an off-menu first course with the on-menu vegetarian ravoli.

For dessert, I chose the ice cream.

I played with my laptop for a bit prior to going to bed.  The amenity kit was simple yet practical.  Honestly, with my suitcase in the upper deck closet, the only essential I needed was a toothbrush.

I woke up around 6AM Sydney time from a combination of the sun and a crying baby.  Both of these are largely my own fault as I left my window shade up and chose not to use an eye mask nor ear plugs.  Nonetheless, it was a reasonably high quality six hours of sleep as I made it through the next day and evening without feeling prematurely tired.  I prefer to sleep on my side, so my only complaint with the lie-flat bed is that there’s a smallish headrest that sticks out near the very top of the bed.

A flight attendant was by soon after to offer a hot towel and to start serving breakfast.  The vegetarian breakfast omits the yogurt listed on the menu for some reason.

Just prior to landing, it was time to checkout the air show.

Customs was quick thanks to the Express Path cards handed out to business and first class passengers.  Of the fifteen or so minutes I spent getting landside, most of it was walking from the plane, through the duty-free store, and then ultimately out of the customs/immigration area.

Thanks to the Aeroplan glitch (or unadvertised “promotion”), I put together a quick trip to Sydney and Auckland in business class for myself during Christmas and New Years.   While the award is hardly maximized, it worked out reasonably considering the limited business class availability across the Atlantic and Asia between Christmas and New Years by traveling via Europe.  Considering I spent 76k Membership Rewards points (and bought 4k Aeroplan miles), the itinerary is a steal compared to spending 130k United Mileage Plus miles.

When I had been looking at possible routings over the weekend before I booked, my transpacific segments were constrained by United and Air New Zealand’s then award availability.  United had plenty of seats from the US west coast to Australia at Christmas but none back for New Years.  Air New Zealand had good availability around Christmas, some availability around New Years back to North America, and almost nothing to or from Australia.  The fickleness of these award seats is represented somewhat in my routing via Vancouver.  Originally, I had been considering returning from Auckland via San Francisco, picking up a United flight back to Newark.  Around lunchtime, that seat disappeared, leaving me looking for new transpacific openings; I found AKL-YVR.  To get back to New York, I tacked on an Air Canada segment to Los Angeles and, thanks to Aeroplan’s allowance of two stopovers in addition to the destination, added a stop in Los Angeles to wait for flights with suitable transcontinental award availability.

In the intervening two weeks, Air New Zealand did open up seats to San Francisco and Los Angeles direct from Auckland, I kept the routing via Vancouver.  The one upside of paying UA’s normal award rates is that I can call and make changes for free as a 1K; changes to these Aeroplan awards might require more miles, miles that I don’t have (any more because I spent them on a trip to Asia in March :D).  If nothing else, I’ll be able to stop by to get my NEXUS iris scan done and see what Air Canada has in way to offer at its Maple Leaf Lounge.  Around 2AM EST Wednesday, I noticed that UA had opened up some availability right after New Years in p.s. business class.  When I got up to call Aeroplan at 7AM to adjust my outbound flight to p.s. as well to consolidate the change fee, the “promotion” had ended, but I was able to change out my Continental segments for ones on United p.s.  While I’ve flown numerous times in both of these cabins this year, p.s. still holds its distinction for me.    With these tweaked segments, my new itinerary is New York Kennedy to San Francisco to Sydney to Auckland to Vancouver to Los Angeles to New York Kennedy, traveling 21947 miles in 10 days.

Back in August, I applied for the Amex Premier Rewards Gold card.  I met my minimum spend of $1k for a 75k Membership Rewards point bonus and was temporarily foiled in September with the pullback by Amex on the “bump the bonus” practice frequently discussed on FlyerTalk.  After a few exchanges with Amex via secure message, they credited the points I was promised in August.

With the devaluation of British Airways award chart into Avios and a salvo of Aeroplan devaluations (award chart increases, no domestic first class access on international business class awards, and suddenly imposed fuel surcharges on most Star Alliance carriers), I was left wondering what I’d do with all of these points, particularly as I was eyeing the 50k signup bonus for the Amex Platinum card.

Amidst this gloom came a discovery on Friday afternoon that Aeroplan was charging economy miles for business class awards (similarly business class prices for first class awards).  Over the weekend, I managed to piece together a comparatively simple Aeroplan award from Christmas through New Year’s in business class for 80k Aeroplan miles (acquired by transferring 76k Membership Rewards points and purchasing 4k Aeroplan miles for $120) and paying $222.77 in taxes and fees:  EWR-SFO-SYD (turn) - AKL (stop) - YVR - LAX (stop) - EWR.

Thanks to the summertime devaluation of blocking access to domestic first class seats on business class awards and scarce p.s. business class availability from New York, I booked my transcontinental segments on Continental which codes its domestic “first class” cabin as business class for ticketing purposes.

My regional upgrade cleared a few weeks ago for last night’s LAX-JFK p.s. redeye, allowing me to grab one of the six exit row seats in business class. From Row 9:

That seat back pocket is so far away!  For comparison, I flew in seat 5B (next to door 2L) in July.

To get back from Las Vegas, I booked a ticket with American for LAS-LAX-JFK.  While it seems odd to fly west to go east, the fare rule I would have used to get back to JFK on a direct flight covered transiting LAX as well (so the price was the same) and the last flight from LAS to LAX sufficient to connect to a LAX-JFK redeye left far later than the last LAS-JFK flight (so I got more time in Las Vegas).

American’s corporate parent, AMR Corporation, loves to issue press releases emphasizing its “cornerstone strategy.”  In layman’s terms, it means eliminating most nonhub-to-nonhub flying for the airline.  Due to thunderstorms in Miami, our aircraft was progressively delayed by about two hours in arriving in Las Vegas, delaying our departure.  While it’s hard to fault American for not having an “extra aircraft” to spare as any sensible airline attempts to run its planes at capacity rather than leave them idle, there’s a bit of irony in my choice of a 737 rather than an MD-80 to avoid potential mechanical delays (and a subsequent risk of a mis-connect).  At least with the MD-80, the plane would have been coming from LAX or DFW rather than MIA.

Prior to heading to the airport, I saw my flight was already delayed an hour.  Upon reaching the airport, I called the American elite desk and switched over to the later (11:45PM) redeye from LAX to avoid mis-connecting to my original, 9:30PM departure.

We pushed back from the gate and then started heading towards the runway, only to park parallel to it on the tarmac due to a ground delay caused by the weather at LAX.  Out of my eighty or so flights touching LAX, this amounted to my first LAX-triggered weather delay.  A call to the American desk once again protected me onto the last seats of a LAX-DFW-LGA routing in order to ensure I’d make it to New York by Monday morning.  Surrounding me in the exit row were a number of passengers who had to make progressively tighter connections onto Qantas flights to Australia, so my potential woes paled in comparison.

My upgrade to business class cleared for the LAX-JFK segment, so I wound up in seat 7D.

I found this seat to be inferior to United’s business class seats on p.s.  The seat seemed either a bit narrower or the armrests a bit higher, leaving me between two less-than-optimal choices of where to rest my arms while sleeping.  A quick glance at SeatGuru confirms that American’s seats are quantitatively narrower and have less pitch than those on p.s.

To get back to New York, I traveled along SJC-LAX-JFK.  Once again, booking myself onto the p.s. redeye to New York.

United leaves SJC-LAX service to SkyWest.

Having noticed that my p.s. flight was looking a bit empty a week out, I chose to upgrade to business class with miles.  While award tickets to Europe would constitute a better redemption value, the p.s. economy to business class is one of the few values for domestic redemptions available.  Since I was in a T fare, the upgrade required 20k miles with the $75 copay waived for being an elite on United.  In contrast, the fully paid upgrade offer made a week out was for $375, giving me a 1.875 cent per mile redemption value.

Ordinarily, domestic passengers do not have complimentary access to airport lounges operated by the US-based carriers.  That said, p.s. business class passengers get access to the RCC at their departing airport and first class passengers the First Class lounge.  With a roughly three hour layover at LAX, I stopped by the RCC to take a look.

I seated myself near the windows and had a view of gate 70A and most of Terminal 8’s gates:

Back at SJC, my flight looked overbooked so I got added to the volunteer list there and headed to the gate to wait for the agent to arrive an hour before departure.

Volunteers weren’t needed for the flight, so I took my assigned seat as ticketed:  5B.  (The other emergency exit row on p.s., row 9 of business class was unavailable when my upgrade cleared.)

The redeye served a snack choice of either a fruit and cheese plate or a cold chicken sandwich.  I opted for the cheese plate:

The only inconvenience on my return segments was check-in.  Since I used my miles to explicitly upgrade for the p.s. segment rather than the entire direction of travel, risking burning 20k miles to only clear for a 45 minute long, regional jet flight rather than p.s., I could not check-in online.  Even as an elite, I had to spend about an hour on the phone with United Web Support the morning of my flight, first on hold, then waiting while they diagnosed the problem, and ultimately, until they realized they had to remove me from the UDU list for SJC-LAX, allow me to check-in, and then restore me to the SJC-LAX upgrade list.  Reservations with UA/CO seem surprisingly fragile.  Due to how my standby and volunteer listing went for my IAH-LAS segment on Memorial Day weekend, Continental’s agents had to spend longer processing my Same-Day flight change.