Yesterday (it was "yesterday," wasn't it?) when I went to check in for my flight home I got my first spontaneous bump up to business class ever. Well, it's about time, United. Over 300,000 lifetime miles flown, Premier member since 1999… what were you waiting for?
I have a few theories. One, that United has been reading my blog and is thrilled that someone has been publicly standing up for the company for a change. Or two, that it somehow senses that I will be soon entering a profession with high discretionary income and flush employers who can pay for business travel, and it wanted to give me a peek at what I've been missing flying coach all these years. It's sort of like crack - the first hit is free, so that you suddenly think you can't live without it. Who can possibly go back to coach after experiencing the luxury of a business class seat?
True, I did feel like a kid in a candy store a bit. The two best parts were getting to hang out in the Red Carpet Club before the flight (never gotten to do that before) and that it was a 747 and I got to ride in the hump! I've never even seen what it was like upstairs before, and now I got to ride back from Asia in the upper bunk, so to speak.
On the other hand, you'd expect with the larger seats you'd be able to get more sleep. But that didn't account for the guy next to me who snored for the ENTIRE FLIGHT. Actually, it wasn't really snoring as much as what sounded like his larynx exploding every 53 seconds. So much for arriving well-rested… Also, and I recognize that United just went through a bankruptcy, but it positions itself in the market as something better than a bargain carrier. And yet in terms of amenities it's getting a little chintzy and frayed around the edges. Coach class on Singapore Air and Thai Airlines, apart from the seats, is more like business class on United. (Standing out with Thai is the food, and with Singapore the entertainment.) Even 777 coach class on United does better with the entertainment. I really don't understand why United hasn't yet refitted the coach seats on the 747 with the in-seat tvs. And now that Internet service can be offered in-flight, it seems like they should provide plugs in all the seats so that people can use it. I'm sure the cut United would get from people purchasing the service would make it worth the investment. Since United is serious about competing in the Asian market, it seems like it really should do these things to keep from losing out.
(But that was something else I did like about the business class seat, getting to use the in-seat outlet. It's not a regular outlet - it's a DC one. But a couple of years ago after I lost my laptop cord I bought a travel one that had adapters for DC current. I'd used it once in a car, but this was the first time I ever got to use it in the plane.)
Also, the weakest link in the whole semi-circumnavigational exercise was the last leg, Chicago to Boston. In the end I wasn't really affected other than being an hour late, but apparently there'd been a bunch of flight cancellations which made the seat assignment process more intense than usual. In situations like that I would recommend that United have more than one gate agent trying to handle everything. If you want people to work with you, you'll have to give them something to work with.