A chief purser with a sense of humour changed the tone of a long flight. And Karryon needed the memory of that humour when trying to make a very tight connection from San Francisco to Miami.
From go to whoa, United Airlines Flight 830 from Sydney to San Francisco was as lovely an experience as an almost 13 hour flight in Economy could be: the aforementioned chief purser, Andre, lifted the energy of the plane with his dry humour; there were plentiful food and beverage offerings; and enough entertainment options to keep us busy.
Pre-boarding experience with United Airlines
After receiving my booking confirmation from the helpful Fabian at Travelcall in Malvern, I jumped on the United Airlines website to check how easy it was to manage my booking. Though Fabian of course offered to take care of special meals and seat choice, I wanted to see all the options myself.
The system was very easy to navigate and use.
But it’s United Airlines’ app that deserves a mention. It is one of the best airline apps I’ve used. Practically everything is at your fingertips. I found it an extremely useful tool during pre-boarding, inflight and post-flight procedures.
After receiving email and SMS prompts 24 hours before my flight, I checked in via the United Airlines app. From the app, I was able to easily access my boarding passes and when I clicked on Trip details, not only discovered where my aircraft had come from, but also got live updates including how long I had until boarding/flying.
The app made good use of my iPhone’s Live Activities display. So even when locked, my phone displayed how long I had left on a flight or to board. You are given the option to turn this functionality on/off.
At Sydney Airport, I headed to J counter where there were no lines to the United Airlines kiosks. Staff were on hand to help out and I was at bag drop quickly. It was here that staff advised that while my bags had been tagged through to Miami, I would have to go through Immigration in San Francisco, collect my bag and recheck it. In under two hours.
Again, this is where the app shines. The bag tracking tab was super helpful especially when I needed to collect my bag in San Francisco and then re-check it before making my next connection. Getting a notification that my bag was scanned onto my flight was a definite relief.
After clearing security, the app sent me to Gate 30 which was very conveniently located just off the main food hall in Pier B South. I worked from one of the powered desks at the gate (standing because there was no way I was going to sit with over 18 hours of sitting ahead of me) as I waited to board.
United Airlines now boards passengers not only according to their row but also according to where they’re seated in that row. So if you’ve chosen an aisle seat up the back (which is my preference), you’re going to be in the last boarding group.
We boarded so quickly, that we were praised by Chief Purser Andre who said that we just needed to shut the overhead compartments so that we could get underway faster. He said he would award points to those who shut a bin, double if they shut two. He joked that doing so was good for our health and far better than going to the gym with a bunch of sweaty strangers. It was a moment that connected us with the other passengers.
Onboard comfort on United Airlines
The Economy cabin has a 3-4-3 configuration. I’m seated in 56D, an aisle seat in the middle section with a spare seat next to me. This could be one of the best seats on the plane if you don’t mind being up the back and close to the loo and galley.
Thanks to the non-existent 56C, the space across the aisle was bigger than the rest. Add to this the spare seat next to me and I feel like I had a lot of room. I’m even able to squish myself into a position akin to lying down.
The seats on board the B777-300 have a pitch of 31″ (78 cm) and a width of 17.05″ (43.3 cm). The standard seat recline is 3″ (7.6 cm). That said, I tried to recline my seat a couple of times and wasn’t sure I actually achieved it. In my foggy, sleepy state I couldn’t see much of a difference between my so-called reclined seat and the unreclined seat next to me. I did feel a slight recline, but I felt maybe the seat made its way back to an unreclined position as I slept as I’d find I’d have to recline it again. It could have been that I was sleep-unreclining or that my seat was broken. Either way, as I had a free seat next to me, I just manoeuvred myself across the two seats. Albeit a little awkwardly.
I could also feel whenever the person behind me would put anything in their back of seat pocket. Aware that this was likely the case for the person in front of me, I avoided using my back of seat pocket just in case.
The provided pillows were in cases that had one end that could be pulled apart, turning a square cushion into a neck pillow. While I didn’t use it as this, I liked that I could essentially fold over the cushion and make it deeper.
Entertainment and WiFi on United Airlines
There were a lot of entertainment options on hand and I could mark my favourites. I went down a period drama path so that if I nodded off, I wouldn’t be jarred awake with big noises or loud music. It’s for this reason that I also made use of the customisable relax mode which was great when I needed to drown out some loud talkers next to me.
WiFi is available for purchase and the app has all the details specific for this flight. As I tried to use my time for sleep and a bit of work, I didn’t bother with the WiFi for this leg.
Food and beverage onboard United Airlines
One of my favourite things on the flight was a menu of service that accessible on the screen. This helped me gauge when I would be eating etc.
Not long after take-off, we were given potato chips and a drink. I chose a refreshing grapefruit-flavoured sparkling water by AHA. I was given the whole can. There was a blueberry flavour on offer too. The first meal served was spiced chickpeas served with roasted potatoes and broccoli. A bread roll and green salad accompanied this. There was no dessert. I had ordered VOML or vegetarian oriental meal. When my meal is delivered it has an VGML code attached (a vegan meal). It was tasty, but a bit boring.
United Airlines crew offered water throughout the flight. And we were woken with snacks. My snack was accidentally given to the lady on the other end of my row. It eventually made its way to me and was a rather dry salad roll and a red apple.
But then breakfast was served and this was perhaps one of the best meals I’ve ever had in Economy. This time I got the VOML and was served curried chickpeas, semolina, vadas and roti. A really fresh and delicious fruit salad accompanied.
Chief Purser Andre joked that the crew had slaved all night to make the meals fresh.
Connecting through San Francisco
With the help of some handy headwinds, we got to San Francisco an hour earlier than anticipated. And if we hadn’t I’d have missed my connection.
Chief Purser Andre was a massive help before we deplaned. He gave us a really easy way to remember where to go once we landed. Go left if you’re leaving and right if you’re remaining, he said. Super helpful.
The Immigration line at SFO was long. And for some reason (possibly to do with the collection of baggage), people were being pulled out of the line from behind us to be expedited through Immigration. It all depended on when your plane landed. So if you decided to go to the loo or do some shopping, but your flight landed before mine, you were put in front me. Regardless of if you were staying in San Francisco. Those of us with tight connections were told we just had to wait in line and if we missed our flights had to take it up with the airlines. It was an interesting system and one that caused a number of people to miss their connections.
I made the bag recheck deadline by a minute and then had to navigate security and head to my gate where my flight was already boarding.
All through this process, the United Airlines app proved indispensible. It told me what gate I had to go to and how long it would take to get there. It also gave me a countdown of how long I had until boarding closed and alerted me to when my bag was scanned onto my flight.
The flight to Miami
I purchased a WiFi package for this leg so that I could do some work. I purchased the full flight package which set me back US$8 (approximately AU$12).
Drinks were offered, but snacks needed to be purchased. As the flight was approximately five hours, I bought a snackbox. Luckily, I had connected a credit card to my app and was able to purchase this easily.
The United Airlines flight went easily while I worked and staff were friendly. We again arrived a little early, but spent almost an hour on the tarmac as another aircraft at our gate had issues. The crew were fabulous and kept us informed of our progress. But after all that sitting, I was desperate to get out of the plane and into a hot shower.
Favourite things
It’s pretty obvious that I am a big fan of the United Airlines’ app. But I also liked the dual-use pillow and that breakfast really was amazing.
The details
Sydney to San Francisco
Date of travel: 27 November, 2023
Flight number: United Airlines Flight 830
Seat number: 56D (Aisle)
Aircraft: Boeing 777-300ER JET
San Francisco to Miami
Date of travel: 27 November, 2023
Flight number: United Airlines Flight 410
Seat number: 30C (Aisle)
Aircraft: Boeing 737 MAX
