United Airlines Business Class Sydney To Los Angeles – After 12 days in Australia, my wife, three-year-old daughter and I were ready to fly back to the US on United Business Class tickets, Sydney – San Francisco. Flight UA870 was operated by a Boeing 777-300ER, the airline’s largest aircraft, and every seat was reserved.
Here’s the experience in a nutshell: United Airlines business class is a better seat than the airline used to offer (usually now), but with less space than what you’ll find on Delta, American, Air Canada or Air France. United has good beds and the wifi worked on my flight, but the rest of the sweet, from food to service, was poor.
United Airlines Business Class Sydney To Los Angeles
To be clear, I was grateful to fly business class on a flight from Sydney to San Francisco, especially when I booked with miles. And United has Polaris Business Class. It generally lacked many of the details that make the experience more than a “seat better than coach”.
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We arrived at Sydney Airport Terminal 1, the international terminal, exactly as planned. The United counters were on the far right of the terminal, but easy to find with a screen showing the letter check-in counters they use. We went straight to business class/1K check-in and were assisted almost immediately.
A very friendly Australian woman working at the check-in counter told me all about the quality of the coffee in the Air New Zealand lounge that her daughter did not have to quarantine after returning to Australia. But it took some time to process the luggage tags. Once we did, we proceeded straight to passport control. There is no premium queue for government checks when you leave Sydney, so allow plenty of time.
United Business Class passengers have access to the Singapore and Air New Zealand lounges. There is also an American Express lounge nearby. During this trip I made no visits. Although I arrived at the airport two hours before departure, by then I had cleared passport control and security – the queues were long on a Sunday morning – and was close to the departure gate, with four minutes to spare before scheduled boarding. Not trusting the United flight attendants to keep me hydrated during the 13-hour flight, I used the time to buy a lot of bottled water.
As passengers passed through the jet deck, they were told to wear masks. It was not because of the masking rule on Australian flights, but because of the airport’s rules about masks, according to the flight attendant. The passengers were told they could take off their masks when we pushed back.
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A passenger pointed out and picked up his phone that airport masking rules in NSW had changed and no longer applied. The senior male flight attendant who scolded people for their lack of masks was visibly upset, but other cabin crew told him he was wrong. He became very angry with the passenger who blamed him for several interactions, teased him about the placement of his shoulder belt and was generally sarcastic.
There were no menus. Upon boarding, the flight attendant taking the check asked, “Lamb, salmon or vegetarian?” Many times I make decisions about what protein to eat based on how it’s made or the sides. And I’ll check the adult drinks list, and especially the wine list, to think about what I can enjoy with my meal.
On the seat, in the storage compartment, were headphones and a water bottle. There was a cushion on the seat, a cooling gel pad and a blanket. Before departure, orange juice, sparkling wine and still water were offered. I asked for pajamas and a mattress topper – these are not placed on your seat and I didn’t want them to run out.
The seat announced by Oscar Munoz in 2016, Jeff Smicek, was special. It is innovative in squeezing seats into the space, “ticking the box” as efficiently as possible. It’s not a seat to avoid like United’s old business class (diamond seats) are, with many planes still flying about six years into the new seat offering. But make no mistake, United’s business class is a sub-product.
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Still, it’s a nice cabin, albeit a tight one, and there were plenty of comforts on the seat – a blanket, a pillow, a cooling gel pad and a new away kit.
The Boeing 777’s odd row is ideal for families traveling together in the middle section, because while the center divider (electronically controlled) moves up and down between these seats, the divider is too large for the odd-numbered seats.
There isn’t much storage in the seat, but there is a nice side table that can hold a laptop when it’s not on your tray. There is also AC and USB power. A small compartment fits your headphones and other things. Bottles of water were placed inside before passengers boarded.
After takeoff (at room temperature), almonds were cut with a beverage of your choice. There will be no separate beverage service when the food is served or even after the meal.
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I ordered the salmon and the piece of fish was very good. The salad was lettuce and half a cherry tomato. The bread was served at room temperature. There were no separate starters, only salad.
There was no towel on my seat tray. Instead, meals were served on linen-covered trays. It’s all about speed and efficiency, and not a moment has been spared for additional interaction from the in-seat crew. After all, before the pandemic, United retired business class flight attendants, and there are no days off.
After the main meal the flight attendant came to offer dessert – ‘cheese and crackers’ (no mention of the cheese offered), ‘lemon cake’ or ‘ice cream’. I chose ice cream and it came on a plane with toppings. The vanilla ice cream in the freezer was burnt.
There is no separate cheese course, you can no longer have more than one choice, and if you wanted cheese, the only way to find out which cheese was on that flight was to choose it for dessert, taste it and guess.
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There was no option to pair anything with dessert, although you could have pressed the flight attendant’s call button – ask what they offer (again, no menu) – then ask for something.
They ran out of snacks mid-flight. First the fries ran out, then the cheese and crackers (probably due to scarcity you can’t get a separate cheese course). And finally the sandwich disappeared too. Notably, United also doesn’t offer a heated option, as Air Canada did when we checked out.
I really find it difficult to sleep during departure at 10:00 a.m. I love late night flights and ultra long flights where you get as much sleep as you want. But it is difficult to leave at 10 and be ready to sleep when you land at your destination in the morning.
A good bed helps. Even darkness. However, some passengers chose to keep their windows open during the flight. It was too bad – as people settled into bed, the cabin crew talked non-stop about work from the jump seats near the main door and didn’t even use their “inner voices”.
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Not only was there no menu, there were no options. Breakfast idea “What do you drink for breakfast?” was presented as I asked for coffee, they had milk and only milk – no other options. And there was no discussion about what food was put in front of me.
The egg dish was surprisingly good. The sausage (I tasted a little against my better judgment) was one of the most disgusting things I have ever tasted. Fruits are usually not ripe but are fine. Breakfast – a muffin – was wrapped.
I have to hand it over to United – the internet works and with reasonably low latency. Wifi was $28.99 for the entire flight.
Historically, the main reason I’ve tried to avoid traveling domestically with United is the lack of working internet. Internet on Delta, American, Alaska and JetBlue was far better than the slow offerings on United. Flying United means several hours of lost productivity, which I can’t afford.
United Airlines 787 Economy Sfo
They are trying to improve the wifi on their national fleet and the wifi on their Boeing 777-300ER is much better than the last time I flew.
I would like to choose United Business Class. When they started Polaris service 5 years ago, they made a really good food service. They did a wine tasting. They let you enjoy cheese and then dessert. Since then we have seen a litany of Kirby Kuts even before the pandemic and the service is not comparable to what other airlines offer. And it is over a seat, passable – it lies flat with direct pedestrian access and
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