Trip Report: United Airlines - New Orleans to Hawaii (November 2017)

Trip Report: United Airlines - New Orleans to Hawaii

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American-based airlines are not known for their long-haul service.  As compared to other international carriers, American-based carriers fall below in terms of service, product, on-board amenities, and generally customer service.  For these reasons, I generally prefer to take international carriers when possible; however, sometimes that is not possible such as when I was flying to Hawaii.  While Hawaii is considered a domestic service, the flight times to Hawaii are generally long.  We were looking for fly from New Orleans to Honolulu, and return from Maui to New Orleans.  There were a couple of options available and I really wanted to try Virgin America/Alaska, but it involved overnight layovers which was not convenient, so in the end I choose United Airlines as it was most convenient in terms of price and flights.  The path was New Orleans – Denver – Honolulu; Maui – San Francisco – New Orleans.  Given my previous experience with United (https://0504traveller.blogspot.com/2017/01/a-trip-report-united-airlines.html), I was not looking forward to the flight.

Booking the flight was very easy and straightforward through United’s website, and it was very easy to manage the booking and select seats through United’s app.  That is one positive aspect about United, the app is very user-friendly and is very useful and convenient in managing your booking, accessing boarding passes, selecting seats, purchasing lounge passes, etc.    

The first flight was from New Orleans to Denver, departing New Orleans at 7:45a and

arriving into Denver at 9:40a for a scheduled flight time of 2h55m.  The flight was

operated by an Airbus A321 in a 3-3 seat layout.  Boarding was done by group numbers and all the passengers were boarded and seated for an on-time departure.  The seats on the A321 were a bit narrow, but the legroom was decent.  The seat comfort itself was fine for the flight time; however, after a longer flight period you may start feeling the effects of the seat.  There were no PTV’s, instead in that area was a pocket which contained the inflight magazine, the safety card, air sickness bag, and a description of the inflight entertainment.  The inflight entertainment was accessible through United’s wifi and through their app.  The free entertainment included a variety of TV shows, some movies, and other programs.  The selection is limited and not great, but it provides some entertainment on the flight.  Just after reaching cruising altitude, the attendants began their inflight service.  Complimentary soft drinks, water, tea, coffee, and juices were available as well as snack boxes for purchase.  The complimentary drinks were served with United’s new waffle snack, which personally I do not like.  The remaining flight was uneventful and we landed on time at Denver International, taxied to the gate, and deplaned.

We had approximately 1h30 minutes in Denver before our next flight so we took the opportunity to have breakfast prior to our next flight.  Our next flight was from Denver to Honolulu, with a scheduled flight time of 7h45min.  The flight was operated by a Boeing 777-200 and was scheduled to depart Denver at 11:30am and arrive into Honolulu at 3:45pm.  We got to the gate around 10:30a and the plane was already there.  The gate agent made several announcements which encouraged passengers to purchase food in Denver as well as to download the United app to access the entertainment.  Again, boarding was done by group numbers and all passengers were boarded and seated for the on-time departure.  The plane had a 3-4-3 seat layout, which was high density, and had a small business and two mid-size economy sections.  Given the long flight time, we had purchased ‘Economy Plus’ seating to get more legroom so the legroom was decent.  The seat itself was average, but it was not comfortable for the long flight period.  Blankets were provided on the seat when you entered the plane.  The seatback on this plane was exactly the same as on the A321 – there were no PTVs but instead a seatback pocket which contained the inflight magazine, the safety card, the air sickness bag, and a promotion for United Wifi.  There was one difference – this plane had a device on the seatback that would hold your smartphone or device in place.

We took off and there was a long waiting period from the time we reached cruising

altitude until the inflight service commenced.  The inflight service was very slow and very basic – complimentary soft drinks, tea, juices, and coffee were provided along with pretzels (which were basically thrown at you).  You could also purchase snack boxes – I purchased the ‘cheese snack box’ which contained cheese and crackers, but they were the smallest cheese and low quality crackers and definitely not worth the price.  The attendants came back an hour prior to landing to do another drink service, and passed water sometimes through the cabin in flight, but that was it in terms of service.  I understand this is considered a domestic flight, but given the length of the flight I expected United to provide something a little more.  Also, there was basically no difference between an economy seat or an economy plus seat – there were no extra perks besides extra legroom.  Why would I pay the higher price (and it is a drastic difference) just for additional legroom and that’s it – in my opinion, economy plus seats should come with some additional perks that incentivize you to pay the higher price.  Overall, it was extremely disappointing and a very uncomfortable 7 hours on the plane.  Even the attendants were not nice – they had water in the galley, so instead of wasting glasses I brought my water bottle to refill.  I asked where the full bottles were so I could use that instead of wasting 6 glasses, and the attendant just looked at me, pointed to a storage up top, and walked away.  It was extremely rude service. 

Given our experience on the outbound, I was not looking forward to our return flight.  The first return flight was from Maui to San Francisco and was operated by a Boeing 737-800.  The flight was scheduled to depart Maui at 10:25p and arrive into San Francisco at 5:22am for a scheduled flight time of 4h55m.  We arrived to the airport, checked in our bag, and proceeded to the gate.  The plane was already at the gate when we arrived (it had come in earlier in the day) and boarding commenced on time.  We had again paid for economy plus seats and we selected the first seats in the economy section, right behind business class.  The plane was laid out with 2-2 seats in business and 3-3 seats in economy.  Each seat had a PTV in front of it with controls on the armrest.  Controls on the armrest are a bad idea because inadvertently either you or your seatmate hit the button and change the channel.  In order to make more money, on planes with PTV’s, United does not offer free personal entertainment.  For planes with PTVs, they do offer free live TV but only on the continental U.S.  If you are outside this area, then you have to pay to access movies and TV programs; the flight map is free to watch.  Once boarding was completed, the safety video was shown and we pushed back and took off to San Francisco.  Once we reached cruising altitude, the attendants came by with their drink service but as it was an overnight flight, most passengers were sleeping.  The remaining flight was uneventful and we landed on time in San Francisco.

 

We had about 2 hours in San Francisco before our next flight, so this was just enough time to go and enjoy a nice breakfast.  The next flight was San Francisco to New Orleans,

which was also operated by a Boeing 737-800.  The flight was scheduled to depart at 8:15am and arrive into New Orleans at 2:27p for flight time of 4hr5min.  The plane arrived at the gate from another destination, those passengers deplaned, and we boarded for an on-time pushback.  We had not paid for economy plus seats so were sitting in regular economy seats.  The plane was laid out similarly to the previous plane, with 2-2 seats in business and 3-3 seats in economy.  The legroom was decent, the seat comfort average, but the seat width was a bit narrow.  The difference was this plane looked newer and there were no PTVs, instead you had access to United’s free entertainment through your own personal device.  The service on board was similar, in that after takeoff the attendants came by to offer complimentary drinks and you could purchase a snackbox.  The difference for this flight was that, about an hour prior to landing, a second drink service was done.  We landed on time and deplaned.

Overall, it was a disappointing flight with United.  I understand it was a domestic flight, but given the length of the flight and the fact that competitors are beginning to offer additional amenities on longer flight times, I expected something more for our flights.  I also expected something more to be included in the economy plus section; just having additional legroom was not worth the high price United charged.  I tend to avoid American-based airlines for international travel and had primarily used them for domestic travel.  After this experience, I will try and avoid them for longer domestic travel and only use them for short domestic hops.