I recently completed what I think were my first 2 mainline domestic flights this year on United, IAD-SFO and SFO-IAH. (The rest being UAX and US)
I was upgraded on both flights, which were operated by sCO (evidenced by the aircraft type (737), and the fact that the glassware still had the Continental logo). I had never flown CO before in my life. Being my first post-merger mainline domestic flights, I noticed several things that raised questions (mostly out of curiosity)--
1. Boarding passes show no text or other indication of first class, just "Group 1". Is that the normal case now?
2. At boarding, it was "GS and military-in-uniform", followed by Group 1. Is First no longer a unique boarding group, or is "Group 1" on my BP specific to FC-only?
3. Is there a policy on the order to ask for meal preference, or is it the purser's choice? On IAD-SFO, the FA hopped around the entire FC cabin, taking meal orders individually, I assume by status. On SFO-IAH, the FA just started at row 1 asking for preferences till they ran out of 1 choice, then told the rest of us we'd get the remaining one.
Neither way seemed terribly great- in the first instance it seemed rude to ask one person their choice, then come back later and tell their seat mate (who'd heard everything earlier) that they would not have a choice (thus making the 1st person feel bad if they're eating the 2nd person's choice). In the second method, you got benefited or shafted just based on where you were seating. (I personally liked the old United method of asking everyone their 1st and 2nd choice, then sorting it out in the galley based on status, etc.)
4. Does UA no longer provide meal vouchers for extended delays due to MX for domestic? Because of a mechanical delay on SFO-EWR on my return that would blow my connection, I was rerouted via IAH, resulting in a 4-hour delay getting home (most of it sitting at SFO). A gate agent told me that CS would provide meal vouchers since it was MX, but at the CS desk I was told they only give them for international flights. (which seems a silly discriminator- I received $50+ in meal vouchers for a 2-hour delay/re-route on UAX Montreal (YUL)-IAD earlier this year, but get nothing for a 4-hour delay on a transcon?).
As I said, all in all, these are minor things that I'm asking about more from a curiosity standpoint, nothing really as a complaint.
On-board service was pretty good. On IAD-SFO, there was no PDB, and FA's pretty much ignored the FC cabin during boarding (except for taking up coats), and I was not having a good feeling about the next several hours. However, once we were airborne, the service was great- smiling friendly crew, constant attentiveness to beverages and meal service, etc, an overall very enjoyable flight. SFO-IAH service was not as attentive and enthusiastic, but still a good, average FC service. I have 4 more transcons during November (EWR-SNA and SFO-IAD, 2 each), I'm hoping for more good experiences.
I was upgraded on both flights, which were operated by sCO (evidenced by the aircraft type (737), and the fact that the glassware still had the Continental logo). I had never flown CO before in my life. Being my first post-merger mainline domestic flights, I noticed several things that raised questions (mostly out of curiosity)--
1. Boarding passes show no text or other indication of first class, just "Group 1". Is that the normal case now?
2. At boarding, it was "GS and military-in-uniform", followed by Group 1. Is First no longer a unique boarding group, or is "Group 1" on my BP specific to FC-only?
3. Is there a policy on the order to ask for meal preference, or is it the purser's choice? On IAD-SFO, the FA hopped around the entire FC cabin, taking meal orders individually, I assume by status. On SFO-IAH, the FA just started at row 1 asking for preferences till they ran out of 1 choice, then told the rest of us we'd get the remaining one.
Neither way seemed terribly great- in the first instance it seemed rude to ask one person their choice, then come back later and tell their seat mate (who'd heard everything earlier) that they would not have a choice (thus making the 1st person feel bad if they're eating the 2nd person's choice). In the second method, you got benefited or shafted just based on where you were seating. (I personally liked the old United method of asking everyone their 1st and 2nd choice, then sorting it out in the galley based on status, etc.)
4. Does UA no longer provide meal vouchers for extended delays due to MX for domestic? Because of a mechanical delay on SFO-EWR on my return that would blow my connection, I was rerouted via IAH, resulting in a 4-hour delay getting home (most of it sitting at SFO). A gate agent told me that CS would provide meal vouchers since it was MX, but at the CS desk I was told they only give them for international flights. (which seems a silly discriminator- I received $50+ in meal vouchers for a 2-hour delay/re-route on UAX Montreal (YUL)-IAD earlier this year, but get nothing for a 4-hour delay on a transcon?).
As I said, all in all, these are minor things that I'm asking about more from a curiosity standpoint, nothing really as a complaint.
On-board service was pretty good. On IAD-SFO, there was no PDB, and FA's pretty much ignored the FC cabin during boarding (except for taking up coats), and I was not having a good feeling about the next several hours. However, once we were airborne, the service was great- smiling friendly crew, constant attentiveness to beverages and meal service, etc, an overall very enjoyable flight. SFO-IAH service was not as attentive and enthusiastic, but still a good, average FC service. I have 4 more transcons during November (EWR-SNA and SFO-IAD, 2 each), I'm hoping for more good experiences.
