DC to Dubai and Tokyo via… Santiago? Review: United BusinessFirst – Seattle to Tokyo
Introduction
Planning
TAM Economy Class New York JFK – Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro
Santiago
LAN Economy Class Santiago – Sao Paulo
TAM Economy Class Sao Paulo – New York JFK
United BusinessFirst Denver to Tokyo Seattle (Emergency Landing)
United BusinessFirst on the 787 Seattle to Tokyo
Cathay Pacific Regional Business Class Tokyo Narita – Hong Kong
Cathay Pacific “The Wing” Business Class Lounge Hong Kong
Cathay Pacific Business Class Hong Kong – Dubai
Dubai, Day 1 (Traiteur Brunch, Park Hyatt Dubai, Burj Khalifa, Atlantis Palm Islands)
Dubai, Day 2 (Shark Dive at Dubai Aquarium, Burj Al Arab, 360)
Cathay Pacific Business Class Dubai – Hong Kong – Tokyo Haneda
Following an unplanned night in Seattle, I slept in a bit at the Hilton SeaTac before heading to the airport about two hours prior to my flight. TSA Pre-Check was open, so security was a breeze. I then proceeded to the brand new United Club to check my e-mail and kill about 30 minutes before boarding. I noticed that the flight was to be operated by another physical airplane (#3904 instead of #3906). This was re-assuring, as I didn’t exactly have confidence in the airplane that caused all the drama the day before.
United Airlines (UA) 1749
Seattle (SEA) – Tokyo-Narita (NRT)
Aircraft: Boeing 787-8
Seat: 4A (BusinessFirst)
Wednesday, June 19
9:30AM – 10:41AM (+1 day)
Duration: 9:01
This flight was the continuation of the previous day’s attempt at Denver to Tokyo on United flight 139. I chose to take this flight instead of the other two options, for a number of reasons detailed in my previous post. Upon boarding, I was welcomed back onboard by the same fantastic crew that we had the day before. It was a very light load in the BusinessFirst cabin, as it was only booked half full. I changed my seat to a window seat, 4A so I could play with the electrochromatic windows that are found on the 787. For those who are unfamiliar with these windows, the dimness of the window is controlled with a button, and there is no physical window shade to pull down.
As a result, even at the darkest setting, one is still able to see outside — it’s pretty cool, though I wonder what will happen when this nifty feature inevitably breaks. I imagine it would be pretty obnoxious to have a broken window dimmer during a 12 hour Transpacific flight in the daytime.
Row 4 is the bulkhead row in the second cabin of BusinessFirst. Due to being a bulkhead, row 4 (as well as row 1) sports a larger foot well, and are probably the most spacious seats up front for that reason.
This aft BusinessFirst cabin was only had three of us, so it felt almost like a private jet for this flight across the Pacific Ocean.
I cannot say enough about this crew, led by Denny, the inflight service manager. From start to finish of this flight, they provided exceptional service by any airline’s standard — even more so for United. They were friendly, engaging, and really couldn’t do enough for me. I surely hope this is where service is going onboard United, because they were simply fantastic.
After numerous apologies from the ground staff at Seattle and the flight crew, we pushed back about 45 minutes late due to a catering delay, as this was an unplanned, second departure for Tokyo that day. There were some small hiccups, such as the catering forgetting to produce menus for the flight (bad), and the lack of BusinessFirst amenity kits that resulted in passengers receiving United GlobalFirst amenity kits (good).
After about 30 minutes, lunch service began featuring the same menu as the day before. I selected the beef tenderloin again as my main course since it was excellent on the DEN-SEA flight. This time, it wasn’t quite as good, and was a bit too well-done. The sushi appetizer again was excellent, as was the salad. They offered pretzel rolls (awesome) and garlic bread, which highlighted a selection of five or six breads. Dessert, as usual was tasty with the ice cream sundae.
Lunch service lasted a good hour. I finished watching a movie (“Jack Reacher“) that I started the previous day before it was so rudely interrupted by a fuel dump and emergency landing. After the movie, I settled in to catch up on some rest, as the previous 24 hours had been relatively stressful.
I slept a good 5 hours, and awoke about two hours outside of Narita. I watched a documentary before breakfast was served. It consisted of an omelet and potatoes — it was a definite step down from the lunch provided several hours earlier.
As I finished up breakfast, the flight attendants finished preparing the cabin for landing in Tokyo.
Due to the unusually early morning departure and subsequent arrival, we were the first United flight of the day to arrive at the normally very busy Narita International airport. I thanked the crew, deplaned and quickly went through transit security. I made my way to the inter-terminal bus, as I needed to transfer to Terminal 2 for my flight later in the day on Cathay Pacific to Hong Kong and then Dubai.
The bus leaves from gates 28 and 59 in Terminal 1 every 30 minutes. I would NOT recommend booking a close connection between airlines in separate terminals at Narita. In my case, I had about 7 hours, so I was fine.
Overall, this flight was fantastic. It really shined on every front — the service, the food, and the seat. It was a great performance by the United crew, and was easily the best overall flight I’ve ever taken with United.
