DC to Dubai and Tokyo via… Santiago? Review: United BusinessFirst: Tokyo – Denver
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
Tokyo, Day 1 (Park Hyatt arrival, Roppongi)
Tokyo, Day 2 (Imperial Palace, Shibuya Crossing, Ebisu, Kendo, Dinner and drinks in Shinjuku)
Tokyo, Day 3 (Ramen lunch, Harajuku, Meiji Shrine, Baseball at the Tokyo Dome, Dinner at New York Grill)
Tokyo, Day 4 (Tsukiji Market, Tokyo Subway, Airport Transfers)
Park Hyatt Tokyo
United BusinessFirst Tokyo – Denver
It took almost an hour and 45 minutes to get from the Park Hyatt in Shinjuku to Narita Airport. This airport is really nowhere close to Tokyo, as we ventured far from the city center, all the way out to Narita. Narita is Tokyo’s primary international gateway, but Haneda is definitely the closer of the two airports. In the future, if I’m staying in Tokyo, I will try to get on a flight into Haneda if at all possible. The drive out of Tokyo was nice since I got to see some areas of Tokyo that I had not seen before.
Eventually, we pulled first into the city of Narita, and then into the departures area of the airport. I grabbed my bag and headed to check-in, where there was no line at all. I quickly went through security and immigration and headed to the United Club since it was only about 90 minutes prior to departure at that point. The United Club was absolutely slam packed, so I did not take any pictures. I did; however, have a few beers from the automatic beer machine — I definitely need one of those in my kitchen! After about 45 minutes in the lounge, boarding for the Denver flight was announced, and I headed down to the gate to embark on a sparkling new United 787 Dreamliner (ship# 3901).
United Airlines (UA) 138
Tokyo-Narita (NRT) – Denver (DEN)
Aircraft: Boeing 787-8
Seat: 1E (BusinessFirst)
Thursday, June 27
5:00 PM – 12:50 PM
Duration: 10:50
It’s a pretty awesome thing whenever one is seated in row 1 on an international flight, as this almost certainly means that your flight will probably not suck. We boarded the aircraft through door 1L and the flight attendant showed me to my seat — seat 1E in the front BusinessFirst cabin.
On this flight, the BusinessFirst cabin was completely full, but I still had plenty of room in my seat. Since I was traveling by myself, I prefer the middle pair of seats so I wouldn’t have to climb over anybody to get to by belongings during the flight, and so I wouldn’t have anyone climbing over me when I was asleep. This turned out to be a good idea, because my seat-mate was pretty intoxicated — I mean, flat-out drunk. Luckily, he passed before we even took off, but he did receive a warning from the flight attendant when he woke up a few hours out of Denver. We departed Tokyo on time, and rolled out past what seemed like dozens of JAL 787 Dreamliners before we rolled down the runway en route for Denver.
After about an hour in flight, the dinner service started. It was very similar to the menu on the flight over with one Japanese entrée and three Western entrees to choose from. Since I’d eaten the beef tenderloin on the flights over, I chose the Hawaiian Sea Bass for my main on this flight. It was excellent, though the sushi, ironically was not quite as good as it was on the flights over (go figure!). Overall, dinner was very, very good. Though it was not quite as good as the dinners on the outbound flights, it was definitely tasty and cooked correctly.
After I finished my sundae for dessert, I had a few drinks and watched several episodes of House of Cards on the in-flight entertainment (IFE) system. The IFE on the new and newly renovated United (ex-Continental) planes is fantastic with a multitude of movies, tv shows, and other entertainment to choose from. It is certainly enough to entertain someone for a ten-hour transpacific flight.
After a few episodes of House of Cards, I reclined my seat to the lie-flat position and dozed off for about 5-6 hours of shut-eye. The bed was extremely comfortable, and I slept right up until the flight attendants started the breakfast service. As I’ve mentioned before, the bulkhead rows on United’s BusinessFirst cabins provide much more leg-room in the foot well, providing for a much more comfortable ride.
Anyway, breakfast was served — I ordered the omelet. It was pretty good — certainly an improvement over United’s domestic first class breakfasts. Overall, this was a fantastic flight with a great, attentive crew, awesome IFE, good food, and a comfy seat — definitely not a bad way to cross the Pacific!
We arrived in Denver almost 90 minutes early. Since I was seated in the first row, I was off the plane in a hurry. After a long walk to Denver International Airport’s immigration area, I broke to the right to proceed through Global Entry. After about 30 seconds, I was cleared and headed out into the main terminal. Global Entry is absolutely fantastic, and in my mind is definitely worth the $100 fee for five years.
Because of my early arrival in Denver, I went ahead and changed to an earlier flight back to Washington-Dulles. By doing this, I gave up my first class upgrade back to IAD, but I did nab and exit row. The major win here was that it got me back home almost 3.5 hours earlier. After a relatively short, non-eventful flight back to Dulles, I hopped the Washington Flyer bus back to West Falls Church Metro Station and took the train back home. WIth that, my 15 day adventure all over the world was over!
