First Look: United Global First Class Chicago to Munich

Good afternoon from Munich!

After four days here in Munich, I’ve finally acquired some wifi good enough for a post at the Le Meridien Munich.  I put together some initial thoughts on the flight, but a full review is forthcoming.

I  arrived in Munich last Thursday on United flight 952 from Chicago on a three-class B777-200 in United Global First Class.  I did enjoy the flight – especially the seat – but it certainly had its shortcomings, as expected.

The seat was pretty fantastic, once again. I find it to have plenty of leg room and shoulder room, and it is really conducive to a comfortable night’s rest. I found myself awoken from maybe the deepest sleep I’ve had aboard an airplane.   This was the most important factor in the trip, since I wanted to arrive in Europe well rested and ready to take on Oktoberfest!

The service was good. Not great, not poor, but perfectly fine and good.  All requests were taken in a quick and friendly manner, though not overly personable or memorable.

The catering was not first-class caliber, but at least it was edible unlike my last two trips in United GlobalFirst, LAX-SYD and SYD-SFO.  The entree featured a beef tenderloin, which was okay.  The gnocchi was decent, but the asparagus was pretty bad.

At the end of the day, I didn’t go hungry, so the meal was enough for me, but it was of the quality of an international first class product.  Overall, I really enjoy flying from Chicago to Europe since the two extra hours allow for a much more relaxed flight with more time to get some rest after a leisurely dinner service. Flights from the east coast to Europe are typically way too short for my liking.

I got some decent rest, which is the name of the game for me when flying to Europe, so I was mostly happy with the flight, as it’s really hard to complain when traveling across the Atlantic in first class!