I was lucky enough to be upgraded on Monday morning between Houston and New York-La Guardia. Breakfast options were cereal (Honey Nut Cheerios) and an omelet, broccoli cheese potato, and sausage. Both options came with strawberry yogurt and fruit.
I would love to see United spend a little more money to provide a better fruit selection. Right now it’s mostly pineapple and melon, with a few grapes and a single (or in this case a half) strawberry. Give me some raspberries, bananas, etc. It is a little change, but would definitely make the breakfast more interesting.
On my recent flight between Washington-Dulles and Tokyo’s Narita airport I encountered something that I do not completely understand. The flight arrives into Tokyo at 3:25pm, 13 hours after leaving Washington. About an hour and a half before arrival a meal is served. In business class it looks like this:
It’s a not so appetizing breakfast (more on the not so appetizing part at a later date).
What I don’t get is why United is serving breakfast for a middle of the day arrival. Sure, most people sleep for part of the flight, but I find breakfast when I’m arriving a few hours before dinner to be a bit odd. Even more strange is that Seth, who was on the same flight, said they received a noodle lunch dish in coach.
Any ideas on why United does this? Do other airlines serve breakfast on USA-Asia flights that arrive in the middle of the day?
The plan for my Monday is usually pretty simple, get to the airport, get on the plane, fly somewhere, and get to work. Today was not much different, right up until the point where we passed up our destination, New York’s LaGuardia airport, did a 180 degree turn over Connecticut, then started our approach to the airport. That’s when things got really interesting.
As we approached LaGuardia, I looked out the window and saw what looked like a wall of water in front of us. The captain had informed us that there was weather in the area but that they were still taking arrivals so I thought the rain may have been isolated off our left side. On final approach, right around 200 feet, all hell broke loose. Day turned to night and our plane dropped suddenly. I heard the engines spool up and felt the plane’s nose go up. We made a sharp left turn over the main terminal building and continued climbing.
Ten minutes later and the pilot announced that due to our long approach, the plane’s fuel was low and we would not be able make another attempt at landing at LaGuardia. Instead, we would be diverting to Newburgh’s Stewart International Airport. That landing was normal and we taxied to the FBO (fixed-base operator) that United contracts with at Stewart Airport where we sat and sat and sat. Eventually the weather at LaGuardia cleared and our plane was refueled and we were on our way back to New York City.
The view of Newburgh - Stewart International Airport from my window
Almost three hours later and we landed at LaGuardia. In the United States I have never experienced people clapping after a landing, but they did after this touch down. Can’t say I blame them; That missed approach was one of the more hair raising flying experiences I have ever had, but it did my make Monday interesting.
I should add that the United crew did a great job keeping everyone informed of what was going on and at Stewart Airport they walked around handing out drinks and giving free access to DirecTV. They were even letting people who wanted to deplane and drive to NYC from Newburgh do that. So, my hat is off to the crew of United 1280. You handled a less than ideal situation professionally and with a lot of courtesy and I appreciate that.
I have never been much of a writer of airline trip reports. Most flights, I end up not keeping track of a lot of the details, food options, and interesting tidbits. However, on my most recent trip to Prague and Berlin, I decided to take a few pictures and keep a few notes from the experience. The trip was done in United’s recently revamped BusinessFirst cabin as well as their domestic first class cabin and Brussels Airline’s economy cabin.
Austin-Chicago
The first segment of the trip was Austin to Chicago on a United Express CRJ-700 (operated by GoJet Airlines). These aircraft feature a small first class section as well as Economy Plus. These aircraft do not have any entertainment so I spent the flight reading and watching a couple of shows on my phone. They also do not have ovens so the crews do not serve meals in first class. Instead, first class customers are given a snack box that contains things like Rondele Spreadable Cheese and Milano cookies.
We actually ended up arriving in Chicago about 30 minutes early, but things went downhill from there. I knew something was up when we taxied to the “penalty box” and sat for about ten minutes. The pilot announced that we were a little too early and were just waiting for a gate to open up. These kinds of things happen and I was not too worried since we still had a decent amount of time to make our connection. But we sat. And sat. And sat. Over an hour later we made it to a gate and were deplaned. While I stood on the jetway waiting for the gate check bags to arrive I overheard our pilot talking to the rest of the crew about the plane that was occupying our gate and the circumstances for our delay. Apparently, the previous aircraft’s pilot was claiming a maintenance issue as a form of protest against a new pilot contract with United. Whatever it was, it forced us to run to our next gate and come very close to missing our connection.
Chicago-Brussels
Our Chicago-Brussels segment was operated by a pre-merger United 767-300. We were seated in the business class cabin which features lie-flat seats in a forward/backward configuration. United has recently renamed business class “BusinessFirst” which is what business was called on Continental Airlines. I had picked the backwards facing 6A and 6B because the reviews I had read stated that they were fairly quiet, being just behind first class and the furthest seats from the mid-cabin galley. The first thing I noticed when I walked on-board was the attitude of the crew. Every single crew member had a smile on their face and were greeting each passenger as they boarded. That was a good sign of things to come.
United BusinessFirst on the 767-300
After settling in, the flight attendant offered us champagne, water, or orange juice and handed us each an amenity kit and a dinner menu. The new United amenity kits are slightly smaller than what Continental provided but bigger (and better) than what pre-merger United offered. The skin care products are by philosophy and are a welcome change.
My expectations for plane food, even in business class, are relatively low. I know that making a gourmet meal at 35,000 is a near impossibility and do not keep any illusions that the meal will be amazing. What I do look for is something that is edible, fills me up, and has some element of flavor. The main courses for this flight was as follows:
Grilled Pork Chop – Green peppercorn sauce, shiitake mushroom bread pudding, white asparagus, and broccolini
Osso Bucco-style Breast of Chicken – Chanterelle mushroom ragout, garlic polenta cake, and broccolini
San Francisco-style Cioppino – Seared hake and grilled shrimp in tomato-seafood sauce with mixed vegetables
Spinach Cannelloni – Four cheese sauce and roasted tomatoes with Parmesan cheese
None of the options really jumped out at me so I decided on the grilled pork chop. The quality was about what I expected. The meat was a little overcooked but the sides were quite good, particularly the mushroom bread pudding. I had trouble taking pictures of the food due to the low light in the cabin, so I have not uploaded a lot for this part of the trip.
United Airlines BusinessFirst Pork Chop
After finishing the main course, the flight attendants came around with the cheese carts. The selection was ok and I picked a few that looked good. Looking at my watch I realized that service was going on hour three and I really needed to get some sleep since we would be landing in five and a half hours. I passed on the ice cream sundae service, made my way to the restroom, and changed into my Lufthansa pajamas from our trip to Germany a couple of years ago. I converted the United seat to a bed, put in my earplugs and pulled on my eyeshades, and slept for close to five hours.
When I woke up the crew was preparing to serve breakfast so I changed back into my jeans and shirt and prepared all of my carry-on stuff for arrival. When the breakfast tray came it consisted of the normal transatlantic breakfast, yogurt, some fruit, and what was essentially a plate of cold cuts. I think this is really where United could improve its BusinessFirst service. First, the fruit was close to being inedible. The pineapple was turning brown and the rest of the fruit was melon. Throw some strawberries or grapes in there. Second, why serve cold cuts? I know it’s more substantial than the croissant that used to be served but it’s just as underwhelming. I just decided to eat the yogurt and pass on everything else.
Before we had left Chicago I had spoken with the purser about arrival service in Brussels. He let me know that he would contact the airport staff there and ask that they meet me when we deplaned. When we arrived, there was a United employee waiting at the aircraft door. He asked what it was we needed and when told about the shower quite bluntly said, “we only sometimes provide that to United Global Services members” but added that I could talk to the United employees at the ticketing desk. I knew we had to exit security anyway to make our connection so I told the employee thank you and walked to the ticketing desk.
I greeted the ladies working the ticketing desk and described what I was looking for, the arrival shower service that United offered to their business class customers. At first I received a couple of weird looks, then they told me that this was a service that they only offered to Global Services members and even then it was rare. Now, I had spoken with a couple of United employees before the trip and both had assured me that there was arrival service for BusinessFirst travelers. Since this trip, I’ve been told that Brussels screwed up and I should have been given a room at the Sheraton across the street from the airport.
Anyway, back to the trip. Since it was now clear that getting a shower would be a near impossibility, we looked for a deserted restroom, gave ourselves a “sink bath”, changed, then found the luggage lockers and locked up our bags, and headed into Brussels via the train.
Four Hours in Brussels
When I booked this trip, the most desirable connections to Prague were also the most expensive, leaving us with a six hour connection in Brussels. Not wanting to spending that time hanging out in the airport, we paid the 10 Euros each to take the train into town.
We visited the Grand Place and the Mannequin Pis (who, oddly, was dressed up for the Fourth of July), but most importantly, we paid a visit to Poechenellekelder, a great little beer hall with outdoor seating. We enjoyed a couple of Belgian beers before realizing how tired we were from only five hours of sleep and decided to head back to the airport.
Mannequin Pis - Dressed up for the 4th
Brussels-Prague
We knew that we would have to check our remaining carry-on due to European carriers being much more stringent regarding the size of luggage brought on-board. After the most efficient check-in and security experience I have ever had, we were walking to the Brussels Airlines lounge in the “domestic” Terminal A. There are a number of lounges, including an SAS lounge, controlled by a single access point. We were given the option of visiting any of the Star Alliance lounges and opted for the Brussels Airlines one just to see what it was like. On entry we were handed two WiFi cards that were good for one hour of access each. Besides the great tarmac views, the lounge was rather stagnant. All of the lounges share a bathroom located near the security desk. After reading other reports on the lounge, it definitely seems that the SAS lounge would have been a better choice.
About ten minutes before boarding, we walked to the gate and waited. Being in coach on this segment, I figured it would be the normal boarding scrum that we have experienced on carriers like Lufthansa and Austrian. Surprisingly, Brussels Airlines made a call for business class passengers and Star Golds. We made our way to the gate and were allowed to board before the rest of the plane. Nicely done Brussels Airlines!
The flight itself was uneventful. Brussels Airlines charges for just about anything, including water, unless you are in one of their two premium products (Economy.Flex and Business). We landed in Prague a few minutes early and received our bags at baggage claim and start our adventure in Prague.
Up Next…
In the next installment I’ll give you a quick tour of Prague, express my love of Berlin, and show you what the BusinessFirst product looks like on United’s Boeing 757-200s.
The news of Houston’s Hobby airport receiving permission from the city to start international flights was big. Lots of people are happy, making the assumption that Southwest Airlines is going to significantly lower costs in the Houston-Latin America market. That is a different discussion, the real focus of my attention lately has been United Airlines’ reaction to the news.
Three big things were announced by United shortly after the news that Hobby would become an international airport; There would be 1,300 employees laid off in the Houston area, the Houston-Auckland route would be going away, and there would be other capacity cuts. For all three of these announcements, United directly blamed Houston city council and their approval of the Hobby expansion plans.
Laying off 1,300 employees now, due to an expansion that will not be complete until 2015 seems a bit strange doesn’t it? That is probably because these cuts have been planned for a while now and United is using the Hobby news as cover. United has not been specific over who will be laid off, but I would be willing to guess that a lot of the layoffs will not be focused on airport employees. United is going to try and consolidate their operations staff and their headquarters staff. Look for layoffs of back office employees and some front line folks.
The Houston-Auckland route cancellation is a bit different. There is a very real possibility that the route being cancelled is partially due to the Hobby Airport news. The idea behind the route was the connecting of Latin and South America to the Oceania region. Currently, the market is only served by Aerolineas Argentinas and Qantas, both offering limited coverage in South America. I have had a few people say to me that there’s no way United was basing this route on this traffic alone. Sure they were. The 787 is perfect to make money on the Houston-Auckland route with connecting traffic split between the U.S. and Latin and South America. Between passengers and cargo, the route could have been very successful. However, between fuel costs, the economy, and now the news about Hobby, United must have reevaluated the route and decided against it.
Lastly, United has said there will be capacity (flight) cuts due to the Hobby expansion. These cuts too, were probably planned before the Hobby changes ever gained traction. First, United is retiring all of their 737-500s and a lot of the older, pre-merger, United 757-200s. That’s a lot of capacity cut simply because the planes are older and inefficient. But blaming such cuts on the expansion of Hobby is a stretch.
In all of this, United is doing something that in my mind is very dangerous. They have been very vocal against the expansion of Hobby. The news organizations picked up on this and started calling it an “airline war” when the issue of Hobby’s expansion is one that concerns the city as a whole (or, at least it should). Instead, United has dived straight in and tried to fight this as bad for them instead of focusing on impact to the city, the city’s growth, and the infrastructure around Hobby. These are the issues that we as Houston citizens should be asking about.
I think United should have been upfront on why exactly international flights from Hobby would affect international traffic out of Bush Intercontinental, rather than just painting some broad strokes and hoping that people understood. What United has done has left a bad taste in a lot of people’s mouths because they can see through the “we’re laying people off because of Hobby expansion” rhetoric. The timeline does not match up.
In reality, the merger has made some inefficiencies in the IAH hub, especially for southern east coast to northwest coast connections. Why have all of that traffic go through IAH when you’ve got flights with empty seats leaving from Denver and an incentive from the city of Denver to push more traffic through that hub? But, using the Hobby news to cover your butt on such changes is bad public relations and passengers are able to see through the charade.
What United should have done is immediately offer some specials to the markets that Southwest considering entering. The goal should be to convince customers that you are the best carrier for a particular route, not to create ill will by announcing layoffs and route reductions. Compete on service, price, and reach and go head to head with Southwest.
The future of IAH is simple, United is not going to abandon a fortress hub. They’ll attempt their political game but it will backfire, we’re already seeing that, then they will be forced to compete but will now be digging themselves out of a public relations hole. I am willing to give United a little leeway but they are trying my patience and I’m sure other Houstonians feel the same way.
The city pulled the trigger on this plan solely focused on the wrong thing, airfare. City council needs to evaluate the impact to the surrounding neighborhoods and what improvements to infrastructure will cost (Southwest will not be picking up those costs) rather than thinking about how much the flight for their wild Cancun weekend will cost. The impacts to air traffic and passengers should be examined more closely as well. The CAPA study is a great resource. At the same time, United needs to reevaluate their “protest” of the city’s decision. Focus on how you can make the traffic you are relying on for these routes stick with you United rather than doing everything in your power to drive them away. This is Marketing 101.
Yesterday, news broke that a press conference to take place at Hobby Airport was scheduled by Mayor Annise Parker. It was pretty easy to speculate what it would be about, the future of Hobby Airport and Southwest Airlines’ desire to fly international flights from there. It came as no surprise that the press conference was the confirmation of the speculation, that Hobby would have an international terminal and immigration facility built. What did come as a surprise were a few of the details.
Southwest Airlines will pay for the entire cost of construction
No passenger service charges will be added to tickets due to construction
For Southwest’s part in building of the terminal, they will receive preference on four out of the five gates being built
Southwest will pay no rent on the terminal or the customs and immigration facilities
Rebates will be made available for other carriers who start operations at Hobby and bring an increase in passengers
The City of Houston will be the owners of the terminal after construction
A piece that was kind of mentioned in passing was Southwest’s lease term. It sounded like a 25-year lease but I am not 100% on that.
All around, I’m sort of ambivalent. It is good news that the city is not footing the bill, it shows that Southwest is serious about the international operations. However, I do think the full ramifications of more traffic out of Hobby are not completely understood. None of the studies done looked at car traffic, parking, etc. These are important items for the community and I hope they are addressed before construction is underway.
The other piece is United’s threats of moving flights and how serious they are about following through on them. We may see a few flights announced from other hubs but I have no doubt that United is going to want to compete in the Houston market.
What they are pretending will happen is that the fares and number of passengers on any given route are static, and that by splitting them with SWA, they will have to cancel IAH flights (because there aren’t as many passengers to fill their planes – SWA is “siphoning them off”). What happens in reality is the famous “Southwest effect”: SWA reduces fares, UA matches, and demand increases because the price dropped (simple supply-demand curve economics). SWA does not have to actually have lower costs than UA to reduce fares (although they do), they simply have to be willing to give up some of the fat monopoly profit margins UA currently enjoys on those routes. Even if their costs are exactly the same as UA, fares will come down and demand will be stimulated. This terrifies UA, of course, because not only do they lose the fat monopoly profit margins, but they have to offer more flights to meet the demand surge, pulling planes from elsewhere (either that or just cede market share to SWA). Of course, Houston wins all the way around: lower fares and more service.
What Mr. Gattis fails to mention is that Southwest has, in recent years, been less likely to lower their fares significantly over a long term when entering new markets. This was brought up by the city council when reviewing the Houston Airport System study, which, oddly enough, heavily favored Southwest. City council questioned the mentioned fare numbers due to their extremely low prices, something like $150 for Houston to Cancun. When the Houston Airport System and Southwest folks were put on the spot, they could only offer a rebuttal along the lines of “that is what we forecast in five years”. Unless Southwest expects fuel prices to plunge in the next five years, those numbers are unattainable. I cannot seem to find a mention of this anywhere on Mr. Gattis’ blog.
I do think that United’s arguments are a bit of posturing, but what do you expect? I do not think that demand will necessarily increase out of Houston if Southwest gets its way, simply because prices probably will not go down that much. Southwest will start flights at some rock bottom rate and two weeks later they’ll be close to matching what United has. Where Southwest will win out is one-way fares and last minute and walk up tickets.
The difference with “siphoning off” passengers in Houston versus say, New Orleans, is that Southwest is not sure they could fill the planes out of New Orleans, but they feel they could out of Houston. What Southwest is effectively doing is moving closer and closer to the legacy airlines by creating more and more of a hub-and-spoke system. If they wanted, Southwest could easily start international flights from any airport in the U.S. and in fact other airlines have done that; United offers seasonal service from Austin to Cancun, Raleigh-Durham to Cancun, etc. Instead, Southwest does not want to incur the costs of paying for immigration and customs officers at all of these airports, instead they want the city to split those costs with them.
I’ll end this by saying I do think international flights from Houston’s Hobby Airport are inevitable. The push for them is just too persistent for it not to happen. What I don’t understand is this anti-United sentiment. I read and hear comments about “losing the hometown airline” and if that is what is fueling this rage against United then it is in poor form. United still has one heck of a presence in Houston and it will continue to stay that way for a long time. Just as Mr. Gattis said, it’s about free markets, and that’s why United moved to Chicago, they have a better office/building agreement up there.
I had the chance to head to George Bush Intercontinental Airport during some really strong winds this past weekend. With wind speeds around 17-19mph and gusts to 35mph the landings were interesting. On this particular one, I decided to take a short video. It came out a little shaky since I was on top of one of the parking garages and feeling the effects of the wind myself. There is music, because I figured people didn’t want to hear wind blowing over the mic.
Around the 17 second mark is when the fun occurs. The pilot dips the right wing and kicks the left rudder to counteract the effects of the crosswind and keep the 757-300 on the center line.
I also grabbed a few pictures of landings, one of which is this Bombardier Q400 doing the same as the 757-300 above, dipping the wing and throwing in the left rudder to keep it straight.
You can view the entire set of shots from Saturday here.
My flights on United yesterday had the new meal options on them and I took a couple of photos of them.
The first, the lunch, was served on a 9:30am flight out of IAH. It is a bit odd to eat lunch that early, but the reasoning behind serving lunch then is that the passengers coming off of east coast connections would receive breakfast twice on westbound flights. The meal consisted of a beef burrito, fruit, and asparagus soup. The burrito was just ok, but the soup was actually quite good.
Beef burrito, asparagus soup, and fruit
On the return flight a snack was served. The snack served before the merger was a literal “cold plate” of meats and cheeses. It was not very filling and was full of sodium. The new cold plate is a piece of grilled chicken, a cold pasta salad, and fruit. The pasta salad was extremely tasty for airplane food and the entire snack was very filling. Surprisingly, the chicken was moist and juicy and if the United caterers keep up such quality in the future I’ll be very impressed.
Grilled chicken, cold pasta salad, and fruit
While lunch was a little disappointing with the beef burrito, I think the new United is trying to improve the food options. My one suggestion to them would be to bring back the side salad on the lunch flights. If the options are a burrito and side salad or a large salad with shrimp and a side of fruit, I think flyers will be much more satisfied.
The cover takes a look at the airlines from a chemistry standpoint. Overall, the article is pretty good and gives a look at the merger from a perspective we as consumers aren’t necessarily used to seeing.
When asked about being edgy, here is what the designers said –
It’s funny because I don’t think we are [edgy]. Everyone takes covers, interprets covers in a slightly different way. When you’re privy to the process, it demystifies it a bit. When you’re part of the process it loses the surprise value. So, I don’t see this one as particularly surprising. I think it’s fun. But, yah, it’s nice that everyone thinks that.
I think it’s an edgy cover and pretty much unnecessary.
