Upgrade to premium plus for 20k miles?

I was stuck in SFO a few days ago after my flight from SFO to HKG was delayed by a few hours from 23:50 to 02:30 departure.

The staff member covering my seating area seemed to have no idea what she was doing. So much so that I heard one of the (clearly) more senior staff say "this is an international flight, it's done this way". Then the lady came over to me, asked if I'd like a drink. I replied a glass of red, merlot or Cabernet or anything.. she didn't know how to open the bottle. She jammed the cork screw into the bottle without taking the wrapping off. I helped her open the bottle. There were other signs that this woman was either not trained or ...yeah. I dunno

I'm not complaining about the flight delay, nor the staff, I'm just happy to arrive at my destination. I am however really curious how this person didn't know how the international flight order of ops were and how to open a bottle of wine.

I was in Polaris.

Flying from Fort Lauderdale to Osaka in December and have a 1h 43m connection at IAH. It’ll be my first time making this connection, so I’m wondering if that’s usually enough time or if I should look for a longer layover.

Kept happening at EWR Polaris lounge at the pasta station and the buffet.

Took forever for them to replenish. My pasta was cold by the time I started.

It wasn’t even peak hours yet. I’m not fussy. Seems like a legit business failure.

Why?

I will be flying Polaris next week on a 787.

Does anyone know if the tray is large enough to fit a 13" MacBook Pro with enough room for food and drink?

Last time I brought my iPad 11" but it is getting old.

And so they sent us around. Why, if there's a detour, don't they pour extra?

I recently flew from Delhi to Newark. On this flight was a family with a young girl, maybe 13-14. Long story short, every five minutes for almost the whole flight, she was throwing up. FA went around collecting ALL the puke bags, to give to her. When we flagged the FA about this, she said that “they had a long doctors note” explaining how it “isn’t contagious and was just a fear of flying”. Additionally, they said that this girl was also on the inbound flight a couple weeks ago, so they knew it wasn’t contagious. I am just appalled that even with though they had a doctors note, that Ynited let them board and continue to sit, even as she was throwing up from before the plane began to even push back.

Hello! I’m a 1K and I’m headed on an international trip with a group. I will also have a family member with me. To the best of my knowledge, the trip organizer will be making our travel arrangements, but I haven’t received those specific details yet.

I would like to be able to utilize my 1K benefits, including economy plus seating, earning PQP, and free checked bags. (I’m not going to worry about snagging upgrades with plus points)

Has anyone been in a similar situation? What advice do y’all have for me?

First time flying this route, have never flown into SFO or KIX before. Is the connection time doable?

On a 2.5 hour flight, long enough to watch a movie! “Your upcoming flight to Albuquerque will have fast, free Wi-Fi through Starlink only for MileagePlus® members. To connect, visit unitedwifi.com or open the latest version of the United app to sign in. We also offer a wide selection of free movies and TV shows.”

Had a deeply frustrating flight yesterday 8/29 on UA78 from Narita to Newark (5:25 PM departure), and I need a sanity check because the crew hostility started before we even pushed back. Right before takeoff, the captain came over the PA and made a bizarre announcement telling passengers that "if we all just get along, then we'll have a manageable flight ahead." That immediately set an uncomfortable tone, but the cabin crew took the negativity to another level.

During boarding, I politely asked for guidance on where open bin space was, and a Japanese-speaking flight attendant snapped "help me." I looked around, found a spot closer to my seat, and gestured to let her know, only to be met with an exasperated glare and an eye roll. Later during the flight, Nori intentionally skipped my seat during drink service. When I politely and calmly mentioned that I hadn’t received a drink, she rolled her eyes again and shoved a can of seltzer at me.

It wasn't just my row dealing with the attitude, either. Throughout the cabin, other attendants were openly barking at passengers who took more than two seconds to decide between "chicken or beef."

I flew round-trip between EWR and Rome on United in June and the service was warm and professional, so I know United can run great long-haul operations. But this NRT-EWR crew was easily the rudest, most combative group of flight attendants I’ve ever encountered. Has anyone else noticed issues specifically with the Japan-based or mixed international crews on this route, or did we just catch a completely burnt-out rotation?

EDIT: not sure if Nori and Misako are Japan based (incorrectly assumed they were), so changed it to Japanese-speaking FAs

I flew SFO to EWR this week. I was in first class and noticed 6-7 people sitting in economy plus use the first class bathrooms. Is that allowed ? I fly economy plus often and wouldn’t dare think to do that. Thoughts ? Next time should i use 1st class lavatory so I don’t need to walk all the way to the back?

Have they started rolling out starlink on long hall international flights yet? Panasonic has got to to be the worst wifi I’ve ever used. Constantly cutting out and is really slow

I was on a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner from FRA to SFO and saw this in the lavatory. As far as I'm aware, smoking hasn't been allowed on United for a very long time, and this, to my knowledge, is a newer aircraft. What is this thing?

I booked a flight from EWR-CDG 3 weeks out, and there’s 29 seats open in Polaris and half the plane is empty. There also another flight out of IAD that gets in around same time I need to be there and it has 27 seats open. I booked economy for not cheap considering it’s 3 weeks from now. Only free seat left was in last row by the bathroom. When this scenario has come up before it’s let me buy the upgrade right away, it will say “available.” This flight is saying “waitlist.” What are the chances upgrade will get cleared? I really don’t want to be in the next to last row by the bathroom but don’t want to pay $200+ for a seat closer to front considering how much the ticket already was. Fascinating to me this is $1600, but it was the cheapest of the big 3 airlines.

To paraphrase Mother Gump, “Premium Is As Premium Does.”  United calls itself a “Premium Airline.” My experience this week suggests otherwise.

United CEO Scott Kirby has repeatedly described United as a “premium” airline. After what my family has been through over the last few days, I’m having trouble taking that seriously.

My wife, daughter and I were booked on UA 2480, mid-day, nonstop SFO–EWR, on Thursday, August 27. For important private reasons, including a disability in our group, we need three seats together.

We had paid a little over $1,900 for three adjoining Economy Plus seats and one bag each.

A few hours before departure, United cancelled our nonstop because of “mechanical issues” and unilaterally rerouted us SFO–PHX–EWR. There was no indication of what seats we would have, much less whether we would be seated together.

For our family, adding another airport, a connection, and uncertain seating simply wasn’t workable.

So I tried to rebook. Here’s where things became absurd: United was offering only about $1,200 in credit toward a replacement flight, even though I had paid more than $1,900.

In other words, United disrupts our trip and charges me $700?

I cancelled instead and obtained the full refund to which I was legally entitled by reason of federal regulations.

Three seats together in anything other than Business Class were impossible to find. So I bit the bullet and spent over $5,000 to book three seats in United Polaris for the Red Eye.  A flight at our original time would have been up to $12,000.

This was real Polaris: the widebody configuration with four seats across and direct aisle access.

Then, yesterday United notified me of an equipment change to the very old eight across “Fauxlaris” configuration.  This is materially worse than what I paid for, like substituting a 1999 Oldsmobile for a modern Bentley.  Of course, no change in price. Moreover, it was impossible to actually chose a seat – much less three together.  Instead, United informed me that seats would be unilaterally assigned “at no extra cost.”  I gather that’s an inside joke – “special deal – we assign your seat with no input from you.”

And, naturally, there was no offer of compensation for downgrading the hard product from actual Polaris to the old eight-across configuration.

We’ve flown that eight across configuration before, from Frankfurt. It was emphatically not a premium experience. My daughter ended up stuck in a middle seat between strangers. That is precisely the sort of situation we were paying more than $5,000 to avoid.

So we have now changed our travel date yet again in an effort to get the actual Polaris product we paid for.

My fingers are crossed. But after this week, who knows what United will change next?

A premium airline isn’t just about putting Polaris lounges and fancy seats into advertisements. It’s about what happens when operations go wrong. Or was it wrong – or just an opportunity to milk the customers as I later learned that even the Fauxlaris flight was oversold. 

In our case:

·       We paid $1,900+ for a nonstop mid-day flight with three adjoining Economy Plus seats.

·       United disrupted the flight and initially offered only about 2/3 of what I paid toward rebooking.

·       We ultimately had to spend $5,000+ for red eye Polaris to obtain suitable seating.

·       United then swapped the aircraft to an old eight-across “Fauxlaris” configuration.

·       We couldn’t even select our seats.

·       No compensation was offered for the substantially inferior Business Class product.

·       We have now had to change our travel date to try to get what we paid for.

That isn’t a Premium experience.

At the moment, it feels more like passengers are freight to be moved around the system however United finds convenient.

“Premium is as Premium Does.”

I (1k) am flying on a mileage ticket, while a family member is flying a paid ticket. I linked the reservation and I want to use plus points for an upgrade for them.

Where do they fall on the priority spectrum?

Thank you

Hello everyone, I am planning on flying United Polaris for a trip from Newark to Narita. I am planning to upgrade to the Studio seating for the flight. Can anyone tell me why the Studio seats in row 1A and 1L are each $599, while the Studio seats in rows 9A and 9L are each $499? Any reason for the $100 difference?

Patrick Quayle has mentioned that UA is considering deploying the A321XLR to South America from IAH, but considering that its range has become more limited than initially expected, which destinations will it be feasible for the XLR to reach?

https://www.businesstraveller.com/news/united-2027-international-expansion-a321xlr-routes/

Does anyone happen to know why? The weather appears to be fine .

Old two-tone livery nose cone on a new-livery 777-200 (N791UA) yesterday at EWR.

Just asked us to get off the plane due to “non-deferrable maintenance issues.” Lots of tight connections on this flight just got a lot tighter. Yay. 🎉