An Autumn Escape (part 5: to Vegas! briefly…)

After a nice two days in San Francisco, it was, unfortunately, time to bid farewell to my friend Valerie and make my way to Las Vegas.  No, not to go gamble, but rather to get picked up by my friends Alex and Ben and go visit Bryce Canyon and Zion National Park in southern Utah.  To get to Las Vegas, I bought a ticket on UA 394 (24 Oct 2020), a 737-800 (N77525).  Given how empty all the airports had been up to this point, I arrived at the airport just about one hour before my flight.  I checked in my bags at the United premier line (which was empty) and continued to security.  The security lines had the cool new scanners that only need your ID card and not your flight ticket.  For this domestic flight, I had initially intended to fly in economy (for $38!) and buy an empty seat beside me.  To do that, one has to call customer service.  In the process of me trying to figure this out, though, it turned out I could buy up to first class for $79, or $40 extra beyond the spare seat.  Seat 1A seemed more COVID safe to me than a seat in the middle of economy, so I just went with the first-class seat.

United, like other US carriers, doesn’t provide lounge access for either its own elites travelling domestically or premium-class passengers (except on transcontinental flights), so I had no incentive to spend any longer at the airport than necessary.  If I had been flying on an American Airlines flight, I would’ve had access to their Admirals Club (but I would’ve had to connect in LA or Phoenix) through my Oneworld Sapphire status (BA Silver).  The terminal itself was marginally less empty than the check-in area, but it seemed to me that they had definitely stopped using a large part of the airport, since SFO is a big transpacific gateway for United.

Next to our departure gate was one of SFO’s express ground gates.  Unlike in Europe where you might get a bus from the plane to your gate, the gate took you down to ground level and had multiple sub-gates with regional aircraft parked at them.  In this case, there were four United Express flights boarding simultaneously to smaller destinations, such as San Luis Obispo or Palm Springs.  United boarded the aircraft from back to front.  My boarding pass said Group 1, but I chose to board approximately last. 

This aircraft was equipped with DirecTV, which was free for first class.  I remember that they were in the process of adding DirecTV when I started college (back in 2012), but having flown either on regional aircraft or in Europe for the last few years, I’d forgotten this would be on offer.  I tuned in to some Family Guy and was a happy camper.  The seat itself was a bit old, but not necessarily in a bad way.  It was more that it was well-broken-in, so it was still very comfortable (if you like seats on the squishier side, like I do).  I was sitting in the bulkhead row, and had a good amount of legroom and no chance of being reclined into.  Since this flight was only around 400 miles (for a flight time of just over an hour), the only meal service was a small plastic bag with a Nature Valley bar, a stroopwafel, and a water bottle.  It seemed like a reasonable offering to me, but the domestic US soft product is definitely a downgrade from the intra-Europe premium offering.  This snack bag was actually more on par with what was being offered in Europe Traveller on BA.  I also ordered a gin & tonic to go with it. There was no snack service in Economy.

The crew on this flight were extremely friendly.  One thing that is notable is that at United was blocking seats 1D and 1F to give the flight attendants more social distancing for take-off/landing.  It also meant that the flight attendants sat and chat after the meal service.  I thought it was an interesting setup, but it seemed to make sense to me.  I have, though, since read that United has ended the policy.  WiFi was available on the flight, but between the DirecTV, the gin & tonic, and the great views out the window, I didn’t try to access it.  I know a lot of people like to use WiFi on flights, and the occasional time that I’ve used it, it’s been helpful, but there’s plenty I can do on my laptop without internet access.

In summary, this first-class flight on United was pretty typical of short domestic flights in the US. There was no lounge access, but it wouldn’t have been expected.  The first-class seats are comfortable but starting to show their age a bit (4/5).  The snack bag was a bit on the small side, but US domestic first class’ soft product always lags behind intra-European business class (3/5).  The service on the flight was great; everyone was really friendly, but I’m not entirely sure how much the blocking seats 1D/1F really did for their social distancing (5/5).  The in-flight entertainment was great, especially for such a short flight.  I’m still holding out hope though for some kind of free WiFi offer for premium classes one day (4/5).  Overall the flight gets a 16/20, which is a solid score for a flight during a pandemic.

United uses an almost entirely revenue-based system, with premier qualifying points (PQP) and award miles (earned as a multiple of PQP).  This flight netted me 28 +79 PQP and 224 award miles on United (based on the price of the ticket).