The day started on my “usual” flight, which is the 9AM Tampa to Washington flight. I’ve probably taken that exact flight well over a hundred times, so my Saturday morning was like any other, really. I woke up at 6:30AM, took a quick shower and finished packing up. In this case, ensuring I packed everything…
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Curious why you're unhappy about the United move to Terminal A in Tampa (other than you may have a way to access the Crown Room). Maybe I'm biased because I was a CO flyer in my Tampa years...
Do you have any idea when the move will take place?
@ Peter Dominowski -- Two reasons:
a) There's a SkyClub in the United concourse, which I don't always have access to, though sometimes I have spare day passes
b) More importantly, they have a pretty useful "business center," which I don't believe the A concourse has.
Lucky, so happy to be reading your mega trip report. Its been a while and lots of teasers. I feel relaxed now, and am really enjoying the slow rev up to the juicy international bits. Love your whole gig. Keep it up. This is truly remarkable, historical stuff. Amazing.
I really like the LH lounge and try to take advantage whenever I can. However didn't they change the opening time recently to sometime in the morning?
Excellent beginning, Ben... looking forward to reading along. (I need to buy a new camera)
Let's hope the new UA implements CO's current fantastic AVOD system on longhaul/widebodies. Reading your description of the 10 looping channels reminded me of how embarrassingly bad UA's current IFE is, even on newly configured 777's.
@ PapaSmurf -- It does open in the morning now, as ANA uses the lounge for their flight. When they first started doing that they left the lounge open all the way through the evening, though now they close for about two hours around noon, after the ANA flight leaves and before the first Lufthansa flight leaves.
That lunch at Senator lounge looks amazing. Likewise, the omelette from Tampa to Washington looks great. Recently I had the chance to go to Washington but thru Atlanta since I was flying from Gainesville and went to an airport bar for the first time - I love flying!
now they close for about two hours around noon
Lucky, that may have been true on May 14, but the lounge recently switched to summer hours with no lunchtime closure. See this FT post and those following it.
@ lucky - In comment #3, I think you meant to say, "there are a few United gates in the Delta concourse"....right? 🙂
@Lucky - how did you snag a FC seat on the tri-configured transcon vs a BC seat?
@Other Ben Errr I dunno, my first reaction on seeing most United "First Class" meals is wondering what the hell it is. Obviously I can tell it was an omellete, but the mysterious pile of stuff at the side....
Likewise the chicken is more like white stuff on a stick with sauce heh..
@ Andrew: dude, what are you talking about? UA's new IFE is about 100x better than CO's new IFE.
How do you find whether catering for brkfst was done in another hub & sat over night? curious.
I absolutely agree with sjs. @ Andrew, Continental's IFE is basic stuff, nothing more! UA's new IFE is way better. Then again, CX or EK's IFE is even better than UA's.
Hi Ben,
Thanks for the Senator Lounge at Dulles tip. I have to hang out for awhile there on an upcoming trip to Buenos Aires. I will check out the spread at the UA International First Class Lounge first. But at least there is an alternative. BTW, I did manage to score a First Square seat on ANA from FRA to NRT. It was awesome -- I was the only passenger in the cabin.
@sjs and Andy: You guys are being sarcastic, right? A few weeks ago I flew in Y on a newly configured UA 777 from London. My seatback IFE system had five or six free movies to choose from, and about four TV shows...I was absolutely shocked, because the last time I flew on a CO 777, my AVOD system had probably over a hundred free movies to choose from...and that was three years ago.
So we're talking about tons of entertainment on the CO system that has been in place on every longhaul plane for years vs. a handful of movies on UA's newest system, which still is only on a single digit number of 777's throughout the fleet. There's really no comparison.
Funny Luftansa will let you into their lounge, but United won't let you into their international lounge. Ah well.
Lucky, how long does it take to get from concourse B to C using the new train? I'm assuming you avoided taking the moon bus or whatever it's called...
Andy, from B to C you will be taking the AeroTrain. The LH lounge is conveniently located directly upstairs from the B terminal stop. In my experience, travel time from the door of the LH lounge to C terminal is 12-14 minutes, as trains run regularly.
Here's a map of the AeroTrain system: 
And here's a map of terminal C/D: http://www.metwashairports.com/file/CandDGates.pdf
Hi, Ben- Yes, there is a decent business center in A in Tampa, near the CO gates. I think it is fairly new. My only complaint is the terminal music (and announcements) play pretty loudly in there. Was that the case in Airside E? Hopefully we can get them to turn it off or down.
Moving UA in with CO in A makes most sense for TPA airside balance, since AirTran will probably move out of A and in with Southwest. Maybe there will be enough traffic in A for UA to add a RCC??
@ Andrew: Ah, you flew coach. Fudamental mistake, since UA doesn't have the full system in coach. The system in Biz/First is much, much better than the Continental system.
I can't comment on whether UA's IFE is better than CO's (because I haven't flown CO) but I can comment that, objectively and even in Business Class, it's pretty poor. The screen's excellent, the controls are ok (although twice I've been on flights where they had to reboot) but the selection of movies is poor. They are largely old or unsuccessful movies with very few prime choices. Compare that with Virgin, or even BA or Qantas and you will see why UA is miles behind.
I had actually forgotten what orange juice looks like....so, thank you for the picture.
@Mark: I had actually forgotten what an asshole looks like.....so, thank you for posting.
TROLL.
Is it because of the catering issue at TPA, that's why the breakfast come with cereal and banana ? As I know usually when order eggs, it would come with the fruit bowl, no banana or cereal. It is only if one order fruit plate, then it would come with a side of cereal.
@ ORDnHKG -- Yes, whenever they do overnight catering they have that meal. This is because the only part of the meal they refrigerate overnight is the egg dish, while everything else (including the milk) can stay at room temperature.
Just a note: you are wrong about the air marshals on two counts. First, they do not identify themselves and since 2006 have been plainclothes, so I'm not sure how you would know. Second, federal personnel are not allowed to book travel in premium classes except under unusual and rare circumstances.
Normally I'd tell the baby's mother to shut the baby up but I feel extremely sorry for this one. Hope he's okay (at least alive).
I think that it would be nice to see 1 new United review of the new 1st class product. I understand that there are many better (cheaper) options out there, but you gave American's new product a try, so why not United?