Review of United flight Los Angeles → Houston in Domestic First

Greetings Flight Report community and thanks for stopping by. I have been catching up on reports of trips made last year and this series will be exactly that. This series of flights was special for several reasons. First, the timing. My family was expecting a new member in July of 2016 so this window of time was my last chance to enjoy some flying for a while. Second, as a "last hurrah", it was an all points on deck sort of affair where I simply pooled every point currency I had available and sought to exhaust them into a grand adventure. Through the luck of my timing I beat the devaluation cutoff of both AA and the Alaska and Emirates. Finally the trip was loosely based around A380. The first class cabins on these machines are nothing short of spectacular so let's have a comparison.

Carrier, route, equipment, class, lounge, and procurement method:

United Airlines - LAX-IAH - 737-800 - First - United Club - Aeroplan (This Report)
Lufthansa - IAH-FRA - A380-800 - First - Executive Club - Aeroplan
Lufthansa - FRA-LHR - A321 - Business - FCL and FCT - Aeroplan
Etihad Airways - LHR-AUH - A380-800 - First - Etihad Lounge - American AAdvantage
Etihad Airways - AUH-BOM - A380-800 - First - Etihad Lounge - American AAdvantage
Singapore Airlines - BOM-SIN - A380-800 - Suites - GVK Lounge - Krisflyer
Emirates Airline - SIN-DXB - A380-800 - First - Emirates Lounge and Qantas Lounge - Alaska Mileage Plan (Coming Eventually)
Emirates Airline - DXB-IAH - A380-800 - First - Emirates Lounge - Alaska Mileage Plan (Coming Eventually)
American Airlines IAH-DFW - MD80 - First - Admirals Club - Cash (No Report)
American Airlines DFW-SNA - 737-800 - First - Admirals Club - Cash (No Report)

I usually don't include these domestic legs because I find I don't take many pictures. My mind is on the long haul F segmetns and I sort of forget about these. I'll try to cobble together enough material to make a report on this flight.

United Club LAX

Uber got to the airport in an efficient manner. Nothing beats being dropped off at the curb of the airline you are departing on vs. parking off site and riding a slow moving shuttle bus that stops at (sometimes) every terminal. Check in was done efficiently via kiosk and both the LAX-IAH and IAH-FRA segments were printed. I had a few minutes to spare so I ventured over to the UA club that was nearest my gate. My international F itinerary made access possible. I found a really sad looking facility in very poor nick. I understand this club was closed and renovated so there is a better facility now.



From what I could tell this was a smaller club with basically one big room with chairs. The furniture was well worn and dirty.



There was an issue with the ceiling.



Food was bog standard UA Club.



I appreciated the excellent ramp view.

UA1125 LAX-IAH

Boarding was on time and I took my position in seat 3F.



Open bar pre-departure beverage service was offered and I enjoyed some coffee. This was an ex-CO aircraft with live TV. Unfortunately the news on CNN prior to push wasn't good.



The captain announced a delay due to weather in the IAH area. He mentioned that he was adding extra fuel as the storms in the area would necessitate a longer flight plan to avoid them. Eventually we were off after a 20 minute delay.



Service began quickly with the flight attendant offering drinks and taking breakfast orders. I enjoyed a nicely presented Bloody Mary to start. The extra vodka on the side is a nice touch.



Breakfast was underwhelming. I went with the hot option and it was a strata (allegedly). The fruit was very nice but the strata didn't work. It was very dry and I only efforted a taste.



Service through the meal was very attentive and offers for more drinks were frequent. The trays were cleared promptly.

The Houston area was under a massive deluge of rain this week and the storms were active on this day. So much so that our flight took a detour to Louisiana and added about an hour of flying time. That extra fuel was burned.



I had a 3.5 hour connection at IAH so the 1+ hour delay wasn't an issue for me, others weren't so lucky.