Review of United flight Vancouver → San Francisco in Economy

Airline United
Flight UA 712
Class Economy
Seat 32C
Aircraft Airbus A319
Flight time 02:16
Take-off 09 Aug 14, 15:20
Arrival at 09 Aug 14, 17:36
UA   #68 out of 94 Airlines A minimum of 10 flight-reports within the past two years is required to appear in the rankings. 448 reviews
jetsetpanda
By 4233
Published on 17th August 2014
Hi everyone and welcome to the last segment of my TR to YVR.

UA SFO-YVR in Y - http://flight-report.com/en/report-7734.html
UA YVR-SFO in Y - you are here

Eating and shopping are two activities that fit perfectly in the agenda on any visit to Richmond. In my first report I covered some of the former and now I will do some shopping.

Aberdeen Center is located next to the Radisson hotel and serves a predominantly Asian clientele. Some expensive items can be found, but at the same time there are herbal shops, jewelry stores, a Japanese Daiso store that sells mainly household goods at cheap prices and other mom and pop stores specializing in different things. There is also a Korean supermarket along with several restaurants scattered throughout.


Entrance

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Inside the mall




Japanese kitchenware store




Nice set

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Daiso

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There is an Asian bakery named St. Germain that has decent coconut tarts. I also had a napoleon that was the furthest thing to the real deal with cake in between the layers of flaky pastry. A bastardized version if you will. Overall, this place has items that are hit or miss.

Coconut tart

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On a brighter note, I found L'Opera - a French patisserie that put a sweet ending to my exhausting day. It's a very small bakery outside of the Hilton and it was packed with customers having tea even before closing time. I brought some back to my hotel.




Richmond Center caters to those with a more Western predilection. There is a skytrain station (Richmond Brighouse) right in front of the mall which is quite convenient.

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Richmond Center

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At the airport, we were checked by an efficient UA agent and cleared security and U.S. Immigrations. Once we finished, we arrived at the Duty Free shop and browsed around for a little bit.

Totems outside

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Duty Free shop

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Ice Wine

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We arrived at the gate with plenty of time and when boarding started we got in line. It was at this moment that tragedy stroke. It was discovered that a set of bed sheet that one of my parties bought as a carry on was missing. She resigned to her loss but right after coming back to SFO, she called YVR Lost and Found and it was there on hold for 60 days. There were two options to retrieve it - either someone has to go in person or they will send it via FEDEX overnight, which cost USD 200+. Of course, this presented the perfect excuse to go back to YVR and we all decided to return in a few weeks. Besides, there were other restaurants that I still wanted to try.

Gate area

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Plane

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The gate agents were polite and did their job professionally. Upon boarding, I realized that this plane was retrofitted with the slim seats and despite the tight pitch, it seemed a bit more comfortable than the previous flight due to the thin hard surface of the back of the seats.

Cabin

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A bit better

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Magazine holder - missing an air sickness bag

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FA's were professional and smiling throughout the whole flights. They even pulled the carts all the way back a few times to allow passengers to return to their seats in the middle of the inflight service. No condescending attitude or eyes rolling.

Surprisingly, they offered fresh meals for BOB (Buy on Board) this time. I purchased a chicken wrap for USD 9.49 that contained chicken breast meat in a tortilla with vegetables, creamy ginger sesame sauce and a package of spicy aioli. Not too bad.

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The flight was uneventful and we arrived 19 minutes earlier at 1717 instead of 1736. We parked at the recently renovated wing in T3 where gates 60-69 are located. This used to be the old AA terminal before they moved to T2. SFO and UA did a great job in giving this area a more stylish and contemporary feel.

Gates 60-69 @ UA T3


See more

Verdict

United

7.4/10
Cabin7.5
Cabin crew9.0
Entertainment/wifi6.0
Meal/catering7.0

Vancouver - YVR

9.5/10
Efficiency9.0
Access9.0
Services10.0
Cleanliness10.0

San Francisco - SFO

9.9/10
Efficiency9.5
Access10.0
Services10.0
Cleanliness10.0

Conclusion

Overall I had a decent experience with UA on this particular flight.

The seat pitch on the A319 is tight but this is somewhat alleviated with the introduction of the new slim seats.

A nice crew makes a big difference and this one performed really well.

It was a nice surprise to find fresh BOB on this flight. This is in line with what AC offers on the same route.

Information on the route Vancouver (YVR) → San Francisco (SFO)

Les contributeurs de Flight-Report ont posté 8 avis concernant 4 compagnies sur la ligne Vancouver (YVR) → San Francisco (SFO).

Useful

La compagnie qui obtient la meilleure moyenne est Air Canada avec 7.5/10.

La durée moyenne des vols est de 2 heures et 6 minutes.

  More information

8 Comments

If you liked this review or if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to post a comment below !
  • Comment 116781 by
    padawan SILVER 1996 Comments
    Thank you for this report.
    UA is following his Europeans cusins (LH, LX...) with these new iron board seats...
  • Comment 116786 by
    indianocean SILVER 7572 Comments
    10 USD for a chicken wrap. Isn't a little bit expensive?
    Thank you.
    • Comment 300541 by
      jetsetpanda AUTHOR 2283 Comments
      Tnanks for stopping by. I guess it is on the expensive side, but when it comes to TR one has to report the good, the bad and the ugly. :P I don't think anything beats AF for their special Lenotre meal.
  • Comment 116980 by
    KévinDC TEAM SILVER 6731 Comments
    Those seats look a lot like LH's short-haul slimline seats. I actually like the color and the cabin looks fresh and inviting...wow, I can't believe I said something nice about UA :-P
    Thanks for sharing!
    • Comment 300695 by
      jetsetpanda AUTHOR 2283 Comments
      To be honest, UA has been very decent on these flights except for the cleaning on my outbound. Crew were polite and smiling with flights on time. Yep, I never thought I would say this either but now that AC is deploying Rouge in SFO, I rather fly on UA.

      Thanks.
  • Comment 117203 by
    lagentsecret 12184 Comments
    Thanks for sharing this FR

    Nice comprehensive tour of Richmond

    It was at this moment that tragedy stroke
    This is a bit too dramatic, isn't it ? ;)
    Only a pretext to come back

    The new cabin is great and the blue is a nice colour

    The wrap is not appetizing : I really think that I wouldn't be able to eat such food

    A good flight with UA
    • Comment 300920 by
      jetsetpanda AUTHOR 2283 Comments
      This is a bit too dramatic, isn't it ? ;)
      Not at all. Only when I am around with certain people my dramatic side surfaces. ;)

      The new cabin is great and the blue is a nice colour
      Blue has a calming effect. It is ideal to put people at ease.

      The wrap is not appetizing...
      It wasn't too bad, especially with the spicy aioli. I don't think you can get great food on any BOB's in North America.

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