Review of United flight from Los Angeles to San Francisco in Economy

Background:
This report covers a quick weekend trip to the Bay Area to visit family. This trip was booked 2 weeks out for $109 round-trip, pretty much the same fares on AA and UA, but I went with UA for the lounge access. I loathe UA and this trip did nothing to improve my image of the carrier. UA just knows how to sap the fun out of flying. I had over 4 hours of delays resulting from these two flights as UA struggled to send out any planes on time. The routing was:
Part 1 – LAX-SFO [UA 460, Airbus A320, Economy] – You are here
Part 2 – SFO-LAX [UA 1529, Airbus A320, EconomyPlus] – No report
This report will cover the flight from LAX to SFO with stops in the *A Lounge (TBIT) and United Club (T7). Instead of doing a report on the return flight, I’ll just give a comparison in the report of the pitch (used some guile to get a free EconomyPlus seat for SFO-LAX) and briefly compare the UA Club at LAX to the ones at SFO. The bonus at the end will be night spotting at SFO.
Pre-flight:
After leaving work early, I arrived at LAX to park my car. The weather was cool, so I decided to walk instead of taking the shuttle bus to the terminal. Since UA is T7, it’s the last stop on all the shuttle routes, so it can be a gruesome ride on a bus.

Billboards advertising the new UA J product.

Upstairs to the check-in areas. The whole T7/8 areas are a mess since UA is trying to renovate its terminals.

I had done OLCI the night before, where UA tries to sell off the last of the EconomyPlus seats. At $39 for a LAX-SFO sector, that is a complete rip-off. Especially since the $39 was for a middle seat, the only window seat left was running $45. I find the UA pricing structure to be much higher than on AA.

I had TSA PreCheck, so was quickly airside and decided to do the long walk to TBIT to use the *A Lounge.

AS B739 in a Boeing 100th Anniversary special livery.

Part of the TBIT line-up.

AZ B772 in ST special livery.

SU B77W.

KL B744 and TN A343.

The *A Lounge. I scan my boarding pass; the agent looks down at her screen and then up at me saying, “United???” I tell her that I am well aware of how long the walk is back to T7 (~20-30 minutes) as I enter the lounge.

The dining area.

The buffet this afternoon.

I start doing some math to see how many of these I need to drink to offset my airfare.

My offering.

The lounge isn’t too bad in the afternoon since it’s mainly traffic to Europe leaving.

The outside terrace on a sunny afternoon, just a TK B77W down below.

Artwork near the showers.

45 minutes to departure, I start the trek out of TBIT back to T7.

A brief stop at the UA Club in T7. The one benefit (if you want to call it that) of being a non-UA *G is the access to the UA lounges on domestic flights.

The lounge is windowless and crowded. They are opening a new UA Club in December so we’ll see what that one looks like, but this one is in bad shape.

The buffet at LAX.

There was also soup and some rolls. The soup was okay, but the bread was rubbery.

As a comparison, this was the catering in the SFO UA Clubs from the return trip (all 3 lounges at SFO had the same catering, they only differ in the decor). I found the SFO soups and salads to be much better.

Walking to my gate in T7.

FIDS. There is no shortage of flights to SFO, they leave hourly.

UA’s operations and an A320 in *A special livery.

There is a lot less seating areas at T7 than in T4 or T5 (AA and DL).

My gate is deserted….

…Because everyone is already in line to board.

————————-
United Airlines, UA 460
Equipment: Airbus A320 [N490UA, delivered February 2002]
Departure: 16:45 (ATD: 17:30)
Arrival: 18:11 (ATA: 18:17)
Flight time: 0:47
I guess you can consider the boarding to be orderly, but I find it ridiculous that half the plane boards in Group 2 since it includes EconomyPlus passengers. I think *G deserves to board before EconomyPlus and not with them.

Logjam entering the plane.

I got a “hey” from a FA as I go through the F cabin. At the back of the bus.

My window seat in Row 32.

Knee-crunching 30” pitch on the A320s.

As a comparison, here is the seat pitch in EconomyPlus (Row 8) from the return SFO-LAX sector.

Not only is the pitch tight, but you have to note that the tray table sticks 2” more into your face. It was very claustrophobic and I wouldn’t want to be in these seats for longer than 1 hour.

There was no power outlets on this plane and there weren't even any overhead monitors.
Seat details, with adjustable headrest (a nice feature of these seats).

Setback contents.

Hemispheres

Safety card for this A320.

We push back 20 minutes late.

TN A343 taking off.

EY B772 taxing out.

AS B739 in Disneyland special livery.

KE B77F taking off.

KE A380 sitting at a remote stand.

DL B772 landing from PVG.

TK B77W heading back to IST.

We align onto the runway as a DL B717 lifts up.

NZ B77W heading off to LHR behind us.

Rolling down the runway.

LX B77W.

Typical TBIT visitors: the all white plane is the SQ B777 in *A special livery leaving for ICN.

Lifting up over the airport.

The 2 QF A380s working on their tans.

We roll into the Pacific and turn north to start our run up to SFO.

Drink service is done along with a packet of “savory” snack mix. They got rid of the fancier flavors.

As soon as the drink service is done, we are dropping into the Bay Area.

Foster City.

TK B77W as we touch down at SFO.

BR B77W heading out to TPE.

SFO = home of UA B744s.

We pull into Gate 60 and quickly deplane. There are a lot of passengers connecting to flight to Asia.

I take the AirTrain over to the rental car terminal to pick up my car and meet my sister downtown for dinner.

That concludes this report/series.
***BONUS***: Spotting at SFO during my long delay.
LX A343.

UA B772.

CZ B788.

CM B738 (I have flown this special livery LAX-PTY).

BR B77W.

LH A346.

NZ B77W.

UA B789.