Review of United flight Guam Tokyo in Economy

Airline United
Flight UA828
Class Economy
Seat --
Aircraft Boeing 777-200
Flight time 03:20
Take-off 11 Nov 17, 07:00
Arrival at 11 Nov 17, 09:20
UA   #76 out of 96 Airlines A minimum of 10 flight-reports within the past two years is required to appear in the rankings. 444 reviews
cheapflyer.JP
Published on 15th December 2017
After a short vacation in Guam, It's time to be back to Japan. Guam is one of the most popular beach destination among Japanese. During this vacation, I enjoyed beautiful beaches and sunlight.
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GK108 Jetstar CTS → NRT A320 Economy
UA874 United Airlines NRT  → GUM B777-200 Business
UA828 United Airlines GUM → NRT B777-200 Economy
GK113 Jetstar NRT →  CTS A320 Economy

My flight, UA828, would depart at 7:00 am in the morning. I left my hotel at 4 am since I had to arrive at the airport 2 hours before the flight.
As I'm not a morning person, I was so tired and sleepy at that time.
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There was no queue in front of me, and I could get my boarding pass in 3 minutes.
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Seat map indicated this flight was almost full. Unfortunately, United Business class was already sold-out. If you are interested in Business class experience, Please see my inbound flight report.
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I made my way to the security, located on the second floor.
Though I'm not among the TSA Pre member, I could go through the security within 5 minutes since it was very early morning.TSA agents were more friendly than who is working for the major US airport.
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In the restricted area, There are many many tax-free shops but few restaurants available.
I waited for boarding over 2 hours. As there was nothing to do and I was so tired, I felt waiting on the bench was very long.
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Eventually, Boarding was started from group 1 at 6:20 am.
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View of United B777-300.
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Boarding


The cabin consisted of 336 seats, 3-4-3 layout in a row. The 3-4-3 layout on B777 is common nowadays, though I couldn't help but admit a width was definitely narrower than 3-3-3 layout.
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The seat was refurbished and equipped with table holder instead IFE, which was quite useful when I watched a movie on my table. Why don't more airline introduce this type of seat?
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My table is 8 inches. It can accommodate the much bigger one like iPad
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The downside of this seat is the position of the call button, which is located above the armrest. This location may cause many unintentional calls.
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I felt a leg-room was bigger than what is on long-haul B777(3-3-3 layout), which I experienced this March. It was a terrible experience for me.
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The following picture is the seat of previous flight from Haneda to SFO. As you can see, Seat pitch was definitely small.
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After a manual safety demonstration, We started pushback at 6:50 am, it was 10 minutes earlier than on-time.
During taxiing, I found B727, operated by Asia Pacific airlines, Guam base cargo company. This is one of the few remaining B727 in the world. That's cool!!
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At 7:00 am, We took off from Runway 6L. As it was a humid condition, A beautiful vaper could be observed on the wing for a few seconds.
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30 minutes after taking off, A cabin crew came by providing a breakfast. She said " Philippine noodle or Fried rice", and I had previous one. In a couple of minutes, A beverage cart arrived and I ordered my favorite tomato juice.photo p1060120

On the previous long-haul flight, I was disappointed by the quality of the meal they provided. Therefore, My expectation for what they provide in the economy class was not too high until I ate this meal.

A Philippine noodle, pork taste fried noodle was descent. It was flavorful and local taste. Catering company in Guam did a good job!!
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After meal service, A cabin right was completely dimmed. In my opinion, I don't like a dark cabin on a morning flight because time adjustment of my body clock would be difficult under such a condition.
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I tried to watch some movie. There was no IFE in each seat, though they provide movie streaming service via wi-fi, which was free if you would not connect to the Internet.
After I explored the contents, I decided to watch the" Born in China". That is a documentary movie that feathers the life of wild animals in China such as Panda and Monkey, and I enjoyed watching the growth of cute panda baby.
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At 8:40 am A cabin crew informed us that we would arrive within an hour, and 30 minutes prior to landing A seatbelt sign was turned on again. Then, The Coastline of Japan was visible. It's time to final approach.
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NCA B747-8 and -400. In my opinion, An appearance of -400 is much better than -8.
We landed at 9:20 am on Japanese time. It was a quite beautiful fall day.
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After a short taxiing, We stopped between Swiss A340 and ANA B787.
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I arrived at Japan.
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Bonus : Click here display

After I arrived at Narita airport, I had to transit to Jetstar domestic flight. So I could not go anywhere outside of the airport. Instead, I spend few hours spotting from the observation deck.
Japan Airlines B787
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All Nippon Airways B787
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Vietnam Airlines A321
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Nippon Cargo Airlines B747-400
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Vanilla Air A320
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Delta Airlines B757 for Guam
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See more

Verdict

United

8.1/10
Cabin9.0
Cabin crew9.5
Entertainment/wifi6.5
Meal/catering7.5

Guam - GUM

6.0/10
Efficiency7.5
Access2.0
Services7.0
Cleanliness7.5

Tokyo - NRT

8.6/10
Efficiency7.5
Access8.5
Services8.5
Cleanliness10.0

Conclusion

The Economy class cabin consisted of 3-4-3 layout in a row. I cannot help but admit seat-width was definitely reduced and narrower, compared with the 3-3-3 layout on B777. Though thank goodness Seat pitch was decent for medium range flight.
The meal was much better than I had experienced in the past. Also, I appreciate United provided a delicious local-taste meal on this route.
The biggest downside is the poor ground experience. It was so boring time until boarding was called since Guam airport was small and few good restaurants.

Related

6 Comments

If you liked this review or if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to post a comment below !
  • Comment 422876 by
    KL651 TEAM 4534 Comments
    Thanks for this FR.
    Good service for a UA short flight, some transcons or to Canada or Mexico are longer but don't receive anything.
    The lack of IFE is annoying though.
  • Comment 422928 by
    AK 1085 Comments
    Thanks for sharing your experience. The food looks very delicious and the legroom is great. I think not having IFE is a bad point. Honestly not everyone owns a tablet, and not all people owning a tablet bring it when they travel. Here the flight is not too long, but for longer flights it is a real problem in my opinion.

    I hope you enjoyed the holiday ! the weather must be very different as compared to 北海道 !!
    • Comment 422944 by
      cheapflyer.JP AUTHOR 58 Comments
      Hello, AK.
      I admit luck of IFE is a big issue for most of the passengers on long-haul.
      Indeed, This B777 was mainly used for the domestic, not a long-haul international route. I guess that almost all long-haul B777 has a better IFE, instead of a table holder.
      I really enjoyed my holiday. However, I had a cold after I was back to 北海道 since temperature difference was over 30℃.(Guam 30℃→ 北海道- 2℃)
  • Comment 422999 by
    aussenrist 225 Comments
    Thanks for sharing this report with us!
    I am a bit surprise that UA uses 777 on this route (don't know the demand is huge lol)! I only saw those 737s are used which always parked at Gate 32 in NRT.
    For this regional flight the food is quite good (in UA standard). Don't like the high density econ cabin but unfortunately it become the air industry trend now...
    • Comment 423068 by
      cheapflyer.JP AUTHOR 58 Comments
      Hi, Ashleyyau
      That's right, There is a lot of demand on this route. UA operates “Triple Daily Flight” on this route, and three of two was operated by B777-200 on weekend or holiday season.
      I don't like the high-density 10 abreast cabin, too. However, I felt it was much better than a cramped B737 cabin.

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