Review of United flight from Houston to Newark in Economy

Bonjour à tous ! Following the American Travel/Vacation Story I am going to start a new series ACS! ^^ 
 

Title to be REVEALED

This series will cover my trip to visit my little brother who was studying aboard in Feb 2017. To make the series a bit mystery, the itinerary will be revealed as we go on and divided as follows (all in Y): 
 

This chapter covers the intra-hub flight from Houston Intercontinental to Newark Liberty.

BTW where did my little brother study?
 

Background

As per my company practice, in 2016 year-end I was reminded to clear my outstanding annual leaves before April 2017 otherwise they would be forfeited. Therefore I planned to clear my leaves by extending my business trip to Houston in order to visit my brother who was studying aboard then. One day I found a good fare to my brother’s town which the itinerary contains United flights. This fitted me well because I could earn more PQM so why not.

Being a Premier Silver member, I could select the economy plus seat during online check-in and I found there was a window seat available on the exit row. Voilà! I could enjoy the extra legroom^^ This makes my first time sitting on the exit row.

George Bush Intercontinental Airport

Previously on last report, I felt much better after a night of unconscious with the aids of physicians from the Texas Medical Center. On next day morning I woke up early and received a not so good message from IAH: there was a rainstorm alert!

Although the United app showed my flight would not be affected, I seriously doubted if it was true. Having the similar departure time, our company car drove the Head, my boss and I to the airport. It was pouring rain outside on the way to the airport.

Once entered the IAH territory, we were welcomed by an UA E-jet

My boss flew AA so our car dropped her off at Terminal A first and next we arrived at Terminal E 2.5 hours before departure. Our first priority after getting out of the car was having a recharge^^ The Head told me my colleagues already helped me “appreciate” United via the website @@

The check-in area was pretty empty in the morning. We headed to the Premier Access check-in and immediately welcomed by the agents. Bags were quickly checked to our destinations respectively (the Head backed to HKG) and boarding passes were issued for all our flights.

Then we passed through the TSA which was sparse

After the security we turned left to Terminal E. A hot air balloon decoration with United Globe in the Atrium promotes travelling to Rio

Bad news: The Atrium FIDS showed my flight was awaiting aircraft which I was sure there would be a delay
(The Head’s UA flight to Tokyo was also delayed with unknown departing time)

The Head still had some works to do thus he opted to stay at the United Club in Terminal E until boarding. The United Club entrance has a new make-up

After bidding farewell to the Head I walked ahead to my gate. Everything in the Lone Star State is huge, so the Terminal E is huge and spacious

View of the tarmac. Still raining outside

My Gate. Neither my plane nor the staff were here

Still had time I wondered around. IAH has a very good Wi-Fi!

An UA B772 to HNL

The Terminal E looks like a grand food court rather than a shopping mall with lots of eateries everywhere

I believed I was able to eat then so I brought a Starbuck sandwich for my in-flight breakfast

Fly the friendly skies: United emphasis on passenger self-services so they did not assign any staff at UA customer service counter…

The Rains Of Castamere?

I backed to my Gate. My bird still wasn’t here while the United app notified that the departure time was delayed to 1055

But the true Targaryen heir Jon Snow was here preparing for the flight!!! Why didn't you fight against the White Walkers in Westeros?!?!?!
(he is also featured in the Casey Neistat video^^)

Gate FIDS. It is shame for United to be proud of achieving the most on time arrivals whereas my flight is delayed lol

It showed our plane was nearly (and eventually) full today…

And I was the 34th on the waiting list for upgrade^^

Passengers already spread over the boarding area. Finally our plane showed up 20 minutes prior to departure and boarding was immediately called.

flight Report

Embarking

The FAs welcomed me on board

The Y cabin. It is an 18-year-old ex-Continental B738 (N14235) but reconfigured with the new United leather seat.

I found my exit row seat where the aisle seat was already occupied by a business man. Standard seat back materials

Soon after sitting down, the middle seatmate also arrived.

Seat pitch is very good on the exit row. Seatmates’ demonstration of extra legroom

But the tradeoff of a window exit row seat is you can only enjoy 0.333 armrests on window side

View from the wing. Next to us is also a B738 to Austin

Safety card

The handle and user guide for the emergency exit door

The plug under the seat and it worked well throughout the flight

One of the FA saw I kept photographing inside the plane and came to tell me not to take their pictures! Afraid of being dumped from the plane I had no choices but put away my camera lol

As the standard procedure, the FA came and asked if the exit rows were able to help other passengers evacuate during the emergency. After all of us agreed she once again explained how to operate the emergency exit doors

Maybe so many passengers had to catch the next flight, boarding was quick and in order. The crew closed the door at 1110 and we pushed back quickly at 1112. Safety instruction was demonstrated.

We did not wait long and took off from Runway 27

Our bird immediately turned left towards the North

The pilot announcement skipped the reason of delay but simply mentioned that our flight would be around 2.5 hours.

Nous sommes fatigues …

Bon Appétit^^ Don’t worry I did not vomit on this flight

The other side windows seat passenger also recognized the importance of taking food pictures before eating

Flipped through the NZ sponsored United Flyer

It features a catalog for MileagePlus Merchandise Awards. WTH United wants me 122,500 miles for a Surface Pro 4? No thank you I could better used those miles for EWR-HKG in Polaris!

I tried connecting to the in-flight Wi-Fi several times but failed…

Later the FA announced and apologized that the in-flight Wi-Fi was out of order on this plane! She promised there would be compensation for everyone.

Beverage services did not start until mid-flight. Je voudrais du jus d'orange and a snack mix was also distributed

The North remembers: the sleepers were not forgotten^^

I went to the toilet mid-flight. It was in so so condition but still much better than my NRT-IAD flight!

Changing the diaper is a woman job on this 738

The rear galley. Water was pre-poured for taking

When I was photographing the cups of water, a FA who stopped me taking photos before appeared and asked why I kept taking pictures. I replied calmly that I did some flight reviews occasionally. Hearing my reply the FA smiled and said enjoy my flight in return!

Nous avons vraiment besoin de dormir ! 

Avoiding passengers to swap their seats, there is a friendly remainder on each exit row window

About an hour to arrival we had heavy turbulence and the captain ordered all of us returned to seat

 I felt asleep until descending. We approached Newark from the South

Elizabeth

Eventually we touched down on runway 4R at 15:25, 1 hour behind schedule. Au jeez I had to rush for my next flight!

Nous sommes passés un La Compagnie B752 que vient de CDG

During taxiing I received 2 messages from United -

Good news: I was given $75 as the compensation for the broken Wi-Fi. (Wow I had never seen United responded so fast!)

Strange news: My connecting flight had departed. (What??? My next flight scheduled departure time was surely 1.5 hours later!!!) 

We quickly pulled into Gate 94 at Terminal C1

Last view of my seat

Everyone was rush in disembarking. The FA who stopped me taking photos before said goodbye and persuaded me to give a good rating on United when I wrote reviews lol

Last view of my bird

Maybe just came from Houston, Newark Terminal C is small and crowded with those eateries occupied in the middle of the concourse

Changes is in the air: Terminal C was in renovation for the security checkpoints

The United line-up at Terminal C

Since my next flight was not departed from the same Terminal, I exited airside and took the AirTrain to another one

 

I’ll leave off this series here as I transit and here is the preview of next report: Winter is coming...

Thank you for your reading!