#68 out of 94 Airlines A minimum of 10 flight-reports within the past two years is required to appear in the rankings.
384 reviews
Report No: 2020-1208
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Welcome to the third and last part of this series where I would return to Washington, DC for a physical meeting the following week. As United was the cheapest for my travel day, I opted to fly United this time.
So subsequently, the eighth and the last Flight-Report of this series would be onboard a United flight from Los Angeles to Washington Dulles onboard the Boeing 737-900ER. On this occasion, I also had the chance to visit the United Club in LAX Terminal 7.
Here is the routing ( the remaining parts would be revealed soon )
Part 1:
Part 2:
Part 3:
Loads for this flight
Domestic First: 100%
Economy: 40-45%
After arriving from my previous American Airlines flight from Dallas Fort Worth, I had a couple of hours and as I needed to work on my computer for 1-2 hours, I decided not to leave the airport. Although, just after arriving from my previous flight, I did decide to take a walk.
My walk was going to be from Terminal 4 to TBIT, followed by a longer walk from TBIT to Terminal 7.
Unfortunately at TBIT, the QF First Class Lounge is closed
Such as the oneworld Business Class lounge operated by Qantas.
As well as the Star Alliance Lounge
The seating of this lounge is covered with plastic due to the long term closure, however, the lights were open.
The Los Angeles International Lounge ( contract lounge ) was also closed
All other lounges except the AMEX Centurion Lounge in TBIT were closed. The AMEX Centurion Lounge only offered grab-and-go food during the day I traveled.
It's now time to head to Terminal 7. Here are the FIDS
While walking, I have seen an error in the signages as gate 122 does not exist anymore at LAX.
After a 10 minute walk I was at the T6-T7 connector,
I have arrived at the United Club which is the only available lounge for myself for the day.
After being welcomed by the friendly agent, I headed upstairs to the club.
Just a warning that indoor food & beverage consumption is not allowed inside the lounge and all food & beverages should be consumed at the outdoor patio. That Sunday morning, the lounge was pretty empty.
FIDS from the lounge. By the way, the time at the board does not represent the actual time. I wasn't there in the evening. It was probably a glitch.
The lounge also had private work cubicles, however, still you are not allowed to consume food & beverage inside them as United was following the LA County Health Guidance.
If we return to how food is served, the buffet and the self service fountain drink and coffee machines were all closed. All food & beverages should be requested from the bar.
The bar
After picking up your food & beverages from the bar an host would be assigning you a table and you are only allowed to sit 20 minutes outside at a single round. After that you should go back into the line and wait your turn. However, if there is nobody waiting, you are allowed to seat more than 20 minutes at the outdoor patio.
The food offerings are mainly snacks. For my first round, I opted for an iced latte, some nuts and brownie bites.
About 25-30 minutes later, the host came to me and told me that there were people waiting outside so I needed to go back inside. At that time I went inside and found a quiet corner.
While I did some work on my computer, I also watched the movement in the apron.
Such as the arrival of this 757
And this United Express Embraer E-175
An American 777-200ER passing by
United A320 parked at gate 70A.
A view of the other side of the apron. I was lucky to spot a Qatar Airways A350-1000 landing.
After the patio had available seats, I've headed back and this time I had some instant noodles which would be my lunch for the day.
As a dessert, I had a cheesecake
Before leaving the lounge, it was possible to see N62849 which would be the aircraft taking me to Washington DC.
After having lunch and spending 3 hours in the club, it was time to leave and head to the gate. As today's flight was empty in the Economy cabin the gate area was not crowded.
Here is another shot of N62849
Boarding was made with the order of passengers requiring extra assistance, MileagePlus Global Services and Premier 1K members, active US military personnel, First Class passengers which was followed by row-by-row boarding for Economy passengers. As a *G member, I didn't have priority boarding due to the temporary changes although this flight was empty so the overhead bin space wasn't filled. The disadvantage of boarding last ( front rows of Economy in this case ) is that overhead lockers could be easily filled in US domestic flights and you might be forced to gate check your carry-on.
I have boarded when my row number was announced and took this fuselage shot before entering the aircraft.
After being welcomed by the crew and being handed an hand sanitizing wipe, I headed to my seat 14F.
The legroom in Economy is 30 inches in United short-haul aircraft which is completely OK for me.
The seats today were the Pinnacle seats that you could find in many airlines including American Airlines and British Airways short-haul aircraft as well.
Here is a shot of the hand sanitizing wipe that was provided upon boarding.
Here is a shot of the safety card. Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, United does not provide a physical copy of their Hemispheres magazine anymore.
The seat was equipped with a power outlet although there were no USB ports.
A view from my seat while boarding was continuing
Boarding was completed and I had a great surprise. Seats 14D and 14E were empty for the day.
Overhead panel
After boarding was completed the safety demo was performed by the crew, however, the demonstration of oxygen masks were not shown and passengers were asked to check the safety card if they don't know how to use an oxygen mask.
Wi-Fi was available gate to gate on this flight. Such as personal device entertainment
Our flight time was going to be 4h40mins.
We were estimated to arrive 10 minutes later than our scheduled arrival time which I don't know why
Wi-Fi options for this flight. I didn't purchase Wi-Fi on this flight.
And here is the Personal Device Entertainment system menu
Movies & TV shows are available to stream through the app.
While we were waiting for clearance to push-back, this United A320 was passing by
As soon as we got the approval from the Ground Operations Center, we have started our push back.
Cargo aircraft at the cargo terminal
More cargo aircraft
After a short taxi, we have arrived at the runway and without wait we were set to take-off.
Alaska aircraft at remote stands
United 787 at a remote stand
Terminal 7
Terminal 6
Terminal 5
As we were parallel with Terminal 5, we were in the air.
Terminal 4
TBIT
China Airlines 777-300ER passing by
The new Midfield Satellite Concourse that would open soon
Some wide-bodies were parked at remote stands. I don't know the reason but a China Southern A380 was there as well.
Some photos after takeoff
After a U turn in the air, we were heading eastbound.
After a while, service had started with snacks and beverages. Here is the snack bag that was provided.
Here is the content. A stroopwafel, a bag of pretzels, a bottle of water and a hand sanitizing wipe.
As a drink, I've opted for a hot chocolate
About 20 minutes later the cabin crew came to collect trash and I've asked if they had blankets as I would sleep, the cabin crew told me that they didn't have blankets loaded but could heat up the cabin if I was cold. I thanked her as my initial intention to increase my comfort rather than changing the cabin temperature which was decent.
Surprisingly, I woke up just after the seatbelt signs have turned on for landing and about a few minutes later we had already touched down at IAD.
United 777 at Terminal D
After a short taxi, we were going to park at gate D1
Next to another United 737-900ER
According to United protocol, deboarding was made row-by-row, however, as I experienced with United in the past, the announcements were really fast as passengers sitting in the front EconomyPlus rows were still in the aisle gathering their belongings from the overhead lockers while passengers seating in rows behind the exit rows were allowed to disembark the aircraft.
After arriving at the United C/D Terminal in IAD, I've headed to the AirTrain station to head to the main building.
By the way, here are the remaining departures of the day
The terminal was really quiet that Sunday late-evening
As well as the AirTrain station
A shot from the AirTrain
After arriving at the main building, I've decided to head towards the bus stop as I would head to central Washington DC.
However, as the next 5A bus to the city was about 1h10mins later, I decided to sit at one of the empty seating areas at the airport and spend time. I was not in a rush so I didn't want to pay for an Uber/Lyft or a taxi against riding the free-of-charge bus.
While it was closer to the buses departure time, I left the terminal
And boarded the bus pictured below.
After I left the airport, this Flight-Report series has come to an end.
I hope you enjoyed reading this US domestic series.
Thanks for reading and hope to see you in another Flight-Report.
Next Report:
I would give you a hint that more US domestic flight reports would come soon, as well as domestic flights within Turkey and some international flights including transatlantic ones. For now, I would only give a hint of the next report.
As I'm behind of my posting schedule, I'll skip the conclusion part for this review. If you have further questions, please don't hesitate to write a comment below.
Les contributeurs de Flight-Report ont posté 8 avis concernant 2 compagnies sur la ligne Los Angeles (LAX) → Washington (IAD).
La compagnie qui obtient la meilleure moyenne est American Airlines avec 7.2/10.
La durée moyenne des vols est de 4 heures et 45 minutes.
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5 Comments
The rule of LA regarding consumption of food and drinks is pretty idiotic if you ask me...
Seeing the TBIT with 777/350 only make me sad, the famous view of diverse lined-up A380 was spectacular and is no more :(
I see that frequency of public transport in Washington is still as bad as I remember, having to wait 1:10 is ridiculous, at least it was free.
Thank you again for sharing these reports with us in these tough times.
- I needed to be in DC the following week ( this flight was on a Sunday ) and on Monday, I have received the message that some important in-person meetings in my schedule were postponed to January due to unforeseen reasons ( someone got COVID probably, but they didn't tell that ) so I could have stayed more in California which definitely has better weather.
- I am currently in the LH SEN Lounge in FRA and there is a much idiotic rule that all food is take-away and you could only eat it outside the lounge at the public area. However, at this time you could eat & drink food inside the UA Club in LAX as that stupid rule is not there anymore.
- Same it's sad, however, I think that A380's still have a chance to return if the demand increases. The slots in LAX would still be limited when travel recovers and airlines would need high-density aircrafts.
- The wait that day was boring but at least I have competed some things that I needed to do on my computer while waiting for the bus.
- You're very welcome and stay tuned for more reports in the near future.
Yeah, that was a rule only in California at the time (not just LAX) as part of the CA government's Covid lockdown measures, which ended late January. The confusing thing in the US is each State has different Covid-measures in place and some States basically have none...makes it very complicated to know what to expect when flying.
Good thing you were able to grab some food before the flight because this is a long flight to just get a snack bag and a bottle of water. The bag is basically the same on all US3 carriers, though UA's may be a little better with the stroopwaffles. It would be nice if the US3 brought back some kind of paid food service on board for longer flights like this in Economy--at least a pre-order option. I'm flying LAX-DCA in Y with my 2 year old in a few days as it doesn't look like upgrades will clear--both cabins are completely full (at least based on seat maps), so I'll have to stock up on snacks for the ride, especially for the kid.
Thanks for sharing!
- Indeed, I also tried SkyTeam but with Delta reducing DF capacity to 50%, the fares were not great and unfortunately FlyingBlue has ended their double XP promo on 31 December 2020.
- UA's stroopwafels are much better than AA's pretzels and Biscoff's so I'll agree with your comment. I was also happy that the UA Club had some OK'ish kind of food otherwise, there weren't that much options downstairs other than junk food.
- Alaska Airlines is doing this, however, if I'm not wrong, the only pre-order option is a fruit&cheese plate so it doesn't count as an actual meal but an aperitif. It would be also nice to see the US3 brining back some paid food service.
- Assuming that you're flying on AA, still if you were seated in Domestic First, you might need to bring some snacks for your kid; it's really sad to see the US aviation industry having the worse inflight service compared to other developed countries and regions but that's the reality. By the way, I have flown that route in Y on AA in January and they offered me a $162 discounted upgrade at OLCI which I didn't take. If you're lucky you might get these discounted offers during OLCI but be aware that they disappear at some time so you need to act fast.
Once again thanks for your comment and hope to see you in another report.
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