The Lounge - United Club LAX
I wasn’t going to review this flight, but a last minute seat change presented a unique opportunity.
I arrived at LAX terminal 7 at about 6:00 am, about 2 hours ahead of my scheduled departure time.
I spent some time in the United Club here at LAX, which I’ve reviewed previously, and honestly, not much has changed, you can view that review here.
The United Club at LAX is one of the nicer and larger United Clubs in the domestic network, and is a nice place to relax before your flight. Though, if you’re Star Alliance Gold and have the time, you can go to the far superior Star Alliance Lounge in the Tom Bradley International Terminal for better lounge experience.
I was able to get a view of the 757-300 “flying pencil” that would be taking us to Washington today.
The "Unique Situation" that led me to wanting to review this flight
Now, time for that unique seating situation. I was originally in seat 11A, an economy plus seat at the front of the economy cabin. In looking at the seat map and the standby list, I noticed there were only 2 people on standby with plenty of open seats and that row 39 D,E,F was wide open. So I couldn’t pass up an opportunity to have an entire row to myself in the back of the flying pencil! So, I switched into 39E.
Yes, it’s slightly less pitch and one inch less of recline, but not having any seatmates is worth it.
Our flight today was departing from gate 73. United uses Terminals 7 and 8 at LAX, and will soon be also using Terminal 6. All of these are connecting land side and all of these gates are within about a 15 minute walk from the United Club.
Gate 73 is only a 2-3 minute walk from the club, but I left the lounge 10 minutes before boarding so that I could reprint my boarding pass with the new seat assignment.
Just as I was leaving the lounge, I refreshed the seat map to find that someone had booked into seat 39F, I’m really not sure why as there were plenty of other window seats open on the plane. Hey, I took a risk, and it didn’t work, unfortunately. So, I quickly switched into 28F as my original seat of 11A was taken.
Boarding, the Cabin, and the Seat
Boarding began right on schedule at 7:25. I preboarded with the other 1Ks, and while all of them either turned left towards First or made their way into economy plus, I made my way to the back.
The economy cabin is arranged in a 3-3 layout. Each economy seat offers 31 inches of pitch, 2 inches of recline, and 17.3 inches of width.
Once on board, I found that the middle seat for me was completely empty. And then I refreshed the seat map and saw that the person who took 39, got blocked in with two others being put in those seats! Haha karma! And it also looked like 11B, the middle that was supposed to be right next to me originally got taken. So it turned out this was going to be a great flight after all!
The person behind me in row 29 ended up with a whole row to themselves!
Additionally, my seat offered a nice view of the wing!
The Flight
At 8:02, the captain came on to announce our flight time of 4 hours 22 minutes, for a scheduled perfectly on time arrival.
At 8:08, the safety demonstration began.
We pushed back right on time at 8:15.
At 8:27, we were lining up on Runway 25R, and began our takeoff roll. One thing that I love about departing LAX westbound is the view of the beach and Santa Monica on departure.
At 8:32, we reached 10,000 feet, indicating that we were well on our way to Washington.
At 9:11, snacks were offered. As a 1K, I receive a free snack box and alcoholic drink in economy, so I went with the takeoff box, and some red wine. When the flight attendant handed me my wine, she said “Mr. Shivpilot14, thank you for your loyalty!” Which was a nice touch.
Just after they handed my box, the captain came on and said “flight attendants, take your jump seats!” And the turbulence got pretty rough but it wasn’t too bad. It didn’t last more than 10 minutes.
Inside of the box were some delicious hickory smoked almonds, some Italian breadsticks, some cream crackers, a fig spread, a gouda spread, some beef salami, some Mediterranean Apricots, and a mini Toblerone. Everything was tasty, and I’d recommend this box.
The Just Enough Cabernet Sauvignon was decent. I don’t know much about wine, and I’m no expert though by any means, but it was pretty good and it was a generous serving size.
United doesn’t have IFE screens on their 757-300s. But you can use their personal device entertainment feature through the United app. It has a smaller selection of movies than I expected- but still about 30 or so. I watched Mission: Impossible- Dead Reckoning Part 1.
At 9:52, the flight attendants came through collecting any trash that needed to be discarded, and I settled in to just relax for the remainder of the flight.
The seat itself is slim, but with me being 5 foot 6 inches, I noticed that the legroom was decent, even with having my bag under the seat in front of me.
Of course, I was able to move my bag, as my seat mate and I shared the space with the empty middle seat in between, so I was able to stretch my legs a bit.
I fell asleep for a bit, almost 2 hours.
Just after I woke up, at 2:41 pm local time in Washington, the crew came around with a second beverage service. I went with a Coke Zero. This is rare on a domestic flight in economy.
Descent and Arrival
At 3:15, the captain came on to announce that we had begun our initial descent and that we would be landing in about 30 minutes, which meant we would likely have an early arrival.
We touched down on Runway 19R at 3:43 pm, and began our taxi to the gate thereafter.
We parked at gate D21 at 3:51 for a fairly early arrival.
I find it interesting that you say a second drink service is rare in Economy on a long flight ~ AS basically does this on every long flight I have ever taken with them, with some flights (think FLL-SEA) I have even seen them do 3. Exactly why they are just that good.
Yeah, I've never flown Alaska on anything more than 35 minutes 😂 On United, Delta, and AA, it's rare. It almost never happens.