The Lounge- UNITED CLUB E GATES SFO
I arrived on a connecting flight, and didn’t have a lot of time to use the United Club at SFO. Especially considering that my flight arrived in at the G gates and it was about a 20 minute walk to the D gates.
United has a few clubs at SFO, and although I love the classic look of the F club, the E club was the closest to my gate.
The club was small, and was fairly full when I arrived. There were actually no seats left that offered me the chance to charge my phone, so I had to sit up at the bar which offered some power outlets.
The food situation isn’t great. The had bbq pork and some sandwiches along with some tortilla chips, salsa, and some brownies and a delicious lemon and blueberry coffee cake. But that’s it. This is pretty standard for United clubs but doesn’t match the food selections at the ORD C club or the EWR C club.
While sitting at the bar, the bartender never even greeted me or any of the other guests. He just stood there, cleaning and eating something? It was strange. I would’ve asked him for a drink but seeing him eating threw me off from that.
When another guest walked up and asked for water, he simply just pointed in the direction of the water, he didn’t say a word. Not the experience that you hope for in a lounge.
I heard several people say, “should we just eat at a restaurant instead?” Or “let’s try a different club.” This is also pretty normal, but what’s not normal is to hear multiple people say that.
This United Club at SFO is definitely a disappointment and I wasn’t looking forward to staying there any longer than I had to. I wasn’t expecting it to be of the standard of an international first or business class lounge, but the service was just bad. I mean, really bad.
BOARDING, THE CABIN, AND SEAT
I left the lounge about 15 minutes before my 12:15 boarding time. It’s about a 7 minute walk from the United club in E to the D gates, so allow yourself some time. I arrived with about 5 minutes to spare before boarding started.
Boarding began right on time at 12:15, and I preboarded with the 1Ks. Once onboard I was surprised to find that this aircraft was one of the older 737s with the directv screens when the amenities section on the United app didn’t state that. It didn’t matter, I was going to be spending most of this flight looking out the window anyways at the views of the pacific coast! That’s why I booked a window seat.
The 737-900 in First class is arranged in a 2-2 configuration. The seat features 37 inches of pitch, 5 inches of recline, and 20 inches of width.
And the seat features two-three windows depending on how you view of the one at the back of the seat is yours or not.
This was an old pre-merger Continental 737-900 meaning that it had the Old DirecTV seatback IFE.
The right armrest houses the tray table. The left armrest has the directv controls, and features the universal power outlet.
I know these old pre-merger Continental seats look tired, but they are super comfortable. They are so well padded and plush. I’ve had longer flights on these where I’ve easily fallen asleep and remained comfortable.
The Flight
At 12:27, the flight attendant came around to offer a pre departure beverage of water or sparkling wine. I decided to go with sparkling wine in order to change up my routine. Also, I figured, when departing Northern California, why not?
At 12:49, the boarding door closed and the safety video began to play.
We began our pushback at 12:53.
At 1:04, we lined up and started our takeoff roll down runway 1L.
At 1:09, we reached 10,000 feet indicating we were well on our way to Los Angeles. I was able to get a view of the coast and take some pictures.
Immediately after that, the flight attendant came by to offer us something to drink. I went with a glass of red wine.
At 1:17, my wine arrived.
At 1:21, they came around with a snack basket. I chose some dots pretzels.
I settled in to enjoy the views, this is truly the best IFE on this flight! The views today were just excellent!
At 1:26, the captain came on to announce that we reached our cruising altitude of 35,000 feet and that we would be beginning our descent in about 15 minutes.
At this time the flight attendant came around and I think I misheard her. I thought she pointed at my glass and asked if she could take it. To which, I replied, “Yes, please! Thank you!”
A minute later, she brought me another glass of wine. I then realized she asked if I wanted another!
At 1:35, she came around AGAIN to ask if I wanted more wine! I declined but the service was truly excellent!
At 1:39, we began our final approach into LAX.
At 1:47, we were flying downwind of LAX.
At 1:55, we touched down on a rare runway 24R. This is quite rare for United, as every flight I’ve ever flown with United into LAX in the past had landed on one of the 25 runways.
We taxied to the gate and parked at gate 71B at 2:09 pm.
