Review of United flight from Washington to Houston in Domestic First

With the "business" part of my business trip done, it was time to meet my wife and family in Houston to get ready to board our cruise the next day.

BOOKING

This was the second of two flights I booked as part of an open-jaw itinerary beginning in Dallas/Fort Worth. The total for the entire journey was $633, including the bargain-basement $104 upgrade to First Class for the entire trip.

CHECK-IN/AIRPORT

As with my outbound flight, I was able to conveniently skip the check-in counter thanks to a mobile boarding pass and a carry-on bag. Washington's Dulles airport is the larger of the two primary Washington, D.C. airports and handles the majority of international flights (apart from a handful of pre-cleared flights from Canada). It has one large check-in terminal which serves all airlines, and four concourses lettered A through D. Concourses A-C are connected to the main terminal via an underground train, while Concourse D requires you to ride everyone's favorite moon buggy vehicles:

For the longest time, Dulles was isolated from Washington's metro network, instead requiring travelers to take a bus to a metro station several miles away. However, the Silver Line was finally extended to IAD at the end of 2022, meaning you can now take a train straight from the heart of D.C. to Dulles Airport. If you'd prefer to drive, the Dulles Access Road is a free limited-access road which only serves airport traffic, so you'll usually be able to avoid traffic leaving the district during the day.

BOARDING

United First doesn't include lounge access by itself. I was running a bit short on time anyway, so I skipped the Capital One lounge and headed straight to gate C28 for my flight. Today's aircraft was N69829, a 10-year-old Boeing 737-900ER.

As I mentioned in my previous post, United allows their Premier 1K elite members to board prior to First Class. On this flight between two hubs, this meant around 25% of the plane boarded before us. After a few minutes, the pre-boarding group had cleared out and I was on my way down the jet bridge.

My seat today was 3F, a window seat on the right side of the airport.

This cabin is definitely on the older side, but this meant the seats were more padded than I've come to expect from modern airline seats. The overhead bins were on the tighter side, and did not support laying bags vertically. However, the 5-row First Class cabin meant that there was plenty of room for us to stow our bags.

The seat itself was very comfortable, but suffered from a lack of storage space. The seatback only had one small literature pocket, and there were no cubbies or compartments to speak of. This brings up an issue I've noticed with United over the years–they are by far the worst of the major US airlines when it comes to the consistency of their aircraft interiors. Sometimes it seems like no two cabins are the same, and the amenities from one flight to the next can vary wildly. I know that they have a large effort in-progress to modernize their fleet, but the fact of the matter is that they're far behind American and Delta in terms of onboard consistency.

As boarding tapered off, the flight attendant went through the cabin to offer either water or sparkling wine. I'm used to being able to order from the full beverage menu in domestic first class, but I can appreciate the relative speed of having a limited selection. The door was closed at 5:26 (a few minutes early) and we were quickly on our way.

IN-FLIGHT

Once the aircraft passed 10,000 feet, the flight attendant came through the cabin to confirm our meal and drink orders. Clearly I learned nothing from Airplane!, as I ordered the fish–specifically, the "Maryland blue crab cakes". This was listed in the app as the "Dulles Signature Dish", and was available by pre-order only.

I noticed that the traytable was extremely loose when I took it out–it had clearly seen too many years of use. It was also fairly small when considering that it's a first class seat. Fortunately though it had plenty of extension length, unlike my previous flight a few days before.

The flight attendant brought our drinks and a dish of nuts about 28 minutes after takeoff. I was a bit surprised that the nuts were room-temperature.

Our meal was brought out around 41 minutes after takeoff. The roll was warmed and tasted pretty good. The crab cakes don't look super appetizing, but don't let that fool you–they're very good, and I'd highly recommend them if you're departing from IAD. They were moist and very flavorful. This was one of the more unique first class meals I've had domestically and it was very well executed. 

On a side note, why do airlines insist on making salads out of dandelions?

After clearing the dinner dishes, the cabin crew passed through the cabin around every 20 minutes and checked on refills. This was very appreciated and a nice change from my previous flight.

Before long, we were descending into Houston. Unseasonably warm weather led to a strong jet stream and a landing nearly 40 minutes ahead of schedule. However, this meant we had to sit on the ground for almost 20 minutes to wait for the previous aircraft to free up our gate.

Unfortunately, the worst part of my experience by far took place after our arrival. Houston's rideshare pickup is located in the bottom floor of a parking garage, with only one lane in and one lane out. On top of this, there's no cell signal, so I found myself waiting over thirty minutes for an Uber that I couldn't tell how far away it was. Use caution if you're flying into IAH, as it took me quite a while to make my way to my hotel.

VERDICT

United's soft product was the highlight of this experience. Our cabin crew was friendly and attentive, and the in-flight meal was outstanding. The cabin on this aircraft has definitely seen a lot of use, and there are some "creature comforts" that are missing from a configuration this old. Booking a first class seat on United is a gamble these days–you may get a modern cabin with new IFE screens, or you may get this–a middling seat with a great service.