There’s something wonderfully reassuring about knowing exactly what’s happening when you fly.
And on my recent United Airlines journey from Sydney to Anchorage, communication was one of the things that impressed me most.
Every step was heralded by a helpful WhatsApp message: Pre-check in, check-in, pre-boarding, boarding.
The whole process felt brilliantly coordinated, with timely, intuitive updates appearing exactly when I needed them.
I’m an experienced flyer, but I appreciated the extra reassurance. If nothing else, it meant I could relax and have another Chardonnay without constantly checking the departure board.
Sadly, my return journey from Vancouver didn’t quite follow the same script.
Houston, we have a communication problem!
Twenty-four hours before departure, the obligatory United WhatsApp check-in message arrived while I was exploring Vancouver’s Capilano Suspension Bridge.
I dutifully waited until I’d reached the less wobbly end, checked in and downloaded my boarding passes for Vancouver–San Francisco and the onward flight to Sydney.
Excellent. Treetop Walk, here I come.
Then my phone pinged again. United was informing me that my group would be called for boarding shortly.
Interesting, I thought, considering I was currently high in the Canadian treetops and wasn’t supposed to be taking off for another 24 hours.
I put it down to a glitch.
My partner, however, was having trouble checking in. “Don’t worry,” I confidently told him. “I think they’re having problems with the system.”
Famous last words.
We enjoyed a fabulous final night in Vancouver, lamenting that a long weekend simply hadn’t been long enough.
As it turned out, it was almost about to become longer.
The following morning my partner was still receiving strange messages about his booking, so he called United.
Two-and-a-half extremely stressful hours later, we finally breathed a sigh of relief – but not before some serious pushing on our part.
He was initially told he had changed his ticket to Tuesday, September 8. He most certainly had not.
Then came my bombshell: apparently I had missed my flight the previous day, had been recorded as a no-show and would need to purchase another ticket.
Do you know who I am?
I say that entirely tongue-in-cheek – I have zero tickets on myself – but explaining that I was a travel journalist who would be reviewing the experience may have helped focus attention on finding out exactly what had gone wrong.
Eventually, we were reinstated onto our original flights.
It was a long weekend in Vancouver and our first sector to San Francisco appeared extremely busy. Whatever had happened behind the scenes, it was certainly a communications cock-up of fairly impressive proportions.
Thankfully, things improved dramatically from there.
Up, up, and away – finally
Flight: United UA863: San Francisco to Sydney
Aircraft: Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner
Cabin: Economy Plus
Seat: 33C
Flying time: Around 14 hours
First, a shout-out to San Francisco International Airport.
It’s a terrific airport to transit through: easy signage, decent shops and, most importantly after the morning we’d had, excellent fish and chips accompanied by a reasonably priced Chardonnay.
I was in California, after all.
Onboard, my Economy Plus seat delivered an extra six inches of legroom, which makes a very noticeable difference on a 14-hour flight.
The royal-blue leather seat was comfortable, with an adjustable headrest, USB charging and a power outlet.
A refreshing towel on boarding was a nice touch and, even better, the flight wasn’t full.
Then came another delay.
A fuel-tank issue kept us on the ground for around 90 minutes, but eventually we were airborne and heading for Sydney.
Calories at 35,000 feet don’t count
Dinner service followed promptly and the ginger chicken was considerably tastier than it looked. So was the brownie, which I absolutely did not need but consumed purely in the interests of thorough travel journalism.
Obviously.
United’s inflight entertainment deserves a special mention. The selection of movies and television series was one of the best I’ve encountered recently, with enough choice to make 14 hours disappear surprisingly quickly.
I settled into the new HBO series Rooster starring Steve Carell, which proved an excellent find.
The greatest luxury, however, was discovering I had the entire row to myself. Economy Plus suddenly started feeling suspiciously like Flat Bed Minus.
After several hours stretched across the seats, I was luckily awake when the mid-flight snack appeared – and what a snack.
A ranch burger arrived tasting remarkably fresh, with succulent beef, oozing cheese and a soft brioche bun.
Sticking firmly to my long-held belief that calories consumed at altitude don’t count, I polished it off with an English Breakfast tea.
The first tea arrived cold, but flight attendant Nancy couldn’t have been more pleasant when I asked for a hot replacement, which was quickly delivered.
After a few hours of much-needed sleep, breakfast brought pancakes with pineapple, Greek yoghurt and, happily, another excellent cuppa.
THE VERDICT
We touched down in Sydney just over an hour late, greeted by sunny skies.
Despite the extraordinary booking and communication debacle in Vancouver, the actual UA863 flight was excellent.
The food genuinely impressed me, the entertainment was outstanding, the crew were warm and responsive and those extra six inches in Economy Plus made a substantial difference on such a long sector.
The irony is that United’s communication had been one of the standout positives of my outbound journey – and almost derailed the return.
Technology is fabulous when it works. When it starts telling you to board a plane 24 hours early while you’re standing in a Canadian treetop, perhaps it’s time for a little human intervention.
But once onboard?
Economy Plus, I’m a convert.
