BACKGROUND:
For my trip to Washington D.C. to attend the BAcon conference last month, I had to find a flight to the D.C. area so I booked a United non-stop from Los Angeles to Baltimore as it was the cheapest. And, United Mileage Plus gave me a Economy Plus Subscription trial until the end of the year so that sealed the deal.
AT THE AIRPORT:
The whole United check-in area is under renovation at LAX which is a bit of a mess, but thankfully the TSA lines were not too bad. I love United’s terminal 7 at LAX because is connected to Terminal 6 and 5 for more food variety options. Terminal 6 is my favorite as it has The Habit and a Wahoo’s!
FLIGHT DETAILS:
United Airlines Flight 122
Los Angeles (LAX) to Baltimore (BWI)
Seat: 9F- Economy Plus
Aircraft: Boeing 737-900
Scheduled Departure: 8:15 AM
Actual Departure: On- Time
Scheduled Arrival: 4:09 PM
Actual Arrival: On- Time
THE FLIGHT:
BOARDING+FIRST IMPRESSIONS
Boarding was swift, and I was in row 9, sitting in Econ Plus. The plane was quite outdated, with the infamous United cloth seats on their older aircraft. The atmosphere was quite dreary, with the ceiling panels seeing better days. The legroom was quite good, as I would expect for Economy Plus. The extra 4 inches of pitch is really nice to stretch your legs!
IN FLIGHT-ENTERTAINMENT
Well considering how old this aircraft looked, I was pleasantly surprised to see that there was seat-back entertainment on this plane.
Score!!
Well, no actually, not a score. In fact, the entertainment wasn’t included. Unlike Delta and American who both offer their entertainment free, United doesn’t on DIRECTV enabled planes such as this one. C’mon United….
DIRECTV + Hit Movies cost $5.99 on flights 2 hours or less, and $7.99 on flights over two hours (like mine). Nickle and dime much?
The screen that I ended up not using at all.
Wifi was offered on this flight. It was interesting as you could use Mileage Plus miles to buy internet access. The costs were: 1hr- $4.99 or 670 miles, 2hr- $8.99 or 1,210 miles, or Full Flight for $12.99 or 1,750 miles.
So, if you value each Mileage Plus mile at $0.007, knock yourself out and use miles to buy wifi.
Please don’t, actually. I was kidding. Mileage Plus miles aren’t worth that little. For example, a one way in the continental US is 12,500 miles— so if you value a Los Angeles to New York flight at about $150 one way (conservatively speaking) your miles are worth at least $0.012 each. But of course, if your miles are expiring and you don’t travel much, you might as well use them. (or if you want to “reset” the expiration date of your miles so they are valid for another 18 months 🙂 ).
IN- FLIGHT SERVICE
Well okay, the flight attendants were pretty darn sassy on this flight. Must have not gotten enough sleep on a 8 AM morning flight. One passenger next to me tried to hand trash over to one of the attendant with the trash bag and she yelled at him because she wasn’t “ready”. He then just waited and then she scolded, “OK I’m ready now!” Not the friendliest…
On the other hand, they had two beverage services! And one of the nicer attendants offered the whole can on the first beverage service.
My favorite- Ginger Ale with Cranberry Juice!
The Verdict:
The flight was pretty smooth, and got us to Baltimore right on time. Not a bad way to get from point A to point B, but nothing to rave about. I don’t really love the old seat cushions though. I did get a newer refreshed 737-900 on the way home from DC, review on that coming next week 🙂
Cheers,
theresorttraveler
