andrews98682

Hey everyone,
I'm flying in business class from San Francisco to Sydney in July on a 747 and was wondering how it is. How much more comfortable are the seats? How much better is the food? Entertainment?

ms_go

If you are asking if the seating is more comfortable than economy -- absolutely (if you want to know how it compares to other airlines, sorry I can't help).

Here's a picture of a United BC seat:
http://www.united.com/page/article/0...e=RelatedLinks

It won't go completely flat, but it's fairly close.

There are individual monitors at each seat, with a choice of about eight movies/programs. Choices for July are listed on the United website under inflight services.

On the 747, I like the BC section in the upper deck. There are only about six or seven rows of BC there, and it is fairly quiet. The BC sections on the main row have more foot traffic.

kuranosuke

i like 15a, upper deck, but i think anything in row 15(exit) is good. window seats have storage space besides you. of course, you are flying ua, so don't expect anything but minimum service, but who knows. the bento is the best meal in bus. class. take a shower in the red carpet room in tokyo before you continue your long journey to as.

rkkwan

Non-stop SFO-SYD.

kuranosuke

oops, sry for not reading. very very long flight. they have snacks onboard, but you might think about bring some of your own favorite munchies.

andrews98682

Thanks for the info, everyone.

jlaughs

Hi, sorry if this is a really stupid question, but maybe I'll give a few people a chuckle.

I checked the United website to see what movies will be offered in July. They give little codes next to the movie indicating language. Does this mean the movies are in English with subtitles in these languages? There were no movies with an "English" code next to it.

This is only my second trans-pacific (or any ocean) flight. Of the movies listed, do you get to pick which one(s) you want to see? Or are they listing the possible movies that may be shown? I'm assuming that my daughter and I will be in economy. Economy plus? I don't know. We're booked on a tour to Thailand at the end of July.

Also, off subject, what does the "pitch" of a seat mean?

Thanks!

rkkwan

jlaughs - Which route are you flying? On a 777, you'll have a personal video screen on your economy seat. (No difference between E and E+, in terms of entertainment. It basically about legroom.)

However, when you're flying on an UA 747 in coach (like between Tokyo and Bangkok), you don't have personal video screen, and you'll be watching the movie on a screen in front of the cabin (or from a shared TV monitor), they'll run movies (two between Tokyo and N. America; one between NRT and BKK) and some other programs during your flight, but you don't get to choose.

The letters next to the movie name on UAL.com tells you what audio channel you can watch the movie in. All airline's A/V systems allow you to choose from multiple audio channels. The exception is "C". On those movies, you'll find Chinese subtitles on the screen, but no Chinese audio tracks - at least that's the way I understand it. You always have the choice of an English audio track.

Pitch is the distance between the same point of your seat and the seat in front of you. 31"-32" is standard for coach.

You also cannot book "Economy Plus". It's part of the cabin that United reserves for its premiere Mileage Plus members, as well as those flying high economy fares. [But if you're paying high economy fares, you might as well get business class.] I don't know if UA allows online check-in for its international flight, but your best bet for getting the E+ seats is to ask, and often. Like about 36 hours before flight time, perhaps again 12-24 hours later, and again at the airport.

kuranosuke

jlaughs: the movies are all in english, plus the foreign language that you said is identified by codes. you get to choose and watch all(if time permits) of the movies listed. they run the movies over, and over, and over again. sometimes, the stews are asleep, so you have to wake them up, and asked them to start the movies again so you can watch the next movie. i believe everyone in economy gets their own mini screen so you can watch whatever you want. i like it and i try to watch as many as i can, but beware, if you wake up the stews too often, they might get even more mad and grouchier. i believe pitch means the distance between the seats.

rkkwan

There's no personal video screens in UA's 747 in coach.

On the 777 that do, you'll get about 14 channels of video that run in a loop (usually 2 hours). So, you can technically watch 6 movies in a 13-hour flight. But they are not "AVOD" or A/V on-demand, so you can't pause/rewind/fast-forward. If you miss a particular scene because you were busy choking on your economy food, then you can watch it again 2 hours later.

heretoday

UA biz is okay but stay away from coach. Very uncomfortable and service without a smile. QF and NZ far superior.
I think this may be one of the routes they are going to sell to stay alive.