Returned from a trip to London, Istanbul and Berlin last week and thought I would share some flying experiences. I should know better by now but this trip included more flights than I should have but I needed to be in London on two separate days separated by 5 days and we were making our flight and points total to keep our Gold Star alliance status.
Booked with miles (130,000) as it was cheaper than cash. Flew SMF in Economy plus Exit row late evening 2150 so I could work the whole day than leave with arrival EWR about 0600 with connection to LHR at about 0830 premium economy. Have done this about every year for about 5- 6 years and it adds a day to our trip and so far we have not had any weather or any problems with this connection. (Also better than driving 2 + hours to SFO) Arrival LHR at 2030 and as the electric gates were working it took about a minute to go through immigration. It has always been easy so I suspect at least for terminal 2 this time period is good. When we leave for other parts of Europe there is a decent Hilton a short walk from the terminal and we just crash and take the next flight in the morning to our eventual destination and arrive rested.
We used the United Excursion benefit to score free business class seating to Istanbul from Gatwick. Upon arrival to Gatwick we were told that we did not have free baggage and were charged 270 pounds which we paid. United has given us $150 for future flight credits but I may file for more reimbursement. Flight to Istanbul was an uneventful 4 hours and business seats were similar to US domestic first class seats. No lay flat. Typical nondescript champagne upon boarding. Turkish breakfast was rather tasty. The new Istanbul airport is huge. We must have walked 25 minutes to get to immigration. No people movers. A friend of mine flew out of this airport earlier this year and he walked his wife to her departure gate then walked to his departure gate in a different terminal to a different destination and almost missed his flight. He claims it was 8000 steps
Flying back to LHR was in Turkish economy. Stopped at the Star alliance lounge for a short break and it is huge with multiple small kitchens. Food looked pretty decent, certainly better than any domestic United lounge. Flight was uneventful. Economy crowded. Pitch was probably something like 28 inches. Bearable for 4 hours. Arrived LHR Terminal 2 at about 2100 hours and immigration again a breeze.
Departed for Berlin a few days later on Lufthanza with connection FRA. Made a bid to upgrade to business for about $80 a person which was accepted. Lufthanza Europe business class is like Latam business class. Same seats as in economy but you have the middle seat free. Do not think it's worth it for such a short flight as we get fast track security anyway and little snack or meal is not worth it.
Flew home business class Air Baltic to Zurich but you do not check in with Air Baltic and they directed us to Lufthanza. Flight was similar to our previous Lufthanza flight.
Spent an hour in the Senator Swiss lounge which was less crowded than the business lounge due to our Gold status. Interesting whisky bar. Too bad I do not drink whisky.
Swiss business class to IAD was not crowded at all. In comparison to Polaris it is much more open although less private than the cubbyhole that is Polaris. More room for the legs and feet. Sometimes in Polaris i feel like being in a mummy sleeping bag. Drinks and food a definite step up from United. Started with a decent glass of champagne and dinner served with a decent 2016 bordeaux followed by Remy VSOP. Unfortunately no sundae like Polaris for dessert.
Two hour connection at IAD and economy plus exit seats for flight back to SMF. Did not have to retrieve our bags and go through customs. Did go through immigration which was easy with Global entry. Total flight time from Berlin to SMF was about 20 hours which I thought was pretty good and all went smoothly.

Paragraph breaks would make this much easier to read.

^^^ this

I'll try after I've had my coffee but this is hard to slog through

Got it

Quite a trek. Thanks for the report. Curious why you didn't need to retrieve your bags/Customs/recheck at Dulles??

Thanks for the info. We fly out of SMF when we can and SFO when the savings make it worth it. However, like you, I'm all for skipping that drive down 80/101.

We flew Swiss PE to Zurich earlier this year and were disappointed. Glad to business class is so much better.

I'm in the Sacramento area too. I used to do the I-80 slog to SFO and stay the night on the peninsula - usually at a 'park-n-fly' hotel. But I haven't done that in probably 15+ years. Not just the nasty drive and extra expense - there is often a hold up on the Causeway or in Fairfield - one day last week it was more an hour just to get to Davis. For destinations that don't have direct flights out of here I park at SMF and fly to a 'hub' -- LAX, DFW, SEA, ORD, DEN etc etc. Sitting in Vino Volo for 45 mins is a heck of a lot better start to a vacation than sitting in traffic in Vacaville or Vallejo

Ohhh yeah.

That issue with Turkish charging baggage fees for business class on United (and other Star Alliance) tickets has been going on for quite awhile. I've seen posts about it here, and numerous posts on Flyertalk. One reason I've been cautious about booking with TK (although we don't often check bags). We last flew TK about 15 years ago, and our bags took an extended 24-day vacation in Istanbul.

The SWISS Senator lounge at ZRH is one of our favorites. I don't drink whisky either, but that bar looks very inviting. We only ever seem to be there early in the morning.

Sorry about no paragraph breaks. A result of staying up too late as I am still trying to reorient to my time zone. This seems to get harder and harder as I get older.
No ideas as to why we did not have to pick up our bags in Dulles and transfer them past customs. It was a first for us but there was a customs official just waving us on.
A pilot friend of mine told me that they do a lot of screening with dogs and Xray machines as the baggage comes in so maybe they do not need to do it anymore?
We fly internationally out of SMF or SFO. Depends on the difference in airfare and the difficulty of getting to our final destination and back. If you are buying 4 tickets a cost difference of $300 each would probably have me driving to SFO. I do not like flying small planes for a connection at SFO. These are the flights that can often be quite delayed. I once had a 3 1/2 hour connection at SFO and missed the flight to NRT and had to sit in the back in a middle seat.
Tend to fly out of SFO going to Asia, sometimes with an overnight stay near SFO. Can sometimes get a good hotel deal. Going to Japan last year we stayed at the Westin for about $225 with 2 weeks of free parking.

Oh - to clarify i never (ever) fly from SMF into SFO. For Asia I've connected via SEA and LAX. Either on one ticket or worst case separate tix using Southwest or Alaska. For Europe I've connected through LAX/DFW/SEA (my favorites) plus PHX, ORD, LAS and others. Flying to SFO wouldn't make sense IME.

It is interesting to read about the Turkish air problem using United miles. Did some reading and see we were not the first to have this issue about being charged for luggage. Should have pleaded our Gold star alliance status. In any case we did get two close to free business class tickets LGW to IST using the United excursionist benefit. After reading the Points guy article today on the perk makes me wonder how we managed this as you are supposed to be in the same class of seats as your previous seats which were premium economy. I have just decided to look at it as two 4 hour business class seats from London to Istanbul for about $100 each.