SYD to Alaska in UA First to see the bears

[RooFlyer]

Part 1 SYD to ANC with UA

I decided to cash out of the Air Canada Aeroplan FF scheme and chose a trip to Alaska to see the bears up close and personal at Brooks Falls, Katmai National Park (that’s the mainland start of the Aleutian island chain). Using the AC rewards engine, my miles very nicely got me a First Class journey on United all the way to Anchorage and back. Never gone F on United, so was looking forward to it, but with only modest expectations.

At SYD, check in was easy until I enquired about using the SQ F lounge. Absolutely not, I was told (politely) – had to be the ANZ Koru Club. SQ lounge off limits except to SQ pax.

Well of course I had to ask anyway at the lounge and yes, was admitted to the SQ F lounge without much trouble. It’s a nice little lounge, reviewed in more detail here: SQ F lounge at SYD

Only 2 of us in the lounge (seats about 35), so it made for a nice quiet break to do last minute e-mailing, charge things up and have a light snack. Food offerings weren’t quite ‘premium’ but the yum cha at least was quite tasty. Champagne was Piper Heidsieck ‘Blue Top’ and wines were Aussie.


I believe this lounge is now closed for renovations.

Onwards to UA 870 departing at 2:45pm; its a 747. No greeting when boarding just a silent point forward. I really like the seat – comfortable to sit on, TV mounted straight in front, and HEAPS of storage space around you both in bins and on shelves. Two pillows. Pre departure Champagne served in .. what’s this? A plastic cup!! You are kidding, right?



The service and attitude of the UA First cabin crew throughout the flight was very average. About what you might get from QFi Y. There was no attempt to engage with the pax, no recognition of status etc. Zilch. The amenities kit on the other hand was really good; much more extensive than the current QF F kit, although the container isn’t as fancy. The two F toilets are just standard toilets; no extra space.


Dinner is served after leveling off. I chose the lamb and it was quite nice without being spectacular. Possibly business class standard for the likes of QFi, SQ and the like.

The bed is made up with a mattress overlay and I found it quite comfortable, with OK width and elbow room and I got more than the couple of hours sleep I get on QF skybeds. During the night I enquired of the FAs if the cabin was a bit warm – they checked and said they had turned it down 4 degrees (F I assume).

Breakfast before landing in SFO I thought was pretty good. Poached eggs and bacon, fruit, croissant and yoghurt.


Overall, I’m glad I wasn’t paying F price for this trip. In some ways it was better than QF J, some ways about equal and definitely not a patch on QF First. But as a freebie trip, with the low taxes etc that UA charge, it was perfectly satisfactory. More about crews in the return leg (below).

UA SFO Arrivals lounge and onto Anchorage
On arrival I used the UA Arrivals lounge at SFO to freshen up before heading into the city for a little shopping and a good long walk around before the evening flight. The arrivals lounge is pretty good – decent breakfast selection, quiet, good showers and a great amenity kit.


The UA lounge at SFO departures is, like most USA domestic lounges not terribly appealing and I didn’t spend much time there. In to F on US1257 (an A320) to Anchorage (ANC). This is just the equivalent of a business class service of course; we were served a snack of cold cuts which was just OK. On approach to ANC, we flew over scenic mountains and fjords as the sun set, at 11:30pm.

 

[RooFlyer]

Part 2 Bear viewing at Katmai National Park (Brooks Falls)

After a day acclimatizing in Anchorage, I was on the 80 minute Pen Air morning flight from Anchorage to King Salmon, the stepping off town for Katmai National Park, flying low over spectacular mountains and glaciers. King Salmon is a good fishing town, but a dive overall. Then it was a 10 seater twin Otter float plane for the 20 minute trip to Brooks Camp, in the Katmai National Park.


Left: Penn Air at ANC Right: On the flight from Anchorage to King Salmon.

So then there were 2 days in glorious weather – mid 20s, sunny and little breeze - to watch the bears. The bears are completely wild and their interactions are well managed by the park rangers. Except at the viewing platforms, bears and people share the same space (including the pedestrian bridge, on occasion!). You get a 20 minute bear induction at the start. If a bear is walking towards you on a trail, stand still and avoid eye contact. If it keeps coming, slowly move off the trail and let it pass!! Don’t worry, we are told, the bears are well fed off the salmon, which are running. Hope so!

And so it was. There are 3 main viewing areas where elevated stands give perfect views to the bears as they fished for salmon and trout in the falls and river, played with their cubs, swam, and generally played around. From the viewing platforms, the bears can be as close as 2 m away if they are walking along the shore, but generally 50-100 m away when they are fishing or swimming. At a bridge on the main trail, bears frequent the paths next to the crossing, so rangers shepherd people back and forward again if the bears are using the paths. The bridge gets closed frequently when the bears choose to wander by, under or on it. One bear in particular was simply a ‘media tart’ and just walked, fished, swam, chased birds and generally performed right in front of the viewing platforms for hours at a time.





Anyway, after 2 days it was time to leave, so it was the twin otter back to King Salmon and Pen Air back to Anchorage. There I stayed at the Captain Cook Hotel. A grand old Dame of Anchorage, and like old dames in general, expensive and tarted up, but probably not good value.

Hmmm not quite sure why the pics are behaving differently from one another ...

 

[RooFlyer]

Part 3 Kenai National Park fjord cruise and whale watching

After the bears, friends and I hired a car to go to Seward, a fishing / cruise base town a couple of hours SE of Anchorage and took a day long cruise out to the fjords to see some tidewater glaciers and wildlife. At one time we had 10 whales jumping, blowing, fin slapping and diving around and under our boat. Then there were the otters, a single bald eagle, dolphins, sea lions etc etc. All surrounded by rugged and mostly ice capped mountains. After a foggy start, again, perfect weather.

We cruised up to the North West Glacier and just sat there at its toe, silence broken only by cracks as chunks of ice calved off.

 

[RooFlyer]

More from the fjord / glacier cruise



Seward is a major fishing charter town. I regret to say that this wasn't my catch of halibut!

 

[VPS]

Fantastic photos - looks great

 

[amaroo]

What a great trip - pretty envious!

 

[vitagen]

What an adventure. I would never have thought to visit, but definently worth considering for my next trio to north america!

UA first looks really average

 

[amaroo]

What an adventure. I would never have thought to visit, but definently worth considering for my next trio to north america!

UA first looks really average

I looked at it a couple of weeks ago.....after seeing return flights LAX-ANC was around $7k in whY for the 4 of us - I looked no further.

 

[RooFlyer]

Part 4 SFO to SYD

Its US Air First (AK Business) to Phoenix as a red eye and then onto SFO also on US Air.

The UA First Lounge at SFO was a pleasant surprise. See a review here: SFO UA First lounge



That said, I might have been a bit generous as my expectations were low. There was no hot food offering and as I noted, after the German flights left, the cold food wasn’t refreshed at all. Anyway, I spent 4 hours there and it was quite comfortable.

Finally the boarding call to UA863 back to SYD. The boarding area was a zoo, but there was some form of priority boarding accomplished. The greeting at the plane door this time was "Do you know where you are going?" I didn't quite get out "Sydney I hope!" before I walked past.

In First, again the plastic cup of Champagne - the menu tells me it was Deutz Extra Aged brut 2000 but in the plastic cup it could be sparkling Cold Duck.

Dinner was served soon after level off.



In memory of my recent Alaskan adventure, I chose the Salmon with lump crabmeat. It appeared to lack the promised Beurre blanc sauce, so I asked for some "That's how it comes" was the reply. The meal was dry and unappetizing and I left most of it. Fortunately I had a number of the lounge sushi and jumbo prawns, so I turned in not hungry.

Again, I found the bed to be pretty good, and I got more sleep than I usually do on the QF skybeds. Breakfast was served about 90 minutes out of SYD. I chose the Swiss cheese omelette and like the trip over, breakfast wasn't bad, but not quite excellent.



While I was pouring milk into my tea, the "senior" FA accidently tipped the tea pot so that it started pouring tea out; I of course quickly pointed this out to the FA and he righted the pot and said "Oh, sorry.". Fortunately it only went onto the blanket that was around my feet, so no harm done. I was a bit surprised however (to say the least) when the FA made no move to clean things up. He merely moved onto the next pax. At this, I put my breakfast aside, went to the galley to get some paper towels and mopped up the excess liquid myself.

That pretty well summed up the two FAs in First on this trip. They were both 'senior', and neither showed the slightest interest in their passengers. No friendliness or warmth; no greeting at any time etc etc. Just did the job. Threads on other UA forums tend to say that this isn't unusual. Absolutely extraordinary. For this First rubbish UA would charge you almost A$20,000 round trip !!!!!

Anyway, fortunately for most of the trip it was sleeping / watching the IFE so the FAs attitude didn't spoil the journey, but if I was paying for First, rather than my points freebie, I would have been pretty pixxed off.

Except for the fact that I found the UA bed pretty good, and that's an important component, I'd be rating UA's First below Qantas' J.

But if you can, go and see the bears at Katmai; rather than suffer United in any class, you can easily get to Anchorage on Air Canada (via YVR) or combinations of Qantas, Alaskan and even via Asia on Cathay at least.

 

[RooFlyer]

Some pics which wouldn't load above.

 

[RB]

Thanks for the report. I loved Alaska when we visited & the people know how to enjoy themselves when not working

 

[MH_fan]

Great trip report and fantastic pcs! The FAs on a flight can make such a big difference to the flight experience. If one is flying on long-haul first class, this kind of in-flight service is simply unforgivable!

 

[jakeau]

Amazing photos - It's on my list.

 

[Fifa]

Thanks for the TR.
Love the pics of the bears.
We are flying UA F twice in October - FRA-SFO and SEA-NRT.
I'm pleased you found the beds comfortable. Like you I am prepared for average service so I don't have high expectations.

 

[RooFlyer]

Thanks for the comments re pics It was just a little hand-held Sony job with a 10X optical lens (16x digital)

But all around me were cameras where the lenses were measured by the foot!! Real pro/enthusiast territory. This was one of the more modest ones.

 

[smit0847]

It's almost comical just how bad the service is on UA. Does the airline just not care about customer service?

Can you imagine VA or SQ spilling a pot of tea on your table and blanket and simply moving onto the next person? I accidentally spilt a mocktail on myself in VA dom J a few months ago and the CSM immediately sprung into action taking me into the forward galley, closing the curtain for privacy and using soda water and a clean cloth to spot clean my jeans. She was brilliant.

 

[Jim Walsh]

They say United change flight attendants mid trip - they fly in on their broomsticks

Its an insult they send 20 year old planes with no IFE

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Thanks for the TR.
Love the pics of the bears.
We are flying UA F twice in October - FRA-SFO and SEA-NRT.
I'm pleased you found the beds comfortable. Like you I am prepared for average service so I don't have high expectations.

i don't think there are many people who would challenge the assertion that UA's hardware in first class is up there with the best. the seats are very comfortable and I sleep soundly on them. their IFE is also good.

service can be a bit hit and miss. but I'm running at 50-50 on qantas for bad service, and I have yet to experience a bad (other than mediocre) flight on UA. they serve you a drink, bring your meal, make up your bed for you and wake you up in the morning with breakfast and a hot towel. for me that's all I need.

as for beverage service before departure, I don't know the procedure in first but iirc in business they serve a sparkling wine rather than champagne (switching after take off). according to airliners.net, the reason why some US carriers choose plastic is to give passengers longer to enjoy their drinks... it is apparently an FAA requirement that all galleys must be secured before pushback. service carts must be closed and stowed. so plastic (thrown out) was an option which some airlines decided to follow.

 

[RooFlyer]

<snip> it is apparently an FAA requirement that all galleys must be secured before pushback. service carts must be closed and stowed. so plastic (thrown out) was an option which some airlines decided to follow.

Sounded an interesting and plausible explanation; thanks. I found this was debated on FlyerTalk too, but no 'conclusion' reached (surprise ).

Then I found this : FAA Cabin Safety Subject index of May 2013

... which contains, under 8900.1 'stowage of galley service items" :

Section 121.577 of the Federal Aviation Regulations (FAR) prohibits a certificate holder from movement on the surface, taking off, or landing an airplane when any food, beverage, or tableware, furnished by the certificate holder, is located at any passenger seat. In an emergency situation requiring evacuation, litter from food service of any kind (including coffee and rolls) can be hazardous due to poor footing. Accordingly, FAR Section 121.577 prohibits serving of any food or beverage, regardless of type of containers used, during movement of the surface, takeoff, and landing. In addition, any food item or container which the passenger carries on board the aircraft would be considered carry-on baggage and must be properly stowed in accordance with FAR Section 121.589 for movement on the surface, takeoff, and landing.

I MAY have quoted this out of context (there's a bunch of stuff in the FAA index), but it appears that plastic or glass containers would be under the same rule; although plastic would allow slightly more time for service, as they would just be tossed in the bin after collection.

I seem to remember that the plastic cups on my recent flights were collected during taxi, not before pushback, but I might be mistaken.

 

[boomy]

Lovely report, great photos.
Another destination added to my long list.