United asked me to come speak at its commercial leadership team event in Chicago earlier this month. While Iʻm normally skeptical about doing these kinds of things, I was curious enough to hear how United internally presented to its team to make the trip. It was worth it.
I’m sorry to say it was all off the record, but I can share this photo of me in one of my ridiculous Cranky Network Award jackets while talking to United CEO Scott Kirby. Caption this one in the comments…
Though I can’t talk about the event, I can talk about my flights. United was graciously willing to fly me out in First Class. I was hoping to experience the newest United has to offer, but instead I ended up with a retro trip in both directions. Today, I’ll talk about the way out. I never had the chance to fly Continental in First Class, so this was as close as I’ll get.
[Disclosure: United provided flights, hotel, and ground transportation for this event]
I had originally booked my flight out to Chicago on the A321neo. This is Unitedʻs newest aircraft, and itʻs also the one that people seem to rave over the most (domestically). Unfortunately, when I looked a day before travel, it had been downgraded to a 737-900ER. Iʻm not sure if that happened in a schedule change at some point or if it was a late substitution, but this flight seems to bounce around between a ton of different aircraft types by day. Oh well, this meant, no United Next interior for me this time.
I had taken advantage of United’s meal pre-order option online and chose the scrambled eggs for my 8:15am departure. I made sure to put the United app to good use since I only hear positive things about it, and I didn’t really use it except to check in for my trip to Honolulu in September. After playing around with it, I have to agree that it really is the best airline app around. The amount of information available in there and the general functionality is just so good.
I was traveling on Veteran’s Day so it was smooth sailing up to LAX in my rideshare. Then it was gridlock in the horseshoe, mostly because I made the mistake of traveling on a day ending in “y.”
I strolled into the terminal around an hour before departure. The signs were again up everywhere touting the mobile driver license option, so I hoped I would finally put it to good use.
That did not happen. The TSA Precheck line was long, but it moved quickly. When I got to the front, the agent said that the mobile license doesn’t work. WHY DO THEY HAVE ALL THESE SIGNS?!
I made my way back to gate 75A which is wedged into the west side of the terminal and has very little seating. I found a quiet little corner where I could stand and stare out the window at our aircraft. There was a lot of gate lice in the cramped gate area, but since I was in group 1, they weren’t in the way of boarding.
United 2039
November 11, 2024
From Los Angeles
➤ Scheduled Departure: 815a
➤ Actual Departure: 815a
➤ From Gate: 75A
➤ Wheels Up: 827a
➤ From Runway: 25R
To Chicago/O’Hare
➤ Wheels Down: 153p
➤ On Runway: 27R
➤ Scheduled Arrival: 230p
➤ Actual Arrival: 211p
➤ At Gate: E11
Aircraft
➤ Type: Boeing 737-924ER
➤ Delivered: March 24, 2008 (to Continental)
➤ Registered: N37419, msn 31666
➤ Livery: 2019 Blue Globe Colors
Flight
➤ Cabin: First Class in Seat 2A
➤ Load: ~99% Full
➤ Flight Time: 3h26m
Onboard, I grabbed my Clorox wipe from the flight attendant and then realized I was in a time warp. These were some big, bulky, old Continental seats with the DirecTV seat back screens. They still have the credit card swiper there, but I decided not to test and see if someone had installed a skimmer.
The seat looked really comfortable, but it wasn’t. I’m not sure if the padding was just worn or what, but it just didn’t feel quite right. I didn’t notice it after the first few minutes though.
We boarded on time and were ready to go early, but we didn’t move until our exact departure time. The flight attendants had come through with water or orange juice, and then they did a manual safety briefing. I guess these old screens don’t play anything but live TV, but hey, at least they worked.
We were soon airborne, and we pointed toward the northeast for our flight to Chicago. It was a beautiful morning, but there was some light chop on the way up. I was feeling exhausted, so I closed my eyes, but there was a gentle tap on the shoulder a minute later. The flight attendant confirmed that I had ordered the scrambled eggs, and service began.
First, a hot towel was handed out. Then I was brought my first drink of the day… and Aha Blueberry + Pomegranate sparkling water which was a really nice change from the usual sugary sodas.
I opened my tray table to find it busted. It was very wobbly, dipping to the right and moving around loosely whenever I touched it, even lightly. The flight attendant said he’d write that up.
The eggs were fine, the fruit was passable, and the warm roll was good. But the hash browns were mushy and had a weird oily taste. I didn’t eat the rest.
Then it was time to get some work done. Like on American, T-Mobile gets you free wifi access on your phone but not on a laptop. But unlike on American, I didnʻt have to mortgage my house to pay for the service on my computer. It was a completely fair $8.
Streaming wasnʻt going to work at this speed, but it was quick enough for me to get work done. I cranked away while watching Goldfinger on BBC America… until they interrupted us with a credit card pitch. It still feels cheap, no matter who is doing it.
We descended into Chicago from the north, went out over the lake, and then circled south back to the west. It was a somewhat hazy day, but that doesn’t dampen the excitement I get every time I see that gorgeous skyline.
The flight attendant came through the cabin to thank everyone individually for flying United. He didnʻt use names, but it still felt sincere and I appreciated it. Just before landing, I got a glimpse of the behemoth that is O’Hare.
We landed on runway 27R which is the northernmost runway, nearly in Wisconsin. It was an 18-minute taxi until we finally nudged into our gate. The retro theme continued when we parked at an E gate in Terminal 2, the terminal that time forgot. (I particularly love that STAIRWAY sign.)
It’s just as I remembered it from when I worked at United 20 years ago with low ceilings, narrow corridors, and a McDonaldʻs shining like a beacon of familiarity at the base of the Y where concourses E and F split.
The only difference from when I was there is that now that United tends to be a better airline, there aren’t refugees lining the hallways, waiting for flights that will never leave.
I noticed walking out that there are almost no ticket counters in Terminal 2 anymore. Theyʻve largely been removed, presumably since itʻs mostly occupied by United and they want everyone checking in at Terminal 1. But there were still a few hanging around, like for Air Canada.
I found my rideshare out the door and then headed out into traffic on the Kennedy Expressway to go into town. I thought United’s service was great, the food was good, and the seat was ok. I really look forward to trying the A321neo at some point.
The event was at the JW Marriott in the loop, and thatʻs where I stayed. It was an action-packed couple of days, before a different kind of retro experience would bring me home.
67 comments on “A Retro Continental Ride to Chicago (Trip Report)”
You don’t seem to have made a clear choice on the seat comfort : ranges from something’s wrong with the padding to an ok seat !
Well, there was definitely something not quite right, but the big, oversized seat and all that was nice. So I settled on “ok” in the end.
Offtopic to this post, but how’s the Airlines We Lost post for 2024 going along yet? Are LIAT, AIX Connect (nee AirAsia India), Vistara, and Canada Jetlines there yet? If you need ideas on the interesting failures of the year, Wikipedia’s Airlines disestablished in 2024 category and the linked articles could come in handy.
MK03 – Same as every year, I gather along the way and then confirm with ch-aviation at the end of the year. There will be no shortage.
Was kinda thinking about the full blurbs rather than merely listings, since occasionally airlines that deserved full entries only got a Tomb of the Unknown Airline mention (like MYairline last year).
Oh I don’t decide that until the end of the year when I pick and choose the ones with the most interesting stories. Of the ones you mentioned, AIX is probably the least likely to get its own blurb, but maybe it’ll be bunched up with Vistara.
I see. Was wondering about AIX Connect since it was formerly AirAsia India until AirAsia divested, so that was why I thought it was worth getting its own entry. Though of course it will be up to you.
Pretty sure those sausages would have been better if they’d been cooked…
I had the same reaction. They are raw and dangerous. Lawsuit!!!!!
Could have been worse, they could have served fish & we all know what the outcome would have been.
I had the lasagna…
Yes. Ted Stryker would have to fly and land the plane, along with Otto Pilot and Ted’s girlfriend Elaine Dickinson. Remember, Trans American Airlines Flight 209 also flew from Los Angeles to Chicago. :-)
“2019 Blue Globe Colors”
No opinion? No take a la “hot dog on a stick” or “ugly flag?”
emac – Fair question. I like the update a lot. It feels much cleaner and newer than the old Continental colors with the darker blue and gold. If you don’t wan tto completely rebrand and change the visual identity, this was a great way to update things. So, not sure what to call it. “Better Version of Continental”?
We call it the Death Star. Bring back the Tulip!
Somehow I was expecting the jet with retro CO livery.
I was too! Perhaps on the return?
First and foremost – In wearing the jacket I could almost see you holding a long and thin microphone and hosting the Price Is Right around 1979.
Thoughts on the United flight – I truly believe they are definitely using the we are #2 and working harder for you mantra. The app is great, the flight attendants despite being in the middle of a contract negotiation bring hospitality to their jobs, and flights are reliable. Much better than 10 years ago. However they have so many mixed aircraft that are in line for upgrades or replacement the hard product will take a while to standardize. Delta is always working on consistency and American has the most standardized uncomfortable cabin (in coach). Heck with the plans at Southwest, their planes might be standardized before United.
It’s so funny, because we talked about one of those long, thin mics.
Didn’t happen, but those are a lost gem from the old days.
The ghosts of Bob Barker & Gene Rayburn.
Got another one for you regarding your jacket- you are telling Scott that it was made from recycled United seat material.
Gotta be sustainable, you know…
Hawaiian actually did this, though the prices were one offs, not made available for purchase. https://newsroom.hawaiianairlines.com/releases/hawaiian-airlines-partners-with-emerging-designers-to-transform-aircraft-seat-fabric-into-fashion
If memory serves, there were small items like keychains made from MD80s after the Mad Dogs got retired. Bit of a market for avgeeks looking to buy things made from planes/plane parts, similar to how baseball fans will buy pricey things made from game-used bats.
Caption:
United meeting attire reflects new network moves: Newark (Kirby’s look) to somewhere experimental & exotic (Snyder’s jacket).
The new host of match game 79… Brett Snyder!
Are you Johnny Olson?
I’ve been on two flights on UA on the A321neo. Didn’t like it. I prefer the MAX 9.
Did you fly back out of Terminal 2? If you did, I was hoping that you hit the new United Club in F Concourse, where the sad, pathetic Delta (sorry for the redundancy) SkyClub used to be. I haven’t had a flight going out of Terminal 2 since it opened, so I haven’t had the chance to hit it yet. A review would be handy.
Caption: Kirby: “Some guy who calls himself O’Hare Is My Second Home messaged me and told me to tell you to get out of his city. Especially with that jacket.”
No, I flew out of Terminal 1 and didn’t visit any club.
Caption:
“Anyone taller than this will have their knees crushed when the person in front of them reclines.”
Brett,
Did you get a free bowl of soup with that jacket? :-)
Hahaha
Oh, but it looks good on you….
To be fair to United, this is precisely why United announced NEXT – not just to develop a new cabin for its new build aircraft but also to retrofit its older aircraft.
Reality is that UA NEXT is way behind schedule because of supply chain issues including both parts and MRO/maintenance availability.
Many airlines have been forced to hold onto older aircraft putting even more pressure on cabin mods.
United will get there with a fleet with modern interiors but it will take a whole lot more time than they planned and some of the aircraft they planned to refurbish will simply get too old to be worth a further investment by the time mods can be done across the entire fleet.
This is true, but a couple of weeks ago I was on an ancient UA A320 that had been recently retrofitted with the big bins, new seats and the UA Next interior looked very much like the new Boeing Sky scheme on all the new Maxes and older updates. Even though the A320 was physically near 25 years old, the interior looked much better and was clean and bright, very pleasant to experience that update.
The thing that I can’t wait for them to get out of the system are the coach seats from 8-10 years ago with the mesh seatback pocket that will not hold anything larger than a deck of cards…
I haven’t flown on UA in ages, but one not-so-obvious thing that always suggests “newer” to me when I’m flying A32x or B73x series planes are overhead bins that allow for carryons to be put on their sides, instead of their backs… As someone who is usually flying in the back of the plane and in the last boarding group (and thus subject to gate checking carryon bags when overhead bins are full), those larger bins are great to see.
Crankster:
Thank God you missed the A321 Neo. The first class seats have marginally more legroom than coach, except for Row 1. I’ve flown United for close to 40 years and I’d take the 737 Neos any day of the week over the 321 Neos. First class is cramped and generally uncomfortable. For the record, it’s more United and their seat spacing than Airbus.
Your meal on United is precisely why I ask for a snack box on most domestic trips. If I’m flying out of SFO, I’ll either eat at the United Club or pick something up from Klein’s Deli. In LAX, I actually think the United Club is the best in the system.
As to ORD, everything is now east-west on takeoff and landing. You landed on the far northerly runway and I sometimes think it takes more time to taxi to the gate than it does to fly from an originating point to Chicago. The procession at ORD is such that you exit the runway at either end, circle past the hangars and the flight kitchens and then down to the gates. It’s an “over the river and through the woods” exercise but ultimately gets you to the gate.
Finally, for Terminal II at ORD, it’s days are numbered. The airlines that flew from it are in Terminal 5 and Terminal eventually will be torn down and replaced with a new international terminal. That’s assuming the city gets its act together.
Oops, I inadvertently did this twice. My apologies.`
Couple of things considering I’m in a United Club at ORD as I type this: that northerly runway is what I call United’s Private Runway. More than three-quarters of my flights use it. I could probably land a plane using it. I know all of the approaches by now. And as for Terminal 2 to Terminal 5, not every airline has moved. AS and B6 are still there (AC doesn’t really count in this regard). In fact, only one airline has moved. But that airline happens to be the only one that matters to avgeeks, so it’s no surprise that you mistook the singular for the collective.
Crankster:
1) Your food is an example of why I get a snack box on most United first class flights. It’s marginally edible on its best days. At least domestically.
2) Enjoy Terminal 2 while it lasts. Assuming the city ever gets its act together, it’s coming down and will be replaced by a new international terminal. The former Terminal 2 airlines not named United are in Terminal 5.
3) Your taxi is one of the reasons why ORD is so, well, ORD. It’s over the river and through the hangars to the airlines we go. 18 minutes? Was your pilot speeding?
4) Sorry, first class in the A321Neo is, well, uncomfortable. Too cramped. I suppose this is what eventually will happen to all United domestic first class seats b8ut unless one has the bulkhead, there’s not a lot of seat pitch.
Not quite true, Alaska and JetBlue (along with Air Canada that United is in bed with) are still holding strong in T-2, they even still have ticket counters in that terminal! Alaska in particular is at the extreme end of one of the figures it was quite something walking down the empty terminal to board the after midnight flight to Achorage this Memorial Day.
I still couldn’t believe the last time I changed planes (E-170 to 50 seat CRJ) at the end of the figure to get a jetway to my CRJ from one of the lower level boarding gates down the escalator.
I wondered about the 321neos when I saw UA was packing 200 seats in them, even AA with their reputation for jamming in the seats is doing 180-196 in their 321s.
Haven’t been on one of the 321s yet, was scheduled for a flight in the near future, but it has already moved to a Max8 which is fine.
At least be happy that UA was capped at 200 without having to put another FA onto each trip…
Maybe they learned something from TED.
Caption:
“We wanted you for your leadership thoughts, NOT your Chris Farley stand-up redux”
I flew UA on Veterans Day this year also. My B737Max was swapped out for a B738. The plane got me back home but the old overhead bins and the DirecTV that you had to watch live commercials made it a tough 5 hour ride.
Caption: Cranky wears a jacket made of repurposed 727 seat fabric to meet United’s CEO in a meeting of avgeek minds.
Always love the trip reports; thanks for taking us along.
What’s going on with United at SFO today? There’s some weather and our flight on American from LAX got delayed by about 20 minutes, but my family who are flying in on United are experiencing hours-long delays on multiple flights.
Ron – FAA says winds are causing the delays.
I always enjoy your trip reports. That line, traveling on a day ending in y, was extremely funny!
I think it’s a bit demeaning to call people gate lice, but that’s just my opinion
In any case, your site is wonderful
Thank you!
I agree, very funny.
Yosef – It isn’t meant to be derogatory, but it is meant to convey a level of shame. There is no reason to be hunkered around the gate blocking others from boarding. It doesn’t matter who is doing it or what class of service they’re in. But if they’re blocking others from being able to easily board, then those are gate lice.
Sadly those most in need of shaming are those who are most impervious to being shamed.
Gate lice is also a pretty standard industry term these days.
Back in the CO days, there would have been hot cinnamon rolls with breakfast in First, not the current “croissant. ” Otherwise that is very similar to early 2000s CO domestic first. I do miss the cinnamon rolls
I recall the same seat type when I decided to paid-upgrade DEN-AUS one night. Was definitely a blast from the past.
Given how dense the 321neos are, and given that the MAX 9 is actually fine on UA, I think I’d take the latter over the former. Heck, AA’s neos have crappy seat pitch in back too so somehow that’s 2/3 legacies where is take the new Boeing over the new Airbus.
I can’t believe United is stuck using those gawdawful gates in terminal 2. You’d think they would at least prioritize which flights are forced to use it. An important business and hub to hub flight from LAX should never touch that decrepit slum. United has plenty of flights to and from less competitive and less important places that should use that terminal. Bad form by United, that’s a problem that’s easily solved.
What if the inbound from LAX turns for a departure to a “secondary” city?
What if an inbound from a secondary city turns for a departure to LAX?
The majority of the mainline gates are over at B and C, so not as many pax will experience E or F. In all of my years flying though ORD, I’ve only flown out of an F gate once, eight years ago on a 50 seater to YQB.
Well I can’t solve all their problems, I can only point them out!
I wonder if it’d be faster to just Uber to the new LAX Economy Parking garage and then take the bus from there. I flew from LAX on a Sunday in late October, and the bus was fast. It felt like they had a direct flyover bridge straight into the (lower-level of the) horseshoe, and then there’s dedicated bus lanes to avoid all the car traffic.
The free T-Mobile wifi should be accessible with a laptop if you use Chrome and go to “Inspect” then to Mobile view (Ctrl Shift M) and then try to connect. The system will think a mobile phone is logging in – at least it used to work that way when I had T-Mobile.
Yup. But you have to do this before it grabs your MAC address. Presumably if your device allows you to change the MAC address that’d work as well.
That breakfast does not look appetizing.
I can explain the equipment substitution as I personally had to deal with it haha. There was a tech issue with a good amount of the very few 321s we have and there were tons of e-subs over to 737s as those planes remained out of service throughout October and November. The issue has been fixed so December flights with 321s should be fine.
Callscheduling – These are the best kind of comments here. Thanks for the “inside baseball” perspective. And sorry you had to deal with that mess.
Just curious, do you know how far out it was swapped?
Couldn’t pinpoint an exact date but we were seeing the e-subs in toward the end of last month for all of November.
Cool, thanks for sharing.
The NEXT version of A320 is absolutely spectacular. The larger bins are a godsend, /and/ mood light plus boarding music. They even replaced the wallpaper in the lavs.
I’m kind of surprised that they did a manual demo on the DirecTV plane – the safety video with the balls should be loaded. Maybe the purser is so used to doing manual demo on the 737 that they just did it out of rote?