Want to fly in a fancy seat for less? Try this hack. | Cruising Altitude – USA Today
I hate how click-baity this headline is, but if you can get beyond it… this is a look at how to find a widebody on a domestic flight. The idea is that if you buy premium cabin, you’ll get a flat bed. This isn’t about some silly trick to get an upgrade, as the headline might make you think.
I once flew TWA (yes, I’m old, leave me alone) out of AVP on a free ticket down to Florida somewhere. It was an awkward routing, multiple stops, but it was free and I was a poor graduate student and avgeek, so off I went. Scranton to Philly to JFK to wherever in Florida. (Remember, I’m old, leave me alone.) The flight from Philly to JFK ended up being a repositioning flight for a 747. There were maybe 20 people on the airplane. I basically had the whole mid cabin to myself on a 747 for a 20 minute flight. Looking back, this is probably a good example of why TWA isn’t around anymore…
Len,
Your experience reminded me of a trip from Nagoya to Honolulu on an America West 747 (yes I”m old too). My companion was Michael Roach, the founding President of HP who had left the airline. Using his lifetime pass privilege with me as his travel partner, we boarded the plane in first class, and then waiting for other passengers to join us. One more did, but we were never sure he was a paying passenger. Looking back into economy, we saw that were fewer than 20 passengers, not enough to pay for the trip‘s fuel. Great service, though.
Phil
In the ’90s and early ’00s when I was doing a bit of work around and east of Chicago (I’m from DEN), back then you almost always had to go through Chicago. For years UA ran a 777 from ORD to DEN at dinnertime most days. Jet came in from Europe and then extended the workday by two hours +/-. Jet sat in DEN overnight and then back to ORD on the 6 or 7 AM flight and off to Europe again. I’d book this flight whenever it made sense and my upgrade rate to business (it had F in those days as well) was well over 90%. Dinner and a glass of wine on the way home was always a good time. Only downside was that it wasn’t always reliable for on time performance, if it came in late, we left late and that often happened by a few minutes to a couple of hours.
UA also extends TPAC widebodies from LAX and SFO to DEN pretty regularly, had a 789 from SFO to DEN about a year ago and while the Polaris upgrade didn’t clear, the Premium Economy seat was great for two hours.
Not a widebody, but back in the olden(ish) times, I used to get upgrades on Continental between EWR and TPA on 757s that had the international first class installed for the long-narrow routes to Europe. Great way to fly back when a lowly Silver could get the occasional CO upgrade at EWR.
Had a couple of upgrades on domestic L-1011s on TWA as well (yes, I’m old.) Miss the TriStar.
Now that my home airport is TPA, I can’t remember the last time I saw a domestic widebody.
Did CO have the mini-coach cabin behind the F seats in the 57s?
UA for quite a while had the 57s with about 4 rows of F seats and then there were 2 or 3 rows of econ between the back of F and the #2 doors, it was a great place to get some work done and not have a lot of activity in the area. If you got upgraded it was a bonus, if not, that little section was also nice.
For American Airlines, you can find them by looking at the cargo schedule:
UA puts all the relevant info on the booking page for each flight.
Now, it can occasionally change the equipment type between booking and travel.
I had a Christmas day flight for the family in 2001 from DEN to HNL (via LAX) where it started on the LAX leg as a 777 at booking about 9 months out, then dropped to a 757, then a 320 and finally one of the old classic 737s as we got into early December. I figured by the time the flight day arrived we’d be on a CRJ200 or one of the regional props at the rate the gauge was decreasing…