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.
My first 777 flight was UA DEN -> ORD… summer of ’97 probably? I remember getting a McDonald’s meal service, was that a thing or hallucination? I was a teenager so it wasn’t a Happy Meal…
Tyler,
I vaguely recall that you could preorder some McDonalds food for UA flights way back when (yep, I’m old too!) I don’t ever recall doing that, but if memory serves correct it was a thing.
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.
I’m not sure, but I don’t think so. The full lie-flat seats were only on the 757-200, and if my memory is right the “BusinessFirst” cabin ran all the way from L1 to L2 on the transatlantic-configured planes, but I could be mistaken.
I miss those flights. I had friends who lived in the south of England and being able to visit them – and England in general – without having to deal with the hell that is Heathrow* was so nice.
https://simpleflying.com/bristol-airport-newark-continental-airlines-transatlantic-story/
I’m surprised JetBlue hasn’t tried a few smaller UK city routes (at least Bristol and Birmingham) before messing about with Amsterdam or Paris or anyplace that’s already well-covered.
*- I’m told Gatwick is a pain too, but I’ve never flown there. I used to fly NYC-London k3k-4x/year on business and it was always into LHR…and we didn’t have corporate rates on Virgin.
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…
Totally off topic – I really like the new look of the blog. Kudos to the designer.
This was a loooong time ago (1986 to be exact – yes, I’m old, too), but I flew on a Northwest Orient 747 from DFW to SFO. IIRC, it was a flight that continued on to Tokyo, and wasn’t anywhere near full. I was 8 at the time, so hopping on the Queen for a short flight was a real treat.
Occasionally, AA still runs internationally-configured tag flights through DFW, mostly on 787s, though sometimes 777s. There’s usually 1-2 per day to/from LAX and ORD, though the times vary. If you have status, these are useful. The PE seats are sold as MCE, and so you can assign yourself one for free.
Being a 70’s/80’s OZ/TW airline brat I got lucky several times on domestic widebodies.
STL-ORD TW 747 that continued on to LHR.
STL-BOS TW 1011.
ORD-MIA DL 747.
STL-ATL EA 1011. The flight originated in SEA.
ORD-LAS-ORD TW 1011.
Had a few more recently, mostly hub-hub type stuff on UA and AA.
December 1968 I was stationed at Holloman AFB (Alamogordo) New Mexico and decided to take leave and fly home to Southern California, nearest national airport was El Paso TX. Upon arriving at ELP I found out there were no space A flight’s available being dejected and starting to walk away from the Continental counter the agent announced that there was a special flight for military Space A flight to LAX will be available in a few hours.
Upon getting to the gate it was stretch 8 not a wide body but a unit used for military charter to SEA and was repositioning to California
That day Continental became the favorite airline of solders and airmen. Great flight fill of grateful service members, fantastic flight attendants made us all feel special during the fight with the attention and service with a smile. BTW it was a dry flight no alcohol served
I miss the big bird with the Brass Ass
Back in the 70s (yes, I’m really old) the London to Raleigh-Durham route usually had enough empty space in economy you could party in the back. In the late 90s I flew New York to Istanbul ahead of a hurricane. RDU closed, so we rented the last available car and drove to JFK. It had closed to inbound traffic. Our flight left the gate mostly empty, with the pilot saying he’d decide whether to take off when we got to the runway. Once in the air there was enough space for everyone to get a center section.
Just out of college in 1980 (guess I’m old as well), DL had L1011 service between MSY and DFW so I could visit my college buddies. Your seat was assigned at the gate via pre numbered stickers pulled from a seat map of the jet in question and attached to the ticket jacket.
Pick any seat, as long as you stayed in your class. Didn’t make much difference for the flight was mostly empty anyway. How DL made money on this leg is way beyond me.
2010: Used AAdvantage miles OMA-DFW-ORD-TYS in order to snag a 772. F cabin, too. This was back when AA miles were use ’em or lose ’em.
2015: Miles again, F again, OMA-ORD-DFW for a new-plane-smell 788.
I remember flying American Airlines DC-10 Flight #73 CLE-LAX which used DC-10 equipment circa 1972-1974. By 1975 American reverted back to the B-707 for that route. Back then when the DC-10 came out the capacity was only something like 206 seats with more generous legroom and 2-4-2 in coach instead of the later 2-5-2. I did fly that route first class. I also flew American DC-10 equipment LAX-DFW, flight #76 LAX-IAD in 1976, 1979 and 1980, all first class. I remember that on the flight circa February 1979 the captain announced an estimated flying time of only 3 hours and 51 minutes from LAX to IAD. There must have been a strong tailwind. I flew flight AA #167 ORD-LAX on the 21st of May 1979 in coach on the DC-10. On that flight in coach, there was a complimentary meal with a choice of three entrees. Also flew first class LAX-ORD on the DC-10 on American circa 1977 and 1979. In the summer of 1979 I flew first class on American DC-10 BOS-LAX. Service was great and on that flight I had ten cokes along with an excellent inflight meal.
I flew an American Airlines B-747 Flight 51 DFW-LAX in first class circa Summer 1982. That was the tag flight that originated at LGW, American’s first transatlantic destination. I only was on the domestic segment, having connected after taking a flight from CLE.
I flew Pan Am flight #1 B-747 LAX-HNL on 23rd March 1972 and did the reverse route also on the 747 on the 3rd of April 1972. Those were my very first widebody flights of any kind.
I flew Western Airlines DC-10 “Spaceship” circa November 1974 LAX-SEA and again circa November 1976 LAX-SEA and SEA-LAX. On the flight in 1974 there was a predeparture beverage of orange juice in Coach. Coach was 2-4-2 with a 36 inch pitch.