Amsterdam Schiphol Interational Airport

There are separate terminal for Schengen and Non-Schengen flights at Schiphol. United is located in Terminal 3 at row 26. As I arrived there some minutes before 07:50 a long line were queuing at Economy Class check in counters and 7 or 8 people at the First / Business counters, which were not opened yet. The agents arrived some minutes before 08:00 and after what looked like a short briefing the counters were opened at 08:10.
As United had an own counter for its P.S. Members, which is also used for Star Silver Passengers, there was no need for me to queue in the longer line for Economy Class. Check in went smooth, the agent attached a Priority Sticker at my luggage and asked if there were any liquids in my carry on, which I declined. She also informed me about the need the recheck my luggage at Chicago.
Customs was a short wait, all counters were open and the people were divided in “EU Citizens” and “All Passports”. The lines for “EU Citizens” were longer, so I choose “All Passports”. After security I took the stairs to the upper level, where all lounges are located. As holder of a Priority Pass I want to use “Penauille Servisair” Lounge, but the agent told me the card reader does not work and sent me to the “Menzies Lounge”. This lounge could be used by LH FTL, but only if they are travelling on Swiss. The lounge is not really big and offers only a small selection of English Newspapers. Beverage is okay with soft drinks, coffee, Cappuccino, Espresso, etc and slices of cake, crackers – so nothing special but better than nothing. There was a PC, which was out of service. They seem to offer WiFi, but as I did not use my laptop I am not sure.

At Check in I was told the gate was opened for 09:45 and I decided to leave the lounge at 10:00. Boarding was announced to start at 10:15. I arrived at the gate ten minutes after I left the lounge. I was questioned by one of the agents and then sent to the security check, which is done at the gates in Amsterdam.

I took a seat and waited for boarding to start. Boarding started late at 10:45 with First Class Passengers followed by Business Class / Star Gold and then Star Silver / Economy Plus.

18 August 2006
AMS – ORD
[Amsterdam – Chicago O’Hare]
UA 909 (United); Boeing 767-300 (N653UA)
Gate G 3
11:05 – 13:12 [effective 11:12 – 13:13]
Economy Plus Class
Seat 17 G

I was greeted by a flight attendant entering the plane. The plane had a three class configuration. The first class section had the old style seat, no First Cass Suite. Business Class was the one I know from my previous flights. I noticed at this time, I have never been on United in Economy. On my previous trips I flew them either in domestic First or International / US Business or choose United Express.
I put my belonging in the overhead bin and the things I needed during the flight in the seat pocket. Seat Pitch was noticeable bigger than in the normal section in the back. Economy Plus is (or from todays point of view was) one of the big advantage of United if you have Status with any of the Star Alliance Partners.

Headphones, pillow and blanket were placed on each seat. The plane was equipped with a monitor at each seat.

The plane – in new livery – seems to be in good conditions. The carpet was okay and the seats looked old, but had as far as I noticed no stains. But the cleaning of the cabin was not that good; some stains of coffee were on the table and some minor stuff from the inbound flight in the seat pockets. The Hemisphere Magazine was in an unexpected good condition. It looked more or less new, but I doubt they replaced it after the flight to Amsterdam.

We pushed back with a delay of ten minutes at 11:15 and rolled to our runway. Five minutes later the captain gave the order to the Flight attendants to take their seats and we were airborne at 11:17. Unfortunately Channel 9 was not turned on. Load was in Economy app. 85 to 90% with Economy Plus a bit emptier than the rest of Economy. The seat beside me remained empty.

After 30 minutes in the air, the crew started a first beverage round and offered a packet of “assorted nuts”. I opted for a coffee and a glass of water.

While the crew continued their service the inflight entertainment system was started and I switched through the nine available video channels and the seven audio channels. There is no AVOD System, but the in seat screens are really nice, though I do not watch movies often on planes.

Twenty five minutes later, hot towels – more some sort of hot tissues – were handed to the passengers. Five minutes later there was the usual question “Chicken or Pasta”. I opted for the Pasta, which came along with a salad with ginger dressing, a roll, a slice of cheese, a cracker and an ice cream. Though the salad was not very good in the appearance, the dressing was very tasting. The pasta tasted unexpected good, they were not too soft, they had the real "al dente" tasting and the mushroom and spinach were also very good. The minor down was the plastic cutlery. There was also a beverage round during meal, this time I opted for Tonic water and got the whole can, what I expected and therefore I choose it. An additional beverage round was done after meal service, with coffee and tea, but all other non alcoholic beverages were also available.
Trays were finally cleared about an hour after meal service had started. We were asked to lower sun shades, so the video screen was better visible.

During flight time, the captain came over the microphone and told us, there could be some turbulence. Therefore he decided to remain in a lower altitude. He also expected an arrival ahead of schedule.

I listened to music and decided to watch some of the movies (first "She’s the Man" and then "RV"). During the flight, the flight attendants made several rounds offering water to the passengers. From this point of view, the ban of all liquids was not that worse, though I would have preferred to have my own bottle.

After four hours in the air cookies were given to the passengers.

80 minutes before landing a snack service was done. One got a box containing a chocolate bar (Kitekat), a roll (cheese) and some crackers and a bottle of water. In addition a beverage service was done.

We were close to Lake Michigan over the region of Grand Rapids as the captain informed us that the airtraffic control had advise him to take waiting patterns for 30 minutes. This would mean we lost our shorter flight time and arrive in time if not got delayed. Luckily after ten minutes circling we were allowed to begin our departure of Chicago O’Hare. The crew gave very good advises for passengers with connections how to shuttle from Terminal 5 to Terminal 1 or 2 where the connecting flights would depart.

We touched down at 13:03 and arrived at the gate at 13:13 nearly right in time. Deboarding was fast. Economy Passengers were allowed in the Business Cabin, after all Business Class Passenger had left their seat and were waiting for the doors to be opened.

TOP

next flight