Chicago O'Hare

I arrived at the airport 90 minutes prior to my departure taking the shuttle bus from the local Hertz rental outlet. I approached the elite desks of United as I failed to use the self check-in machines, which was somehow expected by me. So I approached one of the three agents serving the customers who needed assistance. There were long lines at the Economy Counters and also at the security checkpoints, but luckily the elite desk were not that busy and the waiting time not very long.

It was an award ticket and it seems to confuse the agent why it was on Lufthansa Ticket Stock. She was unable to print the boarding passes and excused several times that it took so long. Finally she tried to get some help from the back office but no one answered the phone and finally she addressed one of her colleagues. Together they sorted it out; the simple reason was that the system had me with my US address. But I was traveling with a German passport and so she overrode the entry in the system but somehow or somewhere decided that Germany is in Africa and therefore I needed a Visa for Thailand. This was of course not quite correct and after they discovered the reason why the system refused to issue a boarding pass, my boarding passes were finally issued after close to 20 minutes wait.

Now I had to pass security. There were long lines and I had to queue for another 20 minutes before it finally was my turn and could pass security and was on my way to the United Club. Chicago was quite busy on this Wednesday afternoon.

The United Club at the C gates was no exception but it was not difficult to find a seat for the 15 minutes until boarding was scheduled to start. The gate was opposite the United Club and the plane was already there. I was a former Continental Airlines plane with registration N26123. The plane came from Los Angeles earlier today and was now scheduled to fly to Newark.
It was equipped with the BusinessFirst product offering Lie Flat Seats. This type of plane is usually used on transatlantic flights, but occasionally also on transcontinental flights as well as short hops. This means, the flight it shuttled over to an airport where is used for a long-haul flight. Of course these flights are available for booking and so one can occasionally enjoy long-haul equipment on shorter flights. Our 757 for example had done a EWR – LAX and LAX – ORD service before it was used on this short ORD – EWR flight. In Newark it was scheduled to fly EWR – CDG later in the evening.

The former Continental Airlines Boeing 775-224 (WL) made its maiden flight on November 30, 1997 and was delivered to Continental Airlines on December 12, 1997. It is powered by two Rolls Royce RB211-535E4B engines, which have the 180 minute ETOPS certification since 1990. It has a thrust of 192 kN or 43100 lbf. Winglets were fitted in March 2006 and the plane came to United during the merger of CO and UA on October 01, 2010. It was two month later equipped with Economy Plus seating.
The gate agent announced the boarding done in zones. The zones were indicated on the boarding passes and one should only queue in the dedicated line for each zones. Boarding started ahead of time with Global Services and Business First Class passengers. United 1k and Premier Platinum members belonged also to Zone 1, while Star Gold and all other United Mileage Plus Elite levels belonged to zone 2.

09 October 2013
ORD – EWR
[Chicago O’Hare – Newark Liberty Airport]
UA 1734 (United Airlines); Boeing 757-200ER (N26123)
Gate C 15
16:10 – 19:27 [effective 16:09 – 19:16]
Business Class
Seat 1 F

I entered the Boeing 757-200ER through the jetbridge attached to the second door. So it was a left turn toward the front of the cabin where the BusinessFirst Cabin is located. I stored my belongings and used the opportunity to be on board ahead of the most other passengers to take a few pictures of the seat. There is not much space to store a laptop bag, so it had to go in the overhead compartment as well. There were not blankets or pillows offered on this flight – but they were also not really necessary given the short flight time.

The Business First seats are slightly angled and go fully flat. The seats offer a very generous seat pitch / bed length of 76 inch and a seat width of 21 inch. The seats are operated electronically and offer in seat power with regular plugs. The power outlet is close to the headrest with is from my point of view not the best place but might be a matter of the narrowness of the cabin. The backrest of the seat could not be adjusted without the leg rest, but the leg rest could be placed on a higher position without lowering the backrest of the seat as well. I had not much difficulty to find a position which was comfortable. There are only 16 seats in BusinessFirst and 45 seats in Economy Plus offering a seat pitch of 37 inch and a recline of 6.0 inch as well as 108 Economy seats with a seat pitch of 31 inch and a possible recline of 5 inch. Both Economy Class Cabin seats offer a seat width of 17.3 inch. There are boxes of the entertainment system under the aisle seats, which might reduce the available legroom. All seats offer audio video on demand with up to 150 movies, 185 television shows, a large number of CD and interactive video games.

Pre departure drinks (water, orange juice and sparkling wine) were offered and a flight attendant offered to place my jacket in one of the closets.

The safety video was shown during our push back at 16:09. We taxied to runway 22 L and had to queue behind a few other planes. Finally after some wait and 16:27 it was our turn. We made a few turns and flew over the northern part of Chicago and thus offering once again terrific view towards the skyline. The visibility was also quite good, so I spend the first minutes looking out of the window and looking on the landscape and Lake Michigan below us.

We passed the East Coast of Lake Michigan as the flight attendant asked of our choice of meal. The orders were taken by status it seems, as I was not the first to be asked despite sitting in the first row while my seat neighbour who was Global Service according to his boarding pass was asked first. The choice was pasta or a César Salad. I went with the César Salad. I was addressed by name as I was asked for my choice of meal and it was confirmed that it was available.

Aperitif

Main Course

Cesar Salad

As the orders were taken a hot towel was offered and soon later the assorted warm nuts. I was asked what I like to drink and chose again tonic water. It was served by the glass rather than with the can. Approximately 35 minutes in flight the meal arrived. It was served on the tray but brought by the flight attendant, no cart was used. Cutlery as well as a hot soup and a roll were already placed on the tray as it is standard approach by United on flights like this.

A refill of the tonic water was also offered. The flight attendant was constantly passing the cabin, collected used trays and asking if one like to have a refill. It was a very attentive service and among the best I have had. There was no need to use the call button, one had no longer than three minutes to wait before of the flight attendants looked in the cabin or walked through it.

A cookie –either macadamia or chocolate – was offered. I skipped this offer but took the offer of a cup of coffee.

Soon enough we began our approach into Newark’s Liberty airport, where we touched down at 19:03 and had a short taxi to our gate 104 at terminal C. During the approach I was able to get a glimpse of the illuminated skyline of the Big Apple. I have not been there for more than three years and I guess, I should change this … My jacket was already given back before we touched down.

The jet bridge was attached at 19:16 to the plane, which was ahead of schedule, and being in the first row means the passengers in the rows behind could disembark first. Passengers in Economy Class were hold back until we all had left the front cabin.

In the terminal I asked the gate agent if she had connecting information and if the shuttle to the terminal would also be good for flights in SQ, which she confirmed and gave me directions where to go.

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