Today’s trip report takes us from Tokyo Narita to Los Angeles LAX on board United Airlines 787-9 in their old configuration. That’s right, six years after they announced their ‘new’ Polaris seat, there are still some long haul aircraft flight around with Continental Airlines BusinessFirst seats from 2006. I was lucky enough today to get one of the old configuration aircrafts! Join me on this full trip report for all of the details you’ve come to expect from trip reports as well as our flight stats, routing and a guide to choosing the best seats and avoiding the worst.
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This is the second video of a new ‘season’ for the channel. Going forward, all videos will be published in the order in which they were filmed. This flight to Los Angeles is the second in a series of forty flight and hotel reviews covering a true round the world itinerary. Make sure to subscribe and turn on notifications so you don’t miss the next leg!
ANA Business Class SGN-NRT Trip Report: bit.ly/tfft_nh834
—Video Chapters—
0:00 Intro
00:35 Starting at Narita
01:00 Booking my Ticket
01:25 The ANA Lounge
02:25 Our Aircraft Swap
02:55 The Best & Worst Seats
04:30 Seat Details & Amenities
05:10 Why the Bulkheads Are Best
05:26 IFE Monitor & Air Vents
05:45 Amenity Kit
06:00 Pushback & Taxi
07:00 Routing & Takeoff
08:45 Flight Stats
09:00 Mt. Fuji Sunset
10:10 IFE System
10:37 Service & Menu Dramatic Reenactment
11:10 Disappointing Meal Service
11:46 2014 Service Comparison
12:00 Bathroom Amenities
12:15 Sunrise & Service Rant
13:00 Breakfast Service
13:25 Flying over San Francisco & South to LA
14:16 Approach & Fluffy Clouds
14:52 Landing & Taxi
15:40 The Flip Flop Score
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Music featured in this video is licensed under an Artlist Unlimited License.
This is NOT a promotional video. We pay for all of our flights and hotels (and we tell you how much!) so we can be as honest and impartial as possible. We do not receive any special treatment that wouldn’t otherwise be publically accessible.
#unitedairlines #businessclass #lax
22 Comments
To be fair, only 5 787-9s remain with the old interior, and of these 5 years, Covid was a factor of 2 of these years. Add to that, PW's shenanigans was a factor for one of the 5 years as aircraft have to substitute for planes affected by Pratt and Shitney's flawed inspections
Nice review. A particular highlight was your backlit-Mount Fuji-between-wingtip-and-engine nacelle shot, which comfortably topped your competitors' hey-another-wingtip shots.
Disappointing that the service was below standard. A friendly way costs nothing and the plane wasn't full. Indeed tells me that the average salary for FAs at United is $45K. And those in the front probably earn more. A unionised cabin-crew?
Well your choice to get back isn't restricted to ANA – always very good, it seems. Vietnam Airlines now cross the Pacific. When will you be reviewing that service?
Having flown with both United and ANA, I gotta say that while communicating with ANA's flight attendants is a bit more challenging, I would fly with them any day of the week. From my experience so far, their services are amazing and the only other airlines that could rival that in my opinion would be Singapore airlines.
Always a big fan of your reviews, your choice of music is excellent and really fits the video.
Service on UA is still lackluster. Miss the good old days of Continental.
I did true Polaris 3 years ago from ewr to nrt on a 777-300er the seat was much better than what you have. Polaris lounge in ewr is probably the best lounge in the nyc area
There must be some sort of ground regulation for airlines to serve pre dep drink in Japan?
Ana/Jal are also using plastic disposable cups to serve their pre dep bev in biz but not in first.
Have this question for a long time , but everyone got a different answer.
Also the reason why United did not open the United club at narita is the load factors. A lot of flights going to narita have load factors In the 50’s. Compared that to heathrow where United reopened it lounge in December has load factors between 80-90% for flights going to heathrow.
Thanks for great video.
I am based in SFO so flew UA polaris often… their services are probably the worst among all airlines that I have been on. A lot of them are rude… they also spill a whole glass of champagne on my body on a flight and then she vanished to come back with some paper towels not for me but for the seat lol smh
Lots of empty seats on board.
United is easily the least favourite US major. Avoid at all cost
United still is bad after all these years.
Overly familiar flight attendants? That’s any US airline! I hate it! We’re not friends, I’m not interested. You’re job is to make my flight as comfortable as possible. Just do it!
Thanks for the awesome report! I wonder if all 787-9 airplanes have the 2006 old configurations.
Endless stupid music, even during takeoff. Why post a video about travel and fuck it up with stupid music?
I'm about to fly united 787-9 to Paris. I chose them to use up some miles I had, this report makes me regret that decision a bit but too late now. I would really love to see service come back in style. These flights are expensive, being nice will truly pay off for them. I enjoyed your report and I subscribed 🙂
Will be on this flight in June. Thanks for the detailed review!
Fun video!
omg i would be pissed with this downgrade of a plane swap
Sorry you didn't get the new Polaris experience . It's outstanding!
The pink buildings that you asked about are greenhouses. If you ever fly just east of Detroit on the Canadian side or over central Georgia, you will see the same thing. The explanation is that plants absorb red and blue light better and when mixed, apparently it appears pink.
Comments keeping getting deleted, my guess by the youtube……Google these coordinates and you will see what you flew over. If you do the satellite view and the street view, you can tell this has been recently constructed. The street view just shows basically a farm field and then the sat view only shows six buildings (presumably the ones that were pink) and the other ones likely were still under construction when you flew over and thus why they weren't lit up. 35°55'18.1"N 140°20'28.0"E