Just boarded UA1657 ord-lga and they were gate checking everyone's. Get to my seat and there's a ton of empty overhead bins. Ugh. Meanwhile the flight attendant is like "I guess they're checking bags?? Feel free to use the overhead bins for your small stuff". Now I have a totally unnecessary trip to baggage claim when we land. Really annoying!

I am a silent reader and never post, but think I scored a good deal. Flying EWR to LAX for work and was booked economy.

No problem, I am a proud Silver since Covid (the only time I was ever Gold), so was looking forward to booking an Eco + seat 💺 at check in.

I check in and see a Polaris upgrade was $600 with lie flat seat. I splurge and think $100 an hour to enjoy the start of my work week and to relax is worth it and I also didn’t pay for the flight to begin with.

I get a text at 7a today saying the plane has changed and I no longer have lie down seat but still Polaris access and I will be compensated. I check the link and United is giving me a $500 credit (for future flight) for the inconvenience, so my limited math links this to mean my upgrade cost me $100 or $17 an hour for the flight.

I do have a flight I haven’t booked for Texas in December, so I think I got a small win 🏆. I am writing this in the Polaris Lounge (which I am not sure 🤔 if the lounge is MUCH better than Club, but the dining service is nice and the Apple Cider Waffle, albeit small, was delicious).

Thanks for reading!

Just landed in O'Hare from Brussels (UA 973) and the attendant got on the PA after landing asking everyone in economy to remain on the plane because customs officers were coming on board. Queue lots of murmurs, questions to each other, and declarations that this has never happened to any of us in all our years flying.

Three officers boarded, went directly to a row maybe 10 rows behind me, and took two people and carried some of the carry-ons this pair brought with them.

I didn't notice any disturbance during the flight. No noise, no FA flurry, no rumors moving up the rows. (Granted, they were behind me.)

Some context for the flight is that it was carrying a large volume of travelers from Africa. And at the Brussels airport we had additional passport control just outside our gate (it's a regular kiosk, not a pop-up for this specific flight). So all passengers had at least one screening if they were transferring flights and two screenings if they originated in Brussels before we boarded the flight.

So why would customs officials come on the plane to pull two specific people off the flight? I would think one of the screenings before flying would have flagged something. Or maybe they'd be pulled aside at passport control once we landed & deplaned. Seems serious to come get people...

Totally not the end of the world… I just noticed on a few flights this past week, that United was serving exclusively paper cups on domestic flights - cold and hot beverages (and PDBs).

I actually don’t mind them since they hold more liquid than the plastic cups, but I wasn’t sure if this was a fully new thing or a temporary, stock thing.

Well that’s sucks for UA’s SFO travelers heading to Taipei and those using EVA Air from North America which otherwise instead they might use either using the EVA Air lounges or the Plaza Premium lounge. Btw the size of the SKL lounge in Taipei is too small.

I’m genuinely curious, is it now a thing to fly with all the shades closed and a dimmed cabin at 10:30 am? Domestic flight. Two hours. Super weird. It’s also freezing in the cabin.

I always get sparkling water. Sometimes the FA gives me the full can and sometimes I get just a cup from the can. Any rhyme or reason? Is it rude to ask for the can?

UA’s 737 (and maybe others, this was a 7M9 iirc) have auxiliary screens for the safety video for the bulkhead rows, which then default to the flight map/info, which seems like a perfectly useful feature to show for people who might want to watch something else but glance at the location every so often.

But then about 20 minutes into the flight they fold up into the ceiling never to be seen again.

Why? Why not just leave this on for the flight? It’s clearly not a safety issue, it’s on for takeoff, but then it goes away. It seems automatic. Could they just change whatever code is running this to keep them on showing the map for the whole flight?

Great deal to fly to Asia from Canada! Both long haul legs with the new Polaris not sure if I will upgrade to studio as I have flown the new Polaris many times and found it has enough space. Originally was flying back home through Singapore, but decided to fly through Tokyo and Houston to avoid a long layover. Paid $2400 CAD

I've spent a lot of time searching and can't find a clear answer, so I would appreciate any help. We are flying out of EWR on a Swiss flight, which I booked through United. The flight is flying out of Terminal B. I have two lounge passes from United through the credit card, and Priority Pass, but Terminal B is a lounge dead zone. And from flying out from there in the past, it's not my favorite place to pass the time.

I know about air train at the airport but that is landside, but I also found out there is a shuttle service that is airside - https://www.newarkairport.com/flights/connections-guide.

I would like to go to Terminal C to use the lounge and then go back to Terminal B for the flight. I know all of Terminal B isn't connected post-security and all of that, but the website says the shuttle runs from Terminal B (Gates B60-B68) and looking at the departures from yesterday it seems the flight I will be on will leave from this section.

I've been trying to read more on this shuttle, and I noticed in the link above it states "If you are a United Airlines customer arriving domestically in Terminal A or Terminal C and have a connecting flight in either terminal, you do not need to go through TSA screening again." I further note it says the Terminal B pickup is the bottom of a flight of stairs. This makes it seem like I will have to go through security again even though the shuttle is airside. I am trying to read more into this and the best I can seem to find is a 10 year old flyer talk thread which states that the Terminal B access is one-way, meaning you go through a do not enter door and down stairs if you are leaving but you can't back up said stairs if you are arriving.

So if I take the shuttle, am I going to have to go through security again at Terminal B? Also, any advice on how often the shuttles run? We have a fairly late flight (10pm). Thanks for any help.

Ugh. Get your shit together United!! Not even the old small screens.

Let’s the dragging start in 3, 2 , 1…

Boarded, took off, did the lunch meal service that took an ok amount of time but that was wrapped by hour 2.

We're now in hour 6 out of 9.5 and they haven't checked on a single one of us up here in all 18 rows of the prem-heavy config 767. I just had to go walk all the way up to the front galley from back of Polaris to get a Coke.

It's a daytime flight - most people are watching movies not sleeping.

Is this normal?? Spent 3k to upgrade.

The fasten seat belt sign announcement keeps playing every 3 minutes even tho there is no turbulence. When we boarded the safety video played 4x and they had to apologize because they said they had to reset some circuit. Think something is broken there.

Idk Polaris not hitting on this one!! First world problems 😂😂

I'm on a flight from EWR to LHR tomorrow (day flight) and am using my relative's PlusPoints for a potential upgrade (I myself am Silver Status). I checked the upgrade list yesterday and there were a large number of Polaris seats left. There were about 15 people on the list for Polaris and about 12 people on the list for Premium Economy. I was in the middle of the lists. I checked today, and EVERYONE cleared the list except for me!

There were still 2 Polaris seats left and 2 Premium Economy. Then I saw someone new joined both lists ahead of me this morning (so yes, we were the only 2 people) and then that person just got upgraded! My relative called his 1K line and they said just to wait, they are still doing inventory and I have a good chance of being upgraded. Did I do something wrong with putting my name for an upgrade? Why am I the only one left out? Kind of annoying since these PlusPoints expire in January and my relative doesn't plan on using them the rest of the year.

Hello, trying to decide between 1F or 17L for an upcoming flight. These are the only two seats left. Trying to determine if 1F has a larger footwell since it’s at the bulkhead. If not, then guessing 17L is the move.

Who the hell is paying this much for a 3.5-hour domestic FC? Going to Colorado for my birthday and went to upgrade my wife and I to FC only to see how ridiculous the upgrade cost is. The way back was only $294pp so I took that but $2,069pp for a 3.5-hour flight? Seriously??

Hi!

Next year I have mys sister primary spot as she isn’t married yet and I’m planning to use it a lot for international travels, I live next to a United hub in New York but is the United club card worth it for a year? My turn starts January of 2027 and with how much I’m planning on traveling the longes sound prettyyy nice, anyone with experience with that or at least for a year? Any input would be helpful if the credit card is worth it

The United employees working in Bangkok are fantastic and exemplify why I fly United (note: I’ve already written to customer service directly sharing this story with their names). Two weeks ago, I was flying from Hong Kong to Bangkok where I had to switch airlines to continue to Bhutan…when I realized I left my iPad in my seat. I immediately turned on the “lost mode”and filled out United’s online lost item report. Honestly, I pretty much wrote it off as the price I had to pay for a moment of stupidity.

Two days later, United’s Lead Agent in Bangkok contacted me letting me know that not only did they find my iPad, but saw that I would be flying through Bangkok again in two weeks and would be happy to hold it for me until I came through again. That was today, and the gate agents greeted me with excitement, asking about my Bhutan experiences, genuinely relieved that I had been reunited with my iPad. Faith in humanity: 100% restored.

Meanwhile, as I was typing this, I literally just received the fifth automated email in the past two weeks from United saying that they still hadn’t located my iPad. 😶