Travel right now: FAIR WARNING!

[athena53]

We will see how AC is doing. UA has cut service way back in Polaris, using the pandemic as an excuse. The meal options are disappointing compared to what they used to offer.

Yes, I was GREATLY disappointed in UA's Polaris meal service last May. The Polaris Lounge at ORD was still excellent but on the actual flights:

1. Dinner served all at once, including a small carton of gelato. I did read that they've started doing multiple courses again.
2. Breakfast included "egg white bites"- they were doughy (WTH did they put in them to make them doughy?) and not heated all the way through.
3. Dessert with the meal prior to landing on the way back was a Kit-Kat bar.

It will be a long time before I fly UA Polaris again. I'm pretty laid- back in general but if you're going to charge an arm and a leg for a "premium" product don't try and save $10 on the food.

Another update to my own E. Europe trip on American- got home last night. We left LHR a bit early, arrived at ORD a bit early and I made my 2-hour connection easily. TSA Pre-check and carry-on only greatly sped things up- so did the ability to use Fast Track at LHR due to flying Business Class). Even the Air France flight from Ljublana to LHR with a connection in Paris that I skipped in favor of a BA nonstop I booked later was pretty much on time and I would have made the connection. Still don't regret buying the nonstop.

I've mentioned the bumps in the road- 2 women in our group quarantining near the end of the trip with COVID and 3 people in the group having their flight home through Zurich cancelled (and two found out only when the third told them hers had been cancelled- airline never notified them).

As always, YMMV but it does seem the airlines are getting better at cancelling a week or two ahead of time (at least) instead of the day of the flight. I'm very glad I ventured out.

 

[Chuckanut]

^^^^^^^^^

Egg white bites?!?!?!

They wouldn’t even give you the entire egg? That’s outrageous. Next they will give us Oreos without the filling.

 

[Koolau]

^^^^^^^^^

Egg white bites?!?!?!

They wouldn’t even give you the entire egg? That’s outrageous. Next they will give us Oreos without the filling.

Yeah, since they now offer "DOUBLE STUFF" Oreos, I always wondered who got the Oreos without "stuff."

 

[athena53]

^^^^^^^^^

Egg white bites?!?!?!

They wouldn’t even give you the entire egg? That’s outrageous. Next they will give us Oreos without the filling.

Yes, they're a "thing"- I first saw them at Starbucks. Here's a link to a recipe- sorry about all the ads but click on "Jump to Recipe". Trust me, UA's did not resemble these.

https://www.evolvingtable.com/egg-white-bites/#wprm-recipe-container-42399

 

[brett]

We avoid United for transatlantic trips. And most especially trans pacific trips.

Our experience, on multiple flights over the years on various airlines is that United's service on those routes is substandard compared to their competitors. Especially their European based and SE Asia based airlines.

Both economy and business lay down seats.

 

[Koolau]

We avoid United for transatlantic trips. And most especially trans pacific trips.

Our experience, on multiple flights over the years on various airlines is that United's service on those routes is substandard compared to their competitors. Especially their European based and SE Asia based airlines.

Both economy and business lay down seats.

We have actually been relatively impressed with United the last few times we've flown the Pacific. All new equipment on our flights. Clean. efficient, professional crews. No better than what I would have once expected, but now of days, it's above average. YMMV

 

[pb4uski]

I flew American from Burlington, VT to Austin, TX on Tuesday. ~3 hour delay from our connection in PHL... but it was understandable due to weather. Flew Allegiant from Austin to Sarasota this morning... on time. Flying back to Vermont on American tomorrow. Fingers crossed.

 

[Koolau]

Just got notification from United that my flights home have been changed - but only by maybe 20 minutes or so. I can deal with that. Just hope when I get to the airport, the flights are still available. YMMV

 

[pb4uski]

I flew American from Burlington, VT to Austin, TX on Tuesday. ~3 hour delay from our connection in PHL... but it was understandable due to weather. Flew Allegiant from Austin to Sarasota this morning... on time. Flying back to Vermont on American tomorrow. Fingers crossed.

Update: Flights back to Vermont were all on-time... in fact, we arrived 15 minutes early.

So in summary, our family have made numerous US domestic trips this summer... mostly between Vermont and Texas. 11 separate legs by my count and disruptions have been negligible. One leg was cancelled and rescheduled and ran on time the next day. Two others experienced ~3 hour delays and the other 8 legs were on-time.

Not sure if we were lucky or if the reports of travel nightmares are overblown.

 

[brett]

From our perspective a 15-30 minute departure or arrival time variance is not significant unless we have a tight connection.

Having said that, we are very careful to leave lots of time for connections. Do not care what the airline rules are regarding connection time. We determine what our minimums.

DW's flights have been on time.

 

[brett]

Most of the AC flights to Europe out of SFO connect through Toronto or Montreal.

A few through YVR.

I haven't booked one yet because the flight to Toronto or Montreal is on a 738 Max, without lie flat seats.

I have an award ticket in November, SFO-YVR-BNE round trip. I've gotten like half a dozen emails about slight changes to the schedule of those flights.

In early July I think I got a letter from AC CEO apologizing that they are still trying to ramp back up and they will have to cancel a lot of flights in July and August.

I had opened an Aeroplan account some years back, to get an idea of what kind of awards on Star Alliance were available, to see if they had availability not visible to United Mileage Plus members.

I booked the round-trip business class ticket early this year using United miles. Actually I transferred over a lot of UR points because I didn't have enough UA miles at the time.

I checked on Aeroplan and they were asking like at least 50% more miles. Forget what it was but something I would never redeem.

I think I flew AC TPAC to Hong Kong once, don't remember much about the service but I liked it because it arrived much earlier in the day than other flights from the US West Coast, which tended to arrive like at 11 PM at night.

We will see how AC is doing. UA has cut service way back in Polaris, using the pandemic as an excuse. The meal options are disappointing compared to what they used to offer.

We were long time Aeroplan members. Had the premium Aeroplan premium credit cards but switchec to a more lucrative travel card.Stopped several years ago. Not worth the effort or the return. We just emptied our last 28K points for a short flight.

We used AC, UA, and ANA (all partners) for Atlantic and Pacific flights. Nothing special from our perspective. We will take Lufthansa and Korean over any of them, any day.