United SRQ -> CMH Oct 31st, 2021 Flight Review
In this trip report, I will be covering my itinerary from Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport flying to John Glenn Columbus International Airport. My home airport is SRQ, I was heading to Columbus for work. Often my work trips can be last minute. They also often change midway or right before my expected departure, this was the case for this particular trip.
Originally my itinerary was SRQ – ORD – CVG, however, due to a last-minute change I had to rebook my Sunday flight on Friday, and instead of Cincinnati, I was off to Columbus. My initial ticket which I booked Monday, 6 days before my departure date of Sunday, Oct 31, 2021, cost me a total of $306.70. However on Friday when I changed my ticket the fare difference was $170.00. So in total for my one-way SRQ – ORD – CMH I ended up paying $476.70. I have Premier Silver which gives me one free checked bag, priority access through the airport, and access to complimentary upgrades.
SRQ -> ORD UA 1877 Oct 31st, 2021
My first leg departed SRQ at 3:55 PM, I arrived at the check-in counter at around 2:20 PM to complete and utter chaos. There were two lines one supposedly for “Premier Access” and another regular line which during the entire time I spent checking in did not move except for the occasional passenger who was called forward by name, without finding any further signs or instructions I lined up in the “Premier Access” line, however, once finally making it to the ticket counter I was rudely told by the check-in attendant that this lane was only for those who had already printed out their luggage tags and refused to check me in and print out my boarding pass and instead instructed me to print them out from the kiosk and go stand back in line. After completing that process and circling all the way back through the “Premier Access” line and finally checking my two bags I was ready to head to security, by now it was around 3:05 PM.
This was the longest check-in process I have ever had on a domestic flight, there were only two United flights departing from SRQ around 4:00 PM, one of which was actually delayed, United’s organization is sadly not what it could be at SRQ.
After my lengthy check-in process I headed toward security, the line was fairly long but I managed to get through pretty swiftly, I made it to the gate right on time for boarding which started at around 3:20 PM.
The boarding gate listed on my ticket and on all information boards was B11, however when I made it to B11 I found it completely abandoned, after looking around and talking to the single United employee who was in charge of all United gates at SRQ (only three), she informed that all flights would board from B14 instead.
After all this confusion was sorted out I finally managed to board my plane, a 19-year-old A320 with the registration N497UA for flight UA1877 to Chicago O’Hare. I had seat 8F, which was actually an “Economy Plus” seat and free for me to choose from after check-in as an upgrade. This plane was configured in a “2.5” class configuration, United First, Economy Plus, and Economy.
The reason I refer to this as a “2.5” class configuration is because Economy Plus is nothing more than an economy seat located towards the front of the cabin with extra legroom. Economy seats on this plane have a 30’ pitch and a width of 17.7’, however, Economy Plus seats have a 35’ pitch and 17.7’ width, so there is a decent upgrade and the seats felt very spacious.
However what surprised me was the lack of IFE, there was digital entertainment offered throughout the flight which worked well and kept me entertained through the short flight, the selection of movies and shows was okay, it wasn’t spectacular but there were a decent number of choices for most people. There were also two power plugs for the row of three seats, so if you’re not early to your seat you might be stuck without one.
The flight had some delays but the pilots gave us regular updates and kept us informed. Our flight departed at 4:40 PM after sitting on the runway for about 45 minutes. However, onboard the crew was excellent and it was a smooth flight. Since it was Halloween the crew handed out candy as snacks and offered complimentary beverages. One point of note is that Economy Plus does not offer complimentary alcoholic beverages like Delta Comfort plus does.
We arrived in Chicago only 14 minutes after our scheduled arrival time of 5:57 PM, so even though United had really struggled on the ground in SRQ they recovered well and it didn’t interrupt my trip too much.
ORD -> CMH UA 4397 Oct 31st, 2021
I had about an hour and a half layover, I arrived in Chicago at gate C30. United sent me a text to let me know my departure gate, F17, and an estimate of how long the walk would take me, about 21 minutes. Which was very useful information and helped me pace my walk to my departing and help me gauge how long I had to grab food since I didn’t have any lounge access. I ended up stopping for a burger and some popcorn on my walk to F17.
I managed to make it to my gate just a few minutes before the scheduled boarding. I had actually received a complimentary upgrade to First class for this flight. The flight was pretty empty and was carried out by a 15.5 year old CRJ-550 technically operated by GoJet Airlines for United Express with the registration N544GJ.
I was assigned seat 4A, the furthest seat back on the side of single seats. It would’ve been my seat of choice if I was able to pick because this seat had the most privacy and I would definitely recommend it to solo travelers. First class seats on this plane had a pitch of 42’ and a width of 20’.
The cabin had a nice ambiance and for a regional jet did not feel cramped at all. However once again there was no IFE but digital entertainment was offered, however, no power ports were available here. There were only 50 seats on the entire plane, 10 in first class, 20 for Economy Plus, and 20 in economy. Large amounts of the plane were also being taken up by bus-style storage lockers for luggage.
This was a very short flight with only about 44 minutes of flight time, the only service that was provided was a bottle of water shortly after boarding. It was a pleasant however uneventful flight. Shortly after landing, I made my way to baggage claim, where the bags were put on the belt in a timely manner and I was on my way.
CONCLUSION
This was my second United ticket in only the span of three weeks, as mentioned earlier the only reason I have been trying out United recently is that my KLM status was extended automatically due to COVID and I didn’t need to worry about maintaining it, giving me some freedom to explore. Will I switch to United for my domestic US travel instead of Delta, probably not? Part of this is of course because of the goal to receive Platinum for Life with KLM which requires 10 consecutive years of Platinum status. So I guess a better question would be, if I didn’t need to maintain status with KLM for some sort of end goal would I choose to fly with United over Delta, the answer is still probably not, except if the flight would be significantly cheaper or significantly more convenient, and the keyword there is “significantly”. It’s hard to describe but Delta is just that little bit better in most aspects that overall give it a significant nod for me, including tiny things which might not mean anything to most people. Delta’s interior in my opinion is better, I very rarely experience aircraft without IFE, whereas with United out of the last 3 separate legs (not counting the second leg of this report as it was a regional plane), on regular narrow body planes only 1 had IFE, and even this IFE was significantly outdated.
I rarely come across Delta flights where I do not have IFE, however, I have not had a huge sample size so I might just have been unlucky, but even the one flight with an IFE does not come close to matching Delta’s standard IFE. There was no USB plug and you could feel the age on United’s IFE, which is disappointing, however while wandering through Chicago airport I did see signs which showed United IFE that actually had Bluetooth connection, and after looking into the topic a little deeper it does appear that United are in the middle of huge refits of a lot of its fleet to bring it more up to date, and Bluetooth connection on all of its IFE systems would truly set it apart from its competition. However, for the time being, Delta is still far superior in this aspect. Another observation I had was a large amount of advertisement for United’s credit cards, whether it be in in-flight cabin announcements or huge posters all over Chicago airport it was hard to ignore, to the point where it was feeling a bit tacky.
Overall my experience with United was okay, ground service in SRQ was shocking, to say the least, and every few minutes during my check-in progress I would glance over to the Delta check-in counter right next to me subtly wishing I had chosen to fly with them instead. However, once I boarded my flight after more questionable ground organization the experience improved tremendously, from that point onwards I don’t have a bad thing to say about my entire journey. The digital entertainment on my phone through the app worked smoothly and the crews were great. I do wish there was some additional service on my second leg because I have flown Delta First on such short flights and managed to sneak in a few drinks. I give the entire journey a 7/10, if it wasn’t for the poor ground experience in SRQ it would’ve been an 8.5/10. I will be sure to cover my journey home which I have actually booked with Delta and will be sure to provide a direct comparison to this report.
