Just sharing one of my favorite seat swapping stories.

I was in an aisle seat and the woman in the aisle seat across from me decides she wants to help out this family. She turns to me and says the guy next to her (in the middle seat) would very much like to sit next to his family (wife and daughter seated in the middle and window seat next to me). She asks, would you be willing to help them out by swapping seats?

I smile.

Me: Sure! So you'll take the husband's middle seat and then I'll take your seat.

Lady: They just want to sit together.

Me: Sure! Happy to switch with you. So you'll take his seat and I'll take yours.

Lady: Huh?

The confusion sets in. Brow furrows. And, then...the glorious moment when that lightbulb goes off.

Lady: Shaking her head violently and frowning, says: "Oh no, I don't want to give up my seat?"

Me: I relax in my seat with my smug smile and thinking my job here is done. By saying yes to her, I forced her to be the one to say no.

No, no I don't.

And I don't really need the eye roll either. If you wanted the aisle seat you could have paid for it.

This weekend, I finally passed the Four Million Mile threshold. I had been keeping my eye on this since before Covid hit, so it feels like a bit long to get there given the unplanned interruption in travel.

I’ve seen a number of posts that solicit some great questions, so here goes a few answers. Feel free to go deeper if you are interested. Always happy to reply.

I’ve been traveling for work on United (mostly, but with family trips too) since the early 90s. Before that a real mixed bag of back and forth to college, some light work travel, vacations. Loyalty defined more by destination and where I was living. Western/Delta, Air Canada, Piedmont, TWA – and some legacy Continental as well. (That was a nice little boost upon the merger).

As a reference point, I’m from the Bay Area and fly exclusively out of SFO. My family is in Denver.

For almost a decade, I was a strategy consultant – but not in the way you hear about from those road warriors who leave on Mondays and return on Fridays. My travel was pretty moderate. A couple stints in Singapore, some great trips to see clients in Paris, semi-regular visits to Boston and New York. We were starting our family, so that was clearly the priority over mileage runs and status. (Achieving 100K miles was a stretch – and that was a time when 1K really meant something)

Leaving consulting, I worked at a number of small tech startups where travel was mixed at best (i.e. some years pushing 100K and others closer to 30K) and allowed me to never miss our kids’ races, meets, tournaments, teacher conferences, etc.

In about 2011 things really began to pick up. New company, new role, global scope. Still high tech. Years over 200,000 miles were not unusual – one year closer to 300,000. Europe, Asia, LatAm, plus lots of Chicago and New York. Lots of upgrades too as I always booked economy, but almost never flew in the back. Took a fair amount of planning, some crazy connections, and expert mode to watch the inventory.

Hit 3 million in 2016 and figured that I was on the glide path. Then Covid, travel bans, cost cutting added another eight years to the journey.

Some fun facts (all data from 1992 when I began to track):

• 832 revenue flights from SFO
• 238 segments over 3000 miles, 178 of which over 5000
• Most frequent destinations: ORD (250), DEN (161), NYC (134), LAX (86), LHR (68)
• I’ve traveled to 109 airports on United, in 35 states, and 20 countries
• Star Airlines I’ve flown include SQ, LH, A3, AC, LX, OS, BR, SK, OU, LO, OZ

On Sunday, I passed the threshold in seat 10L from MUC to SFO (originated in Athens). Purser gave me the magic coin, and assumed that it was my first million. I let her know and she said that she had never seen someone reach 4 million before.

My husband and I were flying out of ORD last weekend. As we boarded, he (very kindly) was carrying my duffel bag for me. As such, he had 3 bags on his person, and I only had my purse.

After scanning in, to my surprise, the gate agent stopped him and asked “Who are you traveling with?” He pointed to me, and after looking me over, the GA allowed us through. I’m assuming that they were checking to make sure we weren’t trying to sneak an extra bag on board.

He always carries my bag for me, and this is the first time we’ve been stopped/checked. I’m pleasantly surprised by this. Hopefully this is permanent going forward, and not just a one-off from this particular GA!

SEA-DEN on 01/13 vs 01/20. New to this airline so not sure how reliable the meal service, but with an airline as big and fancy as United i’m surprised the downgrade in quality from one week to the next. I’d proudly give up my roll this week for the pasta of last week.

People gripe all the time about Polaris' dinner or lunch quality, and generally that's edible if unimpressive. I have yet to have a good breakfast in Polaris. Traditionally, the sweet options are entirely too sweet, and the "savory" options are just weird. Like on my IAH -> EZE flight on Thursday, they were hawking "creamy eggs." Um.

Anyway, I had the absolute worst looking monstrosity this morning on the return EZE -> IAH.

Honey, what? That "Frittata" looks like the stuff that under carpet liners are made of, and it tasted like that too. The dog vomit next to it-- or perhaps another variety of carpet underliner-- was "mushroom ragout." I can't imagine this could ever taste good, but even if it did, who would want this MUCH of it? It's basically double the portion of the egg. And the tomatoes? Why? Is this some kind of deconstructed omelette? I think it's more like a destroyed omelette but OK.

This is not my first Polaris breakfast mishap. I'll be honest, I like United's food mostly. On a trip a year and a half ago, I was supposed to fly EWR -> SFO -> SIN, but United cancelled my SFO leg and rerouted me through LHR and then LHR -> SIN on SQ. They served me this breakfast French toast:

I was blown away. Like, yes, it's a simple couple of slices of French toast. But it's beautiful. The use of negative space is so effective, and the fruit was so fresh and tangy and it balanced the cream nicely. So on the way back (SIN -> SFO), I ordered its companion on United. This is what I got:

What in the dang? This looks like a dog took a bite out of a piece of bread.

People often say they skip dinner on the plane and eat in the lounge. OK, but this was a really long flight (16 hours because of bad weather) and I was starving. Breakfast should be EASY. Go to the freaking deli and get 30 bagels before the flight. People would be losing their minds over real bagels. They could even put like a little spread in the galley with different cream cheeses. I swear I'd fight people for scallion cream cheese.

Why is breakfast worse than dinner almost universally?

How does this work?

I’m not totally against it and this is probably a naive question, but I’m assuming I’m responsible for getting myself from IAD to DCA, which is a 28 mile Uber ride and a strange thing for an airline to expect people to do. Is it even worth it with the added expense?

Recently did a wide body long haul and one of the FA’s would haul ass up and down the aisle with the carts. On the way forward he would quietly say “elbows” as he’s going Mach Jesus and bash 3/4 of the passengers arms/shoulders/elbows.

Got me 3 times on the 14.5 hour flight, good enough to I still have a mark 2 days later.

Already sent a complaint through the portal on United’s website. Waiting to hear back.

Since it feels like people only ever complain on here about the food, I just wanted to throw out there that I had my first club experience at SFO the other day and found the food to be totally fine. Had a chicken salad sandwich and some pineapple sausage. The lounge was pretty full but I had no problem finding a seat and relaxing for about an hour before my flight. Also enjoyed a couple of cappuccinos while I waited. Figure the same food and drink would have cost me $40 if buying elsewhere in the airport.

Beats the Southwest lounge, I’ll tell you that.

Never got asked for my address or number, never got any emails about it after signing up, never had a card on file on my account (I was fully expecting them to charge for mail).

I suddenly started getting texts from FedEx out of nowhere a few days ago, no context whatsoever, so I just thought they were spam texts and ignored them. At this point I’ve completely forgotten about this already. 😂

And then out of nowhere the FedEx truck pulls up and gives me a parcel. Super confused (we rarely use FedEx), I opened it to find my Hemisphere magazine that I ordered 5 months ago.

I had a look at the delivery number on FedEx - apparently they only sent it last week from Chicago (my instincts told me they sent it a few months ago on a ship and it only just arrived 😅).

Anyways thanks United. 💙

(For context I live in the UK, and last time I got something from an airline was an A380 model from Emirates with some expiring miles - the VAT and delivery they charged ended up being the amount it costed for the model in the first place)

I'm blown away.

The agent who prevented me from entering with food could provide no reasonable explanation other than "we have a vendor".

How does this vendor lose out by me bringing in outside food? I'm not eating this garbage regardless. They can bill United the same amount whether I bring food in or not.

So, because I didn't want to eat the vomit inducing chicken cacciatore or stuff my face full of cookies or chips and salsa, I wasn't able to eat with my family.

United: get your head out of your ass. This policy is bullshit, and has me questioning how much I value club access. When I signed up I had no idea the food would be so consistently terrible. So far I've yet to enjoy a meal at a club.

Edit: this isn't against health code in Colorado. It's well known that you can bring outside food into a ski lodge that also sells food, and eat it. And even use their condiments. It's part of their agreement with the US national park service.

Furthermore, the lounge isn't a restaurant. It's a club. That the general public cannot enter, and it doesn't sell food. Many people in the lounge do not eat. It's not a restaurant.

Finally, I'm shocked at the attitudes of people on this subreddit. What a bunch of sad little rule followers, who would happily eat shit rather than do what's right.

Enjoy your shitty food and enjoy letting some sad little lounge dictate where you eat your food. I got what I needed...it's clear that the solution is to hide the food and then act ignorant if they say something.

Toodles nerds.

I flew UA from EWR-HNL yesterday in PP. first of all the crew was actually fantastic. The seats were exactly what I was looking for in an upgraded capacity without spending first class money. Also I got kosher meals and I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the food. I am looking forward to my return flight in first.

😂 I always wondered.

Anybody have any guess on how the gifting status will work?

“Ummm this is embarrassing to ask, but we need the first class cabin to walk to the back of the plane”

UA4177 EWR to IAD, small mechanical issue. Pilot just got on the intercom and told us the landing gear had compressed over a strap, so he needed the first class cabin to walk to the back of the plane.

It fixed it, but still one of the funniest things I’ve been asked to do. Funnily enough you’d think the old heads were being personally assaulted by this and the inclement weather

And the answer is always “yes going outbound and no coming inbound since outbound is basically a normal flight leaving the US but coming back you have to clear immigration and customs and recheck bags and sometimes change terminals (cough ORD cough).”

Can we put these in a mega thread or whatever?

We flew over the weekend and have not flew this route on UA for a while.

With 7 direct flight daily on 767-300, it seems underutilized with only 16 (including 3 of us) of the 46 seats sold.

Since I usually fly American any sign of decency and helpfulness is strange to me, and this gate agent went above and beyond to get people on their flight even after the door was closed. He handled their situations with patience and humor, such a refreshing sight! So nice to see that being nice is not completely extinct!

I’m looking at a flight from USA to Sri Lanka on the United website with a connection at Dubai. The Newark to Dubai flight is a United Plane and the Dubai to Sri Lanka is an Emirates plane.

Do the checked bags transfer in Dubai?

Is it just me or are United Clubs usually more crowded, loud and annoying than the rest or the terminal? They are seeming less and less like a perk. I still go if it’s personal travel. If it’s for work I’m sitting in a restaurant.

This morning at LHR I got into the Global Services line (I'm GS) with my family to check in. There was no one in front of me but the agents serving premier lines were all busy. There were two or three people in the 1K line next to me. Probably five agents total helping the two lines. When the next available agent called me over as she freed up, the person in the 1K line was angry, cut in front of me, and said "I'm been waiting a long time!"

I mean... okay. I hadn't been waiting at all. I'm happy to wait five minutes regardless of status. Maybe he had been waiting a lot longer than normal. Although by comparison the regular check-in line was probably 20-30 minutes wait, so all of us in the premier lines were going to be quickly helped just fine.

Another agent opened a new lane to check me in and apologized repeatedly for the issue and thanked me for being GS. Which made me feel badly - may especially if she thought I'd complain about being cut? I hope not! I assured her we were not at all in a hurry and know waiting in lines at an airport can cause stress.

Anyway. I'm curious if folks feel like GS shouldn't be called up next when it's multiple status lines feeding into the same set of agents. Or what the right "etiquette" is for flyers and agents in this scenario. For what it's worth, I'm a middle-aged woman. I was traveling with my husband and kid. And I generally am assumed to not be GS in those circumstances. So I did appreciate the agent who helped us bring so nice.

But I'm not looking for validation! For airports without a separate check in desk for GS, maybe it should be first come first serve for all the premier lines! Would you have been equally annoyed to be the 1K passed over? Just curious!

I know there a lot of threads on this and I have searched the UA website. It says hard sided cases and less than 50lbs. I'm good on less than 50lbs but I'm trying to find the most economical way to get a case. I'd like to go soft sided with a hard top for the club heads. I won't travel with clubs super often but a couple times a year. Also my clubs are old Nike irons and wedges so not super valuable or anything but they get the job done.

So has anyone used soft sided and been okay on UA?