Home > United > 2001 > Review

Taken June 2001 from London Heathrow to Orange County, CA

The first flight from LHR to LAX was the usual excellent standard which we've come to expect from United's transatlantic service. The seats were very comfortable & the crew were very attentive and friendly. The meal was rather disappointing - breakfast, rather than the usual lunch, and it just wasn't the sort of thing that can be reheated well in the air. And they should take some more films on these long flights, rather than showing the same one 4 times!

Our connecting flight to Orange County was a rather uncomfortable little prop plane, but the flight was less than 20 minutes so it wasn't any worse than we'd expected. The one crew member did very well to get drinks served & trash collected before we landed!

We checked in late for our next flight to Chicago O'Hare, & lost our reserved seats. However, to compensate we were given an "upgrade" to Economy Plus. All this meant was that we got exit row seats. The service was again very attentive. However the running water wasn't working in the toilets, and fixing this didn't seem to be a priority as when we landed the crew announced the plane was continuing on to Boston, rather than being repaired.

The final flight from Chicago to LHR was unfortunately the worst. Rather than the usual 777, the flight was operated by a 747-400 in desperate need of a refit. The seats were far too close together - my legs were jammed into the back of the seat in front of me. There were no seat-back screens, & we had to make do with with a very old out of register projector, the likes of which I haven't seen since TWA stopped flying to Heathrow 10 years ago. Despite flying on the 11th July, they hadn't bothered loading that month's entertainment programmes onto the plane, so we had to make do with the previous month's. Finally, the flight attendants were very disorganised and unprofessional. They even announced at the beginning of the flight not to "bother" them during the flight. The simple task of putting some sugar in my coffee was made into a chore taking about 10 minutes. When the woman sitting next to me asked for a simple breakfast she received a torrent of abuse from the stewardess.

Overall, the final flight badly dented my impression of United, which had been the only transatlantic airline we've flown for several years. However I now feel that if there is any other option next year, I'd rather not fly United again.