Review: United Airlines Economy 777-200 Los Angeles to London Heathrow
Trip: UK Midlands/Wales Photos
Review: United Airlines Economy 777-200 London Heathrow to Los Angeles

YOUTUBE: United Airlines Economy 777-200 Los Angeles to London Heathrow
YOUTUBE: United Airlines Economy 777-200 London Heathrow to Los Angeles

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So this is the first flight I will actually be writing a report for, but it isn’t my first flight, so I do hope you enjoy this first review. NOTE: my 2013 reviews have bad picture quality because I could only salvage a pixelated version of the photos I had taken. The flight date is August 1st, 2013, but I put that because that was the flight date Meanwhile I am actually posting this on March 15th, 2017

But anyways onto the report, coming to LAX was not crowded and I would have barely made it before the crowd started. My flight leaves at 5:45 PM and so I arrived at Terminal 7, where all of United’s main airline and international flights leave from, at around 3 PM. The crowd would have started at around 4 and beyond because a surge of Europe-bound flights departs after 6 PM like Swiss Air to Zurich, Aeroflot to Moscow SVO, etc. But anyways, the check in and bag drop lines were long, probably because all the others heading to LHR with me are checking in at that time. I had no check-in bags, and I had already gotten my boarding pass, so there’s a line I could bypass. Security took a grand total of around 10 minutes, and I was on airside after that.

One thing nice about entering airside from any of LAX terminals 4-8 is that as soon as you pass security, there’s a long hall that connects all the terminals and there’s a giant window along that hall where aviation enthusiasts (like me!) Can sit and enjoy. Now this picture is horrible and I do apologize once again for that, all m 2013 pictures will be that way, but I have much better pictures for all my other flights anyways.

Unfortunately, that is my only picture before beginning to board and I do apologize for that, I have plenty more pictures in my further future reports. But for details anyways, Terminal 7 has some food places as usual. But for lounges, there is only a single United club lounge which they have remade now and it is fairly large, but there is no United Global First Lounge at LAX like how there is one at SFO, so all United premium cabin customers have to use the club lounge. But a United Polaris lounge will soon come to LAX. Now onto the flight:

United Airlines                                                                                                            

LAX-LHR Boeing 777-200ER 

I was seated at 37K and before I go on and review here are some pictures from the seat and I’ll talk about it.

Wing view seat 37K

To the seat: I was traveling in normal economy, not economy plus, and the legroom was a little tight, and I am around 5′ 9″. So for me it was not anything unbearable but certainly not ideal for a 10 hour flight. The TV screen looks big in the photo, but let me give you a reasonable comparison. The monitor’s dimensions are similar to that of an iPad Mini. While I do not mind too much, I’m sure not too many others are a fan of that. The touch also had a lag response time of about 2 seconds, which isn’t only limited to United planes thus far. But anyways we were supposed to leave at 5:45 PM but we did not end up leaving the gate until 6:50 PM because someone’s bag went missing. Great Job UA ground crew! Anyways we soon started up our Pratt and Witney engines and taxied out to runway 25R which is the northern runway on the south side of the terminals. The full video report of this flight is on m YouTube Channel so you can click that to view that if you wanted to see the takeoff (skip to 1:00).

The view after takeoff may not look clean in the video, but that was taken with an iPhone 4 I think it was?? But as we headed northeast towards Canada, the sky became gorgeous.

We took off on a straight out departure, then turned south, and looped over Palos verdes and climbed towards our cruise at FL330  (33,000 feet).

About 30 minutes after reaching our cruise altitude, a beverage service had begun. We were offered a packet of pretzels with a soft drink of our choice. Dinner followed after and there were 3 choices. Chicken, beef, or vegetarian (how exciting!). Each dish had the same rice and the same dressing, but the meat/lack of was the only thing different between the 3 meals which I am not a fan of at all. I have this weird thing where I take a picture of the meal boxed, then unboxed, so here comes that:

Meal Quality, the salad was the most tasteless rubber I have ever had in the sky up to that point. I’m not a fan of tomatoes, but I am not rating down for that since that is subjective, but the leaves had no taste and has a rubbery feel to it. The dressing did not make things better since that also tasted like it had too many additives. But surprisingly the chicken was not bad. It’s not the best airplane meal I have had in the sky, but it tasted well. The curry that was o top added a nice taste to the meal overall. And then there was a brownie and bread with butter which is standard for an economy meal and you can expect that. Overall, the meal was alright, the salad was a disappointment, but the chicken and brownie made up for it, but the meager quality of food truly shows on United’s long-haul economy. The best economy food I have ever had from a US airliner is Delta’s long-haul economy food, but that is also subjective.

I wanted to sleep some at this point, but I wanted to adjust to London time, and I enjoy planes to the point that I refuse to sleep in them to avoid losing precious time inside it. So yes, jet lag hit me hard the evening of the day that I arrived in London. A couple hours after, we were passing over Greenland and here are some pictures of that:

So a couple hours after that, the lights were turned on, and breakfast service had begun which was not filling at all, and unsatisfactory for a 10-hour international flight, but what to expect from a US carrier (as of 2013):

Looks pretty filling huh? It included a fruit bowl with cantaloupes, melons, and grapes which you cannot see, but it was there. Also, there was croissant with strawberry Jam and butter. I do appreciate that at least the croissant was warm and soft (best croissant quality for me!), but still not too happy with the meal. Anyways soon after we got arrival updates from the captain with the weather, and the usual LHR holding pattern notice:

 

It was indeed a beautiful day above the clouds and even as we descended into the clouds it was a gorgeous ride down all the way. Here is another picture just before we sink below the clouds:

So there’s nothing really to talk about here other than the fact that there were really nice views all the way down into Heathrow of London. You can see all of that in my YouTube video of this flight if you want, and another kid next to me expressing his appreciation for the view as well, which can be audibly heard. Anyways the rest of the pictures I took were on ground, so here they are. Although I might add that we had a rather rough touchdown in Heathrow, probably the pilots flaring a little too early but nothing too crazy otherwise:

When I first saw the BA plane above, I’ll be honest, I thought it was such an old plane that the colors were extremely faded and the colors started to spill on the fuselage 🙂

So this just about concludes my first trip report.

Overall, I’d say the hard product(seat) could use a little extra legroom, and I’m not being demanding and asking for an extra foot, but even just an extra 2-3 inches. The food was ok, nothing spectacular, although the chicken dinner was not too bad, and The morning croissant was soft an warm as it should be, but those were the highlights of the food.

Hope you guys enjoyed, and yes even thought this was just posted now, the flight date was August 1st, 2013. Please leave comments if you have any questions. Thanks! Don’t forget to view the trip pictures and return flight report as well!