My fiance and I had managed to get a great deal, one ticket at a very reasonable price for J and the other on miles!
So the day arrived, the usual behemoth of a fog bank lingered over the coast but it's fingers never seemingly making it as far as SFO. Saying that, I'm never too concerned when flying internationally. We arrived at SFO and check-in was a breeze, the very pleasant check-in agent joked that we could buy as much UK pressies as we wanted with our 3x70llb luggage allowance....which we didn't even come close to using!
Following a seamless check-in, came a seamless security line as is often the case at SFO. What came next, not so pleasant. The united club (I hear they actually have a really nice lounge for those flying in First) is really bad, the staff are nice enough, but I honestly feel we have been better served not to have bothered to enter. In terms of food it was cheese and crackers, no not presented on a nice plate but rather tillamook cheese in individual plastic wrappers and crackers...oh, and some bags of carrots! And if you wanted a glass of bubbly then you had to pay for it. Rubbish.
The better half and I decided to leave the lounge early and wander to the gate, stopping in some shops along the way. Soon it came time to board, the process was pretty easy aside from as we were making our way to the door they anounced that economy could board and it was a bit of a scrum. We made it through and soon we were headed upstairs on the 744.
It's really nice upstairs, the windows seats have lockers just beneath the window that can easily store bags, though they're a tad smaller in row 12 (there's only 2 seats on the r/h side in row 12). Soon after sitting down and packing our stuff away they were around to serve pre-flight champagne, nice it was too, though in a plastic glass but hey ho.
The seats are extremely comfy I thought, and though it maybe is a tad awkward for a few seconds if you were in the window and didn't know the aisle passenger I doubt it would be a real detractor. The food in-flight was very nice, a very tasty beef shortrib was enjoyed by the both of us! The wine/champagne was free flowing and then came my favourite bit of the flight, the Ice Cream sundae! They wheel around a trolly full of glass bowls of just plain old ice cream, but then ask you what toppings you'd like! Genius! Hot caramel, chocolate and cream for me please!
Once again we were treated to a staggeringly beautiful display of the northern lights, which basically meant I didn't even bother to attempt to sleep! Naturally this was a tad painful when landing at 7AM at LHR but worth every minute! I managed to snap some pics of it too which I'll share when I've downloaded them!
Upon landing we spent a good 45 mins sitting on the tarmac waiting for an aircraft to clear our gate, honestly it was fine as the entertainmen was still on for 30 of those 45 mins.
The E Gates line at immigration was non existent as is often the case and my fiance, who's a US citizen, didn't take all that long either! All in all, a great trip and seeing as we're all in with United it's a reassuring one too!
