My wife and I had a very pleasant transpacific journey to Papeete, Tahiti on United Airlines in a 787-8 in business class to begin our special anniversary trip. The service onboard was spectacular, more than making up for the mediocre food.
United Airlines 787-8 Business Class Review (SFO-PPT)
After a quick connection in SFO with no time to visit the Polaris Lounge, we boarded our Dreamliner that would transport us to French Polynesia, a destination neither Heidi nor I had previously visited.
United 115
San Francisco (SFO) – Papeete (PPT)
Monday, May 13
Depart: 1:30 PM
Arrive: 7:15 PM
Duration: 8hr, 45min
Distance: 4,188 miles
Aircraft: Boeing 787-8
Seat: 5A (Polaris Business Class)
Onboard, we turned left down the first aisle and settled into our seats in the rear of the forward business class cabin.
Seat
The 787-8 is United’s Dreamliner geared toward leisure destinations. With only 28 business class seats, it offers a far smaller Polaris cabin than the 787-9 (48 seats) or 787-10 (44 seats). Business class is split into a forward cabin with five rows of 1-2-1 seating and two rows in a rear cabin with a galley in-between.
United’s seats are proprietary, but based on the Safran Optima platform. Each seat is 20 inches wide and converts to a lie-flat bed that is 6 foot, 6 inches long. Bulkhead seats have been more room for your feet and are recommended.
Seat recline is controlled by a knob (forward for down, back for up) and I find the seat comfortable in all positions.
All seats are equipped with universal AC and USB-A sockets and there are individual air vents.
The aircraft and seat were clean overall (no trash or grease or grime that I could see), though there was a dust build-up around the air vents:
I maintain that United does bedding better than any other carrier in business class and the soft duvet, cooling gel pillow, and larger pillow make for a great rest, especially when you add a mattress pad (available upon request). There’s also a soft day blanket, though I prefer the larger duvet.
I took a nap after lunch and slept well for about three hours…a nap is always appreciated especially since we were gaining three hours flying to Tahiti.
Service
I must give a huge shoutout to Depash, the purser, who was simply perfect.
Before you dismiss me as just being a “United fan boy” you should really fly with him. He was gracious, attentive, and kind in a way that even exceeded my very positive recent flight from Seoul to San Francisco. And it was not just me or Heidi that he was kind too…I watched from my perch in the rear of the cabin as he doded over everyone.
I received a note shortly after boarding that it appeared other United 1K and Global Services members received thanking me for my business.
When Depash found out we were celebrating our anniversary, he drew us a beautiful card:
What a beautiful touch…and it wasn’t just the cards. He constantly checked on us during the flight, offering snacks and refills of our drinks.
Depash a superb purser!
Food + Drink
Speaking of food, I’d say the food on United is improving but still not up to par with American Airlines or Delta Air Lines.
Here’s the food menu for the flight:
and drink list:
Lunch
After takeoff, service began with a hot towel, mixed nuts and a beverage (Sanpellegrino with lime – I skipped all alcohol on this trip).
For my appetizer, I selected smoked duck (with parsnip purée and grilled Granny Smith apple wedges) over burrata (with cracked black pepper. balsamic glaze, cherry tomatoes, basil, and frisée). The burrata is generally a safe bet and I should have stuck to that, as the duck tasted like cold, slimy lunchmeat.
United offers meal pre-orders starting five days before takeoff. Both my wife and I pre-ordered the fish entree.
Seared turbot
with lemon caper sauce. asparagus sauteed mushrooms roasted potatoes and sun-dried tomatoes
The entire meal was served on a tray, with bread, salad, appetizer, and main course (starting this month, United is now serving the main course as a separate course after the appetizer and salad).
The fish entree was mediocre…the fish itself was fine, but the mushrooms were rubbery and the asparagus lacked any flavor and were overcooked.
On the plus side, the garlic bread was warm and buttery:
To finish off the meal, I enjoyed a cup of coffee and an ice cream sundae with caramel sauce topped in whipped cream and shaved almonds. I don’t eat ice cream at home, so it is always a treat to get it on a plane. Other dessert choices included a fruit and cheese plate and a raspberry cheesecake.
Mid-Flight
Between meals, a snack basket and whole fruit were offered, with Depash frequently bringing it around the cabin.
Pre-Arrival Meal
While most United transpacific flights serve breakfast before landing (even those that, like this, arrive in the afternoon or evening), on this flight a light dinner was served before landing. The choices were between grilled chicken (with Bordelaise sauce, polenta, and broccolini) or a Thai vegetable green curry with coconut sticky rice (I’ve had that before here).
The chicken was really of poor quality and seemed like chicken pieces blended together to create something that looked like a breast with fake grill marks. It was served with a side of fresh-cut fruit, more garlic bread, and a cookie.
While the food was not bad, a little more focus on quality and taste would be highly appreciated.
Amenity Kit
United currently is offering a fanny-pack style Therabody-branded amenity kit with contents including:
- skin mist
- eye serum
- lip balm
- hand cream
- dental kit
- eyeshade
- earplugs
- pen
- tissues
- socks
All passengers are offered a sanitizing wipe during boarding:
IFE + Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi was available for purchase onboard ($19.99 for a flight pass or $8.99 for one hour) but I used a T-Mobile pass to connect on my phone for no charge.
The in-flight entertainment library included hundreds of movies and TV shows and I did spend much of the flight enjoying the content. There were also live news updates, which are not available on all aircraft.
Heidi and I watched Cat on a Hot Tin Roof together, a classic that neither of us had previously seen…and we loved it.
Then I finished watching the last two hours of Chernobyl, the 2019 HBO miniseries chronicling the 1986 disaster outside of Kyiv. Fascinating stuff!
United offers noise-cancelling headphones in Polaris.
Views out of a very tinted window during takeoff:
Lavatory
Two lavatories are located in the front of the aircraft for business class passengers. Skin creme, garment cleaner, and facial mist were available in addition to hand soap.
CONCLUSION
We landed ahead of schedule to a balmy evening at Fa’a’ā International Airport in Papeete. We departed via air stairs, quickly proceeded through passport control, grabbed our bags, and were soon on our way via taxi to our hotel, just a few minutes from the airport.
Both Heidi and I agreed that it was one of the best United flights we have ever experienced thanks to the kind service of Depash. Sure, the food is still a work in progress, but overall this was a very nice flight and helps to show why I am still partial to United.
Did you peek in the back to see what the load was like in coach ? Passengers mostly tourist or Tahitian / French? Always love the LAX-PPT flights, have taken many on TN and in the 90s when NZ flew LAX-PPT.
Honestly, I did not. After that photo finish connection in SFO, I remained in my seat for most of the flight.
Is this considered a fairly easy upgrade? There appears to be ~20 empty seats today
I used 70K miles to purchase the ticket, but I expect I would have cleared.
Since you love UA so much, what is your take on why their food is so mediocre? Is it related to saving money, bad supplier or simply incompetence? Their menu is not that different from Delta’s but Delta’s food is years ahead of United’s. It is well presented, it tastes really good and definitely makes you want to eat. United food is so unpleasant from their presentation and as you can attest the taste and texture is horrible. It shouldn’t be that difficult to get it right.
I don’t know why the food is bad. To be sure, it has come a long way, but I don’t know why UA cannot invest a bit more in higher quality main courses. The banquet-style chicken is really inexcusable. You bite into it and it tastes like a low-grade frozen dinner.
It’s very odd to me how literally every other airline has their food figured out. But United manages to get the cream of the slop.
Maybe if they served Scott Kirby an in-flight Polaris meal, they’d do something about it.
Could be – there are so many little things United could to make the expreince really quite good.
Add illy espresso.
Mixed nuts like AA or DL with not just broken cashews and almonds, but more premium nuts
Cocktails – just board Aperol and Campari
Fresh-squeezed orange juice
A choice of salad dressings
Soup.
A little higher quality on the meats/fish/poultry (I’m dreaming here…)
Even if the main courses stay the same, those other little changes would make a big difference.
I have travel constantly for work in J across the Atlantic and to Asia. I happen to chat one day in the lounge with a who was traveling . His take on “bad airline food” was that is airlines invest vast amounts in menu design but fail at quality management during the production. Perfect example: Your gross duck. Smocked duck is never ever served in bigh thick slabs. It is supposed to be thin like prosciutto. LH does it perfectly in F. The idea was the right one but the actual “production ” was disastrous. Same story for Turbot fish. Sounds fab on a menu. Quite tricky to get right at the best of times.
Typing while on a treadmill is not my forte
You said: “The chicken was really of poor quality and seemed like chicken pieces blended together to create something that looked like a breast with fake grill marks.”
Thought: Sounds awful! You might have commented that your chicken dish should have been described on the menu as “Spicy McChicken” based on your description as it featured the faux grill marks and such. Just a thought.
At least the cabin service was memorable.
Could you say a bit more about how you managed to book 2 business seats that far in advance for only 70K miles each. I check the UA schedule almost weekly for flights to PPT, and never see any availability for less that 170K miles. The only exception to this price is a handful of days that are at 250K or even 300K, or flights departing within the next few days. A quick check, on the UA site, even just a few minutes ago shows the same, with only flights departing within about the next ten days having availability at 85K.
We have had much better luck finding awards on Air Tahiti Nui, both business and PE, with Alaska or American miles than UA flights.
I booked it in April 2023:
https://liveandletsfly.com/united-saver-award-march-2024/
I’m a UAL million miler and used to love them. I would love them again if they just put a few more dollars into their food offerings. Why not? I really think they’d get a lot more business.
FWIW I’m taking them IAD to HNL next month and kind of dreading it. But it’s the only non stop with lie flats. If Hawaiian or Alaska/Jet Blue etc. offered the same flight I would gladly switch.
My guess is the flight there will be better than the flight back. I wouldn’t “dread” it, but I would definitely plan to eat something before getting on the plane. I don’t know HNL well enough to know if there are reasonable options there for a pre-flight meal, but some of the other Hawaiian airport, like KOA for example, really don’t have meaningful options.
Thanks for the advice I really appreciate it. Never been to Hawaii before but we’ll see.
What I really hate about UA Polaris food service is that they offer the “Choice” of “Express Dining” – all on one tray.
But all of the meals I have had in th last 6 month sin Polaris International Business class have been on one tray.
Even though I did not want Express Dining. This really strikes me as odd.
I asked the Purser on my last flight (FRA – DEN) and she said everything is now served on one tray to speed up the dinner service. OK…then why offer Express Dining if it’s standard now ?
Part of me likes everything on one tray but I also like it spread out a bit.
I agree UA isn’t quite there yet where it was pre-pandemic. No Soup ?
Maybe I’m just spoiled with Turkish Business Long Haul …hmm?
Thanks for the review !
Delta offers an option to get everything on one tray. I usually take it if it is a late flight so I can eat quick and go sleep. Otherwise, I prefer the slow pace as you can savor the dishes and not hurry to eat them all at once. Also, the option to pre-order special dishes on Delta is great. They usually have some local dishes from the departure country and they are not offered on the on board menu. Had those out of France and Brazil and they were really good.
Didn’t you say a few times tbat you never eat on planes?
They really need to go back to serving dinner, course by course; similar to Singapore Air, Cathay Pacific ; all on a tray isn’t very impressive; maybe, they could contract wit the caterer that SQ uses ; also, serving dessert with a coffee mug isn’t impressive; why not serve speciality coffee with a saucer and spoon on the side? Much improvement is needed in food quality , china, and service.
I guess United just wants its Customers to have something to only dream about/long for as far as quality inflight dining goes. I mean they can’t or don’t want to deliver a totally quality product/experience from start to finish can they?
It could be the chicken was grilled from frozen state,stuck to the cooking surface,fell apart and put together again by the caring crew.
You are slipping, Matthew. There is no photo in the bathroom with you in the mirror.
LOL, sorry to disappoint.
why not two seats nest to each other?
i cogratulate you on a contentious divroce
Because we both like window seats and are secure enough in our relationship to be four feet apart instead of three for a daytime flight to a place in which we’d spend the next week together…but all the best in dealing with your control issues.
That duck dish seemed to be missing the apples? Unless that weird the duck slices are resting on is supposed to be the apple…
Another menu snafu: they listed caramel cheesecake instead…
Are you saying AA has a better food product? AA is trash!
Many thanks Matthew for your insights with your travel experiences as I find them to be informative. I have also had this excellent purser Deepesh and yes, he does go the extra mile on his flights.
Thanks for the review as my husband and I are flying UA to Papeete in October. We’ll eat in the Polaris lounge, as has become our norm to avoid the truly awful slop served aboard. On a recent JNB-EWR flight, the crew was truly exceptionally good, but the food was equally awful. And it wasn’t b/c it was loaded at JNB; we had a fantastic F/C meal on South African between Mauritius and JNB and tasty snacks and meals on AirLink (South African regional carrier).
UA’s food offerings are truly a disgrace.