Flew United all the way from KSEA to Naha, Okinawa, via SFO and Narita.
24 hour travel day, on a weekend. I’d give UAL a B- overall.
Flights themselves weren’t bad, SEA to SFO was ontime departure, early landing. I got the free upgrade to an exit row when I checked in at SEA with the military ID and asking for “more legroom.”
Layover in SFO was about three hours, which was just enough time to get one of my two bags on the plane. I’m not a translog guy, but I always kinda thought the bags would pretty much go on as they came in and reverse order out, staying close-ish together.
Regardless, the majority of my flight gear/uniform stuff is still in the USA as I type this from Kadena.
Luckily I packed my khakis and a flight suit, unluckily neither set of footwear to go with. Cramming the size 13’s into a pair of 11.5’s for the day today.
SFO to Narita was around ten hours, winds were fairly light. I had the option to take my window seat at 40A, or get more legroom in economy plus in the middle seat. I opted for the window, which was the right call. Ended up next to a couple of fluffy Americans, one of which was a a YNC on his way to Guam that was waaaaay out of regs for size.
Immediate neighbor on the right was a plump 25 y/o midwestern girl in a pair of Lululemons doing yeoman’s duty (see what I did there?) holding in years of processed food attached to her thighs.
Those thighs repeatedly encroached on my side of her armrest, which, in her defense, may be a direct result of the size of the barrel-assed YNC to her right.
Either way, I was able to escape to my wall and window, and she didn’t seem too upset when I used my “man space” legroom to stretch and squished up against her rolls.
Thankfully she was well laundered and bathed, and had appropriate antiperspirant applied, as there was no malodorous contributions to the flight from her.
Can’t say the same for me, after eating the meals United provided...I had ramen or chicken/rice for “lunch” (at 14-1500 PST?) so went chicken/rice. I was missing MRE’s by the end of that meal.
Free beer/wine was nice, but due to the location outboard of two beefalos I did the tactical dehydration, only had to pee once the whole flight.
Movie selection was the best part of the deal, managed to see 4.6 good flicks. The content editing on Kingsman 2 was a little heavy, though, enough to be distracting.
Breakfast (at 2100 PST?) was an omelette that was actually decent.
Got to Narita in fine shape, and in a good mood, which I lost along with my bag between immigration and customs.
Japanese were helpful, UAL baggage lady walked me through customs with my paperwork for the missing bag. Supposedly it is arriving tonight, so may take the duty driver to retrieve it...
Domestic terminal at Narita is a throwback to my days riding Greyhound out of Bakersfield. Crowded, hot, with TV I couldn’t understand. Are my noodles and Kirin in peace before it got really crowded, then hid out to watch videos on the iPhone.
AC would go a long way to make that terminal respectable.
Flight to Naha was about half military and half locals, but of course I got to sit by the Indian/Bangladeshi guy with swamp-nuts. We were an hour late off deck, of which we spent thirty minutes waiting on the little bus from terminal D to the plane.
Thankfully we had an empty seat between us, so I discretely pointed my vent and the middle vent at him and launched his odors across the aisle.
767 seat is about as comfortable as the ejection seat in the T-6, and baggage handling in Naha was almost as slow as my lost bag.
Thankfully I had a good buddy picking me up, so I got in at a reasonable time.
Now I get to start hinge-ing.
UAL needs to get their translog side working better, the customer service part was solid.
Pickle