I said I'd post back after our October cruise trip as a few had expressed an interest in what United are like these days since the merger with Continental.
I apologise in advance for sounding snotty about economy sometimes but there are a number of reasons why I hate economy as do most people but not least because I'm 6'5" with incredibly long legs!
To set the scene, we've been travelling Virgin Atlantic direct from Manchester to MCO since we've been going to Florida with the kids 7 years ago, once or twice a year and always PE. We've been very lucky but I've also been obsessive about collecting flying club miles so it's not always cost too much.
However, for this trip, even economy was well over £1000 per person when I was booking so we went with United at £550 per person which given it was half term I thought was ok. We then paid for the two Atlantic legs to have extra leg room (now called economy plus). Outbound was via Washington Dulles (IAD) with a 2hr connections and return was via Newark with a 1hr connection.
Outbound
Check in was fine, the staff in the line were all very polite and friendly, they pre checked passports while queuing so check in was faster and very smooth so no more than 10 minutes despite a large line (the earlier Newark flight was overbooked so they were very politely dealing with a lot of changes as well), although we didn't take the mickey with cabin baggage, because they are a Us airline and it seems common to take your entire worldly contents in a large wheely bag on the 'plane with you over there they weren't checking sizes, quantity or weights. As we had 4 x 23Kg available to us it wasn't an issue but I bet you could squeeze another 15 into a large cabin case.
The flight was slightly delayed but I got an email from United a full 30 minutes before the boards in Manchester Airport even registered the inbound flight had arrived so that was good and we knew we could have another glass of wine in the bar!
The flight was great, the 'planes are configured as 3+3 so a family of 4 have a choice to make, 2+2 with two window seats or 3+1 across the aisle, we chose the latter with me being the loner on the other side. The aisle was narrow so perfectly possible to talk across though. The legroom was fantastic and easily comparable to the legroom in VA bubble PE let alone the new A330 configurations so I was very happy, obviously seat width is not the same being identical to economy and this led to the only issue as my shoulder are quite broad and spent a lot of time touching the person next to me who was another big chap. I'm not too keen on physical contact liking my personal space so this was a small negative.
Food was fine for an airline, not VA standard but edible although no kids option so it was a good job we brought snacks as our two are fussy. Drinks were frequent and mostly free although I wasn't drinking and Jo only had one with her meal. She got a sparkling wine too although I think on the outbound this was pilfered from Business as they denied they had any then said "oh go on then" and gave it to her without charging.
We were in row 9 so off the 'plane really quickly and straight into the terminal which was very organised ready to clear immigration. The queue wasn't too bad but the kids were tired and moany and it was at this point we were most depressed about indirect. Standing there with whingy kids in a longish line in a secure zone (so no gadgets to keep 'em quiet) knowing you had to wait an hour then get on another 'plane was the worst part of the journey (I'll sum up later as this became less and less important).
We then had to check the bags again which was a doddle (just dump them on a conveyor belt after customs) and travel the full length of the airport with above children (me carrying one) to the furthest terminal. This wasn't fun either but I think in hindsight it was because we didn't know how much time we had or how far we had to go, if we had been prepared for it, perhaps we would have paced ourselves. By the looks of it (and I'll describe later) Newark is a much better airport for connections than Washington as it is a compressed layout like MCO, Washington IAD was a verrry long narrow terminal building, have a look on the maps here
https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=wa...cid=0,0,12675445946158536560&t=h&z=17&iwloc=A
The flight was fine although I got a call at boarding asking if I'd swap my aisle seat as a mother was separated from her children which I did on face value as I wouldn't like for Jo and the kids to ever be separated. I got a good seat but we couldn't see or talk to each other so Jo had to look after the kids on her own. It turned out they were also brits and the kids were teens so perfectly fine to sit alone. Really wish I hadn't been so nice now as she didn't even acknowledge me on the 'plane and didn't say thanks or anythign to Jo! Ah well, I'd rather be nice in error than selfish when it could have been important.
In MCO all went swimminlgy, luggage arrived very quickly and as per Wayne's trip report, I was able to retrieve my car booking from Holiday Autos using the kiosk so no queue or hard sell!!
Return
The return flight was even better, we were on the 3:30 to Newark with only 1hr7m connection so I was a little nervous as we'd never done indirect before let alone a quick change one. All was fine though, the flight was a little late departing from MCO and I don't think we made up much time in flight but we actually had a little more 90 minutes connection in the end. Whether it was some quirk of reserving seats before they switched to the economy plus config or the used a different 'plane I don't know but we had row 9 again which showed as plain economy on the seat map but were actually economy plus so the same leg room again even though we decided not to pay it on the domestic legs. The flight felt really quick and again we were off really quickly into Newark. This time the boarding cards showed the departure gate for the Atlantic leg so we knew where to go and to our delight as we entered the terminal we could already see the departure gate which allowed time for a quick shop for snacks and wee break for the girls. Couldn't find anywhere that sold sparkling wine for Jo (nervous flyer and still wine gives her a headache) which is a shame.
The Atlantic flight was fine although again I had someone next to me with personal space issues, even putting his arms up above his head then resting his elbows on the shoulders of those next to him (me and another disgruntled chap) we both shrugged and he moved but the cheek of it! (Elderly Manc chap who appeared to travel for business frequently so possibly thought he owned the plane). Food was fine and drinks were frequent although all alchohol was charged as opposed to the one free one on the way over. The great thing was the flight was exceptionally short arriving in Manchester just over 6 hours after take off. For me this return leg was what really sold the United Economy Plus Indirect via Newark option (notice I've been very specific there!).
Conclusion
I won't lie, the convenience of direct flights and the luxury (although diminishing) of Virgin PE can't currently be beaten in my book but United Economy Plus is a real challenger and significantly cheaper. We discussed it on the way back and based purely on the outbound we wouldn't do it again but factor in the return journey which I actually preferred to direct as the second leg of only 6 hours flew by means we really will consider it again.
There are some caveats, I think I'd prefer to change in Newark as those terminals in Washington are horrendous for kids if you have to traverse the length of it as we did. I'd probably try to get Economy Plus on the domestic legs as well as the international as leg room on the older plane was poop and there was no entertainment.
So I think we'll be on United next year rather than Virgin unless prices change significantly. It's currently £1400 per person on VA PE for our dates which is absurd, who is paying that price!!!
Any questions please ask.
Andy
I apologise in advance for sounding snotty about economy sometimes but there are a number of reasons why I hate economy as do most people but not least because I'm 6'5" with incredibly long legs!
To set the scene, we've been travelling Virgin Atlantic direct from Manchester to MCO since we've been going to Florida with the kids 7 years ago, once or twice a year and always PE. We've been very lucky but I've also been obsessive about collecting flying club miles so it's not always cost too much.
However, for this trip, even economy was well over £1000 per person when I was booking so we went with United at £550 per person which given it was half term I thought was ok. We then paid for the two Atlantic legs to have extra leg room (now called economy plus). Outbound was via Washington Dulles (IAD) with a 2hr connections and return was via Newark with a 1hr connection.
Outbound
Check in was fine, the staff in the line were all very polite and friendly, they pre checked passports while queuing so check in was faster and very smooth so no more than 10 minutes despite a large line (the earlier Newark flight was overbooked so they were very politely dealing with a lot of changes as well), although we didn't take the mickey with cabin baggage, because they are a Us airline and it seems common to take your entire worldly contents in a large wheely bag on the 'plane with you over there they weren't checking sizes, quantity or weights. As we had 4 x 23Kg available to us it wasn't an issue but I bet you could squeeze another 15 into a large cabin case.
The flight was slightly delayed but I got an email from United a full 30 minutes before the boards in Manchester Airport even registered the inbound flight had arrived so that was good and we knew we could have another glass of wine in the bar!
The flight was great, the 'planes are configured as 3+3 so a family of 4 have a choice to make, 2+2 with two window seats or 3+1 across the aisle, we chose the latter with me being the loner on the other side. The aisle was narrow so perfectly possible to talk across though. The legroom was fantastic and easily comparable to the legroom in VA bubble PE let alone the new A330 configurations so I was very happy, obviously seat width is not the same being identical to economy and this led to the only issue as my shoulder are quite broad and spent a lot of time touching the person next to me who was another big chap. I'm not too keen on physical contact liking my personal space so this was a small negative.
Food was fine for an airline, not VA standard but edible although no kids option so it was a good job we brought snacks as our two are fussy. Drinks were frequent and mostly free although I wasn't drinking and Jo only had one with her meal. She got a sparkling wine too although I think on the outbound this was pilfered from Business as they denied they had any then said "oh go on then" and gave it to her without charging.
We were in row 9 so off the 'plane really quickly and straight into the terminal which was very organised ready to clear immigration. The queue wasn't too bad but the kids were tired and moany and it was at this point we were most depressed about indirect. Standing there with whingy kids in a longish line in a secure zone (so no gadgets to keep 'em quiet) knowing you had to wait an hour then get on another 'plane was the worst part of the journey (I'll sum up later as this became less and less important).
We then had to check the bags again which was a doddle (just dump them on a conveyor belt after customs) and travel the full length of the airport with above children (me carrying one) to the furthest terminal. This wasn't fun either but I think in hindsight it was because we didn't know how much time we had or how far we had to go, if we had been prepared for it, perhaps we would have paced ourselves. By the looks of it (and I'll describe later) Newark is a much better airport for connections than Washington as it is a compressed layout like MCO, Washington IAD was a verrry long narrow terminal building, have a look on the maps here
https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=wa...cid=0,0,12675445946158536560&t=h&z=17&iwloc=A
The flight was fine although I got a call at boarding asking if I'd swap my aisle seat as a mother was separated from her children which I did on face value as I wouldn't like for Jo and the kids to ever be separated. I got a good seat but we couldn't see or talk to each other so Jo had to look after the kids on her own. It turned out they were also brits and the kids were teens so perfectly fine to sit alone. Really wish I hadn't been so nice now as she didn't even acknowledge me on the 'plane and didn't say thanks or anythign to Jo! Ah well, I'd rather be nice in error than selfish when it could have been important.
In MCO all went swimminlgy, luggage arrived very quickly and as per Wayne's trip report, I was able to retrieve my car booking from Holiday Autos using the kiosk so no queue or hard sell!!
Return
The return flight was even better, we were on the 3:30 to Newark with only 1hr7m connection so I was a little nervous as we'd never done indirect before let alone a quick change one. All was fine though, the flight was a little late departing from MCO and I don't think we made up much time in flight but we actually had a little more 90 minutes connection in the end. Whether it was some quirk of reserving seats before they switched to the economy plus config or the used a different 'plane I don't know but we had row 9 again which showed as plain economy on the seat map but were actually economy plus so the same leg room again even though we decided not to pay it on the domestic legs. The flight felt really quick and again we were off really quickly into Newark. This time the boarding cards showed the departure gate for the Atlantic leg so we knew where to go and to our delight as we entered the terminal we could already see the departure gate which allowed time for a quick shop for snacks and wee break for the girls. Couldn't find anywhere that sold sparkling wine for Jo (nervous flyer and still wine gives her a headache) which is a shame.
The Atlantic flight was fine although again I had someone next to me with personal space issues, even putting his arms up above his head then resting his elbows on the shoulders of those next to him (me and another disgruntled chap) we both shrugged and he moved but the cheek of it! (Elderly Manc chap who appeared to travel for business frequently so possibly thought he owned the plane). Food was fine and drinks were frequent although all alchohol was charged as opposed to the one free one on the way over. The great thing was the flight was exceptionally short arriving in Manchester just over 6 hours after take off. For me this return leg was what really sold the United Economy Plus Indirect via Newark option (notice I've been very specific there!).
Conclusion
I won't lie, the convenience of direct flights and the luxury (although diminishing) of Virgin PE can't currently be beaten in my book but United Economy Plus is a real challenger and significantly cheaper. We discussed it on the way back and based purely on the outbound we wouldn't do it again but factor in the return journey which I actually preferred to direct as the second leg of only 6 hours flew by means we really will consider it again.
There are some caveats, I think I'd prefer to change in Newark as those terminals in Washington are horrendous for kids if you have to traverse the length of it as we did. I'd probably try to get Economy Plus on the domestic legs as well as the international as leg room on the older plane was poop and there was no entertainment.
So I think we'll be on United next year rather than Virgin unless prices change significantly. It's currently £1400 per person on VA PE for our dates which is absurd, who is paying that price!!!
Any questions please ask.
Andy
