Hi All
Just back this morning from my first experience of travelling through Newark with United. Appreciate there is a lot of very experienced travellers in this forum but thought I would try and explain the process to help any lurkers or those new to travelling indirect. For the record, my trip was a five day business trip to San Diego, with United, from Birmingham, via Newark.
Firstly online check in 24 hours prior to travel. You will not be able to print out boarding passes but it is worth doing to confirm your first night address. On the morning of departure I got to the airport at 6:15 for a 9:00am departure. The line for check in and bag drop was hideous and very slow moving. As you are in this line you will be approached by a stern official who will check your documents, scan your passport on a laptop which I believe checked yours ESTA status. I am assuming that if your passport triggers something off in their system - you will be heading outside for a taxi home. It was a 45 minute wait in the line until i had boarding passes (for both parts of the journey) and had handed over the suitacase. I asked one of the guys after getting my passes what the best time is to arrive. He said be in that line for check in and bag drop before 6am (the desks open at 6am) or after 7:30am. Secutiry at BHX was understandably busy but got though in 20 mins.
It is highly likely that your flight will go from Gate 48 at Birmingham (I checked with the staff working the shops in that area). Next to gate 48 there is a costa Coffee, WH Smiths and some spotless toilets . It is much quieter here than in the main terminal. I would head straight there and avoid the stags and hens on their way to Alicante.
Boarding will begin 60 mind prior to departure at 8am. Here is where it is nice to fly with a grown up airline. Once you have boarded the IFE will be switched on and available to start using. Its a great system with personal TV screens, a choice of 60 films on demand, loads of TV programs, stacks of music channels, flight map and games.
Onto the flight. I loved it! Good food and extremely attentative service. I liked the fact it was a smaller flight. Although the flight was full, the noise level and movement on the flight was much quieter than my experiences with Virgin. I think as there are a lot less families on this route. As it was a business trip and I had comped hotels, I upgraded for econmy plus at a cost of $220 for both legs to San Diego. The amount of leg room this offered was staggering. Would I pay it myself? I couldnt justify it for the five of us going next week unfortunatley - but it was great to have (particularly as someone else was picking up the tab for this one!
)
Arrival and Newark Airport: For anyone worrying about taking an indirect flight for the first time or connecting through here - Stop it! It was an absolute breeze, clearly signposted at all stages and no hassle at all to do.
Step 1: On landing route march from the gate to immigration. Three tips that may help : a) Make sure you have filled in the customs clearance form properly or you will be sent back. b) make sure everyone in your party is toileted 45 mins before your flight is due to land. This should prevent getting further behind in the line at immigration as you have your first restroom wait of your holiday. c) Be polite and respectful to the Border Staff.
Step 2:Once through immigration you are straight into baggage reclaim. Its all very clearly signposted to which belt your bags will be on, and in all likeliness your bags will probably be waiting for you. Get your bag and walk through the final customs point and hand in your form. From the belts to this point at Newark - no more than 100m. At this point you can open your case and put anything else in there that you may have bought on the flight / or are fed up of carrying.
Step 3: As soon as you have gone through the customs point there is a huge sign for connecting flights. Its no more than 40m from where you have handed over your customs form. The staff there will scan your bag and put it onto another luggage belt. Thats it for luggage - you dont have to worry about that again until you arrive at your destination.
Step 4:Now you need to change terminals to get your connecting flight. Chances are you landed in terminal B. United Domestic flights operate from Terminal C. Follow the very clear signs up one flight of stairs to the sky train. (Note: any smokers can nip outside before getting on the skytrain for a craftty fix). If you have a lenghty layover you can also take another train at this point into New York itself.
The sky train to terminal C is approx 3 mins. On a clear day you can see NewYork City and if you squint hard enough - the Statue of Liberty. Now at Terminal C, you will need to again clear security. Unless you are under 12 years old - it's shoes off for everyone - regardless of what you are wearing. There will be a thorough check of your ticket and your passport. Now is not the time to dazzle the border staff with your award winning, and sometimes inappropriate sense of humour. Be polite and respectful, no matter how tired / stressed/ excited you are! I find calling everyone Sir and Mam is generally appreciated as is a friendly smile. Easy obvious stuff....
Step 5: Once into Terminal C there are a lot of shops and eating places. I managed to pick up free wifi outside gate 80 in the food court that has McDonalds, Dunkin Donuts and Ben and Jerrrys to name a few. Log onto United_Club. Keep your eye on the gates as it might have changed from what you were issued with in the UK.
For me, from the plane touching down to getting to my new gate in terminal C, it was exactly 60 minutes, albeit from the front of the plane and travelling solo with an unhealthy hatred of any faffing.
When its time for your internal flight, they board by sequence number with priority to frequent flyers, veterans, serving military, disabled and then the great unwashed. If you are on last expect to have no room in the overhead lockers for your stuff. I would recommend travelling light on board, the amount of luggage carried by some US travellers is really quite incredible!
On your domestic flight there is live TV but this is a pay service. $8 approx for flights in excess of 2 hours. There are deals and discounts if you swipe more than one screen terminal with the same card. Soft drinks are plentiful, and free of charge. You can buy other food and alcohol of that's your thing, but only via credit card or prepaid voucher.
On arrival at your destination airport - the speed the flight docks, unloads and delivers the baggage to the belt is impressive. You will be champing at the bit for your hire car in no time at all.
Onto United themselves. I had read mixed reviews of course. I always travel with the "as long as they get me there" mantra and it takes a lot to push me over the edge. I have to say the whole experience was excellent. Much much better than Virgin in my opinion. On the four flights I have done his past week, they have all been staffed by older cabin crew who understand customer service. What a refreshing change! I thought the food was good, there is loads of room on board, the toilets were clean. I even manged to catnap through the night. A first for me on a returning transatlantic. I fly a lot with work - it's nice to be treated like a customer and an adult unlike the majority of European budget carriers I'm usually on. I heartily recommend them!
Onto coming back. You will check your bags in at your departure airport and they will be sent through to your Uk airport. Easy peasy. Nothing to do with them when you arrive at your connecting airport. Though Neward its likley you will will land in terminal C and depart internationally from terminal C.
I had over 3 hours at Terminal c yesterday waiting for my international flight. The airport felt a lot busier then the previous Friday when I flew through on the way out San Diego. It's a question often asked and worried about on here, How much time for my connecting flight? From my experience I wouldn't risk anything under 2 hours on the way out. Coming back - if everything is on time you are laughing. You could get away with 40 minutes no problems. (You only need 10minutes - your bags a bit more!) For my safety net I would want a minimum 60 minutes on the way back.
I can't wait to use United again next Thursday when the five of us head of to Florida! Makes me realise - I missed my single digit dance - so a quick 1 week to go dance - woohoo
). Our flights, again via NY, were £515 per person, from an airport 5 minutes away. It would have to be a very competitive price with Virgin to get me back on them from Manchester or Gatwick - even with flying direct.
Sorry - have prattled on for longer then I thought when I started typing this. Blame the jetlag!
I hope all this may be of some use to anyone using United or New York Newark for the first time this summer. To repeat - dont worry - and most importantly have a great trip
See you out there!
Just back this morning from my first experience of travelling through Newark with United. Appreciate there is a lot of very experienced travellers in this forum but thought I would try and explain the process to help any lurkers or those new to travelling indirect. For the record, my trip was a five day business trip to San Diego, with United, from Birmingham, via Newark.
Firstly online check in 24 hours prior to travel. You will not be able to print out boarding passes but it is worth doing to confirm your first night address. On the morning of departure I got to the airport at 6:15 for a 9:00am departure. The line for check in and bag drop was hideous and very slow moving. As you are in this line you will be approached by a stern official who will check your documents, scan your passport on a laptop which I believe checked yours ESTA status. I am assuming that if your passport triggers something off in their system - you will be heading outside for a taxi home. It was a 45 minute wait in the line until i had boarding passes (for both parts of the journey) and had handed over the suitacase. I asked one of the guys after getting my passes what the best time is to arrive. He said be in that line for check in and bag drop before 6am (the desks open at 6am) or after 7:30am. Secutiry at BHX was understandably busy but got though in 20 mins.
It is highly likely that your flight will go from Gate 48 at Birmingham (I checked with the staff working the shops in that area). Next to gate 48 there is a costa Coffee, WH Smiths and some spotless toilets . It is much quieter here than in the main terminal. I would head straight there and avoid the stags and hens on their way to Alicante.
Boarding will begin 60 mind prior to departure at 8am. Here is where it is nice to fly with a grown up airline. Once you have boarded the IFE will be switched on and available to start using. Its a great system with personal TV screens, a choice of 60 films on demand, loads of TV programs, stacks of music channels, flight map and games.
Onto the flight. I loved it! Good food and extremely attentative service. I liked the fact it was a smaller flight. Although the flight was full, the noise level and movement on the flight was much quieter than my experiences with Virgin. I think as there are a lot less families on this route. As it was a business trip and I had comped hotels, I upgraded for econmy plus at a cost of $220 for both legs to San Diego. The amount of leg room this offered was staggering. Would I pay it myself? I couldnt justify it for the five of us going next week unfortunatley - but it was great to have (particularly as someone else was picking up the tab for this one!
)Arrival and Newark Airport: For anyone worrying about taking an indirect flight for the first time or connecting through here - Stop it! It was an absolute breeze, clearly signposted at all stages and no hassle at all to do.
Step 1: On landing route march from the gate to immigration. Three tips that may help : a) Make sure you have filled in the customs clearance form properly or you will be sent back. b) make sure everyone in your party is toileted 45 mins before your flight is due to land. This should prevent getting further behind in the line at immigration as you have your first restroom wait of your holiday. c) Be polite and respectful to the Border Staff.
Step 2:Once through immigration you are straight into baggage reclaim. Its all very clearly signposted to which belt your bags will be on, and in all likeliness your bags will probably be waiting for you. Get your bag and walk through the final customs point and hand in your form. From the belts to this point at Newark - no more than 100m. At this point you can open your case and put anything else in there that you may have bought on the flight / or are fed up of carrying.
Step 3: As soon as you have gone through the customs point there is a huge sign for connecting flights. Its no more than 40m from where you have handed over your customs form. The staff there will scan your bag and put it onto another luggage belt. Thats it for luggage - you dont have to worry about that again until you arrive at your destination.
Step 4:Now you need to change terminals to get your connecting flight. Chances are you landed in terminal B. United Domestic flights operate from Terminal C. Follow the very clear signs up one flight of stairs to the sky train. (Note: any smokers can nip outside before getting on the skytrain for a craftty fix). If you have a lenghty layover you can also take another train at this point into New York itself.
The sky train to terminal C is approx 3 mins. On a clear day you can see NewYork City and if you squint hard enough - the Statue of Liberty. Now at Terminal C, you will need to again clear security. Unless you are under 12 years old - it's shoes off for everyone - regardless of what you are wearing. There will be a thorough check of your ticket and your passport. Now is not the time to dazzle the border staff with your award winning, and sometimes inappropriate sense of humour. Be polite and respectful, no matter how tired / stressed/ excited you are! I find calling everyone Sir and Mam is generally appreciated as is a friendly smile. Easy obvious stuff....
Step 5: Once into Terminal C there are a lot of shops and eating places. I managed to pick up free wifi outside gate 80 in the food court that has McDonalds, Dunkin Donuts and Ben and Jerrrys to name a few. Log onto United_Club. Keep your eye on the gates as it might have changed from what you were issued with in the UK.
For me, from the plane touching down to getting to my new gate in terminal C, it was exactly 60 minutes, albeit from the front of the plane and travelling solo with an unhealthy hatred of any faffing.
When its time for your internal flight, they board by sequence number with priority to frequent flyers, veterans, serving military, disabled and then the great unwashed. If you are on last expect to have no room in the overhead lockers for your stuff. I would recommend travelling light on board, the amount of luggage carried by some US travellers is really quite incredible!
On your domestic flight there is live TV but this is a pay service. $8 approx for flights in excess of 2 hours. There are deals and discounts if you swipe more than one screen terminal with the same card. Soft drinks are plentiful, and free of charge. You can buy other food and alcohol of that's your thing, but only via credit card or prepaid voucher.
On arrival at your destination airport - the speed the flight docks, unloads and delivers the baggage to the belt is impressive. You will be champing at the bit for your hire car in no time at all.
Onto United themselves. I had read mixed reviews of course. I always travel with the "as long as they get me there" mantra and it takes a lot to push me over the edge. I have to say the whole experience was excellent. Much much better than Virgin in my opinion. On the four flights I have done his past week, they have all been staffed by older cabin crew who understand customer service. What a refreshing change! I thought the food was good, there is loads of room on board, the toilets were clean. I even manged to catnap through the night. A first for me on a returning transatlantic. I fly a lot with work - it's nice to be treated like a customer and an adult unlike the majority of European budget carriers I'm usually on. I heartily recommend them!
Onto coming back. You will check your bags in at your departure airport and they will be sent through to your Uk airport. Easy peasy. Nothing to do with them when you arrive at your connecting airport. Though Neward its likley you will will land in terminal C and depart internationally from terminal C.
I had over 3 hours at Terminal c yesterday waiting for my international flight. The airport felt a lot busier then the previous Friday when I flew through on the way out San Diego. It's a question often asked and worried about on here, How much time for my connecting flight? From my experience I wouldn't risk anything under 2 hours on the way out. Coming back - if everything is on time you are laughing. You could get away with 40 minutes no problems. (You only need 10minutes - your bags a bit more!) For my safety net I would want a minimum 60 minutes on the way back.
I can't wait to use United again next Thursday when the five of us head of to Florida! Makes me realise - I missed my single digit dance - so a quick 1 week to go dance - woohoo
). Our flights, again via NY, were £515 per person, from an airport 5 minutes away. It would have to be a very competitive price with Virgin to get me back on them from Manchester or Gatwick - even with flying direct.Sorry - have prattled on for longer then I thought when I started typing this. Blame the jetlag!
I hope all this may be of some use to anyone using United or New York Newark for the first time this summer. To repeat - dont worry - and most importantly have a great trip
See you out there!
