United airlines flights (BMI) Info please!

[matty624]

Has anyone flown with United from Manchester to Washington. I believe that it's a BMI flight. I'd like to know how you found it? Did you have seat back tvs etc
I'm still a little concerned that United might stop flights altogether because of their financial problems! I hope they don't, at least not for another 41 days or so (not too concerned about getting stuck there though!)
Ian

 

[WILDCATS]

We flew United / BMI last christmas but we went to chicago and not washington the planes do have PTV on them and on our flight the service was second to none infact the service was the best we have had on transatlantic flights and we have flown with virgin,airtours,brittania gold,monarch,the plane was clean and the legroom was fine the food was also good plus free drinks from the bar. I see you are a little concerned over united i don't think you should be as they have been in this chapter 11 thing for almost a year now and they have still got a lot of planes in the sky,Iif the worst does happen did you book with a ABTA member. Hope you like your flights.

P.S
I have also booked for this christmas and i'm flying united to washington then to orlando,what are your flight numbers and times from manchester please,my flight number from manchester is UA855 which i think maybe wrong,thanks

 

[Rain]

Hi we also flew from Manchester to Orlando via Washington last year.
BMI were really fantastic.
The flight was fairly turbulant and I felt really sick, I refused my meal and told the cabin crew why, they were really wonderful.
They checked on me every couple of minutes, brought me ginger ale etc.
Once the turbulance had eased (it lasted about an hour) she brought the on board chef from first class to see if he could tempt me in to eating a freshly prepared meal!!!!!!!! Thats what I call service.
I still refused the meal though as I thought we could hit the dreaded Turb again.

With BMI if they have seats available one hour before check in you can pay £100 to upgrade to premium economy, we did this and it was worth every penny.

I don't think united's problems are the same as if they filed bancruptcy over here, they had done this prior to us flying with them and it was not a problem.

Hope this helps,

Lynda

 

[matty624]

Thanks Wildcats & Lynda, it's very reassuring you both had good experiences with United/BMI.
Yes Wildcats we did book through an ABTA bonded company, Virgin Travel Store actually. Whats given me the jitters about United is that when I rang VTS a couple of weeks ago to enquire about Chistmas, they said that they could no longer sell United flights because of the current situation United were in! Incidentally Wildcats our times are:
Leave Manchester at 12.45pm flight UA4855
Arrive Washington at 15.35
Depart Washington Dulles at 17.50 flight UA921
Arrive Orlando 20.01
Coming back the flights are UA920 and UA4854
Incidentally, because I was just looking up the flight times etc, I noticed that the times for the Washington-Orlando legs of the trip had completely changed. I've just rung Virgin TS and they apologised profusely, they'd tried to tell me via e-mail, but some operator had mis typed my e-mail address! It's just lucky I noticed!
Ian

 

[Minx]

Hi Ian
We fly with UA in 27 days. My flight numbers and times are the same as yours. How did you find the revised times as I pressume mine will now be the same. We haven't been informed by our travel company either.
Dee

 

[matty624]

Actually Dee, it was on my confirmation paper work which came along with a gentle reminder that the balance was due a couple of weeks ago. There was no mention that anything was different, I only noticed the changes of times when I was responding to Wildcats request for flight times.
What really annoys me is that I've only just told the villa owners approximately what time to expect us, and they've forwarded the info to the management company. I suppose I'll just have to up-date them as to our revised ETA.
To be fair, Virgin Travel Store have been very good up till now.
If I were you Dee, I'd contact who you bought through, and ask them if they've anything to tell you! You may be lucky, the changes might not affect you...
Ian

 

[Minx]

Thanks Matty
I will give the travel agent a call in the morning. We paid for our flights weeks ago but all they sent was a reciept. The paperwork with flight detais was sent after we had paid the deposit. If our flights have changed it affects our car hire arrangement as well as the villa. What are your new times from Washington to Orlando?
Dee

 

[matty624]

These are the new timings Dee,
Depart Washington Dulles at 17.50 flight UA921
Arrive Orlando 20.01

The old one had us leaving Washington at 15.35, arriving in Orlando 1918
So the new times aren't as good, I was hoping to call in briefly to get essentials at Walmart, but we'll be lucky to get out of the airport by 9.00pm now.
Oh well...
Ian

 

[matty624]

The old one had us leaving Washington at 17.05, arriving in Orlando 1918 actually, ooops...
Ian