{"id":6145,"date":"2014-02-09T10:19:50","date_gmt":"2014-02-09T15:19:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/first2board.com\/verygoodpoints\/?p=6145"},"modified":"2014-02-09T03:10:27","modified_gmt":"2014-02-09T08:10:27","slug":"united-airlines-business-first-ewr-pek","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/first2board.com\/verygoodpoints\/2014\/02\/09\/united-airlines-business-first-ewr-pek\/","title":{"rendered":"United Airlines Business First EWR to PEK"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week I had the opportunity to fly United Airlines Business First EWR to PEK. I arrived early at the airport because the weather was bad. \u00a0The previous day flights had been cancelled to many New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania airports. \u00a0It’s a good thing I arrived early because the check-in experience was not pleasant.<\/p>\n

I was not able to check in via the kiosk because I was flying to Beijing with a stop-over and onto Sydney. \u00a0There were no lines and only about 3 other people using kiosks to check in. The agent who began helping me was not knowledgeable. \u00a0First she said she could not check me in because I didn’t have a visa for China. \u00a0I explained the new 72-hour visa-free policy, but she didn’t seem to know about it or care. \u00a0Frustrated, I asked for another agent’s assistance. \u00a0This agent was aware of the policy and proceeded with checking me in. \u00a0Just when I thought all was good, she asked for my Australian Visa. \u00a0I told her it was electronic. She insisted that I must have a paper copy or visa in my passport for her to be able to check me in. The process had already taken a good 30 minutes. I told her that I have been to Australia before and used an electronic visa without any problems. \u00a0She then took my passport and disappeared for about 10 minutes.<\/p>\n

I asked another agent where she’d gone and was told she went to the international desk. \u00a0Oddly, I thought I was checking in at the international desk. The agent finally returned with my passport and insisted that I had to buy a visa for $20. \u00a0It was getting very close to flight time. I asked for a supervisor but after waiting 10 minutes without a supervisor appearing, I decided to pay the fee so I wouldn’t miss my flight. \u00a0I arrived at the gate when they were boarding zone 5.<\/p>\n

Once onboard I took my seat in the second section of business first seats. \u00a0There were 50 seats in business first. \u00a0There are only about 15 passengers in business first and after a few people moved around, there were only 4 poeple in my section. I had seat 9B. The flight attendant joked that we were going to have a private dinner party.<\/p>\n

\"Seating

Seating Chart 4 Hours Prior to Departure<\/p><\/div>\n

I used miles to upgrade from coach to business so I would be more comfortable on the almost 14 hour flight. \u00a0 The seats in business first are very nice. \u00a0They remind me of the seats in US Airways Envoy and Air China Business class. \u00a0The seats have a USB port, an outlet, and plenty of storage space.<\/p>\n

We were provided with a blanket, pillow and amenity kit. \u00a0The kit was a tin container “collectors edition.” \u00a0I got a New York tin. \u00a0I was a little disappointed to see that United had removed two of my favorite items from the kit. \u00a0In the past, the kit has included a facial wipe from Philosophy. That was not included in this kit. \u00a0The other item that was not in the kit was the eye-glass wipe. \u00a0They did still include the Philosophy Hands Of Hope hand lotion and Philosophy lip balm. \u00a0I love Hands Of Hope (and actually buy it regularly.) Included on a slip of paper in the amenity kit is a discount code for Philosophy products purchased through their online store.<\/p>\n

The flight attendants were very friendly and provided great service throughout the flight. \u00a0A few of them commented how nice it was to have a 1\/2 empty flight. \u00a0I am really unsure why the flight was so empty. The only thought I had was that it was Chinese New Year and perhaps less people were traveling due to the holiday.<\/p>\n

The food was okay on the flight. \u00a0Some items were good, others were not so good. The soup that was served as a late night snack was actually the best dish. \u00a0They flight attendants offered snacks and provided frequent refills on drinks.<\/p>\n

I only slept for a few hours and I spent the rest watching movies. \u00a0I think I saw all of the new releases! While I enjoyed the flight itself, the pre-flight experience left me less than impressed with United’s ground staff. \u00a0 I suspect that this will be my last flight on United since I’m a US Airways Chairman and plan to stick with the new American.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last week I had the opportunity to fly United Airlines Business First EWR to PEK. I arrived early at the airport because the weather was bad. \u00a0The previous day flights had been cancelled to many New York, New Jersey and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6146,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"jetpack_publicize_message":"United Airlines Business First EWR to PEK","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[10,91],"tags":[559,299],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\nUnited Airlines Business First EWR to PEK - VeryGoodPoints<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"United Airlines Business First EWR to PEK, United Business First, United EWR to PEK\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/first2board.com\/verygoodpoints\/2014\/02\/09\/united-airlines-business-first-ewr-pek\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"United Airlines Business First EWR to PEK - 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