It was time for a winter getaway, leaving the cold and snow of Chicago for the sun and warm waters of Goa, India. The first stop was Hyderabad, India by way of London. The plan was to fly United in Polaris business class nonstop from O’Hare to Heathrow connecting to Air India business class nonstop from Heathrow to Hyderabad. Well, you know what they say about the best laid plans, right? With a mid-flight diversion and multiple missed connections, we finally made it to Hyderabad a day later than planned and with double the number of flights! Check it out.
Be sure to check out the full video trip report RIGHT HERE!
FLIGHT #1: CHICAGO (ORD)-CHICAGO (ORD)-LONDON (LHR):
- Airline: United Airlines
- Aircraft: Boeing 767-300ER
- Registration: N665UA, a 1998 built aircraft and N657UA, a 1993 built aircraft.
- Flight distance: 862 miles and 4,045 miles
- Flight Duration: 1 hour and 52 minutes and 7 hours and 15 minutes.
- Class, seat: Polaris Business, seat 1L and Polaris Business, seat 9F
- 862nd and 863rd flights overall
Be sure to check out the full video trip report RIGHT HERE!
We landed in London with about 30 minutes before the scheduled departure time of our London-Delhi flight. Unfortunately, yet more shenanigans ensured. Did we make our connection to Delhi or did we spend the night in jolly old England? Check it all out RIGHT HERE!
Flight Review:
- Experience/Total stars: 2.5 of 5 stars. Nothing special.
- Check-in: 3/5: Because of the need for document checks (Indian visa), online checkin wasn’t available. Checkin was relatively smooth overall but not all agents are able to verify documents, so there frequently is a bit of a wait for an agent who can actually complete the process.
- Lounge: 4/5: The Polaris lounge is definitely a step up from your run of the mill United Club. Add a quiet area and some massage chairs, an I’ll give you a solid 5.
- Boarding: 5 out of 5- Boarding was late but orderly and the flight attendants gave a nice welcome upon entering.
- Seat: 4 out of 5- The Polaris seat, in my opinion, is quite comfortable. Give me a door and a bit more padding and you get a 5.
- In-Flight Entertainment: 4 out of 5- United has a good IFE offering but it falls short of Emirate’s ICE and Qatar’s Orynx One.
- Meals: 3 of 5- The quality was average at best with middle of the road portions. The ice cream sundae however was just pathetic.
- Cabin Crew: 4 of 5- The crew were professional and courteous.
- Cabin ambiance: 3 of 5- Just average. Mood lighting and bathroom amenities would boost this rating.
- Cabin cleanliness: 5 of 5- Cabin was clean and presentable.
- Price paid and value for money: 5 of 5- 90,000 miles for Business Class to India, can’t really complain about that.
- Thumbs up: Good mileage redemption, flatbed seats.
- Thumbs down: Multiple delays on both flights, missed connections, no communicate between UA and AI, lost luggage.