Off to Tokyo and Kyoto

Mrs. SFO777 and I are off this morning for Tokyo and Kyoto and Cherry Blossom season in Japan.   And best of all we're flying Singapore Airlines A380 First Suites from LAX.  And more good news as it looks like we lucked out with timing as blossoms opened this week and are expected to peak next week.

-United First Class Denver-Los Angeles
-Star Alliance First Class Lounge at LAX TBIT
-Singapore Airlines A380 First Class Suites Los Angeles to Tokyo 
-The Peninsula Tokyo
-Tokyo
-Nozomi Bullet Train First Class Tokyo to Kyoto
-Ritz-Carlton Kyoto
-Kyoto
-Nozomi Bullet Train and Narita Express Kyoto to Narita
-Singapore Silver Kris Lounge at NRT
-Singapore Airlines A380 First Class Suites Tokyo to Los Angeles
-American Airlines Admirals Club at LAX
-American Airlines First Class Los Angeles to Denver

But before our Singapore Suites flight, we need to get to LAX.   AA's noon Eagle flight was too late for comfort so we are on United, which offered a reasonable $275 one way First Class (P) fare.  The south PreCheck was empty this morning and we were through in no time.
 

Remarkably for UA, no gate lice at all at Gate B20 this morning.  And a couple minutes after we arrived, boarding started. 

Denver DEN to Los Angeles LAX
United 781
A320
10:05A-11:37A (sked)
10:05A-11:20A (actual)
March 29, 2014
Lunch

I'm not a big United fan, but I have to give them props today.  One time departure, early arrival and one of the best domestic FAs of the year, DEN-based Connie.  She's been doing this for a long time and unlike other bored senior FAs, she seemed to love her job.  Wow, what a refreshing change to the usual domestic crews.  WiFI?  on United?  We'll have to test this out.

Pretty tight seating in this A320 especially in row 1.

And not much storage space underneath the middle area.

PDB and great inflight service.

Time to test out United Wifi.

Uh-huh.

This thing was slower than molasses.  Makes gogo feel like a hypersonic experience.  And UA waited 5 years for this?? 

Lunch today was a choice of... surprise, surprise... shrimp salad or chicken wrap and cream of mushroom soup.   Unlike AA which has great variety and great catering, UA pax are not so lucky.  Even Delta is better which says a lot.   Mrs. SFO passed on lunch deciding to wait for the Star Alliance Lounge at LAX.  I took one for the team and chose the chicken wrap.  Can this presentation be any uglier?? 

Looks a lot better when you dig inside and peel away to wrap.   Heads will roll at catering on Monday when someone discovers they actually had 5 strips of chicken.   Was OK, even better with the chipotle sauce.

After lunch, time to watch grass grow or so it seemed.  7.5 Mbps??  I don't think so.

And no point even trying to upload anything.

To finish, a white chocolate and cranberry cookie.

UA catering? Meh.  Wifi? Meh.  But service today was outstanding.