The Flight- United First Class from San Francisco to Shanghai
We always fly on miles, at least whenever possible. We charge everything we possibly can and then pay it off every month to build miles. This trip was booked on miles and we paid $50 per ticket for two first class airfares from California to Shanghai.
- United First Class Lounge San Francisco Airport
The limitation of miles is that you cannot always get the seats, or time, or airport that you might choose if there were no other considerations. You have to be flexible. In this case, I flew from San Diego to San Francisco, then to Shanghai. Roland flew from LAX to Shanghai. Both of us flew United.
San Francisco International Airport’s United First Class Lounge is very nice. There is a pretty sculpture as you walk in, fresh sushi, sandwiches, and assorted snack-ish type things. There are full size waters and sodas, actually a full bar, that are already included in the price of your ticket. I always grab at least one full size water as a just-in-case insurance policy. I was stuck on a tarmac forever one time and Delta neglected to board the beverage carts. I was super grateful for my water!
First Class boards first. It’s a nice touch, makes it a little less stressful.
One of the tough choices is always to coat or not to coat. Lugging a large shearling coat across China did not seem particularly fun. But ruining the “Great Wall Experience” as I froze and desperately tried to get back to the heated car sounded like a bad plan too.
So I am large coat lugging, which means wearing it because of the carry on restrictions. It’s easily 85 degrees. I am flushed, quietly sweating, and schlepping my roller bag and purse.
Boarding early, stowing my stuff, and getting that coat off does not suck. As soon as you are settled, the attendants bring you a glass of champagne, heated nuts, and a nice lemon scented warm wet towel to freshen up with. None of that sucks either.
The flight attendant also gave me a Chinese immigration card. I filled it out right away and tucked it into the photo page of my passport. If I don’t do it right away, I have a tendency to forget and then find myself scrambling at the last minute. I didn’t want to be scrambling by myself in China.
- United International’s First Class Cubby
Usually they have pj’s to change into, if you like. I recommend doing this if you have the option. Right before you land, you can change back into your regular clothes and you still have a nice fresh outfit! It’s like getting a free one (from the packing universe).
My plane was fantastic. It was clean, new, nice wide t.v., and each seat had it’s own power outlet that did not require an adapter for US power. Nice. All of the United First Class seats fully recline. They have very nice, light, possibly down quilted blankets.
You are presented with your dinner menu and have a choice of a meat or seafood dish. I chose the filet with asparagus and a glass of wine from the wine menu. There are four or five selections to choose from.
There is dessert as well. I had the ice cream sundae, a personal weakness. The strawberry ice cream was delicious, but the vanilla was freezer-burned, so I was spared eating the vanilla (not so much the strawberry).
The flight from San Francisco to Shanghai is 10 hours 45 minutes, but this one went very fast. I slept a good 5 or 6 hours of it because I did not have my playmate!
Breakfast was being served within 20 minutes of my waking up. I headed to the bathroom and changed (I had brought lululemon’s in case they did not have the pj’s and they did not), repacked my iPad, book (lousy one this time), earbuds, lip balm, moisturizer, etc. I put my passport and customs card into an easily accessible pocket of my purse and landed at Shanghai Pudong International Airport.