United Airlines 737-900/ER Economy Plus San Diego to San Francisco

I don’t want to sound too much like a Negative Nancy, but I find it a bit disappointing that the Boeing 737 is becoming the predominant aircraft type in the fleets of all the major US airlines. Don’t get me wrong – it’s a fine aircraft in every way shape and form, but…there seems to be increasingly less and less variety in aircraft types these days and quite frankly I’m finding that air travel isn’t as interesting as it used to be. Flying from San Diego to San Francisco? 737. Newark to Los Angeles? 737? San Francisco to Hawaii? 737. Of course there are exceptions (which this trip report is all about), but the decreasing lack of commercial aircraft variety here in the US is kind of sad to this airline nerd.

Disappointment aside, starting a new adventure is always fun and I look forward to each and every one of them no matter what type of aircraft takes me to my destination. I also don’t mind kicking off a trip before the sun rises – the anticipation and excitement of hitting the road (and the skies) trumps any grogginess I may be feeling from waking at such an early hour.

UA400
San Diego, CA (SAN) – San Francisco, CA (SFO)
Saturday, April 23, 2016
Aircraft: 737-900/ER
Registration: N75428
Seat: 10A (Economy Plus / premium economy)

This particular flight up to San Francisco this morning was scheduled to depart at 6:15am, which is the earliest possible time at SAN due to the airport curfew that lifts at 6:30am. I was at the airport by 4:30, which was perfect because it gave me plenty of time to take pics and video for this trip report. Hey…writing this blog is a lot of work!

It was very important that this flight leave on time this morning, as I only had a 45 minute connection time in San Francisco and I did not want to miss that 747 to ORD! But as any experienced traveler should, I had already expected that I was going to miss that flight. Planning for the worst (but hoping for the best) tends to make things go much smoother when it comes to travel, so I was feeling pretty good when they started the boarding process right on time. Maybe I’ll be able to catch that 747 after all…

To be honest I didn’t even realize that I had an Economy Plus seat reserved until I boarded the aircraft. I sat down, had a look around, then realized that this looked a lot like United 737-800 Economy Plus.

Score! I did purchase Premier Access (for priority checkpoint screening and early boarding) when I made the reservation, but I guess I was unaware that an Economy Plus seat came as part of that package.

All I really wanted was a seat towards the front of the plane so that I could have time to make my connection in SFO. If you really want my opinion though, I didn’t even notice the extra leg room in this seat. If I didn’t know any better, I would have said that it felt exactly the same as the UA 737-900/ER I experienced in economy class from SAN to ORD not long after this.

The captain made an announcement that we would be arriving a few minutes early into SFO as we pushed back from the gate (woo hoo!), and the sun was rising as we made our way out to the threshold of runway 27. It turns out that we were the number 1 departure out of SAN that morning, with a long line of aircraft waiting behind us for the 6:30am curfew to lift. Here’s a video I shot of the full taxi and departure sequence:

And here’s the full taxi and takeoff sequence in pics:

Once in the air, the flight attendants made their way through the cabin offering drinks and complimentary snacks. I wasn’t expecting a snack due to the fact that US airlines are notoriously cheap when it comes to this sort of thing, so it was a welcome thing to see. I didn’t eat it though, as I’m not much of a fan of sugary / sweet snacks. I’m a peanut and pretzel guy all the way.

The weather was absolutely fantastic all the way up to San Francisco this morning, and we had an amazing view of the Bay Area as we made our approach to runway 28L at SFO. Clouds were low and thin, and combined with the rising sun to the east, it was a beautiful sight to see. I shot a full landing video as well:

For those of you who prefer pics, your wish is my command:

All I could think about on touchdown was getting off this airplane as fast as I could in order to make my way over to the departure gate for my 747-400 flight to ORD. I assumed it would be leaving from the international terminal, so with that assumption came the realization that I’d have to walk quite a distance to catch that flight.

No matter though – we had arrived into SFO a bit early and I was in no danger of misconnecting – but time was tight, and I would have to walk fast. The teenage girl who was sitting next to me in 10B didn’t get up when it was time for our row to go though – she was waiting for the rest of her family who was seated towards the back of the plane, so I had to politely ask her to step aside so I could get out. Of course in my mind I was thinking “freaking mooove!!” (lol) but I promise my words were gentle and polite. 😃