Romantic Danube: Flying United from Chicago to Brussels

Romantic Danube: Overview
Romantic Danube: Flying United from Chicago to Brussels

One truism that occurs when booking award seats is that you need to be flexible.  That may mean long layovers, indirect routing or not flying on your preferred dates.  But when there are just a couple of people involved, we can usually find flights to suit our purposes.

The trick when booking international award flights is to find award space on the longest legs first and then build connections around them.  We knew we wanted to fly out of Chicago, where my friend C lives, and we found award space on a flight that connected in Brussels.  The flexibility part meant my flight from Memphis to Chicago was before 8 AM while the flight to Brussels didn't leave until nearly 6 PM.  And we landed in Brussels around 9 AM but our flight to Prague wasn't until after 4 PM.  But with a little planning, things worked out.

In Chicago, C picked me up and we drove halfway to Milwaukee to meet another friend of ours for lunch.  It was great fun to catch up and we enjoyed a leisurely meal with a lot of laughs.  In Brussels, as I'll mention later, a Twitter friend drove down to have lunch with us and lead us on a brief walking tour.

Once we arrived at the airport with the plan of spending some time in the United lounge before our flight.  We even lucked out in that the lounge was directly across the concourse from our gate!  We were unlucky that United had closed one of its clubs that was getting a facelift so the other two clubs were extremely busy.  So busy that we had to wait in line just to get in the door!  Due to fire regulations we had to wait for some travelers to leave before we could get in.  As you can imagine, once inside it was not exactly the quiet, relaxing place we'd hoped for but there were free beverages and some canapés, not that we were hungry.  We did get to watch a little playoff baseball but overall we were glad to leave just before boarding started.

Perhaps you've heard about United's new Polaris Business Class.  Well, that hadn't even been announced much less installed on our travel dates so we were stuck with their regular BusinessFirst product.

United knows how to cram in a lot of seats on a Boeing 777. Business class was in a 2-4-2 configuration.  At present, most people want a 1-2-1 configuration so that each seat has aisle access so you can imagine how cramped this was.  Not only that, but every other row of seats faced backwards.  This doesn't mean you're facing someone in the row behind you but it's just odd.  Our seats, 6J and 6K were on the window on the right side of the plane and faced forward but the row 6 seats in the middle section faced backwards.  I guess the 4 seats together could be great if you're traveling as a family, especially with small children, but with a group of strangers it was just odd.

United 777 Business Class Seat

Waiting at our seats were the blanket, pillow and headphones. At the time, United didn't offer pajamas on flights in BusinessFirst.  With the implementation of Polaris they will now offer them on flights of 12 hours or more so even today no pajamas would be offered.

United BusinessFirst Pillow, Blanket and Headphones

The seat and IFE controls were easy to understand.  The IFE screen was a good size.

United 777 IFE Controller

United 777 IFE Screen and Footrest

Once we were airborne the amenity kits were distributed.  The case was a major upgrade from the one I received on my last United international flight in 2014.  I thought it looked sharp.  Inside were Cowshed toiletries with all the basic items included.

United BusinessFirst Amenity Kit

United BusinessFirst Amenity Kit Contents

Then it was time for dinner.  We began with some nuts and a beverage.  I had ginger ale.

United BusinessFirst Drinks and Nuts

Here is the menu for the starters:

I chose the Gorgonzola dressing:

United BusinessFirst Salad and Starter

Here were the choices for our main course:

Not being a fan of spicy things, I stuck with the ravioli.  I figured some carbs would fill me up and help me to sleep well.

United BusinessFirst Ravioli Entree

C had the chicken.  Neither were anything to write home about but they weren't bad.

United BusinessFirst Chicken Entree

To wrap up our meal, these were our choices:

Is that even a choice?!  Gelato, of course!  Unfortunately I forgot to take a photo when it was served.  This is all that was left at the end.

We had no issues with the gelato!

Our flight time was blocked at a relatively quick 8h 10m.  While that may sound like a long time, when you consider there's a dinner service, a breakfast service and you only get to sleep in between, it's really not all that long.  We put our seats in the lie-flat position and tried to get comfortable.  I say "tried" because the seats were incredibly narrow.  My shoulders brushed the sides when I laid on my back.  As I prefer to sleep on my side anyway, it was better in that position but it made turning over difficult too.  C is taller and broader than I am at nearly 6 feet tall and had a hard time getting her feet in the footwell (though she wouldn't take off her shoes).  I am glad that the new Polaris suites will offer more room as this was truly a sub-par business class seat.

After about four hours of sleep it was time for breakfast.  I was actually quite pleased with what was served.  It wasn't fancy but there were plenty of things I like.  Fruit, cereal (muesli), yogurt, juice and tea - I'm good with that!

United BusinessFirst Breakfast

We touched down in Brussels and began to hunt for a place to leave our carry-on luggage while we took the train into town.