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I just got back from an incredible trip to South America where we hit up Buenos Aires, the Uruguayan wine country near Carmelo, Iguazu Falls, and Rio. A couple of personal matters came up during the trip, and what was supposed to be a 13 night trip ended up being cut down to 11 nights. Luckily we were still able to squeeze everything in and found award avail back that far exceeded our expectation.
On our original routing we were supposed to fly back from Buenos Aires via Miami on AA’s 77W in their reverse herringbone Cirrus seating. Great product. However, needing to get back to LA by Monday, the avail that we ended up landing left from Sao Paolo on United’s 772. It’s cabin looked like this:
These are the old United 772’s that have yet to be retrofit and offer a terribly uncompetitive 2-4-2 business class cabin, and to those who are lucky/elite – the ability to sit in the old first class that is very comfortable. Those seats are no longer sold as first class and specifically reserved for certain business class customers ( primiarly full fare J tickets and high level elites). Or…you know…sweet talking, monkey-carrying, bloggers 🙂
Then a miracle happened. The night before our flight was scheduled to leave – we ended up on a retrofit plane.
It’s cabin looks like this:
This means that we were going to get a MEGA upgrade on our 10+ hour long haul. And we did.
Main Business Class Cabin.
And then our cabin – the mini cabin
We chose 9D and 9G in the bulkhead of the cabin
The best seats are 1A/L and 9A/L – Here’s a look at 9A
It surprisingly remained open for the entire flight. The bulkhead seats in both cabins, middle and windows, all feature little walkways for increased privacy and wider footwells. I’m not sure if other passengers didn’t realize the distinct advantage these seats possess, but no one switched over.
Initial first impressions:
I”ll have a full review coming up, but my initial impressions were very positive. Plain and simple: it’s a huge step up for United. These seats put them head to head with the competition, and the partnership with Saks afford them industry leading bedding. But overall, they’re not revolutionary by any means, and the biggest let down is the lack of intra-seat storage.
Comparing this seat to say AA’s Super Diamond or Cirrus seating configuration which are their best products leaves me wondering which is more important – storage and width, or luxurious bedding. The Saks bedding is far and away the best in its class and trounces AA head to head. It’s also pretty nice being closer to your seatmate if you’re traveling together and indulging in business class splendor.
But, purely from a hard product seat perspective…I may prefer the best AA has to offer if push came to shove.
Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
Welcome Offer
Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
Annual Fee
$95
Points Earned
Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards
- 5x on all travel purchased through Chase Travel℠
- 3x on dining, including eligible delivery services for takeout & dining out
- 3x on select streaming services
- 3x on online grocery purchases
- (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs)
- $50 Annual Chase Travel Hotel Credit via Chase Travel℠
- The begins immediately for new cardmembers and after your account anniversary for existing cardmembers
- 2x on all other travel
- 10% Anniversary Bonus
- Every year you keep the card, your total spend will yield a 10% points bonus. If you spend $10k in a year, you’ll get 1k bonus points
- Chase Sapphire Preferred continues to redeem at 1.25c in the Chase Travel℠ and the slew of other benefits remain in tact including Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver ( primary ), purchase protections, etc.
- Points are transferrable to 14 Ultimate Rewards partners
- Redeem in Chase Travel℠ for 1.25 cents per point
- No foreign transaction fees
- Suite of Travel and Purchase Coverage
- Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver is my favorite
- Get complimentary access to DashPass which unlocks $0 delivery fees and lower service fees for a minimum of one year when you activate by December 31, 2027.
- $95 Annual Fee
We keep an up to date spreadsheet that lists the best ever offers: You can find that spreadsheet here.
Historically 80k is a very, very good offer and hit in both 2022 and 2023. In 2021, we saw the offer hit an all time high of 100k. Who knows if that will ever come back.
Main Cast:
Cards that earn flexible points and should be used on the bulk of your purchases.
Supporting Cast:
Cards that earn fixed points in the currency of the airline/hotel and can not be transferred at attractive rates. These cards yield benefits that make it worth keeping, but not necessarily worth putting a lot of your everyday spend on.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® is exceptional starter card and offers transferrable Ultimate Rewards, and pairs well with other Chase cards.
If you carry this card alongside Chase’s cashback cards like the Chase Freedom Flex® and Chase Freedom Unlimited® or the business versions: Ink Business Cash® , Ink Business Unlimited® you can combine the points into Preferred account and transfer into hotel and airline partners
Annual fee is quite low at $95 a year + you get a 10% anniversary bonus on points + $50 hotel credit in Chase travel.
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