Subject: Trip Report 787-8
From: .jh
Date: 2019-05-30T00:35:00Z
Tags: travel trip\ report blog 2019
I've always been a bit of an aviation geek, I meticulously collect
information on my flights and try to fly as many different aircraft I
can. So when the opportunity presented itself to fly the 787
Dreamliner I took the chance as it would be a new experience. It might
be an older aircraft by now, but of the airlines I choose (or have) to
fly those who have them in their fleets I don't fly much with
internationally. Regardless I'd heard good things about the plane so
was interested to see if it lived up to the hype.
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I have to travel to Denver for work a few times a year and normally I
fly out of Ronald Regan National Airport (DCA), but for reasons which
are out of scope for this blog post this time I had to fly out of
Dulles International Airport (IAD). Now the good thing is that both
IAD and Denver International Airport (DEN) are United hubs so there
are lots of options between the two. So paying attention to my various
flight options I noticed that one flight was served by a 787-8, which
meant it would have an international configuration which in turn means
the first class seats would be lie flats and not the normal just
slightly larger ones. Knowing this I made sure to book that flight and
then got myself an upgrade (I'll never be important enough that work
will pay for anything beyond peasant class, rumour is they're looking
to see if we can be reclassified as cargo to save even more).
The 787-8 (and -9) fleet are still configured with the older United
first class (pre-Polaris), but it's still a 180 degree lie-flat. I was
initially annoyed that the "seat back pocket" is just a sleeve on the
inside of your seat which won't fit even a small laptop so when the
meal service comes around I had no place other than the floor to stow
my laptop. There is a small tray under the screen but it's too shallow
and narrow to fit much more than a smaller tablet.
I later discovered the small area between the armrest and wall of the
aircraft which worked reasonably well. Although it is prominently
marked to not be used during take off and landing.
One of the things I remember reading was how the quiet the 787 was
supposed to be, here I'm underwhelmed, I've flown other aircraft which
are far quieter. Now it's possible that this is due to my seat (5L)
which was just at the front of the wing and my view out the window was
of the engine. I'm slightly surprised that row five would be that far
back, but given the international configuration each row does take up
a lot more space than usual and the galley and exit doors between rows
three and four further pushes everything back a bit more, next time
I'll try to get a seat futher forward. As usual I had my noise
cancelling headphones on most of the flight so noise is rarely an
issue, but I'd have been annoyed if I didn't have then.
I do like the larger windows, I'm less enthralled by the lack of
window shades, the electronic ones only dim so much which for a flight
when the sun is still up does not let me fully blot out the yellow
ball of imminent death. Now this was a short flight so not a huge deal
but I could imagine a long TPAC or TATL it could be annoying to have
the sun start glaring in when you're trying to sleep.
All in all it was a decent flight, but I'm not sure I would say the
aircraft was any better or worse than the average big metal bird.