Flight Review: EuroAtlantic 767-300 Economy Class | Chicago to Budapest

It’s rare for me to look up flights and see an airline that I don’t recognize.

In September, I was preparing for a trip from San Francisco to Budapest with a layover in Philly as Hurricane Florence churned its way up the east coast. Wanting to avoid possibly missing my flight, I searched for other routes to Budapest and found a 30,000 mile ticket available on United, that had me flying through Chicago and flying EuroAtlantic Airways between Chicago and Budapest.

I booked this flight, not really knowing what I’d have in store. From my research, it seems that EuroAtlantic is an airline that basically leases itself to other airlines — for, for example, during a Norwegian flight, you would be given the same services that you would be offered on Norwegian metal.

One frustrating part of flying with EuroAtlantic is that not many people have flown it yet, so it’s hard to find accurate information on SeatGuru. For example, I booked a window seat, hoping I would have an amazing view of landing in Budapest, but instead was looking at a wall the entire flight.

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Flying experience

Despite only having a wall to look at, I had a decent flight. Luckily, I had the entire row to myself.

There were screens and power charges behind each seat, although the screens were not turned on and the charger didn’t work until after takeoff. After we were in the air, an announcement was made that EuroAtlantic was going to provide the “standard of services of LOT Polish.”

There was not an amazing selection of movies, with most selections from 6+ months back, and which included Wonder Woman, The Shape of Water, and Battle of the Sexes. The TV selection wasn’t amazing either, but there was at least one episode of Fraiser (pictured below).

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The first service were drinks and choice of pretzels or peanuts. About 30 minutes later, we were offered drinks and dinner (chicken or beef options). I took the chicken option, pictured below, which tasted alright.

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The tray table was so small that I wouldn’t have had enough space to both eat and have a drink without a lot of difficulty (but luckily I could use the middle tray as well).

The seat recline was hard to find and there was no WiFi on the flight. But they did give out comfortable pillows (way more so than on United flights).

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Conclusion

Flying economy to Europe from the U.S. is rarely glamorous, and I would rank this flight as basically the same as a standard United or American flight to Europe.

Flight Review: United Airlines 737-800 Business Class | Houston to Belize City

Being a new United MileagePlus Premier Silver member, I was excited to take my first trip of 2017.

I had an approximately 7 hour flight ahead of me, starting at SFO, connecting in Houston (IAH), and ending up in Belize City (BZE). When I checked in at 12:50am (for some reason, I thought this red-eye flight was a great idea when I booked the trip), I saw that only 2 seats in Business Class and 4 seats in Economy Plus were reserved for the second leg of my journey, from Houston to Belize. I figured my chances of an upgrade were high, but was surprised that my upgrade had been confirmed by the time I woke up.

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The view from my seat, as we prepare to leave Houston

Though the official flying time was only 2 hours and 28 minutes, I really enjoyed this flight. The plane, including Business Class, was only half full. After being upgraded, I had to call United to switch my seat, and I was able to select seat 2A – a window seat with no one sat next to me (and I crossed my fingers that it would stay this way). Coming off a red-eye from San Francisco where there was a screaming baby and a middle-seat armrest hogger, I really enjoyed the extra space on my Belize City flight.

That aside, this was one of the more enjoyable Business Class experiences that I’ve had on United in a while. The seat was very comfortable, and the crew was very friendly. I was greeted with a welcome drink (I picked my standard, a Bloody Mary), and there was plenty of space overhead for my carry-on luggage.

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There were some amazing clouds the entire flight

There was a seatback  DirecTV system, making it so you could watch a lot of shows during the flight (including sports, news, and comedies). This was exciting enough, as I have taken a lot of United flights lately that have only “personal device entertainment” (which, in my experience, often is glitchy and/or does not work). Halfway through the flight, there was an announcement that many of the channels would no longer available as we left the U.S., but we were still left with a good selection of movies, which definitely made the flight go quicker.

Probably my favorite part of the flight was the meal service.

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Fiesta scramble with a cinnamon bun, sausage, and biscuit

I wasn’t just hungry by the time meal service came around, I was straight-up hangry. They gave me an option of a fiesta scramble or french toast, and I went with the scramble because I’m trying to eat more protein so that I can become more swole. The food was so delicious. I destroyed the fiesta scramble and chicken sausage, and then I had 2 glorious pieces of bread awaiting my consumption. The first was a near perfect cinnamon bun, full of sticky, gooey, deliciousness.  I destroyed it. Next was the cheesy biscuit, which, really, was the most delicious thing I had eaten in a while – for real. I mean, it was the perfect texture, perfect warmth, the perfect everything. I’m hungry right now just thinking about it. But I digress.

After breakfast, the flight attendants distributed customs forms. These were a bit longer than I was used to filling out, but being so full and happy, I easily made it through this menial task.

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Shortly after filling out the paperwork, we began our descent. I opened up my window and saw my first view of Belize and it was incredible.

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When we landed, passengers could exit in the front or out the back of the airplane. To exit the plane, you go down a staircase, which puts you on the ground next to the plane. I was the third one off, but managed to be the first in line at customs (which was helpful, as I needed to make a tight connection).

Overall, this was a very enjoyable flight, and I am hoping to be upgraded on my flight back!