Avis du vol entre Chicago et Paris en classe Economique avec United

Here's the return part of my trip back to the US, the first one post.

The LH flight to ORD was a pleasant surprise given my history with the German airline.
https://flight-report.com/en/report/56768/lufthansa-lh430-frankfurt-fra-chicago-ord

Let's see how UA's service had evolved after all these events.

Thanksgiving was just over but the Christmas decorations were all out at ORD, really enjoyed that.

Check in was done on a kiosk with a friendly French speaking employee that came over to check if I needed help.

TSA took a long time since I have no pre check and the European bank was in full swing.

Always loved ORD's architecture, reminds me of my first trip to the USA many years ago as it's the airport I landed at.

Our gate was also decorated.

The crew arrived late and boarding began late as they needed time "to get situated".
No view whatsoever on our plane tonight.

The economy cabin, notice no more pillows or blankets… It felt very sterile.

Although Polaris and Premium Plus were full, Economy was half empty, and I got 3 seats to myself.

Some passengers asked a passing F/A about pillows and blanket, and she came back with these disposable pillows (i guess) that she took out of a big plastic (garbage looking) bag, and came back for the blankets.

No announcement was made that pillows and blankets were available, but were not placed on the seat to guarantee they were clean and freshly loaded on the plane.
I felt that pretty cheap.

Cabin view before take off, we pushed back late, taxied for a very long time and took off almost one hour late in spite of the light passenger load and quick boarding procedure.

After take off, crew served dinner, all at once, with the japanese crackers and dessert, probably to minimize contact.

But again with such a light load it felt more like they wanted to expedite the service.

The IFE was a newer version with a very nice moving map and plenty of films to choose from.
I watched Sweet Home Alabama and really enjoyed it.

After the movie, I took advantage of the 3 seats and fell asleep for a 3 hours, sun was rising and we were flying above (frozen) England when I woke up.

Breakfast was served, but I wasn't hungry so only had coffee and took the yoghurt and cookie home (I hate wasting food)

We flew right over Heathrow, it's the best shot I could get, but the constant take offs and landings were visible from 12.000 meters

We then started our descent towards CDG where the weather was poor to say the least.

We landed on the south runway facing west, which meant a short taxi to Terminal 2A that UA operates from, since Terminal 1 is still closed.

Air Austral 77W, not a fan of their livery

We parked next to this AA 788 from Miami, about 15 minutes late as we couldn't make up our delay during the flight.

It didn't take long to get off the aircraft, passing the Premium Plus which looked good.

Last views on our aircraft

I was happy to fly UA again as I have a soft spot for this airline but this flight was rather disappointing, the lack of pillow and blanket probably was due to hygiene and Covid standards, but not even mentionning they were available upon request was cheap and it felt like the crew didn't care if the passengers would notice.
The seat and leagroom were fine but the lack of amenities will cost some points.

Same thing for the meals that were expedited, like the crew really didn't want to risk being in the cabin.

Meals were tasty and IFE was good, but the service was disappoiting.