We finally arrived in San Francisco.  While I have never been a fan of the generally rude and crusty flight attendants on United Airlines, I am impressed with their new cabin layouts.

Previous Business and First class cabins have generally suffered from one of two problems.  Either your seat was a little cramped on legroom for overnight sleeping and didn’t fully recline into a bed, or you were in one of the nice little suites that reclined into a bed, but was not very good when travelling with a partner, because you were isolated and couldn’t sit next to your travel companion.

With these new cabins, you have a comfortable seat that adjusts into a fully 180-degree lie flat bed, and you are actually sitting next to your partner.  I estimate that when reclined into a bed, you have nearly 7 feet of length to stretch out in.  Plus, the super big entertainment screens shown below are a nice touch.  We had storage above, plus convenient side compartments which you can see along the window side of the seats.

With a short wall between each row, and with every other row facing the opposite direction, you have quite a bit of privacy.  I would definitely fly this in cabin layout again, and I hope other airlines follow suit.  It’s not going to give you the sleep quality of a king size bed, but It does make long haul air travel bearable.

Of the four airlines we flew on the trip, United international service had the best cabin.  For best service level and meal quality, Air New Zealand wins by a mile.  Air Canada wins my award for best domestic cabin (I say this even before our flight back to Toronto from SFO tomorrow on United, because I know it’s an older aircraft), and also the most generous baggage allowance, allowing 6 bags up to 70 lbs each between the two of us (not that we needed that much).  Virgin Blue Airlines didn’t win any awards in my book.

As for San Francisco, we didn’t have a lot of time to explore it, but it’s a place I’d like to return to.

Below is the lobby of our hotel.  It’s right at Fisherman’s Wharf, and has quite the historical nautical theme, updated to modern standards, but with exposed historical brickwork and huge original wooden posts and beams.  Great place!  The rooms follow the same theme as the lobby photo.

Attached to our hotel is a nice maritime museum.

We explored the Fisherman’s Wharf area of the city.

Here we are looking across to Alcatraz Island.  We didn’t really have enough time to go there and take a tour.

A World War II submarine.

And no visit to San Francisco would be complete without a crab feast dinner while overlooking Alcatraz.  Nadine ordered the mussels.