United Airlines Inagural Lie Flat Flight

Yesterday United Airlines became the first U.S. based airline to introduce the new 180% lie flat seats in first class, which have been all the rage in airline travel this year. The flight made its way from Washington Dulles to Frankfurt, Germany.

And sleeping the way human beings were intended isn’t the only treat business class customers received on the flight. They were also provided with an appetizer of orange and ginger duck leg confit and soba noodle salad. That sounds better than my normal dinner. Charlie Trotter, the superstar chef from Chicago, is creating dishes like morel mushroom risotto and herb-rubbed chicken breast for the lucky people in the business section. Unfortunately, even that kind of cuisine isn’t at its peak when served from convection ovens at 35,000 feet. First class customers started off with an appetizer of Chef Trotter’s crispy short rib wontons with organic Thai barbecue sauce and sweet and sour cucumber relish. Of the many dishes offered to those passengers, apricot curry braised lamb medallion was featured.

And what is a good meal without good drinks? To keep all of those first and business class customers from getting parched, Master Sommelier and Master of Wine Doug Frost chose a selection of wine to pair the meals.

When they aren’t stuffing their faces or enjoying a nice glass of wine, customers have the option of viewing more than 150 hours of on-demand entertainment from a personal 15.4″ screen. That includes a selection of 30 movies, including Spiderman 3, Fracture, Waitress, Shooter, Next, Wild Hogs and Catch and Release.

Every customer will benefit from the renovations to these aircraft. In addition to the first and business class upgrades, the aircraft will have refreshed premium cabin restrooms, new seat cushions, carpeting, digital inflight entertainment servers and LCD screens in economy.