United-- the worst airline on the planet?

Well I can think of a few that are worse actually, but it seems like every time I fly United, I'm surprised by new standards of mediocrity. Our flight from SFO had bar none the worst airplane food I have even encountered. It was some kind of sweet and sour chicken concoction, and it made Chloe and I feel vaguely ill for the balance of the trip. And that was just the beginning! After flying across the Pacific, we all watched in frustration as we got flown around in tight circles, waiting to land. I could see whitecaps on the water, and there was no doubt that the winds were reasonably strong. One hundred feet from the ground, the pilot waved off at the last minute, sending us into a high thrust climb away from the airport. It was frustrating to be able to see the crack in the runway and not land, but hey, a rookie pilot has to learn somehow right? I'd just prefer if it wasn't on *my* transpacific flight. The fun part was still to come however, because in the course of all the circling and stepping on the gas to get away from the airport, we basically almost ran out of fuel and had to land at the Yokota air force base, home of the 347th airlift wing, and not a very good place for a commercial jetliner. After taxiing around for ages, the military boarded and walked through the plane. I'm not sure what exactly they were looking for, and how a 747 full of pissed off travelers at Yokota was a security issue, but I fully trust in the logic and sense of our military's protocols. After sitting for another age (three hours), we finally got fueled up and flew to Narita. As we arrived in, the stwardess announced that "obviously I have no information on connecting flights". Ummm, why is that obvious? Isn't that part of your #$%#$ JOB?! In any event, it was an inauspicious start to our trip, but hey, things can only get better from here, right?! We had dinner at a local izakaya



One funny coincidence: my parents ran into some of their friends from San Francisco on the plane!