United Airlines, BOM to EWR

After a fun but busy week in India, I was eager to get some rest on my flight home so I could wake up refreshed for work. My family usually goes with United when flying to India, so I was familiar with the experience.

Flying direct, I arrived in the evening at the beautiful new T2 terminal of Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport. My check-in was pleasant thanks to the personable staff, though the person who helped me was in training and held me up for a few extra minutes. Eager to get in my seat, I appreciated the gate agent began calling zones ahead of schedule. My parents took the liberty of upgrading my seat to Economy Plus. Being a tall guy, it’s hard for me to sleep on airplanes and the emergency exit is much easier on the legs.

My row’s three seats were filled, but we quickly noticed there were a lot of empty Economy Plus seats in our section. When asked by my neighbor, the flight attendant was kind enough to let us switch to the roomier sections, so I decided to take an aisle seat in the middle row. There was slightly less legroom with the dividing wall in front of me, but not so much that I couldn’t keep my legs straight. I actually liked that I could prop my feet up against the wall a bit, and I find that the emergency rows can get cold so the switch was a great move.

Being a 14-hour flight, I wanted to stay awake for the first half and sleep for the last half, so I took advantage of the in-flight entertainment system. The library had a nice variety of movies, balancing popcorn flicks with critically acclaimed films. I chose to watch Air, Fantastic Four and Antman before I took a couple sleeping pills to get some rest. For the in-flight meal, I decided to opt for the Indian-vegetarian entrée. I detest airline food, so for flights to India I get the Indian meals as I find them to be more flavorful, though still not very tasty.

The extra legroom made my sleep comfortable, though I still found myself getting up to walk around a few times. All in all, it was a pleasant flight, in line with my usual experience flying United to India.