United 777 Sydney to San Francisco in Business Class (SYD-SFO)

A morning-to-morning flight in a comfortable lie-flat seat with reasonable food and 3 good lounge options in Sydney. 

Pros

• Comfortable lie-flat seat
• Proper bedding and pajamas
• Cabin wasn't too hot
• Decent food
• 3 lounges to choose from
• This SFO flight has a lot more Business Class seats than the LAX flight, so your chance of scoring an upgrade is higher

Cons

• Expensive - the round trip version of this is going for US$10,000 right now
• It's United, so there's no partner airlines if you're starting elsewhere in Australia and connecting. Someday that will change via their upcoming Virgin Australia partnership
• Connecting onward to NYC via SFO means there's a near-zero chance your upgrade will clear on that leg (there were 17 people with 1k AND Million Miler status on my flight!) Also, many of the planes on that route don't have a separate Premium Economy cabin, so I was in the waaay back of the plane for that leg.

How I did it

Paid $2310 for Premium Economy and used 30 PlusPoints from Tim's United 1k account to request an upgrade to Polaris Business. There was also an option to spend $1700 for Economy and 40 PlusPoints for an upgrade to Business, but given this whole journey to New York was going to be a 26-hour schlep, I opted to pay a bit more to improve my odds of an upgrade. According United's algorithm, someone like me, who has no status at all, would beat a 1k or Gold member who chose the cheaper option. 

The very best feature of being a 1k is that you can use your PlusPoints to upgrade anyone you book a ticket for. It works especially well with us being in "3 player mode" – Tim with 1k status and Kelly and I with no status.

 

Any trip where I get this text message 24 hours before departure is off to a fantastic start

duty free vodka with free USB hub!

Singapore Airlines lounge had a live barista making fantastic coffee

...and a great view

lots of Australian and international options

and hooray for dim sum

and single use Vegemite packets 

our 777

Still getting the Saks bedding and gel pillow

and pajamas

Avo is always a conversation-starter. The FA's love him

First meal - fish and asparagus

I debated doing a Tim Tam Slam with the champagne but decided against it

Sleepytime!

Back into the northern hemisphere

Someone snuck this into my bag 🧡

Breakfast before landing. Vegetable frittata...
 
I woke up briefly mid-flight and they seemed to be offering sandwiches and snacks to people who weren't sleeping. I mention this because in reviews I'd read of this flight people were angry they got so little food onboard – maybe they'd just slept through that 3rd meal option? 

Sunrise over San Francisco bay as we landed

Some Parting Thoughts

I've been on more than a dozen flights longer than this (most NYC flights to Asia are 13+ hours), and if you're going to California, it's a piece o' cake. But mannnnnn clearing customs and then immediately boarding a 6 hour, completely-full flight to New York was soul crushing. (No surprise that we're meeting Tim in Los Angeles for our next visit.)

Because of that, I'm looking forward to the direct NYC-Sydney flights that begin in 2025. But I also worry that even in lie-flat Business (or their uber-bougie First) 19 consecutive hours in a plane might be more than I can handle.