Here’s a quick review of a redeye flight on United’s ancient but comfortable 777-200 “HD” configuration in first class. In fact, I can sum up the experience in three words: we slept soundly.

Going Right To Sleep: The Ideal Redeye (United Airlines 777 HD First Class Review)

United still operates a subfleet of 777-200 aircraft that have a lie-flat seat that dates back almost 20 years. These seats are lie-flat and surprisingly comfortable, but they are narrow, have no storage, and are 8-across…2-4-2. Yes, middle seats are not at all ideal.

I do have a soft spot for this particular aircraft, though, becuase I “came of age” flying it…so many wonderful trips around the world in this seat and I did (and still do) prefer it the ex-Continental B/E Diamond seat (the seat we still see on United’s 757-200 fleet).

Heidi and I were heading to Nashville for a funeral via Chicago and I booked us directly into business class because I knew we’d have a long day before the trip and a long day in Nashville. A redeye was necessary so I chose the only option with a lie-flat seat that would get us to BNA in time for the memorial service: United via ORD.

The magical thing was that we boarded the flight, fell asleep, and woke up during final approach to Chicago. Yes, that’s the extent of the review.

The only interaction with flight attendants we had was when we politely declined a pre-departure beverage.

I had pre-ordered a Southwest chorizo spiced quinoa salad with crumbled spiced chorizo, quinoa, black bean, roasted corn salsa, grated Cotiia cheese, and grilled chicken with a chipotle ranch dressing…sounds good, doesn’t it?

But we slept instead…blissful, deep sleep. Even though the flght was less than four hours, we both awoke refreshed.

United does not supply pillows on domestic redeye flights (except for premium transcontinental flights) and the blankets are so thin you can see through them. I knew this going in and came prepared with pillows and duvets: that certainly helped.

As much as I like to provide comprehensive reviews of my flights, I can only say here that there is no better redeye than one that you sleep on.