United Airlines
A United Airlines Boeing 787 Dreamliner.
"HAVE you seen the toilet?" said the man next to me. "You have to see the toilet."
Airplane bathrooms are hardly conversation starters, and if they are, it's generally not a conversation one wants to continue. But I had just boarded the Dreamliner — Boeing's new 787 that is outshining its ancestors with roomier overhead bins, larger windows, power for smartphones, a quieter cabin, more humid air and, as it turns out, a toilet that's a crowd pleaser.
A vision in white, it has plastic tabs on the sides of the lid and the seat so you barely have to touch them, a sensor instead of a flush button and, according to some users, a more subdued whoosh when flushed. "It's very refined," said my seatmate, Joe Nevin, a former executive at Apple turned Aspen ski pro. "It doesn't sound like it's going to take your clothes off."
Mr. Nevin was among some 200 hard-core frequent fliers on board United Airlines Flight 1807, the first North American charter of the Dreamliner. And over the course of a few days in November, they — and I — would flit from San Francisco to Houston to Chicago, all the while racking up miles and exploring the plane from nose to tail.
They were bankers, lawyers, programmers, film distributors, entrepreneurs and all-around aviation buffs or, as they lovingly call themselves, geeks. Most were men. All of them had signed up for a MegaDo, a retreat organized by and for travel fanatics who scour Web sites like Milepoint, particularly frequent fliers for whom it is a hobby to accrue miles and learn every last detail about their preferred airline.
The first MegaDo was in 2009. This one, Star Alliance MegaDo 4, had a European leg that wasn't on a Dreamliner and a domestic leg, and sold out in two minutes. Tickets for the United States portion were $999 to $1,999 and included meals and behind-the-scenes talks and tours with airline and hotel executives. All the proceeds go to charity. Those who did manage to score a Star Alliance MegaDo 4 ticket would ultimately fly on a Dreamliner, party in an airplane hangar, learn how to de-ice a plane, visit United's headquarters, barely sleep and consume copious amounts of alcohol.
The average traveler has probably never heard of MegaDos, but they have become so significant within the travel industry that, as one of the founders, Tommy Danielsen, put it: "United gives us this plane a week and a half after they introduce it."
But even occasional fliers will find themselves on Dreamliners in the coming years as more airlines integrate them into their fleets. United, the first domestic carrier to receive the Dreamliner, has two so far and at least another 48 on the way. International carriers including Japan Airlines and Air India have been flying the planes for months.
For a taste of the future, I plunked down a credit card and tagged along for the 41,000-foot high.
IT wasn't looking good. The night before we were scheduled to fly to Houston from San Francisco, Mr. Danielsen said the Dreamliner "broke down." He didn't elaborate.
"We have a 767 scheduled to be here just in case the thing goes down the crapper," he told the crowd during a reception at the Hyatt Regency San Francisco Airport.
But the next morning at Gate 82 in San Francisco International Airport, MegaDoers were streaming onto the Dreamliner. No one looked the least bit concerned. Rather, they were pausing in the aisles for photographs as if they had never been inside a plane before.
I let their giddiness wash away my trepidation. At first, the Dreamliner's interior didn't appear to be all that different from those of other planes. But when taking in the view from my economy seat, the plane felt airier and, dare I say, almost soothing thanks to a cool indigo glow emanating from the ceiling.
LED lighting sets the mood for various phases of flight: ice bluish-purple for boarding; a dimmer version of that for cruising; deep purple for relaxing; copper during meals; dark, bat-cave blue for sleeping; and a warm blend to help wake passengers for landing. On long flights, the lighting can be used to simulate a full day to help combat jet lag.
The Dreamliner also feels more spacious, thanks to windows that are 30 percent larger than those on other similarly sized airplanes. That means even passengers not seated at a window are able to see outside. Instead of shades, there are window tints that passengers control with a dimmer button, which, for Gilles Goudreault, president of a Canadian multimedia company, are one of the Dreamliner's best features. "You feel like it's a tomb with the shade down," he said. The new tints satisfy more people, preventing sunlight from blasting passengers who are sleeping but still enabling the person by the window to enjoy the view.
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