Jenn and I joined United Airlines for their new years celebration and I have to admit they know how to throw a fun party. From the dinner to the dancing, we had a fun time on our first date night away from the kids in years.

Booking

I wasn’t planning on doing anything major for New Year’s Eve, but we were planning on remaining in town. When browsing various auction websites, I stumbled across a dinner at 71Above at the US Bank building in Downtown Los Angeles using United miles. At the time, they offered two options for booking (both for two people): bid a minimum of 35,000 miles for the “platinum ticket” (dinner and dancing), or pay a fixed 40,000 miles for the “gold ticket” (only the dancing). So I thought ‘sure, why not try for the platinum ticket since it seemed like the better deal’. With 21 chances to win, I thought I had decent odds. And sure enough, fewer than 21 people placed a bid and we were able to get in with the base price of 35,000 miles.

Pre-Event Communication

Shortly after winning the auction, representatives from MileagePlus reached out to confirm information about who will be attending and dinner preferences. They also mentioned they would waive valet parking or offer a $20 voucher for ride-share. I ended up declining both as we preferred to stay the night at the nearby Westin Bonaventure, but it was nice to see the offer available.

Overall, I was pretty pleased with the amount of communication they provided before the event.

Arrival and First Impressions

We arrived at the US Bank building right around 7PM. A representative at the ground floor checked off our names and sent us along our way. There was plenty of signage and staff to help direct guests to the appropriate elevators.

Immediately after stepping off the elevator, we handed our coats to the coat check and friendly staff eagerly gave us each a glass of champagne and welcomed us to the party. We were then free to roam around the room for a bit until dinner started.

Originally I thought this event would only be a small section of the restaurant, but they actually bought the place out. It was nice arriving for the dinner, as it afforded us a chance to take a look around at all the decorations without crowds of people present. The intimate setting also gave us the chance to talk a little to the organizers who helped put this party together.

When our champagne glasses started getting low, someone was always quick to come by and offer a refill. If champagne wasn’t your thing, they also offered two specialty drinks for the night — but I must admit the drinks were pretty strong. Behind the bar was some United branding “etched” into the windows as well as a countdown clock.

Before dinner started, there were plenty of passed appetizers. They had several varieties, but the seared tuna was by far the best. Of course, I am biased towards raw fish. The challenge here was to enjoy ourselves but somehow not go overboard since dinner was still looming. I arguably failed in that endeavor.

Dinner

At around 7:30pm, we were directed to our table. Along the way to our table, we could see chefs preparing food for the evening. We also spied the large quantity of alcohol to be served. United certainly didn’t skimp on the drinks here.

We arrived at table 5 to find our seats nicely decorated. It was assigned seating here and we got a chance to interact with three other couples. Two of the couples were local, while another couple used this dinner as an excuse to fly in from the Central time zone. I’d say we had a pretty fun table, though it was a bit nerdy at times talking to others about how into the miles and points game everyone was. In some ways, it’s nice to know who the competition is for those limited award seats out of LAX (hah!).

Shortly after sitting down, the event organizers had a few words to say. They also hosted a raffle where several winners would each receive 23,000 United miles back. They did call a Chris as a winner, but sadly my name is too common and it was someone else. In the end, I still thought this experience worthy of 35,000 miles, so the raffle would have just been icing on the cake.

Waiting at our seats was the dinner menu for the evening. Prior to arriving, we all confirmed our third course (I chose the short rib while Jenn went with the salmon). Paired alongside each course was a wine. I normally take better notes on how each course was, but there certainly was a lot of alcohol to drink. I do remember everything was delicious. Specifically, I wish I had a larger portion of caviar and the gnudi. I am turned off by anything with truffle oil, but fresh truffle is a treat and that made me appreciate the gnudi, which had plenty of shaved truffle and no truffle oil. Between the main courses, I preferred the short rib, which melted in my mouth, but the salmon was also good. The dessert was on the sweeter side, but it was nice being able to eat it without the kids trying to steal it from us.

The Party

After dessert, we were invited to head out to the dance floor. By this point, many of the other guests arrived who only signed up for the dance party and skipped the dinner. With roughly three hours to go, the place felt fairly packed and it lost a bit of the intimate feeling from before the start of dinner. But the drinks were still flowing and food continued to be on offer. They certainly had enough food available to make a meal out of it. We may or may not have spent some time at the “raw bar” during the evening just to take advantage of the oysters even after all the food we ate at dinner.

At some point, disco man showed up to hang out with guests. I’m not sure who exactly he was, but I can definitely dig his style.

The After Party

We stayed at the party until 12:30AM. The party was still going strong at this time, but I’ll admit it has been a while since I’ve been out so late. I’m guessing we could have closed the place down at 2AM if we wanted to keep going. On our way out the door, event staff handed us each a souvenir bag with goodies inside. The contents included a small bottle of sparkling wine, some MileagePlus branded merchandise (a planner and a passport holder), and an assortment of items to help with a hangover (Advil, mints, Alka-Seltzer, some electrolyte drink mix, and a caffeine-infused body wipe). I found it amusing they knew guests would party a little too hard. Luckily there were no hangovers here!

Recommendation: Yes!

We had a great time at this party. I had some apprehension going into the event wondering whether I would feel it was worth the price of admission, but those fears quickly diminished by dinner. It was awesome getting to meet others in the area and those running the program. I feel it’s likely we would do this again the next time something is offered — I felt United put in a real effort to make sure everyone was happy at the end of the event. The only minor quibble from the evening was that it was rainy that evening, preventing views of the city from 71 stories above ground floor. Of course, that wasn’t within their control. Well done, United!