LesliePHX
01-10-2005, 03:13 AM
Hi from Bethesda. Boy, was I a dummy.
Decided to drive to the airport rather than take SuperShuttle. I didn't realize there was some kind of big race going on, so all the streets were blocked. After several attempts at new routes ended in failure, I got on the freeway. I arrived too late to make my nonstop flight.
This was my first flight as a Premier person, so I went to the Premier check-in and they rebooked me on a flight connecting in Chicago. Also put me down for standby for an earlier flight connecting in Chicago.
I got to go through the quickie Premier security line ... Boy, this Premier thing is easy to get used to!
I made the standby flight, connected in Chicago, and arrived at a mandatory company function two hours late. Way to look professional, Les. :(
Here are the trip reports:
-- Phoenix to Chicago, United Airlines (Ted), Airbus 320 --
Because I was flying standby, I got stuck in a middle seat. Skipped meeting the captain since I was one of the last ones on and the FAs were really pressing to get us all seated.
I bought a $5 Ted meal. They have four choices of little boxes with snacky stuff. I got the one that looked like it had the least sugar because I hate getting a sugar buzz on a plane. It had a good peppercorn cheese spread, crackers, salami slices, applesauce, veggie chips, Pepperidge Farm milano cookies.
Channel 9 was good. I heard pilots asking for game scores and got to hear an ATC guy say, "They were kicking butt a few minutes ago." As we were just about to touch down, I heard a pilot report a goose sighting! Big flock of geese for everybody to avoid. Don't know how I would've felt about that if we hadn't been nearly on the ground ourselves.
Chicago airport (ORD) smells good. Probably because I was hungry and walking by all those cool Chicago-y food places.
--Chicago to Washington Dulles, United Airlines, 737-500--
Standby again, but I got a better seat -- window seat in the emergency row. That row is configured 2 x 2 in this plane, so there were only two of us and it wasn't too squooshed. Plane sure seemed old and beat-up though.
Met the captain. Super-nice guy. I asked if he would keep channel 9 on, and he said normally he would, but the plane's sound system was busted so nobody could listen to anything on this flight. Too bad, I sure do like channel 9.
The first officer had a French accent. That seemed funny; I don't think I've ever heard a pilot with a French accent. Wondered what his story was, why he was flying United and not Air France.
I did OK. The flights were pretty smooth.
Washington Dulles has to be the ugliest airport in the country. I know it was designed by a hotshot architect, but I just don't see what he was going for. From the low ceilings to the humdrum decor to the rickety buses that ferry passengers between the main terminal and the concourses, it all seems depressing.
Not much to report, aside from my own screw-up.
Leslie
Decided to drive to the airport rather than take SuperShuttle. I didn't realize there was some kind of big race going on, so all the streets were blocked. After several attempts at new routes ended in failure, I got on the freeway. I arrived too late to make my nonstop flight.
This was my first flight as a Premier person, so I went to the Premier check-in and they rebooked me on a flight connecting in Chicago. Also put me down for standby for an earlier flight connecting in Chicago.
I got to go through the quickie Premier security line ... Boy, this Premier thing is easy to get used to!
I made the standby flight, connected in Chicago, and arrived at a mandatory company function two hours late. Way to look professional, Les. :(
Here are the trip reports:
-- Phoenix to Chicago, United Airlines (Ted), Airbus 320 --
Because I was flying standby, I got stuck in a middle seat. Skipped meeting the captain since I was one of the last ones on and the FAs were really pressing to get us all seated.
I bought a $5 Ted meal. They have four choices of little boxes with snacky stuff. I got the one that looked like it had the least sugar because I hate getting a sugar buzz on a plane. It had a good peppercorn cheese spread, crackers, salami slices, applesauce, veggie chips, Pepperidge Farm milano cookies.
Channel 9 was good. I heard pilots asking for game scores and got to hear an ATC guy say, "They were kicking butt a few minutes ago." As we were just about to touch down, I heard a pilot report a goose sighting! Big flock of geese for everybody to avoid. Don't know how I would've felt about that if we hadn't been nearly on the ground ourselves.
Chicago airport (ORD) smells good. Probably because I was hungry and walking by all those cool Chicago-y food places.
--Chicago to Washington Dulles, United Airlines, 737-500--
Standby again, but I got a better seat -- window seat in the emergency row. That row is configured 2 x 2 in this plane, so there were only two of us and it wasn't too squooshed. Plane sure seemed old and beat-up though.
Met the captain. Super-nice guy. I asked if he would keep channel 9 on, and he said normally he would, but the plane's sound system was busted so nobody could listen to anything on this flight. Too bad, I sure do like channel 9.
The first officer had a French accent. That seemed funny; I don't think I've ever heard a pilot with a French accent. Wondered what his story was, why he was flying United and not Air France.
I did OK. The flights were pretty smooth.
Washington Dulles has to be the ugliest airport in the country. I know it was designed by a hotshot architect, but I just don't see what he was going for. From the low ceilings to the humdrum decor to the rickety buses that ferry passengers between the main terminal and the concourses, it all seems depressing.
Not much to report, aside from my own screw-up.
Leslie