Leslie's 2008 Flight Log

[LeslieDEN]

I had my first 2008 flight and think I will do a flight log this year.

It is getting more and more difficult to maintain my elite status with United. When I lived in Phoenix, I kept Premier naturally because I traveled to Denver so much. Now that I live in Denver, I hardly ever get sent anywhere for work, so I gotta do mileage runs. I did make Premier for 2008, but just barely and only with some serious mileage running at the end of 2007.

A couple of weeks ago, I saw a cheapo DEN-IAD-DEN flight for this weekend so I scheduled a mileage run to give myself a head start on elite status for 2009. I flew to Washington, DC, and back today.

Date: Jan. 12, 2008
Route: Denver, CO, to Washington, DC
Airline: United
Flight: UA 902
Equipment: Boeing 777
Seat: 21A
Printed Schedule: Depart DEN 10:25 a.m. MST; arrive IAD 3:33 p.m. EST
Real Schedule: Departed and arrived on time.
Meal: Choice of four $5 snackboxes. I chose the RightBite box, which contained lemon & pepper seasoned tuna, crackers, hummus, pita chips, an odd gouda-like cheese product, raisins, and a mini-Toblerone.
Movie: Many choices -- gotta love that 777 seatback video -- but I settled on Resurrecting the Champ. It's not a movie I would go out of my way to see, but as a seatback movie, it was fine and absorbing. Samuel L. Jackson was fantastic, just mesmerizing. What an actor. I also liked that it was set in Denver and that it was about journalism.
Fun Channel 9 stuff: The captain had announced beforehand that it would be available, but I couldn't hear anything. Maybe something was wrong with my connection.

Date: Jan. 12, 2008
Route: Washington, DC, to Denver, CO
Airline: United
Flight: UA 921
Equipment: Boeing 757
Seat: 3D (first class)
Printed Schedule: Depart IAD 4:26 p.m. EST; arrive DEN 6:25 p.m. MST
Real Schedule: Departed on time; arrived about 30 minutes early.
Meal: Choice between cheese pasta and babyback ribs. I chose the babyback ribs. Very good boneless meat with barbecue sauce, veggies, mashed potatoes, walnut salad, roll & butter, and key lime pie.
Movie: The Jane Austen Book Club. I couldn't get into it so I stopped watching after the first 10 minutes or so.
Fun Channel 9 stuff: Lots of game scores going back and forth, mostly about something in Green Bay.

Total elite qualifying miles: 2,904

[LeslieDEN]

Third flight in my flight log. Finally I got sent a-flying for work.

Date: Jan. 31, 2008
Route: Denver, CO, to Washington, DC
Airline: United
Flight: UA 902 (Same as my mileage run flight!)
Equipment: Boeing 777
Seat: 17A
Printed Schedule: Depart DEN 10:25 a.m. MST; arrive IAD 3:33 p.m. EST
Real Schedule: Departed the gate on time, but something was going THUNK THUNK THUNK as we taxied, and the captain came on the PA and said we were returning to the gate because they had an "indication" that something wasn't properly secured in cargo. I guess THUNK THUNK THUNK was the indication. We were at the gate for quite a while, and finally the captain said, nope, everything checked out OK in there. Hey, Captain, what was that THUNK then? I never asked but I guess it was OK. They made up some time in the air and we arrived only about 30 minutes late.
Meal: Choice of four $5 snackboxes. I chose the Smartpack box, which contained bagel chips, vegetable cheese spread, fruit & nut granola, pears in pear juice, flaky cinnamon pastry, toffee, and mints.
Movie: Many choices again, but all of them sucked this time. I switched around and finally just turned on the air map and read my book.
Fun Channel 9 stuff: Same as usual. Wish I'd been listening during the THUNK THUNK THUNK "indication."

Elite qualifying miles: 1,452

[LeslieDEN]

Flew home today.

Date: Feb. 8, 2008
Route: Washington, DC, to Denver, CO
Airline: United
Flight: UA 923
Equipment: Boeing 757
Seat: 4A (First Class)
Printed Schedule: Depart IAD 12:28 p.m. EST; arrive DEN 2:23 p.m. MST
Real Schedule: Departed and arrived on time.
Meal: Warm nuts and Coke to start, then cold chicken breast with yummy sauce, pineapple and melon slices, tomato soup, roll & butter, chocolate chip cookie, coffee.
Movie: Elizabeth: The Golden Age. I wanted to check this one out, but glare from the windows on the ceiling-mounted monitor made it difficult to see and the sound quality wasn't very good, so I gave up on it. Maybe I'm just getting old, but I'm thinking I may have to give up trying to watch movies on 757s altogether because that seems to be a frequent problem.
Fun Channel 9 stuff: About 30 minutes into the flight, I got to hear our pilot looking out for our comfort: He asked ATC how the rides were, and the controller said that 34 and 36 west of us were reporting intermittent light chop but 38 reported smooth. Our pilot requested 38 and got it, and it was smooth sailing for the whole flight. :)

Elite qualifying miles: 1,452

[LeslieDEN]

Back to DC.

I don't usually use this log to talk about how the flight was because there's nothing to say anymore, now that I'm pretty comfortable with flying and even like it. But today's flight merits a few paragraphs and probably a few cuss words too.

The flight was fine until we started our descent into DC. The captain had said it would be windy and seated the FAs early for landing. That's not terribly unusual.

Then -- man oh man! We got tossed around, and the worst of it was a big drop, a tummy-lurcher that made my head swim. It was like a dive, an extended free fall. Some gasps, some nervous laughter in business class. An FA had earlier asked my seatmate if she was a 100K Premier -- 100K means she flew 100,000 United miles last year -- and she had said yes, so she's no stranger to flying, but even she was freaking a little!

I'm sure we were never in any danger. But boy, it sure didn't feel that way at the time, and I found myself thinking, "They DO shut airports down for wind ... That means wind is dangerous ... That means we are in danger ... That means we are doomed." <-- Every fearful flyer knows the spiral: Start with one thought, which leads to another, which leads to another -- thoughts that become increasingly illogical but seem perfectly logical at the time. I did that today. :blush:

Here are the stats:

Date: Feb. 10, 2008
Route: Denver, CO, to Washington, DC
Airline: United
Flight: UA 902
Equipment: Boeing 777
Seat: 13J (Business Class)
Printed Schedule: Depart DEN 10:25 a.m. MST; arrive IAD 3:33 p.m. EST
Real Schedule: Departed and arrived on time.
Meal: Parmesan chicken, watermelon, roll & butter, brownie, Coke, coffee.
Movie: Many choices. Dan in Real Life was boring so I switched to The Jane Austen Book Club, which I'd given up on early on a previous flight. I liked it a little better this time but not enough to watch it all the way through.
Fun Channel 9 stuff: During landing, got to hear the controller tell the plane behind us to watch out for wake turb from us. 777 is the bully of the skies.

Elite qualifying miles: 1,452

[LeslieDEN]

Home again. Six flights down, and all of them involved my most hated airport, scummy Dulles.

Date: Feb. 20, 2008
Route: Washington, DC, to Denver, CO
Airline: United
Flight: UA 923 again
Equipment: Boeing 767. This was my first time on a United 767; I don't think I even knew United had 767s. Nice plane.
Seat: 3E (First Class)
Printed Schedule: Depart IAD 12:28 p.m. EST; arrive DEN 2:23 p.m. MST
Real Schedule: Departed and arrived on time.
Meal: Orange juice, warm nuts, cold chicken breast with sauce, watermelon, tomato lentil soup, roll & butter, coffee, warm and gooey chocolate chip cookie (so good!)
Movie: Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium. Horrible children's movie that even Dustin Hoffman couldn't save. It was followed by episodes of The Office (U.S. version) and Ugly Betty. Didn't watch those.
Fun Channel 9 stuff: It was on but there was a loud hum on the channel that made it difficult to hear, at least where I was sitting.

Elite qualifying miles: 1,452

[LeslieDEN]

Off to San Jose!

Date: Feb. 27, 2008
Route: Denver, CO, to San Jose, CA
Airline: United
Flight: UA 521
Equipment: Boeing 737-300
Seat: 4F
Printed Schedule: Depart DEN 8:26 a.m. MST; arrive SJC 10:05 a.m. PST
Real Schedule: They delayed boarding for a mechanical problem and finally put us on another plane. It was all handled efficiently, and we landed only 15 minutes late.
Meal: Coffee and Biscoff plus a little raspberry yogurt I swiped from the Red Carpet Club.
Movie: Not on a 737.
Fun Channel 9 stuff: As we were descending, I heard the controller scold a pilot for getting into San Francisco airspace. Not sure if it was a commercial or GA plane. The pilot said he never did that. They argued back and forth about "Sector B," whatever that is. Wish I'd been taking notes because I'd never heard anything like that and would have liked to be able to reproduce it here. Finally they both backed off and the controller asked the pilot what he wanted to do now.

Elite qualifying miles: 948

[LeslieDEN]

Home again.

Date: Feb. 29, 2008
Route: San Jose, CA, to Denver, CO
Airline: United
Flight: UA 390
Equipment: Boeing 737-300
Seat: 8D
Printed Schedule: Depart SJC 5:07 p.m. PST; arrive DEN 8:37 p.m. MST.
Real Schedule: Departed about 20 minutes late; arrived about 10 minutes late.
Meal: Coffee and pretzels plus a Payday bar I bought at the airport because SJC has no Red Carpet Club from which to swipe.
Movie: No movie.
Fun Channel 9 stuff: As we joined one of the frequencies, ATC told us intermittent light chop and "light mountain wave" had been reported in the area. They repeated that to other planes as they came on the frequency. I wondered what light mountain wave was but forgot about it pretty quickly. A bit later, I experienced a really strange sensation -- not turbulence, not a drop, but something like being in a moving elevator. Very mild, very brief, hardly noticeable, but definitely there. Just then our pilot told ATC, "We're getting that light mountain wave at 37" and asked to descend to 35. The request was granted and it didn't happen again.

Elite qualifying miles: 948

[LeslieDEN]

Back to San Jose!

Date: March 3, 2008
Route: Denver, CO, to San Jose, CA
Airline: United
Flight: UA 723
Equipment: Boeing 757
Seat: 2D (First Class)
Printed Schedule: Depart DEN 6:00 p.m. MST; arrive SJC 7:34 p.m. PST
Real Schedule: Departed and arrived on time.
Meal: Warm nuts, Coke, cheese pasta, roll & butter, carrot cake, decaf
Movie: No movie, just episodes of "The Office" and "Ugly Betty." I didn't watch them.
Fun Channel 9 stuff: Mean ol' captain didn't turn it on. But he did make a snappy little preflight announcement that probably should go into the Taking Flight "Pilot Quotes" archive: "We're gonna take care of 20 hours of driving time in two hours and six minutes."

Elite qualifying miles: 948

[LeslieDEN]

Ten flights already in 2008 and it's only early March! Boy, if I keep this up, I won't just make Premier for 2009, I'll make Premier Executive!

'Course that won't happen, but a girl can dream ...

Date: March 7, 2008
Route: San Jose, CA, to Denver, CO
Airline: United
Flight: UA 390
Equipment: Boeing 737-300
Seat: 3F
Printed Schedule: Depart SJC 5:07 p.m. PST; arrive DEN 8:37 p.m. MST
Real Schedule: Departed on time; arrived about 10 minutes early.
Meal: Pretzels and coffee.
Movie: 737, no movie.
Fun Channel 9 stuff: It was on, but none of the channels worked where I was sitting. Bummer. I know we had a great captain though. The United terminal at the San Jose airport still uses old-fashioned outdoor staircases to get to the plane, and he was standing at the top greeting passengers as we boarded. I heard him tell one guy, "I love San Jose! It reminds me of the old days of flying, when you'd wave at people from the stairs."

Elite qualifying miles: 948

[LeslieDEN]

Flew to Dallas for the weekend.

Date: March 14, 2008
Route: Denver, CO, to Dallas, TX
Airline: United
Flight: UA 582
Equipment: Boeing 737-300
Seat: 2D (First Class)
Printed Schedule: Depart DEN 2:00 p.m.; arrive DFW 4:52 p.m.
Real Schedule: Departed on time; arrived about 30 minutes early.
Meal: They always starve us on this flight, even in first class. Preflight water, coffee, pretzels, and crappy snack mix. Fortunately I was prepared with cheese & crackers and shortbread cookies I had swiped from the Red Carpet Club.
Movie: 737, no movie.
Fun Channel 9 stuff: Captain didn't turn it on. It was a female captain and she kept bossing us around over the PA -- keep your seatbelts fastened, don't ring for the FAs because I seated them for their safety, etc. Made me grumpy because nice captains turn channel 9 on.

Elite qualifying miles: 641

[LeslieDEN]

Back home.

Date: March 16, 2008
Route: Dallas, TX, to Denver, CO
Airline: United
Flight: UA 1165
Equipment: Boeing 737-300
Seat: 2D (First Class)
Printed Schedule: Depart DFW 12:15 p.m.; arrive DEN 1:17 p.m.
Real Schedule: Departed on time; arrived about 15 minutes early.
Meal: They starved us again, but we did get two Biscoffs in addition to the usual nasty snack mix. I augmented it with shortbread cookies I had swiped from the Red Carpet Club.
Movie: 737, no movie.
Fun Channel 9 stuff: Pretty good stuff on this trip:
Captain on another plane reported to ATC that a passenger was having medical problems. He said he was not announcing an emergency yet, but he wanted expedited arrival in Tulsa. Controller responded: "Clear direct Tulsa."
ATC had some fun with a Continental pilot:CO plane: This is Continental 489 -- are we still OK on this frequency?
Controller: WHO??!?
CO plane: Ha ha, I was afraid of that.
The controller told him he was on the right frequency. It was pretty funny.

Controller told our plane about an Airbus in the vicinity, and our pilot said the Airbus had "squawked" at us. I guess that's the transponder?Elite qualifying miles: 641

[LeslieDEN]

Back to Dallas for mom's birthday. :cake:

Date: April 4, 2008
Route: Denver, CO, to Dallas, TX
Airline: United
Flight: UA 252
Equipment: Boeing 737-500
Seat: 2D (First Class)
Printed Schedule: Depart DEN 3:25 p.m.; arrive DFW 6:20 p.m.
Real Schedule: Departed on time; arrived about 20 minutes early.
Meal: Starvation flight as usual with yucky snack mix. The veggies and ranch dressing at the Red Carpet Club weren't worth swiping, so I bought a cheese plate at Pour la France and brought that on board. It looks good but it's not.
Movie: 737, no movie.
Fun Channel 9 Stuff: The usual. Lots of light chop along the way, everybody looking for smoother air.

Elite qualifying miles: 641

[LeslieDEN]

Back home.

Date: April 6, 2008
Route: Dallas, TX, to Denver, CO
Airline: SkyWest (United Express)
Flight: UA 6175
Equipment: CRJ 200
Seat: 2C (No first class in the CRJ)
Printed Schedule: Depart DFW 11:53 a.m.; arrive DEN 12:51 p.m.
Real Schedule: Departed on time; arrived about 10 minutes early.
Meal: Just beverage service, not even that vile snack mix, but that was OK. I had a good haul of swiped stuff from the DFW Red Carpet Club -- crackers and cheese (cheddar and monterey jack) and a Ghirardelli dark chocolate square. I had never seen Ghirardelli at a Red Carpet Club before.
Movie: No no no.
Fun Channel 9 stuff: No entertainment system on the CRJ.

Elite qualifying miles: 641

[LeslieDEN]

I flew to Providence, RI, last weekend but I've forgotten most of the details so I have to rely on printed schedule and skimpy notes.

Flights to Providence:

Date: May 9, 2008
Route: Denver, CO, to Chicago, IL
Airline: United
Flight: UA 910
Equipment: Boeing 777
Seat: 12J (Business Class)
Printed Schedule: Depart DEN 9:02 a.m.; arrive ORD 12:30 p.m.
Real Schedule: Departed on time; arrived about 30 minutes early.
Meal: From my notes: Orange juice, apple pancakes, ham, sausage, fruit (grapes and melon), coffee.
Movie: Many choices on the 777 seatback video, but nothing really good. I watched some kids learning judo and a Brit (or Aussie?) on the Discovery channel doing what he said were scary, death-defying things in the jungle, like climbing down a deep "viper hole" on a vine. I couldn't believe they were that death-defying since the cameraman was doing them right along with him.
Fun Channel 9 Stuff: I can't remember. :(

____

Date: May 9, 2008
Route: Chicago, IL, to Providence, RI
Airline: United
Flight: UA 242
Equipment: Boeing 737-300
Seat: 2D (First Class)
Printed Schedule: Depart ORD 1:17 p.m.; arrive PVD 4:37 p.m.
Real Schedule: Departed and arrived on time.
Meal: Coke, chicken Caesar salad, fruit (grapes, pineapple, melon), Oreos, Ghirardelli milk chocolate and dark chocolate, wheat crackers, coffee.
Movie: 737, no movie.
Fun Channel 9 Stuff: Can't remember. This is so embarrassing.
_____

Flights home to Denver:

Date: May 11, 2008
Route: Providence, RI, to Chicago, IL
Airline: United
Flight: UA 105
Equipment: A319
Seat: 2D (First Class)
Printed Schedule: Depart PVD 11:27 a.m.; arrive ORD 12:57 p.m.
Real Schedule: Departed and arrived on time.
Meal: I didn't keep notes and don't remember! Something good ...
Movie: Can't remember ... Probably a bunch of NBC sitcoms.
Fun Channel 9 Stuff: Can't remember ...

_____

Date: May 11, 2008
Route: Chicago, IL, to Denver, CO
Airline: United
Flight: UA 909
Equipment: Boeing 767
Seat: 3J (First Class)
Printed Schedule: Depart ORD 2:45 p.m.; arrive DEN 4:19 p.m.
Real Schedule: Departed and arrived on time.
Meal: I forgot again.
Movie: I forgot again.
Fun Channel 9 Stuff: I forgot again.

____
Sorry about forgetting everything about the flight back. I was in a grumpy mood (my seatmate, who decided to commandeer the first class console between our seats by placing his smelly McDonald's bag on it, didn't help). Will do better next time.

Also, I can't really keep track of my miles anymore because United launched a double-your-miles promotion which I hope is gonna get me to Premier Executive (Lite) by the end of summer. :)

[LeslieDEN]

Off to DC and back. All nonstops for the Denver-DC flight were sold out, so I had to stop in Pittsburgh:

Flights to Washington, DC:

Date: May 27, 2008
Route: Denver, CO, to Pittsburgh, PA
Airline: United
Flight: UA 230
Equipment: A319
Seat: 2D (First Class)
Printed Schedule: Depart DEN 2:19 p.m.; arrive PIT 5:19 p.m.
Real Schedule: Departed and arrived on time.
Meal: Warm nuts, tomato juice, turkey/cheese wrap, red potato salad, chocolate chip cookie, Coke. I'm getting tired of the turkey/cheese wrap.
Movie: The Bucket List. I had heard this was terrible so I didn't watch it.
Fun Channel 9 Stuff: The usual stuff.

_____

Date: May 27, 2008
Route: Pittsburgh, PA, to Washington, DC
Airline: Chautauqua (United Express)
Flight: UA 7777
Printed Schedule: Depart PIT 6:30 p.m.; arrive IAD 7:37 p.m.
Real Schedule: CANCELED!

Flight got canceled! So United put me up at the Pittsburgh Airport Hyatt and booked me on the next available flight, which was the next day:

Date: May 28, 2008
Route: Pittsburgh, PA, to Washington, DC
Airline: Mesa Airlines (United Express)
Flight: UA 7312
Equipment: CRJ 200
Seat: 7A
Printed Schedule: Depart PIT 6:20 a.m.; arrive IAD 7:25 a.m.
Real Schedule: Departed and arrived on time I guess. At that hour, who knows? I was sleepwalking.
Meal: No meal or beverage service.
Movie: No entertainment.
Fun Channel 9 Stuff: No channel 9.

_____

Flight home to Denver:

Date: May 28, 2008
Route: Washington, DC, to Denver, CO
Airline: United
Flight: UA 919
Equipment: Boeing 757
Seat: 3D (First Class)
Printed Schedule: Depart IAD 4:40 p.m.; arrive DEN 6:27 p.m.
Real Schedule: Departed a little late so they could get some bags transferred; arrived late at around 7:00 thanks to bags and microburst!
Meal: Warm nuts, lasagna, salad, roll & butter, Coke, coffee. They brought around what looked like chocolate cheesecake for dessert but I was too stuffed.
Movie: Mad Money. I watched the first few minutes but it looked pretty bad so I went back to channel 9.
Fun Channel 9 Stuff: I smiled early on when a pilot asked ATC, "Can we go fast now?" Among all the aviation jargon, it sounded cute, the plea of a little-kid-turned-pilot who wants to go fast. Ain't that what flying's really all about? :) Unfortunately, the controller responded, "Not yet."

Best thing was while we were approaching the runway. There was a lot of deviating going on for storm cells, but I couldn't see any weather out my window. Then ATC said to our plane, "United 919, microburst alert on the runway. Do you want to continue approach?" Our pilot said, "Negative." Controller said, "United 919, climb and maintain 9,000."

Zip! We were climbing! We did a big circle and then the controller said the runway was clear of microburst and wind shear, and did we want to start our approach again? Pilot said yup, and pretty soon we were on the ground. Very little bumpiness throughout this; in fact, it was all pretty smooth. I would've thought that with such drama going on over the runway, we would've felt something, but no. Maybe that's what used to make microbursts so treacherous, before they had the sensors?

[CAflyer]

I wonder how many pilots say yes to landing in a microburst? That would seem stupid, surprised they even ask. Glad you had a good flight!

[LeslieDEN]

I wonder how many pilots say yes to landing in a microburst? That would seem stupid, surprised they even ask.
:lol:

Yeah, when you put it like that, it does seem odd. But since ATC's mission is just to keep the planes spaced properly, I guess decisions like that fall to the captain, even when they seem like no-brainers. I suppose. Don't really know. :dunno:

[LeslieDEN]

OK, I'm officially insane. Other people aspire to wealth, happiness, enlightenment, career advancement, service to humanity ... I aspire to break through my puny Premier status and achieve PREMIER EXECUTIVE STATUS dadgummit and this is my year, this is my year! :)

United has a great promotion going through June 15 where we get double elite qualifying miles. American and Delta did it first and United had to follow. So I booked three mileage runs to IAD and back on consecutive Saturdays for ~3000 miles each x 3 x 2 = 18,000 + the miles I already have = dang close to Premier Exec. Today was the first of three.

Date: May 31, 2008
Route: Denver, CO, to Washington, DC
Airline: United
Flight: UA 902
Equipment: Boeing 777
Seat: 13A (Business Class)
Printed Schedule: Depart DEN 10:15 a.m.; arrive IAD 3:35 p.m.
Real Schedule: Departed late because our plane sent an erroneous message to the San Francisco maintenance facility and the pilots had to figure out how to delete it. That confused the heck out of me, and I've posted to Capt. Hutch's board to ask about it. Then we had to circle over Louisville, KY, because storms on the east coast were causing delays. Anyway, we arrived only a few minutes late.
Meal: Warm nuts, coffee, Coke. Lunch was a choice between salmon salad and pastrami sandwich. I chose the sandwich but it was really bad, so I asked the FA if I could have one of the buy-on-board snackboxes available to the folks in Economy. I got the RightBite box featuring tuna and crackers, and I was surprised that he actually took the $5 I offered. I'd thought he would say, no, you're in Business Class, you don't need to pay for it, but he took the money. Oh, well, United probably needs all the money it can get ...
Movie: Lots of choices, and I switched around a lot. The Golden Compass caught my attention first. It looked kind of good -- I liked the scene with Nicole Kidman threatening the kid -- but I got tired of the talking animals quickly and switched away (If I wanna see talking animals, I'll watch Frontier commercials :lol:). I watched part of The Great Debaters ... OK but formulaic, and when it started sounding like a lecture, I switched away. I settled on a weird Showtime thing, Dexter, which, as far as I can tell, is about a sociopath who has sworn to use his sociopathic tendencies only for good. I switched back and forth between Dexter and the flight map and my book.
Fun Channel 9 Stuff: Just that funny erroneous message our plane sent to San Francisco, plus some talk about the holding pattern we and everybody else had to do over Louisville because of storms on the east coast.

Date: May 31, 2008
Route: Washington, DC, to Denver, CO
Airline: United
Flight: UA 903
Equipment: Boeing 777
Seat: 13A (Business Class) (Same seat!)
Printed Schedule: Depart IAD 5:20 p.m.; arrive DEN 6:58 p.m.
Real Schedule: Departed and arrived about 30 minutes late because of earlier storms. They had to bring in a bunch of planes that had been in holding patterns (as we were on the earlier flight).
Meal: Warm nuts, coffee, Coke, lasagna, roll & butter, chocolate cheesecake.
Movie: Choices were the same as the outbound flight, and I watched Dexter and the flight map in between reading my book.
Fun Channel 9 Stuff: The usual stuff, plus I got to hear foreign airlines -- Mexicana, Lufthansa, British Airways (BA's Speedbird callsign is always fun to hear).

[LeslieDEN]

Mileage run 2 of 3. Did the same flights as last Saturday, Denver to DC and back.

Date: June 7, 2008
Route: Denver, CO, to Washington, DC
Airline: United
Flight: UA 902
Equipment: Boeing 777
Seat: 12A (Business Class)
Printed Schedule: Depart DEN 10:15 a.m.; arrive IAD 3:42 p.m.
Real Schedule: Departed and arrived on time I think.
Meal: Preflight water, warm nuts, tomato juice, Coke. Cold lemon herb chicken, cantaloupe, carrot cake, roll & butter. It was pretty good.
Movie: Lots of choices as usual but nothing looked especially good. I watched part of a documentary on the history of movie-making and then parts of Definitely, Maybe, a dumb romantic comedy. Movie was bad and I despised the kid. Switched between that and other not-good stuff.
Fun Channel 9 Stuff: The flight attendant announced that it would be on but it wasn't. My seatmate wanted to listen to it too, so we were both disappointed.

Date: June 7, 2008
Route: Washington, DC, to Denver, CO
Airline: United
Flight: UA 903
Equipment: Boeing 777
Seat: 15A (Business Class)
Printed Schedule: Depart IAD 5:18 p.m.; arrive DEN 7:09 p.m.
Real Schedule: We taxied to what seemed like a holding area and just parked there. Out my window, I could see two United planes and a JetBlue plane parked alongside us. The captain came on the PA and told us that our "departure fix" was closed because there was a thunderstorm over it but should open up soon and we would be on our way. I didn't know what a "departure fix" was. Everything looked clear out my window, no weather there, so I thought that was interesting. Then he came back on and said the departure fix was now open, and we would head out after the planes to our left did, those planes I could see out my window. Sure enough, they lumbered away one by one, and we followed. Takeoff was smooth, no turb at all, no scary-looking weather, so I guess it was just a quick thunderstorm that pooped out as quickly as it had begun? We took off about a half hour late, landed about 15 minutes late.
Meal: The choice was between cheese pasta and Caesar salad with shrimp, but they ran out of my choice, pasta, before they got to my row, so they offered me the first class meal instead. Heck, I don't mind taking first class leftovers! It was actually really good -- chicken with some kind of tomato sauce, potatoes, and carrot cake plus the always-present roll and butter. Coke and coffee to drink. (United serves Starbucks.)
Movie: They had Horton Hears a Who, but I didn't watch it even though I'd heard it was good (I think I have a serious aversion to non-Frontier talking animals). I landed on 27 Dresses, another dumb romantic comedy, but I liked this one. Katherine Heigl was funny and good and kept me interested pretty much all the way through.
Fun Channel 9 Stuff: Captain didn't turn it on.

[LeslieDEN]

Mileage run 3 of 3. Final mileage run, and it was a doozy. We got diverted.

Date: June 14, 2008
Route: Denver, CO, to Washington, DC
Airline: United
Flight: UA 902
Equipment: Boeing 777
Seat: 12A (Business Class)
Printed Schedule: Depart DEN 10:20 a.m. MDT; arrive IAD 3:42 p.m. EDT
Real Schedule: All messed up! We took off on time but got diverted to Richmond, VA, for refueling after holding twice because of storms in DC. Finally we could not hold anymore without refueling, so off we went to Richmond, where several other planes had also diverted. They were all ahead of us for refueling, so it was about a three-hour wait. I think we finally landed at Dulles at around 8:00 p.m.
Meal: Preflight water, warm nuts, cold chicken plate, fruit, Coke, coffee. They also handed out granola bars from the "Extended Delay Kit" during the long wait in Richmond.
Movie: Same choices as last time.
Fun Channel 9 Stuff: Well, it wasn't exactly fun but it was interesting to hear all about the holding patterns we were in. Watching our path on the air map was interesting too, if a little dispiriting. Seeing our little map plane heading west when our destination was east was a bummer. As we entered the second hold, the controller was just starting to release planes from it, and our pilot asked him what number we were in the hold. The controller said five. Our pilot said that would put us over our "bingo" for fuel, and the controller said, "Just let me know if you want to divert." A few minutes later, the captain turned channel 9 off. They do that so the passengers don't hear about the diversion before the pilots tell the flight attendants.
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My return flight was supposed to be UA 903 again, but I missed that by many hours. United rebooked me on UA 933, an A320, seat 9F. I was really happy to get that because I'd figured that with all the diversions and cancellations, the flight would be full and I'd be stuck with a middle seat in the back. But no, I had a window seat in Economy Plus.

As I was getting settled into my seat, a flight attendant came over and said, "Are you [LeslieDEN]?" Then she said, "I've been asked to move you to 2D." Woo hoo!!! First class! Hooray! Just a few hours before, I'd been sitting on the tarmac in Richmond wondering if I'd be stuck in DC all night, and now I was heading to a first class seat. Ya just never know with air travel. Here are the stats:

Date: June 14, 2008
Route: Washington, DC, to Denver, CO
Airline: United
Flight: UA 933
Equipment: A320
Seat: 2D (first class)
Schedule: Departed 9:35 p.m. EDT; arrived 11:15 p.m. MDT
Meal: Very good deli plate with crackers, swiss and cheddar cheeses, roast beef, and ham. Coke and coffee.
Movie: Fool's Gold. Dumb movie, but I thought Kate Hudson was good.
Fun Channel 9 Stuff: Just the usual. Seemed like there wasn't much going on, maybe because of the hour? I don't usually fly this late.