United Airlines 923, 05/03/09
Boeing 767-300 New International Configuration, Seat 35K
3677 miles flown, 3677 earned.
Channel 9 enabled.
The pictures
Time for a new aircraft subtype to wreck my flight memory statistics - this time Mr Boeing's 767-300 series. The plane itself had had a refurb in Business Class, with First looking its usual suite self. However, these things are not for me - passing the rows of E+ and finally in the back to E-.
Although nearer the back - I had been playing the seat maps carefully and took a gamble that this flight wouldn’t be loaded to the brim.
Preparing for pushback
It paid off with a 2 seater relaxayvous option when doors went to close. However, as we were taxiing someone decided that regulations were to be dammed... and they were going to the toilet
.
The warning were given over the announcement system, but these were ignored. It took the purser finally coming down the plane and banging the door... with the toilet victim going back to his seat with most of the economy cabin tutting at him.
Captain made his greeting, and was very open - and also is Channel 9 positive... so some entertainment for take off and landing.
T5B - Everyone huming Flower Duet yet? 
After a bit more taxing past T5 the plane turned right, and took up to the sky, turning right, swinging 180 degrees past itself and off up into the blue
Heathrow from the air
Now I know people have different opinions of when to recline your seat - mine is that 1) after the seatbelt release bong has gone and 2) keep upright when having food.
Guess what I had in front of me
Recline after about 5000 ft.
... and not upright for food service.
Sigh. My knees had a busy flight reminding the person in-front of me. At least I could stretch sideways which was one thing.
A form run was done, followed by a Breakfast service was carried out, with omelette, potato, tomatoes and a chicken sausage - with fruit, bread, yogurt and fruit salad.
Breakfast
The chicken sausage was a bit odd - but edible, the omelette was a bit plastic, with the potatoes pretty nicely done. The fruit salad was cold, and a reasonable mix. Going back to my GateGorment trip, I could see how a tray meal like this was built to a price - but for a breakfast flight - this was not a bad meal IMO. Certainly I've had worse (yes I'm looking at you US Airways)
Alas the seat in front me wasn't getting the message, so after making sure the seat behind me reclined, I completed the seat domino effect (wha... Seat Domino?
Delta even knows about Seat Domino) and crashed for a bit. Every hour or so, the crew were doing water runs, so it was good to see the crew being pro-active.
IFE was... yeah. Moving on. I booted up the iPhone... and... oh you know what happens next:
Getto IFE installed: UA Edition - Notice the SickBag Max Visualtairum Jumbotron style thing (considering how close that other seat was in front of me it was like a cinema experience 
)
More importantly - what is a manamana?
Alas, the only thing of value was the map.. .which was offline
Moving onto the plane itself, whilst the overhead bins look like something out of the late 80’s – however the plane had been cleaned and tided in a pretty reasonable condition even in Y. That and PTV’s instead of overhead screens and a centre TFT.
Alas the weather failed to play its part today, with clouds over Greenland and a fair amount of chop and cloud cover. Guess some days you can’t win them all. However over the Labrador coast, the cloud lifted once again, with a apart from a few bumps here and there lead to a clear flight to Dulles.
Somewhere near the Labrador coast
Over Canada
A snack service was handed out with the usual Swiss cheese and turkey ham roll (more chewy than normal), chocolate and crisps. However, it defiantly must be recession time. Gone are the Walkers crisps, and now KP crisps are served instead… is nothing sacred any more?
Snack
Nearing Dulles
The plane made its landing successfully at IAD and after a comparatively short taxi, it docked at C24, and after a short wait, I successfully disembarked.
Taxiing around Dulles
Impressions
I'm slowly warming to the 767 as a nice aircraft - if it's maintained well and doesn't look like it's been in the wars (Yes, I'm still looking at you US Airways). The 2-3-2 seating arrangement is a interesting balance of capacity vs service, and if configured well (which UA has done) it works.- even though I’m not used to a plane without winglets. Guess that’s Pam Ann doing here brainwashing at her best
The crew did a good job – whilst not outstanding, they were delivering the service – about all you can ask for in the back of the cabin.
How it will compare with the 777 on the way home – we’ll see.
Next up: a race, an RCC, an A319!