CO1907 IAH PHX 0725 0741 753 39AB
It was brutally early to get up. Not much to say; everyone
knows about that. I was on the first bus, which meant in the
first load to check in and the first to be turned away by
the elite line gatekeeper. So I returned to the desk and got
a CO staffer to go over to educate the person, a substantial
annoyance, especially as this person immediately became your
proverbial immovable object, and I would have been through
much quicker had I just gone to the regular line in the
first place. Still got to the PC before opening. There was
a sizable crowd of us waiting there, and when the agents
saw the avalanche they were a bit taken aback. We had maybe
a half hour here before it was time to go to our gate.
Crisis: the orange juice dispenser wasn't working.
A festive atmosphere at boarding.
lili and I got the second to last row of the aircraft. Fine
with us, as though we are relatively long-legged for our
height, neither of us is particularly tall.
Brekkers was uninteresting, but probably better than what
you'd get in coach on most US carriers. And it was, truth
be told, too early for booze. I spent most of this 2-hr
flight snoozing anyway.
At the airport, we got buses to our unknown destination,
which turned out to be - good choice! - the Desert Botanical
Garden, where US Air put on a nice breakfast spread, and we
were treated to a presentations on the whys and wherefores
of our host airline. I missed most of this, preferring to
stroll through the cactuses before it got too hot. The
Monarch tent was nice.
We were a little tardy, getting on the last bus back to PHX.
A cohort of enthusiastic US retirees bade us goodbye, giving
us swag bags full of local merchandise. In case anyone was
wondering, the Arizona Snack Company caramel corn nuggets
that you all pawned off on me were nice tasting and very
moreish.
CO1907 PHX PAE 1230 1456 753 39AB
Another shortish flight further palatabilized by a decent
bubbly and much Courvoisier. We were issued a cheeseburger
lunch - apparently a standard CO offering. Not bad. Good
service - how could it not be - by the CO FAs who had
represented the airline at the luncheon the previous day,
augmented by FTer scott6067, himself an aspiring FA.
Extras: a couple nice truffles from Varda Chocolatier and
a nifty coupon for Nita Lake Lodge, which, alas, I shall
not have the opportunity of using.
It isn't every day that you get to land at Paine: in fact,
I'd bet most of us had never landed at PAE or BFI before. I
certainly hadn't.
Boeing put on a good show for us; first the obligatory video
presentation and welcome from the brass; then there was the
good part, where the company, definitely proud of itself,
showed off its new products and its gigantic manufacturing
facility - said to be the largest building by volume in the
world by a factor of 2.4 over #2, which is the Airbus plant
in Toulouse where we had been guests last year. We got to
see the 747-8 and 787 assembly lines and to actually tour
the Dreamlifter (747 LCF) and the 787. It wouldn't be too
much of an exaggeration to say that this was the plane geek
opportunity of a lifetime: it certainly would be difficult
to top this day, at least until the 797 comes around, which
I likely won't be alive to see.
Our buses took us a wet and dark hour-long ride to our
final official activity, a banquet at the Sheraton Seattle,
where we heard exciting news about what was going on in the
Starwood world and were served a buffet of healthy stuff -
salmon and chicken, broccolini, and for dessert, yogurt and
granola and berries made into a kind of parfait. Other than
causing a perception that we were ingesting as close to
negative calories as possible, the food was fine. Open bar
was good; toward the end of the evening they ran out of red
wine and had to find more, which turned out to be slightly
better than the original.
Owing to there being a medical convention, we couldn't get
a block of rooms here and had to relocate to the Westin, to
which some of us wanted to take taxicabs - the whole third
of a mile. Okay, it was raining, and in the mist it was hard
to see the towers, but, hey, why didn't people take my word
for it? Lots of FTers checking in at the SPG desk, so I went
to the ordinary people desk and was served promptly.
lili reports that her room on 31 came with a fairly lavish
welcome amenity of fruit, chocolate, and Courvoisier, which
last she very kindly ceded to me. I am crushed to report
that my rather pretty room on 35 in the other tower did not
come with any amenity. (It turns out that sometime during
this week she had become, by hook or crook, Platinum,
whereas I remain lowly Gold to this day.)