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Old Dec 24, 2012, 12:13 am
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UAL1200
 
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: CA
Programs: AA-EXP, National Exec. Elite, Hilton Gold, GE
Posts: 323
Me, the Universe, and a Dreamliner

Note to the reader: This is my first trip report so please be kind and if you can't then at least comment slowly. This is also my first post of a long document in PHP, so the constant need to press the "Preview Post" button oddly reminds me of LaTeX... Anyway, enjoy.

Introduction
Every year, most Americans embark on a journey to all points across the country to celebrate Thanksgiving with their family. Most of the time, it’s a fairly routine process that we come to expect from air travel: blood, tears, agony, and ever increasing delays that makes it look like the Universe is playing a sick joke. Unfortunately, my story is just another one of those Thanksgiving tales: a log of sick jokes played by the Universe…at me. Back in August, I booked my trip home to LA so that I travel just a few days before the Thanksgiving rush. And then United announced the domestic routes for their new 787 fleet. I was able to change my trip so that I was on the IAH-SFO 787 service and used 20,000 miles to upgrade myself to First Class (which is really a International BusinessFirst seat). Wonderful. The catch was that I was now traveling on the day before Thanksgiving. Not so wonderful.
I think the Universe has a thing against me, not too sure why. Maybe its because I am an engineer, but I digress. The following trip report is just a list of those awful jokes played by my arch enemy…the Universe.


Sick joke #1
Delays in Boeing’s delivery of the planes to United caused the airline to switch out the 787 with a 764 on my original segment. Ugh. Fortunately, United allowed free changes and I was able to reroute to IND-ORD-IAH-LAX, the last two legs on 787’s. So not only was I still on a 787, I was on a 787 TWICE. Awesome. It was almost something out of that “YO DAWG” meme. And I was able to save my upgrades so I was in First on both 787 segments.



Me 1. Universe 0.

Sick joke #2
On the day of departure, I was supposed to catch the shuttle to the airport…I missed it by 2 minutes. So I ended up driving myself there, so I paid $23 in parking over the cost of the shuttle. Sick joke #2 was not that bad, but I should have noticed it as a sign of things to come. Did I mention that there was really dense fog (read pea soup…the chunky kind) when I opened my front door that morning?

Me 1. Universe 1.

Sick joke #3
Yeah about that fog. It was everywhere, not just your-neighborhood everywhere, but across-the-whole-damn-midwest everywhere. ORD was now on a ground stop, which meant my short hop from IND to ORD was canceled. With my ORD-IAH 787 flight showing as on time, it was pretty clear I was going to misconnect if I took the other (delayed) ORD flights. With no other better options, I rebooked to IND-IAH-LAX and lost the ORD-IAH 787 segment, but was able to save the remaining IAH-LAX 787 segment. However, I was now sitting in Economy on a small ERJ-145 on IND-IAH…ugh.
With all the ORD-bound flights delayed, it seemed like my decision to get rebooked IND-IAH-LAX was a good one. However, bear in mind that my original ORD-IAH 787 flight is also subject to the same ground stop at ORD, but it is officially on time and if really was on time I would certainly misconnect if I took the other available IND-ORD flights. Furthermore, the 787 that would take me on ORD-IAH is the same plane that would also take me on IAH-LAX. This meant I was less susceptible to losing my 787 seat in the event of a delay.
Now we are gambling. Do I rebook (again) to my original 787 X2 routing and run the risk of losing both of them, essentially betting that the ORD-IAH flight would be delayed? Or do I call it a day and just be happy with one Dreamliner? I chose the latter and boarded my flight to Houston in modest defeat.



Lets call this a tie…
Me 2. Universe 2.

Sick joke #4
Fast-forward about 2 hours when I land in Houston. I find that not only did the IND-ORD flights leave only 30-minutes after I did, but that the ORD-IAH Dreamliner flight was also delayed…by nearly TWO hours. If I stuck to my original routing, I would have made the connection and keep my two First class seats on the Dreamliner! I was visibly pissed, ok maybe not, but I did remember cursing in some strange language…MATLAB or C or something like that. I felt like catching a flight back up to Chicago to make my original flight.

FML.

So here I am, sitting in the IAH United Club, snacking away on cheese, crackers, and chocolate covered raisins. Writing my trip report and watching planes hover by. I get to spend a lovely 4 hours in Houston and my Dreamliner to LAX is now delayed 29 minutes. Score one for the Universe…

Me 2. Universe 3.

So how do you spend four hours in Houston? Lounge hopping. Much like bar hopping, but without the dancing. You get to try out all the amenities for that domestic and international airlines have to offer, which for United Airlines is not much. Compared to the amount of services, amenities, and features that Lufthansa, Cathay Pacific, and British Airways offer, United is far behind. Prepackaged cheese, crackers, and carrot sticks are not worth the $400/year membership price that United is asking and thankfully I never paid for it (TK status match). That said, I went to two United Clubs, one in Terminal C and another in Terminal E. The former is quiet and small, but lacking in atmosphere; the latter is crowded and large, but is newer.

More to come:
The 787: Inbound arrival and boarding
The 787: Push and Start, Takeoff
The 787: The flight
The 787: Landing and post-flight
Summary and Conclusion

Last edited by UAL1200; Dec 30, 2012 at 1:44 pm Reason: Added links
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