The 787: Inbound arrival and boarding
During my four hours in Houston, I was tracking the inbound progress of the plane so I could catch a few photos of it pulling into the gate. When it did pull into the gate, I starting taking photos of it like no ones business, like a super model coming down the runway. As you’d expect, this drew odd stares from passengers, gate agents…and the crew.
Since these flights were essentially shakedown flights, engineers from Boeing, GE, and several other subcontractors were at the gate to debrief the crew on the performance of the plane. Speaking of which, my 787 to LAX was N26906, the second plane in the fleet and delivered to United only a few weeks earlier.
Engineers in the cockpit...
After a quick turnaround and a change of crew, UA1159 to LAX was ready to board. Since I was in First, I boarded with Group 1, which seemed like a lot of people.
Once onboard, I got a whiff of that new airplane smell, which is a lot like a new car small but hits your face less when you walk in (probably because of all the passengers that came in before me). I quickly proceeded to my seat in 4L, a bulkhead window seat. Manufactured by B/E Aerospace, this “First Class” seat is actually United’s BusinessFirst seat used on a majority of international flights. Each seat comes equipped with power, AVOD, and the capability to transform into a lie-flat bed. However, I had no intention of sleeping on this 3-hour flight! After settling in, stowing away my bags, I began playing with my seat and the electro chromatic windows. It does take a while for the shade to change and at its darkest setting you can barely see anything outside. Again…snapping photos and attracting another fresh batch of odd stares.
One of the FA’s introduced himself and his fellow FA working in First. He offered me and my seatmate a pre-departure beverage of anything we wanted, so I took a ginger ale and my seatmate didn’t take anything. After shrugging off the odd stares from my cabin-mates in First, I settled down for the 3-hour flight to LAX. Boarding announcements by the crew had a special touch to the tone of “our special 787 service to LAX” or “welcome aboard our new 787 Dreamliner”. With the doors closed and everyone bucked in, it was time to pushback and play the safety video. The safety video had a special 787-edition message from Jeff Smisek and other United employees, with the safety video itself been customized to have a 787 instead of the usual 777.