Carfield
Oct 25, 99, 7:42 pm
Hi Everyone,
I am back from LA. It was a wonderful weekend at LA and I love it. The trip back was not as good as the way into LAX. I guess it is due to my mood, rather than the F/As themselves. Due to a last minute aircraft change, I get to fly the Boeing 777I with the first suite. I got to take some pictures of the suite, but did not think that I did a good job. It was a bit weird. Nevertheless, I got a copy of the United First Suite's entertainment guide. The new seats look promising… My menu scavenger hunt was a little bit disappointing this time. I got an ORD-DEN menu… That's about it.
UA 346 LAX-DEN
Pre-departure:
Check-in lines were long this weekend at LAX. The Premier lines were filled with people, even the 1K lines. Many passengers were heading to Hawaii, but I got to check in after fifteen minutes. Long for Premier status… Anyway, the check-in agent was helpful but she nearly forgot to put the priority tags on. Sometimes you really need to keep track of things… The gate, 72, was also filled with people. The aircraft, N797UA, was promptly waiting for the pax to board. For this gate, there is only one door attached to the aircraft. The boarding was chaotic because there was no pre-boarding, and they did not board by rows. Everyone just crowded in and it took the whole forty minutes to board everyone. The door was closed on 4:47pm, but the aircraft was not pulled out until 4:56pm due to last minutes luggage loading.
Welcome drinks of orange juice, mimosa, and champagne were offered during the whole boarding process. I managed to drink both a glass of orange juice and a glass of mimosa. The new plastic glasses actually looked stylish… better than the Y class ones that UAL used before. I was seated at 8J - the bulkhead seat today. F/As did the safety demonstration because UAL decided not to install overhead projectors. I did not understand that concept. It was nice to have main screen projectors, in case if the PTV units failed. Most airlines kept some monitors around… The flight took off at 5:17pm.
In-flight:
Our flight time was one hour and thirty-nine minutes, and we were cruising at 37,000 ft. Channel nine was turned on and there was five TV programming for everyone to choose from. I watched Fraiser and the cartoon "Doug." Drinks were quickly offered with those cheese crackers. Then a dinner came. It was not as good as the last flight that I took two weeks ago. There was a simple tray of salad with Asian sesame dressing, warmed white roll, entrée of turkey au jus with julienne vegetables and a quiche, and a dessert of Eli's toffee crunch cheesecake. There was no hot towel service on this segment. Did United cut the hot towel service for C class? (United seems to be into cutting costs at its C class products recently, despite the price of a C class ticket goes up, especially on Asian routes. Bad signs…) the flight landed at 7:49pm.
UA 959 DEN to ABQ
Pre-flight:
The connection was short today, just from B42 to B45. It was nice and the boarding had started when I walked into B45. The boarding was done by rows and I decided to breathe some more fresh air. I waited till the final boarding moment. The gate agent was friendly and thanked me by my name for flying when he read my Premier Executive status. There was a pre-takeoff drink and I requested my usual coke. No alcohol… The plane pulled out at 8:28pm, and this Boeing 757-200 (N567UA) took off at 8:42pm.
In flight:
Our flight was about fifty minutes today and was cruising at 31,000ft. Channel 9 was not available today, despite the F/As said so. I did not bother to ask the F/As to check because it was a very full flight today. Due to the cancellation of a previous flight (according to some pax and F/As), our flight was completely full. The F/As were busy serving everyone a drink. I got my frappucino and read a couple of magazines. Our flight was landed early at 9:31pm.
After flight:
ABQ is an extremely slow airport for United. Maybe New Mexico is slow in its nature. Southwest passengers, who took a later flight, always got their bags before ours to arrive (despite of our earlier arrival time). Today, it took about 25 minutes. There was only one UAL flight at ABQ at this time. It was not difficult to deliver bags at a timely fashion. My bags, which were labeled priority, actually did not show up until the last minutes. It was among the last load of luggage, and I was not too happy. Anyway, my bags made it to ABQ and I was home in an hour due to a filled-up ABQ.
It was a good roundtrip and I hope you will enjoy reading it.
I am back from LA. It was a wonderful weekend at LA and I love it. The trip back was not as good as the way into LAX. I guess it is due to my mood, rather than the F/As themselves. Due to a last minute aircraft change, I get to fly the Boeing 777I with the first suite. I got to take some pictures of the suite, but did not think that I did a good job. It was a bit weird. Nevertheless, I got a copy of the United First Suite's entertainment guide. The new seats look promising… My menu scavenger hunt was a little bit disappointing this time. I got an ORD-DEN menu… That's about it.
UA 346 LAX-DEN
Pre-departure:
Check-in lines were long this weekend at LAX. The Premier lines were filled with people, even the 1K lines. Many passengers were heading to Hawaii, but I got to check in after fifteen minutes. Long for Premier status… Anyway, the check-in agent was helpful but she nearly forgot to put the priority tags on. Sometimes you really need to keep track of things… The gate, 72, was also filled with people. The aircraft, N797UA, was promptly waiting for the pax to board. For this gate, there is only one door attached to the aircraft. The boarding was chaotic because there was no pre-boarding, and they did not board by rows. Everyone just crowded in and it took the whole forty minutes to board everyone. The door was closed on 4:47pm, but the aircraft was not pulled out until 4:56pm due to last minutes luggage loading.
Welcome drinks of orange juice, mimosa, and champagne were offered during the whole boarding process. I managed to drink both a glass of orange juice and a glass of mimosa. The new plastic glasses actually looked stylish… better than the Y class ones that UAL used before. I was seated at 8J - the bulkhead seat today. F/As did the safety demonstration because UAL decided not to install overhead projectors. I did not understand that concept. It was nice to have main screen projectors, in case if the PTV units failed. Most airlines kept some monitors around… The flight took off at 5:17pm.
In-flight:
Our flight time was one hour and thirty-nine minutes, and we were cruising at 37,000 ft. Channel nine was turned on and there was five TV programming for everyone to choose from. I watched Fraiser and the cartoon "Doug." Drinks were quickly offered with those cheese crackers. Then a dinner came. It was not as good as the last flight that I took two weeks ago. There was a simple tray of salad with Asian sesame dressing, warmed white roll, entrée of turkey au jus with julienne vegetables and a quiche, and a dessert of Eli's toffee crunch cheesecake. There was no hot towel service on this segment. Did United cut the hot towel service for C class? (United seems to be into cutting costs at its C class products recently, despite the price of a C class ticket goes up, especially on Asian routes. Bad signs…) the flight landed at 7:49pm.
UA 959 DEN to ABQ
Pre-flight:
The connection was short today, just from B42 to B45. It was nice and the boarding had started when I walked into B45. The boarding was done by rows and I decided to breathe some more fresh air. I waited till the final boarding moment. The gate agent was friendly and thanked me by my name for flying when he read my Premier Executive status. There was a pre-takeoff drink and I requested my usual coke. No alcohol… The plane pulled out at 8:28pm, and this Boeing 757-200 (N567UA) took off at 8:42pm.
In flight:
Our flight was about fifty minutes today and was cruising at 31,000ft. Channel 9 was not available today, despite the F/As said so. I did not bother to ask the F/As to check because it was a very full flight today. Due to the cancellation of a previous flight (according to some pax and F/As), our flight was completely full. The F/As were busy serving everyone a drink. I got my frappucino and read a couple of magazines. Our flight was landed early at 9:31pm.
After flight:
ABQ is an extremely slow airport for United. Maybe New Mexico is slow in its nature. Southwest passengers, who took a later flight, always got their bags before ours to arrive (despite of our earlier arrival time). Today, it took about 25 minutes. There was only one UAL flight at ABQ at this time. It was not difficult to deliver bags at a timely fashion. My bags, which were labeled priority, actually did not show up until the last minutes. It was among the last load of luggage, and I was not too happy. Anyway, my bags made it to ABQ and I was home in an hour due to a filled-up ABQ.
It was a good roundtrip and I hope you will enjoy reading it.