QuietLion
Oct 23, 99, 9:35 am
I get a company ticket
Hunnybear is on a month-long assignment in Toronto. Her company lets her fly home every weekend or, at her discretion, import someone to Toronto for the weekend. She flew home twice. Now it was my turn to go to Toronto. Since I was a little bit tired of taking the 757 to ORD and the 727 to YYZ, I decided to try something different.
I booked the much-hated Shuttle by United down to SFO, left myself a generous 2.5-hour connection (I figured I could be on line just as easily in the RCC as at home, so no big deal), and booked the A320 to YYZ. I figured we would get the good trans-con service on the long flight, and this was actually cheaper than the other routing for some reason.
Pluto was waiting outside my building with the motor running when I wheeled out my bags. He whisked me to the airport in no time and I arrived a good hour before the flight. No one was ahead of me in the FC/1K line, but there were four bags sitting right at the front of the line blocking the way. As I wondered whose they were and how their owner would answer the question, “Have your bags been left unattended at any time since you packed them?” a lady snuck in front of me and grabbed the next available agent. No big deal, though, because a minute later Maggie opened up and checked me right in. She told me that the upgrade to SFO was complimentary, but I’d need 2500 miles for the SFO-YYZ leg. I waved my hand in front of her face and said, “I can go right on. I don’t need any certificates.” But she said Jedi mind tricks didn’t work on her, only certs. So I reluctantly parted with one North American Confirmable Upgrade certificate.
I took the shuttle to the Red Carpet Club and waved my card as I walked past the desk. No one seemed to look up at me, which was unusual. I grabbed a couple newspapers and made a couple phone calls until it was time to board. I looked for the new timetables, but they hadn’t come in yet.
I had seat 1C on the Shuttle. Sitting next to me was the woman who snuck in front of me in line! She slept the whole flight and looked a little stressed out. There isn’t really any good place to sit on the Shuttle by United. The front row doesn’t have enough leg room, the back row has no bulkhead between it and the kicking children in the first row of Coach, and those two rows are all there are. All things considered, I like 1B or 1C if I have to fly this evil plane. Service was unsatisfactory as usual. There was no pre-flight drink service. After 20 minutes of no one offering to hang up our jackets, the man in 2B asked one of the stewardesses, who complied. Then we sat on the ground for an hour and 15 minutes waiting for the fog to lift, ironically, in Seattle. I figured we’d be delayed in SFO, but the problems were in my own backyard today. We had been having really thick fog each morning for the last week. There was no service of any kind during the wait, although the pilot did give 10-minute updates, which all appreciated.
Once in the air, the flight was under two hours. They served us drinks in plastic cups. Food service was a hermetically sealed chocolate-chip cookie, which I declined but she gave me anyway. When she wasn’t looking I slipped it back into the box, still sealed. United should be ashamed to call this First Class. Imagine the infrequent United traveler making an international connection on this flight. This is their first or last impression of UA service. Yuck.
We landed in the Shuttle area with an hour left to make my connection. I needed almost all of it, because the Toronto flight, to my surprise, was in the international terminal! I liked that prospect very much because it meant there was a possibility of my going to the super-deluxe International First Class Lounge. I remembered getting comped into that lounge by a very nice concierge on my first trip to Bangkok (where I met Hunnybear) two years before.
I had to exit and re-enter security to get to the international terminal. Security was very thorough---they sniffed my cell phone for explosives! I told the guy, hey, I'm only going to Toronto, and he apologized but still sniffed it. Fortunately I passed.
I followed the signs to the lounges, which led me downstairs to the Red Carpet Club. I showed my ticket and said, “does this get me into the First Class Lounge?” I expected one of two answers: “Yes sir” or “I’m sorry, sir, Canada doesn’t count as international.” To my astonishment she told me that upgraded fares do not qualify for lounge access! I didn’t think that was right, and I looked around for a timetable because I thought the policy was printed in there (I think only Arrivals by United service is denied to upgraded fares, not lounge access). Like Seattle, there were no timetables, old or new. They must be right between printings.
So I said what the heck and walked back up the stairs to see if they would let me in anyway. The International First Class Lounge turned out to be right across from my gate. I walked in through the double glass doors, smiled, and presented my ticket to the agent. She smiled and said, “Make yourself comfortable, Mr. Lion.” Yes!
I quickly sauntered over to where I remembered the food was. As I recalled, they had a wide variety of yummy hors d’ouvres and Moët chilling in a silver bucket. I poured myself a nice glass of champagne and took a couple skewers of teriyaki chicken and a stuffed portabella. Superb. I called Hunnybear to report the situation.
After only 10 minutes, reluctantly, I boarded the plane. I needn’t have been reluctant. Despite this being an A320, the flight was very nice. It felt like an international flight! Tracy, the purser, did everything she was supposed to with a confident and easy attitude—my favorite. I gave her a Service Award. Preflight drinks, menus, nuts, sundaes, and cookies—we got the works on this flight. Negatives were the less-than-comfortable seats on the A320, not quite enough legroom in the bulkhead (especially seats 1C and D, which don’t have a little cutout for the feet), and horrible small video screens with terrible glare from any light on or windowshade open. The highlight of the flight was the spicy shrimp appetizer. Wow! This was just perfect. I would have been happy to eat this in any restaurant in the world. I ordered the veal, and as usual it was a bit overdone. Tracy made my trademark champagne gin rickey for me, and I had a taste of the Louis Martini cabernet with the veal. It was quite good.
The movie was “Lake Placid,” a silly story about a big crocodile in a lake in Maine saved only by the presence of Bridget Fonda. Then they showed the westbound short subject because the eastbound one was broken, so I didn’t get to see “Spin City.” This happens really frequently, but I think I’m the only one who notices or cares. Soon it will all be digital and we won’t have to worry about tapes breaking.
The flight time was a quick 4:15, so we got in a few minutes early. There was a long line at customs but it moved fairly quickly. I’m always tempted, when I get one of those good-natured Canadian customs inspectors, to slap down my passport and say, “I am wanting to defect!” But I never do. Baggage claim took a bit longer than usual, and as always I stood by the Smarte Carte machine telling everyone it was the best bargain in the world: not only was it only one dollar Canadian to rent a cart, but you get your dollar back! No one seemed to be laundering carts for frequent-flyer miles though.
Hunnybear was waiting for me at the exit from the secured area and we proceeded to the Westin Prince Hotel. We had stayed here before when I was a Gold preferred guest and they upgraded us to a very nice corner room on the 14th floor. Well, we got exactly the same room this time, but with my first-ever amenity box. Thanks, Starwood. I was a bit disappointed that we didn’t get a suite, but the room is very nice and livable. This is a relatively inexpensive Westin at CAD$125 a night. No outrageous phone surcharge, just 75¢/call (even for 800 numbers).
I’m traveling like a madman for the next two weeks, so “watch this space” for more trip reports!
Hunnybear is on a month-long assignment in Toronto. Her company lets her fly home every weekend or, at her discretion, import someone to Toronto for the weekend. She flew home twice. Now it was my turn to go to Toronto. Since I was a little bit tired of taking the 757 to ORD and the 727 to YYZ, I decided to try something different.
I booked the much-hated Shuttle by United down to SFO, left myself a generous 2.5-hour connection (I figured I could be on line just as easily in the RCC as at home, so no big deal), and booked the A320 to YYZ. I figured we would get the good trans-con service on the long flight, and this was actually cheaper than the other routing for some reason.
Pluto was waiting outside my building with the motor running when I wheeled out my bags. He whisked me to the airport in no time and I arrived a good hour before the flight. No one was ahead of me in the FC/1K line, but there were four bags sitting right at the front of the line blocking the way. As I wondered whose they were and how their owner would answer the question, “Have your bags been left unattended at any time since you packed them?” a lady snuck in front of me and grabbed the next available agent. No big deal, though, because a minute later Maggie opened up and checked me right in. She told me that the upgrade to SFO was complimentary, but I’d need 2500 miles for the SFO-YYZ leg. I waved my hand in front of her face and said, “I can go right on. I don’t need any certificates.” But she said Jedi mind tricks didn’t work on her, only certs. So I reluctantly parted with one North American Confirmable Upgrade certificate.
I took the shuttle to the Red Carpet Club and waved my card as I walked past the desk. No one seemed to look up at me, which was unusual. I grabbed a couple newspapers and made a couple phone calls until it was time to board. I looked for the new timetables, but they hadn’t come in yet.
I had seat 1C on the Shuttle. Sitting next to me was the woman who snuck in front of me in line! She slept the whole flight and looked a little stressed out. There isn’t really any good place to sit on the Shuttle by United. The front row doesn’t have enough leg room, the back row has no bulkhead between it and the kicking children in the first row of Coach, and those two rows are all there are. All things considered, I like 1B or 1C if I have to fly this evil plane. Service was unsatisfactory as usual. There was no pre-flight drink service. After 20 minutes of no one offering to hang up our jackets, the man in 2B asked one of the stewardesses, who complied. Then we sat on the ground for an hour and 15 minutes waiting for the fog to lift, ironically, in Seattle. I figured we’d be delayed in SFO, but the problems were in my own backyard today. We had been having really thick fog each morning for the last week. There was no service of any kind during the wait, although the pilot did give 10-minute updates, which all appreciated.
Once in the air, the flight was under two hours. They served us drinks in plastic cups. Food service was a hermetically sealed chocolate-chip cookie, which I declined but she gave me anyway. When she wasn’t looking I slipped it back into the box, still sealed. United should be ashamed to call this First Class. Imagine the infrequent United traveler making an international connection on this flight. This is their first or last impression of UA service. Yuck.
We landed in the Shuttle area with an hour left to make my connection. I needed almost all of it, because the Toronto flight, to my surprise, was in the international terminal! I liked that prospect very much because it meant there was a possibility of my going to the super-deluxe International First Class Lounge. I remembered getting comped into that lounge by a very nice concierge on my first trip to Bangkok (where I met Hunnybear) two years before.
I had to exit and re-enter security to get to the international terminal. Security was very thorough---they sniffed my cell phone for explosives! I told the guy, hey, I'm only going to Toronto, and he apologized but still sniffed it. Fortunately I passed.
I followed the signs to the lounges, which led me downstairs to the Red Carpet Club. I showed my ticket and said, “does this get me into the First Class Lounge?” I expected one of two answers: “Yes sir” or “I’m sorry, sir, Canada doesn’t count as international.” To my astonishment she told me that upgraded fares do not qualify for lounge access! I didn’t think that was right, and I looked around for a timetable because I thought the policy was printed in there (I think only Arrivals by United service is denied to upgraded fares, not lounge access). Like Seattle, there were no timetables, old or new. They must be right between printings.
So I said what the heck and walked back up the stairs to see if they would let me in anyway. The International First Class Lounge turned out to be right across from my gate. I walked in through the double glass doors, smiled, and presented my ticket to the agent. She smiled and said, “Make yourself comfortable, Mr. Lion.” Yes!
I quickly sauntered over to where I remembered the food was. As I recalled, they had a wide variety of yummy hors d’ouvres and Moët chilling in a silver bucket. I poured myself a nice glass of champagne and took a couple skewers of teriyaki chicken and a stuffed portabella. Superb. I called Hunnybear to report the situation.
After only 10 minutes, reluctantly, I boarded the plane. I needn’t have been reluctant. Despite this being an A320, the flight was very nice. It felt like an international flight! Tracy, the purser, did everything she was supposed to with a confident and easy attitude—my favorite. I gave her a Service Award. Preflight drinks, menus, nuts, sundaes, and cookies—we got the works on this flight. Negatives were the less-than-comfortable seats on the A320, not quite enough legroom in the bulkhead (especially seats 1C and D, which don’t have a little cutout for the feet), and horrible small video screens with terrible glare from any light on or windowshade open. The highlight of the flight was the spicy shrimp appetizer. Wow! This was just perfect. I would have been happy to eat this in any restaurant in the world. I ordered the veal, and as usual it was a bit overdone. Tracy made my trademark champagne gin rickey for me, and I had a taste of the Louis Martini cabernet with the veal. It was quite good.
The movie was “Lake Placid,” a silly story about a big crocodile in a lake in Maine saved only by the presence of Bridget Fonda. Then they showed the westbound short subject because the eastbound one was broken, so I didn’t get to see “Spin City.” This happens really frequently, but I think I’m the only one who notices or cares. Soon it will all be digital and we won’t have to worry about tapes breaking.
The flight time was a quick 4:15, so we got in a few minutes early. There was a long line at customs but it moved fairly quickly. I’m always tempted, when I get one of those good-natured Canadian customs inspectors, to slap down my passport and say, “I am wanting to defect!” But I never do. Baggage claim took a bit longer than usual, and as always I stood by the Smarte Carte machine telling everyone it was the best bargain in the world: not only was it only one dollar Canadian to rent a cart, but you get your dollar back! No one seemed to be laundering carts for frequent-flyer miles though.
Hunnybear was waiting for me at the exit from the secured area and we proceeded to the Westin Prince Hotel. We had stayed here before when I was a Gold preferred guest and they upgraded us to a very nice corner room on the 14th floor. Well, we got exactly the same room this time, but with my first-ever amenity box. Thanks, Starwood. I was a bit disappointed that we didn’t get a suite, but the room is very nice and livable. This is a relatively inexpensive Westin at CAD$125 a night. No outrageous phone surcharge, just 75¢/call (even for 800 numbers).
I’m traveling like a madman for the next two weeks, so “watch this space” for more trip reports!