Carfield
May 16, 00, 2:21 pm
Trip Report: PHL
Hi Everyone,
Just returned from a quick weekend at Philadelphia and attended my sister's graduation at Haverford College.
This weekend was definitely too short and I was glad to see the liberty bell and took the historical independent hall tour. It was very nice. The weather was too terribly hot and the airport at PHL was nice. Not much plane spotting, but I managed to get a quick glimpse of US Airways' A330 and Lufthansa's A340 at PHL.
May 12, 2000
UA 544 ABQ-DEN Lv1643 Arr1755
Boeing 757-200 N523UA with old F class and Y class seats, but enlarged overhead bin
I left work a bit early today and decided to head off to the airport early, due to the problems with United's pilots. When I arrived at the airport, my flight would arrive a bit late and our new departure time would be 5pm. The check-in agent was a bit new and told me that the computer asked for upgrade certificates. Then I told him to look at my boarding passes. They were all for Y plus. Anyway, he was a friendly person to talk to. The plane finally landed at 4:35pm and we began boarding at 4:53pm. I immediately took my seat, 9A, and this flight was pretty full. My neighbor was a nice person and he chatted with the F/As and us. The flight was a fairly quick 58 minutes flight. We pushed back at 5:15pm and took off at 5:30pm. The cruising attitude was 33,000ft. The ride was quite smooth and we could see the fires at Los Alamos from the right side of the plane. We were served a cup of drink (not even a can), and there was no pretzel or party mix. I actually did not care because I would not eat those disgusting snacks anyway. Maybe it was a sign that United finally would reintroduced peanuts or almonds. Well, descent took place at 6:05pm and landed at 6:28pm. Gate today was B45. Quite a nice flight! The seat itself was okay. Row 9 had more legroom than any seat in the Boeing 757, even in F class. With twenty minutes connection time, I dashed to Gate 23.
UA 1546 DEN-PHL Lv1855 Arr0018
Boeing 737-500 N941UA
The flight was in its final boarding stage when I arrived at the gate. The load was very light today. No one was stuck at a middle seat and I was comfortably seated at the bulkhead, 4A. I had only one neighbor at 4C. Not bad. The F class cabin was filled and it still had the old seats. I decided not to upgrade on the DEN-East coast flights because the service was always terrible on these DEN flights. I was right about the catering. Anyway, the door was closed at 6:54pm and the F/As distributed new pillows to everyone (A first for me - new pillows). There were three F/As and we were immediately told that our flying time would be an hour more than usual. Due to weather in the Midwest, we had to divert to the southern part of the country. Channel 9 was on and I followed the track. Our plane called on the Dallas, Memphis and Washington DC centers. We turned north after reaching the DC area. The flight was quite bumpy along the way.
We took off at 7:12pm - not bad for Denver, especially with the long taxiing time. Due to turbulence ahead, the F/As did not offer a separate beverage service before dinner. On long flight, they usually came through the cabin once with the beverage cart and pretzels. They immediately passed out dinner, which was pretty bad. No choice and one of the worst meals I had seen on United. It was technically an entrée with BBQ chicken and rice with some green herbs. There is no carrot or vegetable side dish. The salad is the typical green salad with lettuce and few shredded carrots (really few) with Kern's light ranch dressing. The meal comes with two breadsticks (pre packed) and a mini box of junior mints (six in total). This meal was definitely below the West Coast to Chicago mid con flight. My dinner snack on AS had a filling sandwich, a big pack of chips and a good cookie. I was definitely a bit disappointed. Nevertheless, the F Class F/A was very nice tonight and offered the Y class passengers some free red wine. The passengers in the F class did not get much anyway. I made a comment to the F/A as she was preparing the meal in the kitchen. I told her that those F class meals were exactly like the meals served in short-haul flights. Instead of serving all the courses together, the dessert came later, but it was the same Eli's cheesecake. They got two choices - fish or beef. The green salad was small and looked like the size of the short-haul J class dinner served on my ORD-DEN flight. United had severely cut back the service on its Denver - East Coast flight. I recommend people not to upgrade on those flights, unless you only care about the seats and the free alcohol. If you have to fly Frontier, those sandwiches that you got may be heartier than United's hot meals. Those dreadful Boeing 737s did not make life easier. A second beverage service happened when the F/As collected our trays. Then the F/As disappeared… Nevertheless, the purser was very nice tonight and walked through the cabin quite frequently. The other two F/As decided to hang around in the back and read magazines.
I listened to Channel 9 and saw a patch of massive lightning along our flight. The view was spectacular. Our flight finally saw some relief in the divert situation and we managed to arrive at a deserted PHL airport at 12:49am. Only a US Airways' A319 landed in front of us. We parked at D7 and went to a virtually empty taxi station. Fortunately the taxi dispatcher was still around and I got a cab quickly to the Sheraton Society Hill.
My first impression of the PHL airport was that it was very nice, and the train station was conveniently located. The city itself seems to be very nice. It is very historic. Thanks to all those recommendations from you gals and boys! I had a pretty good time in PHL. I visited the liberty bell, which was nice and took the Independent hall tour. I wish I have more time. Lunch was at Joy Tsin Low in China town. The dim sum selection was pretty good. The food is decently tasted. I had dinner on a restaurant called Tiramisu (located between South and 3rd street - maybe 4 or 5). It was a blend of Jewish and Italian cuisine. The food came in slowly but tasted mostly fine. I had a nice Spinach soup and a grilled seafood dish. Seafood in PHL tasted very well. Unfortunately I was not able to sample some of the restaurants because my grandparents want more Chinese food. Then on Sunday, I went to Haverford and had a great time. I could not believe my younger sister was done with college. Wow!
Return flights on May 14, 2000
UA 1869 PHL-ORD Lv1630 Arr1744
Airbus A319-100 N816UA
Knowing the bad service on PHL-DEN route, I decided to take the longer route PHL-ORD-DEN-ABQ. I was happy about my choice. Due to traffic in the freeway, I arrived at the airport 45 minutes before my flight, and was not able to check out the PHL airport. Terminal D was extremely crowded with many UAL's flights and CO's flights. Our flight was parked at Gate D3 and the gate area was busy. D1 had the 5:30pm flight and United cancelled the 3:30pm flight. The gate agents were very cool and I was checked in quickly by a check-in agent, who did not say one word to me during the whole time. Her face was blank and seemed not happy about her job. The only thing that she said was to ask me the security questions. When I said, "thank you," there was no reaction on her face. Worst than LAX and SFO definitely… Fortunately, boarding began on time at 4:02pm and due to late catering, there was no pre-takeoff beverage. The catering truck loaded the food at 4:16pm. There was no Channel 9, too. Door was closed at 4:26pm - surprisingly on time despite of full load. We took off at 4:45pm and the wind was quite strong. Flying time was one hour and fifty-three minutes.
Our first class F/A was one of the best F/As that I have ever seen in United. She was efficient and kept refilling drinks till landing. There was a printed menu service for F class and Y class got a box snack. She took drink orders before takeoff and took meal orders from the back. Since I was seated at 1A, I got no choice. In return, she was very apologetic and offered my neighbor and I a bottle of wine to bring home http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif. I was surprised, but chose white wine. I also asked her for some wine glasses. She was so kind that she packed four glasses into two separate snack boxes (used by Y class), and packed me a bottle of white wine. I thanked her so many times. She told me that the wines were there for us. I am definitely writing a letter to commend her.
Dinner tonight was:
To Begin
Garden fresh salad (cabbages, iceberg lettuce shredded, with peppers)
Accompanied by balsamic vinaigrette or green goddess dressing prepared with anchovies, onions, sour cream, and lemon juice
Main Course
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif Breast of chicken with apple walnut stuffing (very moist and tasty - highly recommended)
Enhanced by Gorgonzola sauce with apples and bacon, offered with sauteed asparagus (off green, but still good) and a vegetable medley (basically some yellow-colored and ball-shaped mini-squashes).
Or
Grilled strip steak with creamy horseradish sauce
Complemented by roasted red potatoes and a vegetable medley
Dessert
Eli's Praline Cheesecake (delicious)
An episode of Kings of Queen was shown with the usual assortments of short subjects. Plane began to descent at 6:02pm and our plane landed safely at 5:38pm. I saw a VS's Boeing 747-200 (instead of the usual A340) and another LH's A340 at ORD on approach. We quickly parked at gate C17. It was an ontime arrival and good for UAL. Then I had a short layover and proceeded to United express terminal for photo-taking. Not many interesting planes going in and out…
UA 941 ORD-DEN Lv1924 Arr2054
Boeing 777-200IGW N789UA (2489)
Our plane arrived late from its original destination and we were delayed till 7:35pm. One nice thing that I noticed at ORD was that they listed the variant of Boeing 777 used on this particular flight, like Boeing 777-200I or Boeing 777-200C for the Miami flights. Anyway, I was glad to find out that my plane had the first suite and new J class seats. The gate area was chaotic and the flight was full. There was only one boarding bridge and people were cutting lines. It was very annoying. Anyway, we boarded at 7:10pm. There was no pre-takeoff orange juice or champagne service, like other Boeing 777 flights. The F/As were not interested in working. After an open seat count and boarded a couple more passengers, we were pushed back at 7:42pm and took off at 7:53pm - surprisingly quick takeoff for ORD. (#3 in line)
We cruised to 39,000ft and the sky map function was working again. My entertainment was to watch the sky map and listened to Channel 9. Flying time was two hour and eight minutes - not much head wind. Dinner was served in all cabin today. For J class, a beverage service began at 8:15pm with the disgusting cheese crackers and pretzels mix, and the dinner service came next. It was an one-tray affair with a small salad bowl (romaine lettuce, endives, one piece of tomato slice, and a few artichokes' bottoms) with Asian sesame ginger dressing. The main course was the Herb-roasted chicken breat with apple cider sauce… complemented by dill gnocchi and carrots. The chicken was moist but I am not a big sweet and sour fan. There was a warmed white roll, and the dessert was a very good Apple Crunch cheesecake (more like apple crumble than cheesecake). The meal was serve on the new Noritake china and the salt and pepper sticks in plastic tube was properly served. Then the F/As came by with tea and coffee, and all disappeared into the galley for the remaining hour of flight.
Descent began at 9:30pm and was quite bumpy. The final approach took a long time and there was much traffic going on in DEN. We landed at 9:01pm local time and was parked at Gate B30 and B32. I exited through the front door, so I could grab the F class menu.
UA 1609 DEN-ABQ Lv2155 Arr2304
Boeing 757-200 N538UA
A very light flight (6 pax in F and 69 pax in Y)… We boarded early and the door was closed at 9:53pm, and push back happened almost immediately. I moved from 1A to 5A, due to two obnoxious businessmen sitting behind me - the type that used the cell phone to call random people. Anyway, their laughter was annoying and I decided that I need more peace. The aircraft had the old seats and was very untidy. There was a headset hooked on to my seat at 1A and there was an eyeshade on the floor. Menu scavenger worked though… I got a short-haul menu with the choice of the same chicken I had tonight but with a fish as a second choice. Anyway, some seats were still reclined and the plane was in dirty shape, despite some cleaners came by. Catering truck came in late, but the F/A had time to serve us a quick pre-takeoff beverage (also due to the light load). We took off at 10:01pm with no aircraft in front of us. We climbed to 31,000ft and was served a beverage with the classic cheese crackers and pretzels mix. Once again, I declined and had a ginger ale instead. The flight was quick and we landed at 10:55pm. We had a few bumps down into ABQ, but not too bad. This flight was okay and I was back home before midnight.
Conclusion: It was a good set of flight with many good F/As, but the food between Denver and East Coast was very bad and United definitely needs to work on those flights. They were medium haul flight and we deserved something better. If United wants people to choose UAL, instead of Frontier, it will need to act like a full fare service airline. If not, fly Frontier! PHL was a good city and it was good weekend trip.
------------------
Carfield
Menu Scavengers
Inflight food critics
Hi Everyone,
Just returned from a quick weekend at Philadelphia and attended my sister's graduation at Haverford College.
This weekend was definitely too short and I was glad to see the liberty bell and took the historical independent hall tour. It was very nice. The weather was too terribly hot and the airport at PHL was nice. Not much plane spotting, but I managed to get a quick glimpse of US Airways' A330 and Lufthansa's A340 at PHL.
May 12, 2000
UA 544 ABQ-DEN Lv1643 Arr1755
Boeing 757-200 N523UA with old F class and Y class seats, but enlarged overhead bin
I left work a bit early today and decided to head off to the airport early, due to the problems with United's pilots. When I arrived at the airport, my flight would arrive a bit late and our new departure time would be 5pm. The check-in agent was a bit new and told me that the computer asked for upgrade certificates. Then I told him to look at my boarding passes. They were all for Y plus. Anyway, he was a friendly person to talk to. The plane finally landed at 4:35pm and we began boarding at 4:53pm. I immediately took my seat, 9A, and this flight was pretty full. My neighbor was a nice person and he chatted with the F/As and us. The flight was a fairly quick 58 minutes flight. We pushed back at 5:15pm and took off at 5:30pm. The cruising attitude was 33,000ft. The ride was quite smooth and we could see the fires at Los Alamos from the right side of the plane. We were served a cup of drink (not even a can), and there was no pretzel or party mix. I actually did not care because I would not eat those disgusting snacks anyway. Maybe it was a sign that United finally would reintroduced peanuts or almonds. Well, descent took place at 6:05pm and landed at 6:28pm. Gate today was B45. Quite a nice flight! The seat itself was okay. Row 9 had more legroom than any seat in the Boeing 757, even in F class. With twenty minutes connection time, I dashed to Gate 23.
UA 1546 DEN-PHL Lv1855 Arr0018
Boeing 737-500 N941UA
The flight was in its final boarding stage when I arrived at the gate. The load was very light today. No one was stuck at a middle seat and I was comfortably seated at the bulkhead, 4A. I had only one neighbor at 4C. Not bad. The F class cabin was filled and it still had the old seats. I decided not to upgrade on the DEN-East coast flights because the service was always terrible on these DEN flights. I was right about the catering. Anyway, the door was closed at 6:54pm and the F/As distributed new pillows to everyone (A first for me - new pillows). There were three F/As and we were immediately told that our flying time would be an hour more than usual. Due to weather in the Midwest, we had to divert to the southern part of the country. Channel 9 was on and I followed the track. Our plane called on the Dallas, Memphis and Washington DC centers. We turned north after reaching the DC area. The flight was quite bumpy along the way.
We took off at 7:12pm - not bad for Denver, especially with the long taxiing time. Due to turbulence ahead, the F/As did not offer a separate beverage service before dinner. On long flight, they usually came through the cabin once with the beverage cart and pretzels. They immediately passed out dinner, which was pretty bad. No choice and one of the worst meals I had seen on United. It was technically an entrée with BBQ chicken and rice with some green herbs. There is no carrot or vegetable side dish. The salad is the typical green salad with lettuce and few shredded carrots (really few) with Kern's light ranch dressing. The meal comes with two breadsticks (pre packed) and a mini box of junior mints (six in total). This meal was definitely below the West Coast to Chicago mid con flight. My dinner snack on AS had a filling sandwich, a big pack of chips and a good cookie. I was definitely a bit disappointed. Nevertheless, the F Class F/A was very nice tonight and offered the Y class passengers some free red wine. The passengers in the F class did not get much anyway. I made a comment to the F/A as she was preparing the meal in the kitchen. I told her that those F class meals were exactly like the meals served in short-haul flights. Instead of serving all the courses together, the dessert came later, but it was the same Eli's cheesecake. They got two choices - fish or beef. The green salad was small and looked like the size of the short-haul J class dinner served on my ORD-DEN flight. United had severely cut back the service on its Denver - East Coast flight. I recommend people not to upgrade on those flights, unless you only care about the seats and the free alcohol. If you have to fly Frontier, those sandwiches that you got may be heartier than United's hot meals. Those dreadful Boeing 737s did not make life easier. A second beverage service happened when the F/As collected our trays. Then the F/As disappeared… Nevertheless, the purser was very nice tonight and walked through the cabin quite frequently. The other two F/As decided to hang around in the back and read magazines.
I listened to Channel 9 and saw a patch of massive lightning along our flight. The view was spectacular. Our flight finally saw some relief in the divert situation and we managed to arrive at a deserted PHL airport at 12:49am. Only a US Airways' A319 landed in front of us. We parked at D7 and went to a virtually empty taxi station. Fortunately the taxi dispatcher was still around and I got a cab quickly to the Sheraton Society Hill.
My first impression of the PHL airport was that it was very nice, and the train station was conveniently located. The city itself seems to be very nice. It is very historic. Thanks to all those recommendations from you gals and boys! I had a pretty good time in PHL. I visited the liberty bell, which was nice and took the Independent hall tour. I wish I have more time. Lunch was at Joy Tsin Low in China town. The dim sum selection was pretty good. The food is decently tasted. I had dinner on a restaurant called Tiramisu (located between South and 3rd street - maybe 4 or 5). It was a blend of Jewish and Italian cuisine. The food came in slowly but tasted mostly fine. I had a nice Spinach soup and a grilled seafood dish. Seafood in PHL tasted very well. Unfortunately I was not able to sample some of the restaurants because my grandparents want more Chinese food. Then on Sunday, I went to Haverford and had a great time. I could not believe my younger sister was done with college. Wow!
Return flights on May 14, 2000
UA 1869 PHL-ORD Lv1630 Arr1744
Airbus A319-100 N816UA
Knowing the bad service on PHL-DEN route, I decided to take the longer route PHL-ORD-DEN-ABQ. I was happy about my choice. Due to traffic in the freeway, I arrived at the airport 45 minutes before my flight, and was not able to check out the PHL airport. Terminal D was extremely crowded with many UAL's flights and CO's flights. Our flight was parked at Gate D3 and the gate area was busy. D1 had the 5:30pm flight and United cancelled the 3:30pm flight. The gate agents were very cool and I was checked in quickly by a check-in agent, who did not say one word to me during the whole time. Her face was blank and seemed not happy about her job. The only thing that she said was to ask me the security questions. When I said, "thank you," there was no reaction on her face. Worst than LAX and SFO definitely… Fortunately, boarding began on time at 4:02pm and due to late catering, there was no pre-takeoff beverage. The catering truck loaded the food at 4:16pm. There was no Channel 9, too. Door was closed at 4:26pm - surprisingly on time despite of full load. We took off at 4:45pm and the wind was quite strong. Flying time was one hour and fifty-three minutes.
Our first class F/A was one of the best F/As that I have ever seen in United. She was efficient and kept refilling drinks till landing. There was a printed menu service for F class and Y class got a box snack. She took drink orders before takeoff and took meal orders from the back. Since I was seated at 1A, I got no choice. In return, she was very apologetic and offered my neighbor and I a bottle of wine to bring home http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif. I was surprised, but chose white wine. I also asked her for some wine glasses. She was so kind that she packed four glasses into two separate snack boxes (used by Y class), and packed me a bottle of white wine. I thanked her so many times. She told me that the wines were there for us. I am definitely writing a letter to commend her.
Dinner tonight was:
To Begin
Garden fresh salad (cabbages, iceberg lettuce shredded, with peppers)
Accompanied by balsamic vinaigrette or green goddess dressing prepared with anchovies, onions, sour cream, and lemon juice
Main Course
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif Breast of chicken with apple walnut stuffing (very moist and tasty - highly recommended)
Enhanced by Gorgonzola sauce with apples and bacon, offered with sauteed asparagus (off green, but still good) and a vegetable medley (basically some yellow-colored and ball-shaped mini-squashes).
Or
Grilled strip steak with creamy horseradish sauce
Complemented by roasted red potatoes and a vegetable medley
Dessert
Eli's Praline Cheesecake (delicious)
An episode of Kings of Queen was shown with the usual assortments of short subjects. Plane began to descent at 6:02pm and our plane landed safely at 5:38pm. I saw a VS's Boeing 747-200 (instead of the usual A340) and another LH's A340 at ORD on approach. We quickly parked at gate C17. It was an ontime arrival and good for UAL. Then I had a short layover and proceeded to United express terminal for photo-taking. Not many interesting planes going in and out…
UA 941 ORD-DEN Lv1924 Arr2054
Boeing 777-200IGW N789UA (2489)
Our plane arrived late from its original destination and we were delayed till 7:35pm. One nice thing that I noticed at ORD was that they listed the variant of Boeing 777 used on this particular flight, like Boeing 777-200I or Boeing 777-200C for the Miami flights. Anyway, I was glad to find out that my plane had the first suite and new J class seats. The gate area was chaotic and the flight was full. There was only one boarding bridge and people were cutting lines. It was very annoying. Anyway, we boarded at 7:10pm. There was no pre-takeoff orange juice or champagne service, like other Boeing 777 flights. The F/As were not interested in working. After an open seat count and boarded a couple more passengers, we were pushed back at 7:42pm and took off at 7:53pm - surprisingly quick takeoff for ORD. (#3 in line)
We cruised to 39,000ft and the sky map function was working again. My entertainment was to watch the sky map and listened to Channel 9. Flying time was two hour and eight minutes - not much head wind. Dinner was served in all cabin today. For J class, a beverage service began at 8:15pm with the disgusting cheese crackers and pretzels mix, and the dinner service came next. It was an one-tray affair with a small salad bowl (romaine lettuce, endives, one piece of tomato slice, and a few artichokes' bottoms) with Asian sesame ginger dressing. The main course was the Herb-roasted chicken breat with apple cider sauce… complemented by dill gnocchi and carrots. The chicken was moist but I am not a big sweet and sour fan. There was a warmed white roll, and the dessert was a very good Apple Crunch cheesecake (more like apple crumble than cheesecake). The meal was serve on the new Noritake china and the salt and pepper sticks in plastic tube was properly served. Then the F/As came by with tea and coffee, and all disappeared into the galley for the remaining hour of flight.
Descent began at 9:30pm and was quite bumpy. The final approach took a long time and there was much traffic going on in DEN. We landed at 9:01pm local time and was parked at Gate B30 and B32. I exited through the front door, so I could grab the F class menu.
UA 1609 DEN-ABQ Lv2155 Arr2304
Boeing 757-200 N538UA
A very light flight (6 pax in F and 69 pax in Y)… We boarded early and the door was closed at 9:53pm, and push back happened almost immediately. I moved from 1A to 5A, due to two obnoxious businessmen sitting behind me - the type that used the cell phone to call random people. Anyway, their laughter was annoying and I decided that I need more peace. The aircraft had the old seats and was very untidy. There was a headset hooked on to my seat at 1A and there was an eyeshade on the floor. Menu scavenger worked though… I got a short-haul menu with the choice of the same chicken I had tonight but with a fish as a second choice. Anyway, some seats were still reclined and the plane was in dirty shape, despite some cleaners came by. Catering truck came in late, but the F/A had time to serve us a quick pre-takeoff beverage (also due to the light load). We took off at 10:01pm with no aircraft in front of us. We climbed to 31,000ft and was served a beverage with the classic cheese crackers and pretzels mix. Once again, I declined and had a ginger ale instead. The flight was quick and we landed at 10:55pm. We had a few bumps down into ABQ, but not too bad. This flight was okay and I was back home before midnight.
Conclusion: It was a good set of flight with many good F/As, but the food between Denver and East Coast was very bad and United definitely needs to work on those flights. They were medium haul flight and we deserved something better. If United wants people to choose UAL, instead of Frontier, it will need to act like a full fare service airline. If not, fly Frontier! PHL was a good city and it was good weekend trip.
------------------
Carfield
Menu Scavengers
Inflight food critics