dotcommed
Aug 30, 00, 2:10 am
I've been browsing FlyerTalk for over a year, but this is my first post (and my first trip report), so bear with me.
For the past year, I've done a decent bit of traveling, including semi-weekly BOS-ORD day trips, as well as a variety of travel to other locations. Since June, however, my travel has died down to a trip every few weeks.
This trip was particularly interesting as it was the first time that I was traveling with several of my co-workers as well -- we were attending a convention in BOS. I've spent the past few years in Boston, so I decided to take some time off and come back after my coworkers.
We needed to be in BOS at 9am on Sunday, 20 August. Our first plan was to go in on 19 August, but the hotel situation in BOS didn't let us do that. NW and US had rountrip options that would get us into BOS at 8.50am, but that wasn't good enough, so I suggested a connection through SFO or LAX. LAX was quicker, so we ended up on that. All travel was on UA.
Originally, we were going to come back by ORD with a 1945 departure on 27 August. The 1945 flight went away though as part of UA's reduction, and we were all placed on the 1845 departure connecting to the same flight into SEA (1230 am arrival). There is a connection over IAD that leaves after this and gets back before the ORD flight, however, so I had us all rebooked on it.
Wow, an Operational Upgrade: SEA-LAX 19 August 1845-2111, UA1829, 4B (was 11D), B757
Channel 9: No
Power Ports: No
A coworker drove me to the airport, and I checked a box of goodies that we needed for the convention. Took the train out to the North Satellite, and enjoyed a pizza bagel while waiting for the aircraft to hit the gate (it was about 10 late coming in from ORD). As I was munching, I heard the agents start to call a whole bunch of names around 1805. Given that it wasn't time for standbys to clear, I figured that they might be upgrading 1Ks and 1Ps, and I started to listen... about five minutes later, they called a whole bunch of names again, this time including my name. Wandered up, they took the boarding pass, said "comp upgrade" and handed back 4B.
Humorously, I had been thinking that I couldn't upgrade on this flight because my coworkers were on board (it was bad enough, as a 2P, being in E+ while my coworkers were back in E-). Oh well, nothing I could do about it in this case, so I boarded with F about five minutes later. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif
The pilots on this flight were a bit gruff, not speaking a bunch. They asked the FAs to be seated for the first 20 minutes of the flight as we went over the Cascades, but it wasn't that bumpy. After that, a snack was served in back (despite being in Apollo as a dinner flight) and a dinner up front. No menus, and orders were taken strictly front-back. In 4B, I still got a choice.
The flight attendants on this flight were great. They were starting their day and heading to ORD on the red eye, then heading out again after the minimum 12h layover (they were ORD based). Even with that fun trip, they were really enjoying the trip and making a strong effort in F. Humorous announcement of the day: "In preparation for departure, please ensure that your seat back is in its full upright position and that your meals are locked." (the other FA, walking through F, said "guess what's on her mind")
A semblance of the menu:
To start:
Lettuce salad with grated parmesean and olives, and vinaigrette or honey mustard dressing
Main Course:
Chicken breast stuffed with spinach and cheese
Filet mignon with mushroom sauce, string beans, and potato (I had this)
Dessert:
Eli's Caramel Cheesecake
Although the meal was served around 70 minutes into the flight due to the early holdouts, it was quite enjoyable. This was the first meal that I've seen on the new Noritake china, and it looks much better with food on it (I saw it before, but as a mockup). Quite nice.
Landing at LAX was on the North runway, so we had a long taxi out around the maintenance facilities. This being Saturday night, AA had a lot of aircraft out of the gate. Went into our gate, and had to be towed in (we went into 71).
IUgh, a Red Eye: LAX-BOS 19 August 2220-0635, UA180, 4D, A319
Channel 9: No
Power Ports: No
Operational Audio on Channels 10-18: No
Working Reading Lamp: No
As is my custom, I wandered up to the gate agent (who had a large "Shop Steward" badge on) to inquire about the flight. He said it wasn't full (as my seat map check had shown a few days prior). Very obvious there wouldn't be an operational upgrade here.
Boarding on time. Settled in for the long haul, tested out the audio system with my NC20s, and noticed nothing worked above Channels 2-5. Asked them to cycle the system, which they did. No effect. Durn. No Channel 9 either.
Started to read the LA Times. Reading lamp went out. It came on and off every 20 minutes or so. Gave up on it and tried to sleep. Flight was dead empty -- no middle seats taken in E+, many rows in the back had one person on each side. F had 3/8.
Pretty empty flight. Went back and chatted with the bored FAs for a little while, then tried to sleep. 4oz OJ offered before arrival, as well as a $25 chit off a future UA flight to apologize for UA's recent difficulties (despite this flight being early).
Headed off, grabbed my bag (off by the time we got in from gate C15 to baggage claim -- less than 4 minutes) and took a cab to....
Yes, we have attitude: Doubletree Club Boston Bayside
We reserved a room at the Doubletree Club, the overflow hotel for our convention (at the Seaport Hotel/World Trade Center) for Saturday night and specifically told them that we'd be in at 7am (our goal was to have a place to drop our things and freshen up.) Unfortunately, they claimed we were "no shows" and they had given our rooms and our reservation away. Oh well. Let them take our bags and went off to the convention.
We were a bit pissed at the morning crew, which made really no effort to please us about the room mixup. So we checked at the Seaport again, but no rooms had become available at reasonable rates for us. Thus the Doubletree it was. Fortunately the negative first impression turned into a more positive later impression.
I returned around 3pm to check in. Gave them my new HHonors number (obtained on the web for 1K points) and the agent went "Ooh, you're HHonors." Seemed to help -- she first offered me a room on the 6th floor (highest), then when I asked for a water view, she gave me a beautiful corner room on the 5th floor with a view of the city and the water. The room was very immaculate and furnished in modern colors -- teal blue carpeting. Quite beautiful. It also featured in-room ethernet. Since I didn't have a laptop with me, I didn't try this -- nor was there a fee chart. I was provided two bags (or 4 cookies) upon arrival, still warm.
The Doubletree Club was fine for our purposes, but could be considered limited service. The hotel "restaurant" is an Au Bon Pain bakery. It is two blocks from the T (subway) but there's nothing else around. Still, we got the rooms for a third of the average Boston hotel rate, according to the WSJ.
Stayed there for two nights. My coworkers headed back on Tuesday on BOS-UA1183-IAD-UA191-SEA, or so I thought. Turns out 1153 was cancelled, and they were rerouted on NW (ugh) over DTW. Due to weather in DTW, they got back into SEA around 3h late.
The tale of broken switches: BOS-IAD 27 August 2020-2220 (planned 1900-2040), UA1153, 5C, B727-200
Channel 9: Yes (half the flight)
Power Ports: No
Real Headset Connection: No
Meanwhile, my return on Sunday was looking fine during the day. A friend picked me up at 1730 for a 1900 depature in Cambridge; we were at BOS by 1745. Spent some time watching things on the roof. Meanwhile, UA reservations pleasant talking computer was telling me that 1183 was running 15 late, with a 1915 departure, but it'd be fine.
Went in around 1820 to check in. Learned that it was now 45 late, with a planned departure of 1745. Checked with the ticketing agent, who noticed that the flight that became my IAD-SEA was also running a bit behind, and that my connection should be fine.
There's no good food at C, so we wandered over to US to have a bite to eat. They were having a lot more
difficulties due to weather between BOS and IAD (PHL in particular).
1945 came and went with no gate agents at C18 (and a whole bunch of pilots and FAs wanting to get on
our flight from the cancelled 2000 IAD flight). Boarding commenced around 1950; doors closed at 2010. Listening to Channel 9 (and having watched earlier), there was obviously a decent queue for takeoff. We puched at 2020 and were off the ground around 2047.
The pilot on this aircraft was definitely communicative and apologetic (after all, we were flying the day after the tenative agreement came out). He said he wanted to give us the "full reason" for the delay. Turns out on the previous IAD-BOS flight they attempted to turn on the windshield wipers due to rain in IAD, and the handle broke off in their hand. Thus they had to return to the gate for 11 minutes to replace the handle, and then took a 40 minute weather delay). The important thing was that the root cause of our delay was maintenance-related, though (more on this later).
Lots of lightning on this flight, and around 40 minutes outside of IAD the pilot had the flight attendants be seated for most of the rest of the flight. It got fairly bumpy. Pilot also got on to ask people not to ring their call button to ask about flight connections, as they had no information on them.
It became increasingly obvious that we were going to be even later than originally planned. Touched down at 1015 and were to the gate around 1023. I called 2416522 and learned that 191 had departed at 1003, thus I was out of luck. Since I was in 5C (the bulkhead row -- no E+ legroom in that row. Be forwarned!) I was off as they were making the welcome announcement, which apparently was "If you're going to CDG, go here, to LHR, go here, elsewhise, go to the C21 CSC."
Wandered over to the CSC. Not a decent line in front of me (like 7 people), but quickly a line of about 40 people formed behind me. The ones in front of me weren't moving that fast, and were receiving pink flyers about discounted hotels. Not a good sign. Then someone came out of the back with a huge pile of cardstock. I was the first one up, said I was coming off of 1153, and they grabbed a pile of cardstock for me. The first card was the rebooking, the second was a hotel voucher for the Hilton Dulles, and the remaining two cards were, respectively, for $16 dinner and $8 breakfast. Not bad at all! I was handled in around 1 minute and they really processed everyone quite fast.
I was really shocked they had managed to process all 40 or so misconnects before we were even on the ground. Really, really nice. Everyone seemed impressed as we waited for the Mobile Lounge to take us into the terminal.
Hilton Dulles: Yes, I would like a non-smoking room
The Hilton seemed just as prepared as United for an influx of passengers. They had already created accounts for all the rooms, and just assigned names to them, and then exchanged the UA meal vouchers for Hilton meal vouchers if you wanted to spend them at the hotel (not much of a choice at 2300!). I asked about HHonors points, and were told there'd be none. Also asked about whether the room was non-smoking. Was told it wasn't, and was exchanged for a room on the 4th floor (instead of 1st). The 4th and 5th floors are the "Concierge Floors" at this Hilton, so I had to key in the elevator. Turns out the room I was now assigned was the adjoining room to the Presidential Suite. It was huge and had a couch, several overstuffed chairs, and two doubles.
Overall, the Hilton was nice, but was feeling very early-80s. Lots of gold trim everywhere, but things overall seemed a bit scuffy. This hotel could use a decent renovation. But I'm not griping -- it had a really decent health and fitness center, and it was free!
Since it was 2300, the only thing open was the bar, but the food was still being prepared by the restaurant. I had a really really good chicken sandwich and caesar salad. Very impressed compared with what I was expecting. Breakfast was fair (they let us have the $10 buffet on $8 chits).
Shuttle service to IAD is every 20 minutes, with two vans. Arrived at IAD at 0830-ish, and checked in at an empty 2P/1P desk.
Economy Plus - Yes, I would like more legroom: IAD-SEA 28 August 0920-1130, UA237, 6C, A320
Channel 9: Yes
Power Ports: No
Operational Audio on Channels 10-18: Yes
Working Reading Lamp: Yes
I had been assigned 22C in the rebooking process last night and requested an E+ seat when I was back there. I was assigned 9A then, but got 22C at check-in again. Apologetic gate agent suggested the bulkhead aisle, 6C. Grabbed it and headed out to the gate after getting newspapers.
Flight was fairly full -- 6A and 6F had non-Premiers in it, 6C/D were 2Ps, for example. A few 1Ps and a decent number of 2Ps in Y on the flight, no 1Ks in Coach. decent number of "general folk" up front in E+, but some rows all the way in back were fairly empty.
This flight was really, really nice and tolerable as a transcon. Row 6 on the 320s is the best row on the aircraft -- with the middle seat empty. There's more legroom than F, and with the cutout you can put things under the back row of F. It really is a beautiful place to sit.
Breakfast consisted of either a salsa-egg omelette with potatoes, or blueberry pancakes with a sausage link. I had the pancakes, as did everyone save one person in the first three or four rows AFAICT. Popular choice.
After breakfast, I took a nap, then read a few newspapers. A snack bag was served 1h from Seattle, consisting of cheese and crackers, dried fruit, chips and salsa, and a cookie-like object. It was definitely better than what AA serves on transcons, but I liked the old mini-sandwich and chips better. F was getting a really nice cart of appetizers as their snack (could see it -- yum!).
Flight attendants on this flight were quite good -- several drink and water services throughout the flight. Mid-flight water service included ice, a nice touch.
Arrival was 20 early and on a beautiful visual approach to 36L (controller asked if we could see the mall before clearing us for approach -- he was referring to Southcenter, just beyond the airport). Tight turn and plonk, we're down. I love approaches where you see the airport off to the side, turn, and land.
Overall, it was a fairly decent trip. I felt like the return trip was much more pre-crisis UA: friendly, professional, and very efficient in dealing with customer concerns. From talking with the FAs on the outgoing trip, things were really starting to get stressful, and the reserves were starting to hit their limits.
While I could have made 237 on 28 August and stayed in BOS an extra night, I think UA did the right thing in sending us on -- if the weather hadn't hit us on the return, I would have made the connection. And there were 3 of us doing the BOS-IAD-SEA, so it could have happened. Nonetheless, I'm very grateful that they put us all in hotels in IAD (and not just 1P/1K/2P -- everyone -- and at the same hotel). Kudos to United!
[This message has been edited by dotcommed (edited 08-30-2000).]
[This message has been edited by dotcommed (edited 08-30-2000).]
For the past year, I've done a decent bit of traveling, including semi-weekly BOS-ORD day trips, as well as a variety of travel to other locations. Since June, however, my travel has died down to a trip every few weeks.
This trip was particularly interesting as it was the first time that I was traveling with several of my co-workers as well -- we were attending a convention in BOS. I've spent the past few years in Boston, so I decided to take some time off and come back after my coworkers.
We needed to be in BOS at 9am on Sunday, 20 August. Our first plan was to go in on 19 August, but the hotel situation in BOS didn't let us do that. NW and US had rountrip options that would get us into BOS at 8.50am, but that wasn't good enough, so I suggested a connection through SFO or LAX. LAX was quicker, so we ended up on that. All travel was on UA.
Originally, we were going to come back by ORD with a 1945 departure on 27 August. The 1945 flight went away though as part of UA's reduction, and we were all placed on the 1845 departure connecting to the same flight into SEA (1230 am arrival). There is a connection over IAD that leaves after this and gets back before the ORD flight, however, so I had us all rebooked on it.
Wow, an Operational Upgrade: SEA-LAX 19 August 1845-2111, UA1829, 4B (was 11D), B757
Channel 9: No
Power Ports: No
A coworker drove me to the airport, and I checked a box of goodies that we needed for the convention. Took the train out to the North Satellite, and enjoyed a pizza bagel while waiting for the aircraft to hit the gate (it was about 10 late coming in from ORD). As I was munching, I heard the agents start to call a whole bunch of names around 1805. Given that it wasn't time for standbys to clear, I figured that they might be upgrading 1Ks and 1Ps, and I started to listen... about five minutes later, they called a whole bunch of names again, this time including my name. Wandered up, they took the boarding pass, said "comp upgrade" and handed back 4B.
Humorously, I had been thinking that I couldn't upgrade on this flight because my coworkers were on board (it was bad enough, as a 2P, being in E+ while my coworkers were back in E-). Oh well, nothing I could do about it in this case, so I boarded with F about five minutes later. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif
The pilots on this flight were a bit gruff, not speaking a bunch. They asked the FAs to be seated for the first 20 minutes of the flight as we went over the Cascades, but it wasn't that bumpy. After that, a snack was served in back (despite being in Apollo as a dinner flight) and a dinner up front. No menus, and orders were taken strictly front-back. In 4B, I still got a choice.
The flight attendants on this flight were great. They were starting their day and heading to ORD on the red eye, then heading out again after the minimum 12h layover (they were ORD based). Even with that fun trip, they were really enjoying the trip and making a strong effort in F. Humorous announcement of the day: "In preparation for departure, please ensure that your seat back is in its full upright position and that your meals are locked." (the other FA, walking through F, said "guess what's on her mind")
A semblance of the menu:
To start:
Lettuce salad with grated parmesean and olives, and vinaigrette or honey mustard dressing
Main Course:
Chicken breast stuffed with spinach and cheese
Filet mignon with mushroom sauce, string beans, and potato (I had this)
Dessert:
Eli's Caramel Cheesecake
Although the meal was served around 70 minutes into the flight due to the early holdouts, it was quite enjoyable. This was the first meal that I've seen on the new Noritake china, and it looks much better with food on it (I saw it before, but as a mockup). Quite nice.
Landing at LAX was on the North runway, so we had a long taxi out around the maintenance facilities. This being Saturday night, AA had a lot of aircraft out of the gate. Went into our gate, and had to be towed in (we went into 71).
IUgh, a Red Eye: LAX-BOS 19 August 2220-0635, UA180, 4D, A319
Channel 9: No
Power Ports: No
Operational Audio on Channels 10-18: No
Working Reading Lamp: No
As is my custom, I wandered up to the gate agent (who had a large "Shop Steward" badge on) to inquire about the flight. He said it wasn't full (as my seat map check had shown a few days prior). Very obvious there wouldn't be an operational upgrade here.
Boarding on time. Settled in for the long haul, tested out the audio system with my NC20s, and noticed nothing worked above Channels 2-5. Asked them to cycle the system, which they did. No effect. Durn. No Channel 9 either.
Started to read the LA Times. Reading lamp went out. It came on and off every 20 minutes or so. Gave up on it and tried to sleep. Flight was dead empty -- no middle seats taken in E+, many rows in the back had one person on each side. F had 3/8.
Pretty empty flight. Went back and chatted with the bored FAs for a little while, then tried to sleep. 4oz OJ offered before arrival, as well as a $25 chit off a future UA flight to apologize for UA's recent difficulties (despite this flight being early).
Headed off, grabbed my bag (off by the time we got in from gate C15 to baggage claim -- less than 4 minutes) and took a cab to....
Yes, we have attitude: Doubletree Club Boston Bayside
We reserved a room at the Doubletree Club, the overflow hotel for our convention (at the Seaport Hotel/World Trade Center) for Saturday night and specifically told them that we'd be in at 7am (our goal was to have a place to drop our things and freshen up.) Unfortunately, they claimed we were "no shows" and they had given our rooms and our reservation away. Oh well. Let them take our bags and went off to the convention.
We were a bit pissed at the morning crew, which made really no effort to please us about the room mixup. So we checked at the Seaport again, but no rooms had become available at reasonable rates for us. Thus the Doubletree it was. Fortunately the negative first impression turned into a more positive later impression.
I returned around 3pm to check in. Gave them my new HHonors number (obtained on the web for 1K points) and the agent went "Ooh, you're HHonors." Seemed to help -- she first offered me a room on the 6th floor (highest), then when I asked for a water view, she gave me a beautiful corner room on the 5th floor with a view of the city and the water. The room was very immaculate and furnished in modern colors -- teal blue carpeting. Quite beautiful. It also featured in-room ethernet. Since I didn't have a laptop with me, I didn't try this -- nor was there a fee chart. I was provided two bags (or 4 cookies) upon arrival, still warm.
The Doubletree Club was fine for our purposes, but could be considered limited service. The hotel "restaurant" is an Au Bon Pain bakery. It is two blocks from the T (subway) but there's nothing else around. Still, we got the rooms for a third of the average Boston hotel rate, according to the WSJ.
Stayed there for two nights. My coworkers headed back on Tuesday on BOS-UA1183-IAD-UA191-SEA, or so I thought. Turns out 1153 was cancelled, and they were rerouted on NW (ugh) over DTW. Due to weather in DTW, they got back into SEA around 3h late.
The tale of broken switches: BOS-IAD 27 August 2020-2220 (planned 1900-2040), UA1153, 5C, B727-200
Channel 9: Yes (half the flight)
Power Ports: No
Real Headset Connection: No
Meanwhile, my return on Sunday was looking fine during the day. A friend picked me up at 1730 for a 1900 depature in Cambridge; we were at BOS by 1745. Spent some time watching things on the roof. Meanwhile, UA reservations pleasant talking computer was telling me that 1183 was running 15 late, with a 1915 departure, but it'd be fine.
Went in around 1820 to check in. Learned that it was now 45 late, with a planned departure of 1745. Checked with the ticketing agent, who noticed that the flight that became my IAD-SEA was also running a bit behind, and that my connection should be fine.
There's no good food at C, so we wandered over to US to have a bite to eat. They were having a lot more
difficulties due to weather between BOS and IAD (PHL in particular).
1945 came and went with no gate agents at C18 (and a whole bunch of pilots and FAs wanting to get on
our flight from the cancelled 2000 IAD flight). Boarding commenced around 1950; doors closed at 2010. Listening to Channel 9 (and having watched earlier), there was obviously a decent queue for takeoff. We puched at 2020 and were off the ground around 2047.
The pilot on this aircraft was definitely communicative and apologetic (after all, we were flying the day after the tenative agreement came out). He said he wanted to give us the "full reason" for the delay. Turns out on the previous IAD-BOS flight they attempted to turn on the windshield wipers due to rain in IAD, and the handle broke off in their hand. Thus they had to return to the gate for 11 minutes to replace the handle, and then took a 40 minute weather delay). The important thing was that the root cause of our delay was maintenance-related, though (more on this later).
Lots of lightning on this flight, and around 40 minutes outside of IAD the pilot had the flight attendants be seated for most of the rest of the flight. It got fairly bumpy. Pilot also got on to ask people not to ring their call button to ask about flight connections, as they had no information on them.
It became increasingly obvious that we were going to be even later than originally planned. Touched down at 1015 and were to the gate around 1023. I called 2416522 and learned that 191 had departed at 1003, thus I was out of luck. Since I was in 5C (the bulkhead row -- no E+ legroom in that row. Be forwarned!) I was off as they were making the welcome announcement, which apparently was "If you're going to CDG, go here, to LHR, go here, elsewhise, go to the C21 CSC."
Wandered over to the CSC. Not a decent line in front of me (like 7 people), but quickly a line of about 40 people formed behind me. The ones in front of me weren't moving that fast, and were receiving pink flyers about discounted hotels. Not a good sign. Then someone came out of the back with a huge pile of cardstock. I was the first one up, said I was coming off of 1153, and they grabbed a pile of cardstock for me. The first card was the rebooking, the second was a hotel voucher for the Hilton Dulles, and the remaining two cards were, respectively, for $16 dinner and $8 breakfast. Not bad at all! I was handled in around 1 minute and they really processed everyone quite fast.
I was really shocked they had managed to process all 40 or so misconnects before we were even on the ground. Really, really nice. Everyone seemed impressed as we waited for the Mobile Lounge to take us into the terminal.
Hilton Dulles: Yes, I would like a non-smoking room
The Hilton seemed just as prepared as United for an influx of passengers. They had already created accounts for all the rooms, and just assigned names to them, and then exchanged the UA meal vouchers for Hilton meal vouchers if you wanted to spend them at the hotel (not much of a choice at 2300!). I asked about HHonors points, and were told there'd be none. Also asked about whether the room was non-smoking. Was told it wasn't, and was exchanged for a room on the 4th floor (instead of 1st). The 4th and 5th floors are the "Concierge Floors" at this Hilton, so I had to key in the elevator. Turns out the room I was now assigned was the adjoining room to the Presidential Suite. It was huge and had a couch, several overstuffed chairs, and two doubles.
Overall, the Hilton was nice, but was feeling very early-80s. Lots of gold trim everywhere, but things overall seemed a bit scuffy. This hotel could use a decent renovation. But I'm not griping -- it had a really decent health and fitness center, and it was free!
Since it was 2300, the only thing open was the bar, but the food was still being prepared by the restaurant. I had a really really good chicken sandwich and caesar salad. Very impressed compared with what I was expecting. Breakfast was fair (they let us have the $10 buffet on $8 chits).
Shuttle service to IAD is every 20 minutes, with two vans. Arrived at IAD at 0830-ish, and checked in at an empty 2P/1P desk.
Economy Plus - Yes, I would like more legroom: IAD-SEA 28 August 0920-1130, UA237, 6C, A320
Channel 9: Yes
Power Ports: No
Operational Audio on Channels 10-18: Yes
Working Reading Lamp: Yes
I had been assigned 22C in the rebooking process last night and requested an E+ seat when I was back there. I was assigned 9A then, but got 22C at check-in again. Apologetic gate agent suggested the bulkhead aisle, 6C. Grabbed it and headed out to the gate after getting newspapers.
Flight was fairly full -- 6A and 6F had non-Premiers in it, 6C/D were 2Ps, for example. A few 1Ps and a decent number of 2Ps in Y on the flight, no 1Ks in Coach. decent number of "general folk" up front in E+, but some rows all the way in back were fairly empty.
This flight was really, really nice and tolerable as a transcon. Row 6 on the 320s is the best row on the aircraft -- with the middle seat empty. There's more legroom than F, and with the cutout you can put things under the back row of F. It really is a beautiful place to sit.
Breakfast consisted of either a salsa-egg omelette with potatoes, or blueberry pancakes with a sausage link. I had the pancakes, as did everyone save one person in the first three or four rows AFAICT. Popular choice.
After breakfast, I took a nap, then read a few newspapers. A snack bag was served 1h from Seattle, consisting of cheese and crackers, dried fruit, chips and salsa, and a cookie-like object. It was definitely better than what AA serves on transcons, but I liked the old mini-sandwich and chips better. F was getting a really nice cart of appetizers as their snack (could see it -- yum!).
Flight attendants on this flight were quite good -- several drink and water services throughout the flight. Mid-flight water service included ice, a nice touch.
Arrival was 20 early and on a beautiful visual approach to 36L (controller asked if we could see the mall before clearing us for approach -- he was referring to Southcenter, just beyond the airport). Tight turn and plonk, we're down. I love approaches where you see the airport off to the side, turn, and land.
Overall, it was a fairly decent trip. I felt like the return trip was much more pre-crisis UA: friendly, professional, and very efficient in dealing with customer concerns. From talking with the FAs on the outgoing trip, things were really starting to get stressful, and the reserves were starting to hit their limits.
While I could have made 237 on 28 August and stayed in BOS an extra night, I think UA did the right thing in sending us on -- if the weather hadn't hit us on the return, I would have made the connection. And there were 3 of us doing the BOS-IAD-SEA, so it could have happened. Nonetheless, I'm very grateful that they put us all in hotels in IAD (and not just 1P/1K/2P -- everyone -- and at the same hotel). Kudos to United!
[This message has been edited by dotcommed (edited 08-30-2000).]
[This message has been edited by dotcommed (edited 08-30-2000).]