Trip Reports - Garcia y Vegas

No, there is nobody in this report named Garcia. I just got tired of waiting for a legitimate opportunity to use this title. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif

UA 7775 EWR-IAD
UA 1777 IAD-LAS

A rare opportunity to leave directly from my office with only carry-on baggage hatched a plan to get to Newark using 2 trains and a bus, something only a New Yorker could possibly consider desirable, but the usual delay getting out of the office shifted me to plan "B", which consisted of a taxi to the Port Authority and the bus to the airport. If you're not from New York, the words "Port Authority" also contain the words "Bus Terminal" in a very tiny font; if you can't see it there must be something wrong with your screen.

The Olympia Bus boarded with the usual pandemonium, including several employees arguing for much too long in Papiemento about the maximum number of standees legally allowed. This operation ran much more smoothly when N.J. Transit handled it.

At Newark, the bus driver took the scenic route in, past the old North Terminal, but avoided thereby a serious back-up of cars on the main roadway. There was nobody in front of me at the United FC/Premier line, and the friendly agent asked how I was going to pay for my upgrade on my connecting flight from Dulles. I said I had coupons, and even though I soon had them in my hand, he never took them. Honest!

Since I had the time, I sauntered down to the ticket purchase line, to take care of my mileage run to FRA next weekend. Of course the ticket printer jammed, so a five minute process stretched into fifteen. I needed a paper ticket because there is a UA/LH codeshare flight involved.

My United Express/ASA flight to Dulles started boarding close to the scheduled departure, so I knew it wasn't going to be on time, and in fact it finished boarding 10 minutes late. Is any ASA flight ever on time? For a tiny jet with 2x2 configuration, the seating was surprisingly comfortable on the CRJ. Landing 10 minutes late after a looong left base approach, I took the Lunar Rover to the C gates, where my connecting flight to LAS was itself going to be a few minutes late due to the arriving aircraft, but for a change I didn't care.

I don't think I would have been too happy in the back of an A320 going from IAD to LAS, even in Economy Plus, but, as noted above, my upgrade had cleared, and I settled into 3B, after maneuvering around the people without gold boarding passes blocking the way to the gate reader. I really don't believe that most people actually listen to the boarding announcements, other than to verify that they have heard the word "boarding". The agent did, in fact, turn away several non-gilded passengers.

My seat opponent, to coin a phrase, was an former Congressman from Georgia who now lobbies in Washington, and also runs a paint company on the West Coast. We had a fine time discussing politics, but not paint. Too bad I had just booked a car with Hertz, or I could have gotten a ride in his limo to the Mirage.

Just after closing the door, the Captain announced that they had a non-functioning A.P.U. in the A320, but that he had elected to go with it, rather than cancel the flight, and that this was why there was a portable power unit next to the aircraft at the gate. He further explained that his plan was to start one engine at the gate, and then "air-start" the other one on the way to the runway. Apparently this was too much detail for the uninitiated, because a minute or two later the Captain came on the P.A. again to explain that the A.P.U. (auxiliary power unit) had nothing to do with flying the airplane. Since this was United, and not Air Florida, I already knew that the pilot had at least as much of a vested interest in safety as I did. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif

A pleasant change was the operation of Channel 9, even including well-balanced audio levels and the absence of the usual alternator whine. I'm not sure whether this was a feature of the A320, or an unexpected benefit of flying without an A.P.U. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

I won't bother to describe the meal (see http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum50/HTML/004161.html ), except to say that I had the turkey and it was fine.

I watched, but didn't listen to, "Toy Story 2", and will only mention that all Frequent Flyers must watch the brilliant sequence near the end which features a baggage conveyor system from the point of view of a suitcase. Also, I will never again be able to watch a baggage hold door being closed without imagining myself inside.

This was probably among the most painless transcon trips I've taken; I never really considered the routing "EWR-IAD-LAS" before, but I'm sure I'll do it again in the future.

Here is what I did in Las Vegas for 2½ days:

Played video poker, mostly unsuccessfully
Bet on football games, somewhat successfully
Ate free meals with Quiet Lion & Hunnybear, at their hotel
Ate free meals with Quiet Lion & Hunnybear, at my hotel.

For more details, see http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum81/HTML/001432.html ,with which I shall not attempt to compete.

It was great to see you... sorry you got hoovered. Try practicing your video poker with WinPoker at www.zamzone.com (http://www.zamzone.com)

UA 930 LAS-SFO

I got out of my room at the Mirage on Christmas morning only 15 minutes late, which worked out pretty well since I had decided to pretend that my 9:16 a.m. departure from Las Vegas was really 9:00. I straightened out the bill with my casino host in a mostly satisfactory manner http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif, and then checked out at the front desk, a process which takes almost as long as an American Airlines agent changing a ticket. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif The casino host was wearing a Grinch tie, which I suggested might be the wrong message for someone in his position http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif. It also occurred to me that there would likely be more Grinches to be seen before the day was over.

When driving in a rental car to McCarran Airport, since there is no meter running (except for the gas usage), it makes sense to take the freeway and avoid the interminable Las Vegas traffic signals. This worked well, and I got to the Hertz return lot in just over 10 minutes from the Mirage. I couldn't use the services of the roving instant return person since I needed to change the credit card used for the rental. This took about 2 minutes at the counter, at which I also had to find the discount coupon I was using, which often don't get collected at all. I also remembered to make sure my Premier number was in the Hertz record, which hadn't been done automatically even though I had given them a UA flight number with the rental, and cost myself 17¢ tax in the process. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/rolleyes.gif

The Hertz bus was held up for about 5 minutes by a passenger who suddenly decided he had an issue to raise with the counter about being charged for an upgrade. Eventually the driver left for the terminal anyway and told the man's family he would be on the next bus(!)

At the United FC/Premier counter, 5 agents momentarily paused their conversation long enough for one of them to check me in, and the moderately pleasant and efficient agent correctly noted that I had 4-500 milers in my e-upgrade account but needed 5, so I gave her a paper one.

My WAP-enabled AT&T cell phone had already informed me that my flight was running late, but there didn't seem to be any likely trouble with my connection to JFK at SFO, since there had been originally over an hour and a half between the flights. The agent did not know about the delay, but when I told her that my cell phone had informed me about it, she found the 37-minute delay on the screen and asked the next agent if she had known that "San Francisco was running late". This was news to the second agent as well, and my agent then remarked that "They know before we do." As usual, I'm part of the "they". http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif

Up the escalator I went to begin the hike around McCarron to get to the D-gates, but I used the trick of saving myself ~200 feet of walking by following the signs to C, but then going through D security. Some day I'll try to cross over on the far side of security, but I'm not sure they let you.

Over at gate D-31, the delay was variously attributed to the incoming aircraft, unspecified crew issues, and residual energy left over from the Big Bang. I amused myself discovering how many different ways I could program SMS messages to be sent to my phone notifying me of the status of my next flight (there were two). The aircraft arrived at 9:40, boarded at 9:55, and pushed back about 10:10. On board, in seat 2B, I put on channel 9 and promptly fell asleep. About halfway through the flight, I awoke, and briefly wondered why I never heard United 930 on channel 9, but soon realized there were numerous United 8000-series callsigns about, one of which was bound to be ours, due to the change-of-gauge in SFO, through which my 737 UA-Shuttle flight miraculously changes to a 777 bound for London Heathrow. Correlating the ATC instructions with the movements of the aircraft quickly led to the conclusion that our callsign was United 8133.


[This message has been edited by RichG (edited 12-26-2000).]

UA 20 SFO-JFK

Arriving at SFO, I barely had time to type on the computer for 15 minutes before my flight started to board. My phone showed me 3 SMS messages, which means that ual2go.com sent me a second message with a gate change, but trip.com did not. "C" class was mostly full, so I was grateful for the rare unoccupied seat next to my 7E seat. On the other hand, I was blessed with noisy children both in front of and behind me. Later, I'll try to remember to conduct an employee census in First Class.

Channel 9 functioned again, for the third flight in a row(!), (but with the patented Boeing alternator whine) and it was exciting to take off barely in front of another aircraft on short final on the intersecting runway. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/rolleyes.gif When the SFO tower says "Cleared for takeoff, no delay", they aren't kidding!

The FA taking the meal orders had a Grinch doll decorating her tray. United should adopt this character for answering people requesting double upgrades. As it turned out, the same FA was asked about an upgrade by a passenger. Her answer, as I overheard it, was "No, I can't. An upgrade means automatic termination." I wanted to ask her if she was referring to the FA or the passenger. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif

Anyway, I chose the turkey again, extensively reviewed in PremEx's Holiday Cheer flight thread, so that United wouldn't have to apologize if occasionally my choice was not available. I also noticed that the Grinch FA was also wearing a smaller Grinch doll as a sort of a grotesque brooch.

The movie, of course, was "It's a Wonderful Life". I decided not to watch, since I'd already reached my crying quota for December. I might have watched "Miracle on 34th Street" though, if they'd had that instead. It also would have been an even more wonderful life if I'd been able to look out the window at the snow-topped Sierra Nevadas and Rockies rather than helping to reduce the glare on the screen.

There's still not enough room in Business Class on a United 767 to use a laptop comfortably if the passenger in front reclines the seat back all the way. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif

It's been so long since I was on a Channel 9-enabled flight landing at JFK, that I forgot that landing on 31R meant no taxi time at all before we were parked at the gate at the Saarinen-designed TWA Terminal (now called Terminal 6). My new theory regarding JFK is to get out of there as soon as possible, using the first available conveyance of any kind. In this case, that was a New York Bus Service bus to the Port Authority Bus Terminal (with a stop on the way at Grand Central). I think the driver was on his last trip of the day, or year, or career, or something, because he drove just short of recklessly, honking at everything and everybody to get out of his way.

I stopped at an undistinguished deli on 8th Avenue for a sandwich before catching a cab the rest of the way home.


[This message has been edited by RichG (edited 12-26-2000).]

great report RichG!

I think the driver was on his last trip of the day, or year, or career, or something, because he drove just short of recklessly, honking at everything and everybody to get out of his way.


sounds like any other driver in NY though!

Not me. I'm a very good driver.

Yes, he is.

FYI, you can use either C or D security at McCarran. Both dump into the tram area and there is no barrier between the 2 trams.