JBLUA320
Jul 31, 05, 8:46 am
United Express flight 8042
Route: Burlington, VT-Washington/Dulles, VA
Equipment: Embraer ERJ-145
Operating Carrier: Trans-States Airlines
January 4, 2005. ON TIME.
We arrived at United check-in at Burlington about two hours before scheduled departure. My father recently received
United Silver, but the lines, between United and US Airways, were awfully confusing about where priority is. Eventually we made a guess, cut in front of 30 people, and got served by the United manager at BTV. He was friendly and checked us into Vienna and told us to get the Zagreb boarding pass with Austrian at Washington. For flight 8042 to Washington, my parents got the exit row and I got a seat a few rows back. Both were on the 2 side of the 1-2 configuration.
We went to the airport restaurant, and settled down for a good meal. Right after placing our order, an announcement came over the PA. "United Airlines is paging passenger Glinka." We came down and the same manager returned my father's Zippo, as at that time they were only allowed in carry-on luggage. A kind TSA Employee told us about the upcoming "Absolutely no lighters rule". We came back, and in about 5-8 minutes (surprisingly fast for One Flight Up, the Burlington airport restaurant) I had my last clam chowder for a long time (this trip was for a migration to ex-Yugoslavia for a year..currently in Serbia). We saw the United ERJ-145 in new colors taxi in, our cue to proceed to the gate. The security was fairly easy, other than the typical shoe carnival and other such matters.
After arriving at the gate, we sat down beside the boarding pass readers awaiting our ERJs arrival at the gate. I always favored the CRJ-200 and enjoyed it with Atlantic Coast Airlines (now flyI), yet I haven't flown the ERJ-145. There was this really small girl who kept on walking up to me, laughing, and then coming back. I really sincerely hoped that she wouldn't be sitting near me (thank God, she was four rows ahead) After 5-10 minutes with her shy approaches, United Express announced boarding. We were in Zone 2, or whatever the first zone other than pre-boarding is.
We were greeted by a friendly flight attendant, and we split, I took my seat in the back of the aircraft at the window and I later got a neighbor, this flight seemed to have a 100% load-factor. We taxiied out and got held in the penalty box due to problems in Washington. The delay would be 45 minutes, the captain estimated. The flight attendant allowed us to use the bathroom, but did not serve beverages. About 10 minutes later, the captain said we can leave in 10 minutes and that we would taxi around for some reason. We taxiied around and then went onto the runway. With a fairly strong takeoff the ERJ-145 blasted off from Burlington.
My impressions on the ERJ-145 were not very positive. It was hot on the jet, the cabin seemed worn, and the CRJ seemed to have more head space/perception of room. Perhaps that's simply my bias towards Bombardier, but I have another ERJ flight coming up soon, and I'll be sure to publish a trip report on that flight. We began cruising and the flight attendant distributed beverages. I requested plain water and it was given to me with ice. I also got a bag of nuts. He later came around to pick up snacks.
We began descent into Washington/Dulles, circling over the suburan areas, and the civilization that Vermont lacks. You fly by a Costco shortly before landing, I don't know the runway #. They brought the ERJ-145 in and it stopped fairly powerfully. We docked at the gate and I saw a Air Canada CRJ next to us and a new color 777 in the distance. This was a good flight, but not great. I would have liked the F/A to be a bit friendlier, as he was average/business-like, and a drink service during the ground stop would have been nice.
RATINGS
Aircraft: 3/5 Worn Out.
Ground: 5/5 Quick offloading, loading, Friendly service.
Entertainment: 0/5 N/A
THE CONNECTION AT WASHINGTON/DULLES
We walked away from United Express flight 8042 towards the gate for Austrian flight 93 to Vienna. It was a good 10 minute walk, but we passed the time fairly quickly. After arriving at the gate, my mother took a seat, and we approached the not-so-kind Austrian agent, who checked us in for VIE-ZAG on Croatia Airlines (with an Austrian flight number). My dad had some cigarettes, my mother called home, and I noticed that HP (across from me) was running late to LAX. After a few minutes, my dad and I ventured out to Starbucks. I ordered an "iced tazo chai", but the barrista misinterpreted 'chai' and provided me with an "Iced Tazo Tea", I commented to the cashier, and a bona fide Iced Tazo Chai was served shortly. I don't know which gate we departed from, but it wasn't far from a concourse with quite a few AA flights and an Admiral's Club on the right side of the corridor (moving from the UAX flight).. One interesting thing I noticed was that an American Eagle flight to STL said BEVERAGE SERVICE ONLY in a fairly large sign near the flight information. By the time we arrived at the gate, boarding was well underway.
Austrian flight 94
Washington/Dulles-Vienna Austria
Operating Carrier: Austrian
January 4, 2005 ON TIME
Equipment: Airbus A330-200/New Colors
After the agent took our boarding passes, we walked down the jetway, to emerge in front of a beautiful Austrian A330, with a newspaper cart beside us. We grabbed a USA Today (don't ask me why, but I like that paper) and a Washington Post. Quite frankly, I'm surprised that newspapers haven't been eliminated as part of cost-cutting in everything possible. A friendly flight attendant greeted us and showed us to board via the right aisle. We walked down and took our seats for the long flight. I finished up my Iced Tazo Chai, settled down to relax.. I talked to my father, read the newspaper, while the flight was prepared for departure. I also turned on the forward facing camera on the PTV. I plugged my single prong headphones into the two-pronged headphone adapter and received mono sound, or if I pulled it out so the prong would be half connected, I could get quiet stereo sound. Our neighbor, was really surprised by this 'new high-tech stuff', received some guidance from me as to how to run the TV remote, and really seemed to be the talkative type. It was somewhat funny, as, no offense, he seemed like your stereotypical American travelling somewhere abroad. The flight attendants, in their drab red uniforms, came around and provided me with small gummy candies that looked like aircraft, and a pack of cards. See, I'm 14, but I look far younger than I am, and because of that sometimes I'm treated as someone who is 7 or 8 (realistically I look as if I am 11) If you ever see a really young looking person who seems to be having way too much fun on OS IAD-VIE, be sure to say hi. You never know where you'll see me (I really should buy some FT Bag tags).
The aircraft pushed back, taxiied, and with a solid amount of power rocketed off into the sky. We reached cruising altitude, and the flight attendants provided drinks and nuts. The crew was young and friendly. Approximately an hour later, dinner was offered.. the choices were lasagna, fish, and perhaps some type of meat. I chose the lasagna, and quite frankly, I was disappointed. It had low-quality meat on the inside, and definitely was not great. The roll also tasted un-fresh. Our friendly flight attendants soon collected the dinner and would come around regularly with beverages. I viewed some movie about a basketball player who comes back after failing the Milwaukee team.. I forgot what it was called. IFE on the OS 332 is not AVOD, rather you have to catch a session, or play the 3 slow and unstable games. I don't use PTVs much, so I don't have much to compare it to. They promise to add Shopping soon, and you can all ready view Priority Pass information. One of my favorite functions of the 332 is that the phones can call eachother onboard, but you can't call neighboring seats anymore (at least I couldn't get it to work).. By this time it was getting late, so after an hour or two of watching this movie, and fiddling around with the IFE, I went to sleep. I woke up about 3 hours out of Vienna, to find most of the cabin sleeping.. I made a quick run to the bathroom, which was clean and probably adequately stocked, came back, to perform the difficult manuever of climbing over the armrests to not impede my father's seemingly satisfactory sleep. Our neighbor, who seemed to have taken some sort of a sleeping pill, was now also asleep. After trying to sleep for another hour, lights came on and our charming flight attendants came around to offer beverages and breakfast. My dad initially refused breakfast, but I had my breakfast. Sadly, I don't remember the exact contents, but they were disappointing low-quality, and the pastry was dry. The yogurt, however, was good, as was the milk.
Approximately 45 minutes after breakfast, Austrian 94 began descending into Vienna's Schwedelgat (pardon my spelling) airport. I could see some of the mountains during our descent, and then our aircraft got closed to landing. With a moderate touchdown, Austrian 94 touched down into Vienna. Noone was particularly agressive about attempting to leave the aircraft beforehand, but as soon as the fasten seat belt sign went off, everyone, as expected, stood up to get their belongings and leave the aircraft. We thanked the crew for a good flight, and turned right to avoid Customs to enter Austria.
VIENNA TRANSIT
We walked around, visiting duty free, a coffee shop, and I believe that was all that was in this area of VIE. Supposedly there was much more in the other terminal, but I wasn't sure if we would leave the sterile zone by crossing the stairs, or what else would happen. Thus, we stayed here for the 2 or 3 hour connection. One small story, while we were looking for information about our flight, an older Russian-speaking couple was looking for their flight, #293 (made up) to Kharkov ,Ukraine. They saw a flight 293, at a certain gate, but it wasn't going to Kharkov.. We told them to wait, as there were two flights with the same number, just one was going to some European destination, and one was going to Kharkov. After finally being bored to tears, we went through an additional security screening, and proceeded down the stairs to a low-tech bus launching pad. There was a flight to Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine and to Zagreb, Croatia. After about 20 minutes of waiting, we were herded into a bus for the OU flight to Zagreb.. There were only approximately 13 people on the bus for the Zagreb flight, and soon enough, it drove off to the aircraft. I was surprised, but that was the whole load for the 120 seat A319. Everyone could have 3 rows to themselves if they so desired.
Croatia Airlines
Vienna-Zagreb
Load: >15%
After boarding the A319, we took our seats and began our taxi for the 20 minutes flight to Zagreb. The flight took off, and a friendly flight attendant distributed sandwiches and drinks. My dad and I, meanwhile, were laughing at Croatia Airlines' in flight magazine for some ridiculous translations (if your ever on OU, read it for yourself, I never knew statistics could rise enthusiastically!) The flight attendant came around again, but duty free was offered when were descending. For a 20 minute flight, the service was amazing, especially for Economy. Surprisingly enough, it seemed as if most of the pax were in Business and not in Cattle Class. We arrived at Zagreb, and a quite a few Airbii were lined up there for their respective destinations. Clearing Zagreb customs was quick and easy, but the airport had an ex-Soviet feel to it for sure.
My return trip is coming up soon, stay tuned to see it..
Feel free to ask questions, thanks for your time. In addition, I know that I need to post a long-promised TR on KBP-JFK, with illegal smokers on our flight, and noisy Americans in the upper left hand corner of Business Class.
Route: Burlington, VT-Washington/Dulles, VA
Equipment: Embraer ERJ-145
Operating Carrier: Trans-States Airlines
January 4, 2005. ON TIME.
We arrived at United check-in at Burlington about two hours before scheduled departure. My father recently received
United Silver, but the lines, between United and US Airways, were awfully confusing about where priority is. Eventually we made a guess, cut in front of 30 people, and got served by the United manager at BTV. He was friendly and checked us into Vienna and told us to get the Zagreb boarding pass with Austrian at Washington. For flight 8042 to Washington, my parents got the exit row and I got a seat a few rows back. Both were on the 2 side of the 1-2 configuration.
We went to the airport restaurant, and settled down for a good meal. Right after placing our order, an announcement came over the PA. "United Airlines is paging passenger Glinka." We came down and the same manager returned my father's Zippo, as at that time they were only allowed in carry-on luggage. A kind TSA Employee told us about the upcoming "Absolutely no lighters rule". We came back, and in about 5-8 minutes (surprisingly fast for One Flight Up, the Burlington airport restaurant) I had my last clam chowder for a long time (this trip was for a migration to ex-Yugoslavia for a year..currently in Serbia). We saw the United ERJ-145 in new colors taxi in, our cue to proceed to the gate. The security was fairly easy, other than the typical shoe carnival and other such matters.
After arriving at the gate, we sat down beside the boarding pass readers awaiting our ERJs arrival at the gate. I always favored the CRJ-200 and enjoyed it with Atlantic Coast Airlines (now flyI), yet I haven't flown the ERJ-145. There was this really small girl who kept on walking up to me, laughing, and then coming back. I really sincerely hoped that she wouldn't be sitting near me (thank God, she was four rows ahead) After 5-10 minutes with her shy approaches, United Express announced boarding. We were in Zone 2, or whatever the first zone other than pre-boarding is.
We were greeted by a friendly flight attendant, and we split, I took my seat in the back of the aircraft at the window and I later got a neighbor, this flight seemed to have a 100% load-factor. We taxiied out and got held in the penalty box due to problems in Washington. The delay would be 45 minutes, the captain estimated. The flight attendant allowed us to use the bathroom, but did not serve beverages. About 10 minutes later, the captain said we can leave in 10 minutes and that we would taxi around for some reason. We taxiied around and then went onto the runway. With a fairly strong takeoff the ERJ-145 blasted off from Burlington.
My impressions on the ERJ-145 were not very positive. It was hot on the jet, the cabin seemed worn, and the CRJ seemed to have more head space/perception of room. Perhaps that's simply my bias towards Bombardier, but I have another ERJ flight coming up soon, and I'll be sure to publish a trip report on that flight. We began cruising and the flight attendant distributed beverages. I requested plain water and it was given to me with ice. I also got a bag of nuts. He later came around to pick up snacks.
We began descent into Washington/Dulles, circling over the suburan areas, and the civilization that Vermont lacks. You fly by a Costco shortly before landing, I don't know the runway #. They brought the ERJ-145 in and it stopped fairly powerfully. We docked at the gate and I saw a Air Canada CRJ next to us and a new color 777 in the distance. This was a good flight, but not great. I would have liked the F/A to be a bit friendlier, as he was average/business-like, and a drink service during the ground stop would have been nice.
RATINGS
Aircraft: 3/5 Worn Out.
Ground: 5/5 Quick offloading, loading, Friendly service.
Entertainment: 0/5 N/A
THE CONNECTION AT WASHINGTON/DULLES
We walked away from United Express flight 8042 towards the gate for Austrian flight 93 to Vienna. It was a good 10 minute walk, but we passed the time fairly quickly. After arriving at the gate, my mother took a seat, and we approached the not-so-kind Austrian agent, who checked us in for VIE-ZAG on Croatia Airlines (with an Austrian flight number). My dad had some cigarettes, my mother called home, and I noticed that HP (across from me) was running late to LAX. After a few minutes, my dad and I ventured out to Starbucks. I ordered an "iced tazo chai", but the barrista misinterpreted 'chai' and provided me with an "Iced Tazo Tea", I commented to the cashier, and a bona fide Iced Tazo Chai was served shortly. I don't know which gate we departed from, but it wasn't far from a concourse with quite a few AA flights and an Admiral's Club on the right side of the corridor (moving from the UAX flight).. One interesting thing I noticed was that an American Eagle flight to STL said BEVERAGE SERVICE ONLY in a fairly large sign near the flight information. By the time we arrived at the gate, boarding was well underway.
Austrian flight 94
Washington/Dulles-Vienna Austria
Operating Carrier: Austrian
January 4, 2005 ON TIME
Equipment: Airbus A330-200/New Colors
After the agent took our boarding passes, we walked down the jetway, to emerge in front of a beautiful Austrian A330, with a newspaper cart beside us. We grabbed a USA Today (don't ask me why, but I like that paper) and a Washington Post. Quite frankly, I'm surprised that newspapers haven't been eliminated as part of cost-cutting in everything possible. A friendly flight attendant greeted us and showed us to board via the right aisle. We walked down and took our seats for the long flight. I finished up my Iced Tazo Chai, settled down to relax.. I talked to my father, read the newspaper, while the flight was prepared for departure. I also turned on the forward facing camera on the PTV. I plugged my single prong headphones into the two-pronged headphone adapter and received mono sound, or if I pulled it out so the prong would be half connected, I could get quiet stereo sound. Our neighbor, was really surprised by this 'new high-tech stuff', received some guidance from me as to how to run the TV remote, and really seemed to be the talkative type. It was somewhat funny, as, no offense, he seemed like your stereotypical American travelling somewhere abroad. The flight attendants, in their drab red uniforms, came around and provided me with small gummy candies that looked like aircraft, and a pack of cards. See, I'm 14, but I look far younger than I am, and because of that sometimes I'm treated as someone who is 7 or 8 (realistically I look as if I am 11) If you ever see a really young looking person who seems to be having way too much fun on OS IAD-VIE, be sure to say hi. You never know where you'll see me (I really should buy some FT Bag tags).
The aircraft pushed back, taxiied, and with a solid amount of power rocketed off into the sky. We reached cruising altitude, and the flight attendants provided drinks and nuts. The crew was young and friendly. Approximately an hour later, dinner was offered.. the choices were lasagna, fish, and perhaps some type of meat. I chose the lasagna, and quite frankly, I was disappointed. It had low-quality meat on the inside, and definitely was not great. The roll also tasted un-fresh. Our friendly flight attendants soon collected the dinner and would come around regularly with beverages. I viewed some movie about a basketball player who comes back after failing the Milwaukee team.. I forgot what it was called. IFE on the OS 332 is not AVOD, rather you have to catch a session, or play the 3 slow and unstable games. I don't use PTVs much, so I don't have much to compare it to. They promise to add Shopping soon, and you can all ready view Priority Pass information. One of my favorite functions of the 332 is that the phones can call eachother onboard, but you can't call neighboring seats anymore (at least I couldn't get it to work).. By this time it was getting late, so after an hour or two of watching this movie, and fiddling around with the IFE, I went to sleep. I woke up about 3 hours out of Vienna, to find most of the cabin sleeping.. I made a quick run to the bathroom, which was clean and probably adequately stocked, came back, to perform the difficult manuever of climbing over the armrests to not impede my father's seemingly satisfactory sleep. Our neighbor, who seemed to have taken some sort of a sleeping pill, was now also asleep. After trying to sleep for another hour, lights came on and our charming flight attendants came around to offer beverages and breakfast. My dad initially refused breakfast, but I had my breakfast. Sadly, I don't remember the exact contents, but they were disappointing low-quality, and the pastry was dry. The yogurt, however, was good, as was the milk.
Approximately 45 minutes after breakfast, Austrian 94 began descending into Vienna's Schwedelgat (pardon my spelling) airport. I could see some of the mountains during our descent, and then our aircraft got closed to landing. With a moderate touchdown, Austrian 94 touched down into Vienna. Noone was particularly agressive about attempting to leave the aircraft beforehand, but as soon as the fasten seat belt sign went off, everyone, as expected, stood up to get their belongings and leave the aircraft. We thanked the crew for a good flight, and turned right to avoid Customs to enter Austria.
VIENNA TRANSIT
We walked around, visiting duty free, a coffee shop, and I believe that was all that was in this area of VIE. Supposedly there was much more in the other terminal, but I wasn't sure if we would leave the sterile zone by crossing the stairs, or what else would happen. Thus, we stayed here for the 2 or 3 hour connection. One small story, while we were looking for information about our flight, an older Russian-speaking couple was looking for their flight, #293 (made up) to Kharkov ,Ukraine. They saw a flight 293, at a certain gate, but it wasn't going to Kharkov.. We told them to wait, as there were two flights with the same number, just one was going to some European destination, and one was going to Kharkov. After finally being bored to tears, we went through an additional security screening, and proceeded down the stairs to a low-tech bus launching pad. There was a flight to Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine and to Zagreb, Croatia. After about 20 minutes of waiting, we were herded into a bus for the OU flight to Zagreb.. There were only approximately 13 people on the bus for the Zagreb flight, and soon enough, it drove off to the aircraft. I was surprised, but that was the whole load for the 120 seat A319. Everyone could have 3 rows to themselves if they so desired.
Croatia Airlines
Vienna-Zagreb
Load: >15%
After boarding the A319, we took our seats and began our taxi for the 20 minutes flight to Zagreb. The flight took off, and a friendly flight attendant distributed sandwiches and drinks. My dad and I, meanwhile, were laughing at Croatia Airlines' in flight magazine for some ridiculous translations (if your ever on OU, read it for yourself, I never knew statistics could rise enthusiastically!) The flight attendant came around again, but duty free was offered when were descending. For a 20 minute flight, the service was amazing, especially for Economy. Surprisingly enough, it seemed as if most of the pax were in Business and not in Cattle Class. We arrived at Zagreb, and a quite a few Airbii were lined up there for their respective destinations. Clearing Zagreb customs was quick and easy, but the airport had an ex-Soviet feel to it for sure.
My return trip is coming up soon, stay tuned to see it..
Feel free to ask questions, thanks for your time. In addition, I know that I need to post a long-promised TR on KBP-JFK, with illegal smokers on our flight, and noisy Americans in the upper left hand corner of Business Class.