violist
Dec 14, 06, 1:26 pm
UA 161 BOS LAX 0825 1156 752 2A
The crew started out generally poker-faced as though they
had been warned about a potential crisis on board, but
when it became clear that all we all wanted to do was get
to California on time, they warmed up, and there was no
shortage of smiles afterward; service was attentive pretty
much throughout the flight. Actually, there was one FA, a
black woman, who had been quite cordial even from the
initial greeting at the door.
Courvoisier was served nicely warmed (i.e., just barely)
but was horribly acrid, as though it had been cut with lye
or something. Astonishing and wretched.
The breakfast choices were an "egg souffle" or the fruit
plate. I was intrigued by the former, which turned out to be
a sizable plate of food - the egg item, probably two eggs'
worth, filled with a gooey bland cheese and a large quantity
of asparagus, but all the bottoms of the stem, no tips, all
bits I'd throw away. On the side, stewed zucchini, hash
browns, a nice greasy pork sausage, and a slice of Canadian
bacon. These days Carol is always in the back of my mind,
and there she was, encouraging me with croons of "goo for
yoo" to finish my zucchini (which I do not like).
I did a bunch of work, as we had empower ports!, but much
of the flight was quite turbulent, and it was tough to
concentrate; but we landed half an hour early, which made
up for a lot.
We got the survey. I gave them fairly high marks despite
being fairly certain that the service had been to the
survey - I wonder whether the change in attitude came about
when they saw that the surveys had been loaded. After all,
the UA flight attendant with whom I have been closest was
trained as an actress.
UX6493 LAX SJC 1226 1337 CRJ 4A
A very competent and friendly FA on the SkyWest flight.
Some lady sat down next to me - she couldn't find her real
seat and claimed fatigue, having just come from Tokyo, so
she said. No problem on that score, but she had about 5
carryons, taking up the space in front of me, the space
in front of the seat in front (she'd originally attempted
to sit in 3B), and one other. The older woman in 3A kept
banging her head (via palsy, not insanity) on the window.
I tried to sleep through this but failed, so I had the
Plane Cookie, which was oatmeal chocolate chip mint. We
landed right on time, and I was glad to be out of there.
The FA had facilitated this by arranging wheelchairs for
the palsied woman and my seat mate both, during the flight.
Went downtown on the light rail, and, encouraged by a
positive report from one Ronald McDonald in his book
about hamburgers (I am in fact serious), went to Original
Joe's and had one: it was huge, bigger than the advertised
12 oz, medium-rare as ordered, and served on half a loaf
of Italian bread. Ronald McDonald was nuts to call it one
of the great burgers in the world (the one at Caper's Loft
down the street is better), but it was fine. An interesting
thing - it appeared to be two types of ground meat, a pure
beef blob in the middle, surrounded by a meatloaf mix-like
substance that included beef, onions, and maybe a little
filler on the outside. I am still burping onion as I write,
some 5 hours later. The burger came with greasy, downtrodden
fries. I ate at the counter with a good view of the cooks:
there was one guy who did just about everything on the
range, another everything on the grill, and a couple others
who just kind of stood around, including one woman whose
role seemed to be to box up takeaway orders and periodically
poke around the French fries (with tongs) and take out the
crispest looking one for herself to munch on in front of
the customers.
Motored about a while on the light rail (my ticket was good
from 2 to 10) to try to find an appropriate present for my
Secret Santa, but failed. On the way back the car was taken
over by a gang of grannies who had apparently been sprung
from their rest home for the afternoon. They had had a lunch
whose salient feature was a glass of wine each (one noted,
perhaps not in jest, that it disagreed with Alzheimer's
medication). They roared out-of-tune carols with mangled or
bawdy-ized words and tried to bully the rest of the
passengers into joining them. I gave them a hearty bah,
humbug and asked "what's become of the youth of today,"
both of which earned nervous laughter. On hearing the story
Carol suggests that I should have sung "Grandma Got Run
Over by a Reindeer."
Back to the airport and Martini Monkey, where a Corazon
Anejo was just $8.75 for a big shot. It has a neat bay
leaf and lemon nose, lots of pepper on the palate: good.
Check-in gave me the unpleasant shock that my Mileage Plus
number wasn't in there, despite the US Gold desk swearing up
and down that it was. Oh, yes, as I didn't put my DM number
in, I was resigned to flying coach. The machine gave me the
option of upgrading SJC-LAS for $50 and LAS-BWI for $50. On
inquiry, it turned out that the LAS-BWI offer was in error,
and no such thing was available. So screw that. As far as
the FF credit, the desk agent said no problem and put my
United number in without difficulty. I hope I get credited
in a timely way, as this run is vital to my 150K hopes.
Security at SJC took 5 minutes, twice as long as usual.
US 431 SJC LAS 2025 2148 320 5F
Quite full flight - a few scattered empties, including the
one next to me. Slept through the flight so can't speak
to the service or lack thereof. An America West airplane,
quite ratty in every regard.
US 278 LAS BWI 2255 0618 320 5F
Fairly full flight - a few scattered empties, including the
one next to me. Slept through the flight so can't speak
to the service or lack thereof. An America West airplane
that made the last aircraft look like the US Airways Club.
Speaking of which, Susan collared me on the way out - she's
had minor surgery (you'll be able to tell where) - go down
there and wish her luck if you're in the neighborhood.
The crew started out generally poker-faced as though they
had been warned about a potential crisis on board, but
when it became clear that all we all wanted to do was get
to California on time, they warmed up, and there was no
shortage of smiles afterward; service was attentive pretty
much throughout the flight. Actually, there was one FA, a
black woman, who had been quite cordial even from the
initial greeting at the door.
Courvoisier was served nicely warmed (i.e., just barely)
but was horribly acrid, as though it had been cut with lye
or something. Astonishing and wretched.
The breakfast choices were an "egg souffle" or the fruit
plate. I was intrigued by the former, which turned out to be
a sizable plate of food - the egg item, probably two eggs'
worth, filled with a gooey bland cheese and a large quantity
of asparagus, but all the bottoms of the stem, no tips, all
bits I'd throw away. On the side, stewed zucchini, hash
browns, a nice greasy pork sausage, and a slice of Canadian
bacon. These days Carol is always in the back of my mind,
and there she was, encouraging me with croons of "goo for
yoo" to finish my zucchini (which I do not like).
I did a bunch of work, as we had empower ports!, but much
of the flight was quite turbulent, and it was tough to
concentrate; but we landed half an hour early, which made
up for a lot.
We got the survey. I gave them fairly high marks despite
being fairly certain that the service had been to the
survey - I wonder whether the change in attitude came about
when they saw that the surveys had been loaded. After all,
the UA flight attendant with whom I have been closest was
trained as an actress.
UX6493 LAX SJC 1226 1337 CRJ 4A
A very competent and friendly FA on the SkyWest flight.
Some lady sat down next to me - she couldn't find her real
seat and claimed fatigue, having just come from Tokyo, so
she said. No problem on that score, but she had about 5
carryons, taking up the space in front of me, the space
in front of the seat in front (she'd originally attempted
to sit in 3B), and one other. The older woman in 3A kept
banging her head (via palsy, not insanity) on the window.
I tried to sleep through this but failed, so I had the
Plane Cookie, which was oatmeal chocolate chip mint. We
landed right on time, and I was glad to be out of there.
The FA had facilitated this by arranging wheelchairs for
the palsied woman and my seat mate both, during the flight.
Went downtown on the light rail, and, encouraged by a
positive report from one Ronald McDonald in his book
about hamburgers (I am in fact serious), went to Original
Joe's and had one: it was huge, bigger than the advertised
12 oz, medium-rare as ordered, and served on half a loaf
of Italian bread. Ronald McDonald was nuts to call it one
of the great burgers in the world (the one at Caper's Loft
down the street is better), but it was fine. An interesting
thing - it appeared to be two types of ground meat, a pure
beef blob in the middle, surrounded by a meatloaf mix-like
substance that included beef, onions, and maybe a little
filler on the outside. I am still burping onion as I write,
some 5 hours later. The burger came with greasy, downtrodden
fries. I ate at the counter with a good view of the cooks:
there was one guy who did just about everything on the
range, another everything on the grill, and a couple others
who just kind of stood around, including one woman whose
role seemed to be to box up takeaway orders and periodically
poke around the French fries (with tongs) and take out the
crispest looking one for herself to munch on in front of
the customers.
Motored about a while on the light rail (my ticket was good
from 2 to 10) to try to find an appropriate present for my
Secret Santa, but failed. On the way back the car was taken
over by a gang of grannies who had apparently been sprung
from their rest home for the afternoon. They had had a lunch
whose salient feature was a glass of wine each (one noted,
perhaps not in jest, that it disagreed with Alzheimer's
medication). They roared out-of-tune carols with mangled or
bawdy-ized words and tried to bully the rest of the
passengers into joining them. I gave them a hearty bah,
humbug and asked "what's become of the youth of today,"
both of which earned nervous laughter. On hearing the story
Carol suggests that I should have sung "Grandma Got Run
Over by a Reindeer."
Back to the airport and Martini Monkey, where a Corazon
Anejo was just $8.75 for a big shot. It has a neat bay
leaf and lemon nose, lots of pepper on the palate: good.
Check-in gave me the unpleasant shock that my Mileage Plus
number wasn't in there, despite the US Gold desk swearing up
and down that it was. Oh, yes, as I didn't put my DM number
in, I was resigned to flying coach. The machine gave me the
option of upgrading SJC-LAS for $50 and LAS-BWI for $50. On
inquiry, it turned out that the LAS-BWI offer was in error,
and no such thing was available. So screw that. As far as
the FF credit, the desk agent said no problem and put my
United number in without difficulty. I hope I get credited
in a timely way, as this run is vital to my 150K hopes.
Security at SJC took 5 minutes, twice as long as usual.
US 431 SJC LAS 2025 2148 320 5F
Quite full flight - a few scattered empties, including the
one next to me. Slept through the flight so can't speak
to the service or lack thereof. An America West airplane,
quite ratty in every regard.
US 278 LAS BWI 2255 0618 320 5F
Fairly full flight - a few scattered empties, including the
one next to me. Slept through the flight so can't speak
to the service or lack thereof. An America West airplane
that made the last aircraft look like the US Airways Club.
Speaking of which, Susan collared me on the way out - she's
had minor surgery (you'll be able to tell where) - go down
there and wish her luck if you're in the neighborhood.