Channel9

Count me in for the meetup Saturday night, however I do not get into IAH until ~7:30pm that night.

Flying in from Chicago, connecting through PHL, US1835. My flight gets into IAH Saturday at 6:58 PM CDT and then I expect to be checked into my hotel by 8PM CDT. Staying at the Ramada Houston Airport South on JFK Blvd near IAH (got a great deal on hotwire!).

Absent any other plans, I was thinking about walking over to "Hoot County Saloon", 15655 John F Kennedy Blvd, Houston, TX 77032. It's kind of a dive bar though according to Yelp, http://www.yelp.com/biz/hoot-county-saloon-houston. For the ladies, lots of reviews about how clean the women's rest room is lol.

UA1116 leaves at 7:20 AM CST so not sure I'm going to be partying until the crack of dawn...I was thinking about asking for my shuttle around 5:30 AM.

NOTE: Everyone be advised, this weekend is everyone's friend, Daylight Savings Time. So, we gain an hour as well.

Anyways, those are my plans as of now for tomorrow night.

As far as Sunday morning, I assume everyone will be yucking it up in the United Club. I have an unused one-time pass but if anyone wants to guest me, I will not refuse

-Channel9

roguecantaloupe

We'll actually be gaining an hour. At 2am Sunday morning the clocks "fall back" an hour so we'll have an extra hour that night.

I'll be on the IAH-ORD flight, my brother and I snagged a couple middle seats, 17K and 18K. Looking forward to finally getting on a 787.

Channel9

Thanks for the correction! Sorry...DST is so stupid I forget how it works sometimes. Cool, I can always use an extra hour of sleep!!!

FYI, I am in 32A...somehow snagged a Window seat on an award ticket. Very much doubt I'll be able to get into an Economy Plus window--given how many people with status are on this flight and I'm just a lowly Premier Silver--but holding out hope...

Channel9

ORDnHKG

I am open for activities saturday night, but I won't get in IAH til 10pm from ORD on the 3 class 763. I am staying at the Doubletree IAH.

Unless someone guess me in UC sunday morning, will probably just hang around the gate E5.

Channel9

Looks like Sunday's flight is completely a go, 100%...some on this thread had discussed the many delays in its certification process so this is great news.

Been following the Dreamliner's development since ~2004 so very happy to be on the first flight (well, first flight for 'regular' people).

-Channel9

http://www.stockhouse.com/news/usrel...aspx?n=8657203

Channel9

Looks like the weather is slightly dicey for IAH this Sat night, Sunday. Not enough to shut down the innaugural flight I doubt but maybe a delay or two.

Saturday Night: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 64. South wind around 5 mph becoming west after midnight.

Sunday: A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 79. Northwest wind around 5 mph becoming southwest in the afternoon.

buckeyefanflyer

I was trying to figure out the gate, flight status shows aircraft comes from SAN flight 1662 had no gate. I wounder when flight 1662. Operated.

Channel9

Good point...that is really weird. It says flight 1662 from SAN, but if you look at flight 1662, there is no UA1662 on Saturday and UA1662 on Sunday is a flight from SAN to ORD using a different aircraft (a 737-800). So my guess is it is just a placeholder?

My FlightTracker app has no gate yet but it lists Terminal C, but that is obvious I guess.

-Channel9

SFO 1K

I am expecting it to leave from an E gate with beautiful views of the plane from the United Club and plenty of room to move a big plane like that around.

Channel9

SFO: Yes, that would make more sense.

Another oddity...flightaware has tail number N20904 (United's first Dreamliner) at IAH, okay, that makes sense. But it lists it's next flight as IAH --> LAX on Sunday at 4:30 PM CST. Strange, it's next flight should be UA1116 ? Unless United is using is SECOND Dreamliner for UA1116 which I believe was just delivered today.

Although...on United.com in my reservation, it does list a tail number of "3904" which is pretty close to N20904.

-Channel9

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/N20904

SFO 1K

I believe FlightAware is based on filed flight plans. It may simply be that flight plan hasn't been filed yet.

california09

27 E/F - Unless we can move should people drop. Looking forward to it!!

roguecantaloupe

No problem. Took me a while to figure out the time difference. Coming from Newark I'll lose an hour but gain it back Sunday morning.

I'd love to get a window seat but unless people don't show up I doubt it will happen. I'm using award miles as well (from my dad, he told me 10 years ago I could use some to fly on the 7E7 if United ordered it). Just happy to be on the first flight at this point, can't wait!

Now I just need to make the drive up to Newark. Chose a great week to drive into New Jersey

I'd like to meet up with some of the others on the first flight. We'll be arriving tomorrow at 1:30ish, renting a car to check out downtown for a bit and probably the Lee Rd spotting area (I've heard great things, will it be open Saturday afternoon/evening?) then staying at the Sheraton North Houston.

roguecantaloupe

Obviously I still don't have it figured out. We'll gain an hour EWR-IAH then another hour Sunday morning. So that means 5am Sunday should feel like 7am to me. We'll see about that...

Channel9

Actually never been to Houston (other than connecting through IAH). It would be fun to head into Downtown...but I'm not going to rent a car for an overnight trip, plus I don't want to deal with the hassle of returning it before my flight...I'm already not a morning person and this is an early flight There is a bus stop right outside my hotel so maybe that's an option. Of course, I could always take a taxi but I'm sure it's ~$45 from airport area to downtown.

If everyone decides on a place that I can get to (preferrably that also serves adult beverages), I'm in. Otherwise, I'll be at the Hoot County Saloon near my hotel

-Channel9
(Mike)