Mats

For the past few months, I have been working to escape from Columbus. It’s a sort of depressing place. Although it’s remarkably affordable, it has little else to offer. After a long, grey winter, I decided that I must move someplace more cosmopolitan with nicer weather.

The choices are Tel Aviv and San Francisco. I applied for jobs in both, but the former is perhaps a pipe dream. Moving to Israel would be complicated from a financial, personal, and job standpoint. San Francisco would mean a huge change in cost of living, but a lot more practical for a variety of reasons.

I decided to go have a look. Continental was offering $99 fares to the West Coast, and Westin was having a “stay two nights, get the third free” promotion. I had no interest in taking a CRJ from Columbus to Houston, so I chose to backtrack via Newark to avoid such confinement for a rather long flight.

Aware that Elite upgrades are almost impossible on daylight Newark-West Coast flights, I cashed in 15,000 miles for a confirmed seat up front. Although I can certainly survive six hours in the back, I was able to upgrade with a few mouse clicks.

On the way
Despite allowing for ample time to get to the airport, I managed—as usual—to run late. I ordinarily use the “Thrifty” car parking service. They seemed short on staff, could not tell me how long it would take to park the car, so I gave up. Running dangerously close to the check-in limit, I zoomed to the costlier parking garage and rushed inside.

There was no line at check-in, and I managed to have boarding cards and check my bag within one or two minutes. It was 9 minutes before the check-in limit.

There was a 5-10 minute wait at security. The staff weren’t overtly nasty, but these were not happy people. I just avoided eye contact and got through as quickly as possible.

Boarding began momentarily after I arrived at the gate. It was an entirely full flight.

Continental 506
CMH-EWR
Seat 1B
737-500
The lead flight attendant could have been described with many horrible words, which would be unfit to write on this forum. She snapped my jacket out of my hand and shot fire from her eyes as she asked if I wanted something to drink. “Coffee,” I smiled, “What do you WANT in it?” she barked.
Fortunately, the lead F/A assumed a position in the main cabin after takeoff, presumably to scold and insult unsuspecting economy class passengers. I was left under the care and service of a much friendlier crew member, which was a great relief.

Breakfast was exceptional for such a short flight: a ceramic bowl of berry yogurt, a bowl of fruit with mangoes and melon, and a very nice warm croissant. I licked my plate clean.

Newark
Terminal C improves every day. I’ve been changing planes there since I was in high school, and it’s changed so much. There are so many new shops, the Continental staff seem a bit cheerier, and the place is so much cleaner than in the past. Despite the delays, Newark has made a great turnaround.

Continental 1702
EWR-SFO
Seat 1E
737-800There was a delay of just under an hour. Rainfall earlier in the day delayed several flights. Thankfully, I was not in a hurry. Nobody else seemed to care that much. I used the time to have my shoes shined, have a cup of coffee, and avoided getting worked-up.

Once on board, the crew worked hard to get everyone settled. There were an inordinate number of small children, but the crew were diplomatic and helpful.

I was served by a great flight attendant. She’s actually my favorite kind of flight attendant: casual and laid-back. She also happened to be very pregnant. In any case, she goofed up my salad dressing and sundae order, but I could have cared less. She was so pleasant and accommodating that it really didn’t matter.

It did seem, however, like an overwhelming task for her to serve the entire first class cabin on her own. Continental’s meal service is very good, but it’s labor intensive. This flight attendant, pregnant as she was, had the task of getting 20 orders, 20 salads, 20 entrees, 20 sundaes. That’s a lot for one person.

For those interested, the meals are just slightly dressed-down versions of BusinessFirst meals.

I opted for the safest bet: the pasta, which I’ve had several times before. It was edible, particularly with multiple glasses of red wine.

Of course I got pasta sauce, caramel, etc. on my shirt. But that’s pretty much expected in my case.

Due to headwinds, the flight was almost six hours. But the time passed quickly.

I was mad that there were no power outlets, which Continental advertises as a feature on its 737-800’s. Oh well.

While in flight, I started pondering my various life decisions. I became tearful
(I know, how embarrassing) when thinking about going back to Israel, but I decided that I would give San Francisco a fair chance. As my father put it, “You don’t meet many people who dislike San Francisco.”

For the first time in about ten years for me, we had a missed approach. The captain explained that another plane was landing on a parallel runway “just a little too close.” I’m grateful that we had a TOGA rather than risk bumping in to anyone else.

The guy sitting next to me was using his Blackberry the whole time. I was tempted to say, “Look, we already had one missed approach, let’s not have another.” I doubt that a Blackberry would really interfere with the glideslope, but why test the waters?

Bags took about 15 minutes to arrive, and mine was the third or fourth on the belt.

The Westin St. Francis
A quick 20 minutes on the BART and I was at Union Square.

This is a massive hotel. It has a nondescript, big city feel. But the rooms are large and decently appointed. Nothing too spectacular, but certainly not bad either. The room rate was so cheap that I had absolutely nothing to complain about.

OPFlyer

CO currently has 4 or 5 737-800 with power. Are you sure there was only one F/A serving FC and not one in the galley preparing orders? COs standards for 738 with 20 FC is to have 2 FAs.

Mats

Yes, there was a flight attendant in the galley, so there were officially two crew serving first class. It did just seem like a lot for one person to take all of the orders and do all of the "running."

I guess the in-seat power was wishful thinking on my behalf. Maybe I'll be in luck for tomorrow's flight.

Seat 2A

Nice to read another report from you, Mats. All the best to you wherever you end up relocating to. Your father makes a good point about San Francisco, though hopefully any relocation there will come with a substantial pay increase to cover the increased cost of living expenses.

cstead

Good luck with the job search Mats. As someone who has recently moved up to the Bay, let me tell you, its a great city and a great choice. There's some great FTers up here too, and I look forward to meeting more of them soon^

camsean

Thanks for an interesting trip report. As someone who packed up a made a big move a couple of years ago (in my case from Sydney to Jakarta), I'd recommend it. You can always go back.

adampenrith

Hey Mats

great report - looking forward to reading the adventures for the rest of your trip.

Tel Aviv vs SFO - its a hard choice but SFO kinda wins out.

Tel Aviv is a wonderful city, great beaches, fantastic weather, great night life too - but very political and can be a little unpredictable.

Either city would be fun to live in for a few years.

Adam

Mats

San Francisco
I really did enjoy San Francisco. The weather was incredible: bright sunshine, blooming flowers, everything you could want. The food was fantastic, and the people were friendly and welcoming.

I met some old friends at the Park Chalet, which was a perfect brunch spot. Dinner was at Bissap Baobob, a hip Senegalese restaurant, which was delicious.

The interview went quite well and an offer is in the works. The salary will have to be \B]four trillion dollars per year[/B]to accommodate for the cost of living, but let’s not dwell on that.

Continental 254
SFO-CLE
737-800
Seat 1E
A speedy BART trip took me to the empty Continental check-in area. Despite three flights departing at about the same time, there was no wait, and the staff were chatty and helpful. Security took less than 10 minutes; although not friendly, it wasn’t particularly difficult.

The terminal at SFO is no gem. In fact, it seemed cramped and dark. The last time I’d flown on Continental in San Francisco was aboard a DC-10 to Newark. Those days, sadly, are long gone.

Boarding was expeditious, and we had a minimal taxi.
Once aloft, a cheerful and relaxed crew offered a seriously scaled-down lunch service. This came as a surprise; Continental has cut back drastically. Lunch consisted of:

Continental typically offers some of the best meal service within the US, but this was pretty sad for a four-hour flight. The soup was salty but okay. The salad was kind of bland, but roughly edible. I was also really hungry. At least they had my beloved pretzel rolls, which are quite possibly one of my favorite foods.

As we began our descent into Cleveland, the air became rougher and rougher. The crew were asked to take their seats quite early. I kept hearing “ding dong,” “ding dong,” so I knew that they were talking about something significant. Then I overheard the words, “we’re diverting.”
In a somewhat dramatic tone, the captain announced that he had “disturbing news,” and that we would diver to Chicago because the Cleveland runway was, “ a sheet of ice.”

Following the recent Lufthansa incident in Hamburg, I don’t think that anyone wanted to experiment with winter weather, so everyone on board was pretty patient with the idea of diverting.

Forty-five minutes later, we landed at O’Hare. This featured and endless taxi to Concourse E. The captain and cabin crew reiterated that they did not have any information about re-accommodation.

O’Hare: The Land of Mean
I joined the line of passengers and quietly approached the podium. The agents all looked very surprised to see us. I waited in line where I was served by a malignant, sociopath monster. I was friendly, relaxed, and polite, but she felt the need to interrupt me several times, scolded me for asking questions, and said to another passenger, “That’s three strikes and you’re out!” Whatever problems she is having with her life, this woman should not be working as a gate agent. It’s too hard of a job for someone with that kind of temper and people skills. (Yes, I did send a somewhat understated and diplomatic email to Continental.)

After some negotiation, the insane witch transferred us to her coworker, who rebooked me and my friend on a United flight. This agent, fortunately, was sympathetic and courteous.

It seemed odd that there was so much drama. Continental had more than adequate time to plan for the diversion, and it seemed to me that re-accommodation plans should have taken place by reservations, rather than burdening the O’Hare ground crew. It also would have made sense to segregate Cleveland bound passengers from connecting passengers. But this was not really a common-sense sort of environment.

The fun continued when we tried to check in with United. We walked the entire length of Terminal 1 and back until we found someone to check us in.

As expected, our cancelled Continental flight meant that we were an immediate threat to our nation’s security, so we got “SSSS” on our boarding cards. I could go on about this for days, but let’s just say that it’s an unthinkable waste of resources, humiliating, and a showcase of jingoistic American paranoia.

It was obviously some sort of trick. Of course, skyjacking mastermind that I am, I controlled the weather in Cleveland and arranged for the diversion just so I could carry on with my foul play in Chicago. But hooray for the TSA! Their brilliant CAPPS program caught me red handed! G-d bless them and their commitment to security!

There was no actual line at security, but it took close to ten minutes for them to swab my shoes, snap orders at me, find a male security agent, give an incomprehensible lecture in broken English about my selectee status, pat me down, etc. Shouldn’t the TSA—in all their patriotic fervor—hire people who speak English as well as Tagalog?

We stopped to by drinks at a kiosk, which was staffed by a woman who must have been friends with the Continental agent and the TSA. She seemed horrified that anyone would try to buy something from her.

United Express (Shuttle America) 7643
ORD-CMH
ERJ-175
Seat 7C
Although the crew was Columbus, Ohio-based, they shared the same hospitality as O’Hare’s employees. My friend and I were pretty impressed by their hostility during the drink service. I’m sure they’d had a long day of flying, but it was like flying Sabena: all bitterness, all the time.

This was my first flight on the Embraer 170/190 series. It’s quite a nice plane: not luxurious, but certainly much nicer than an ERJ-135/145, and worlds better than the CRJ. I find it strange that United offers a three-class service on a small plane for 45-minute flight, but it must work for them somehow.

United did impress me that our bags were waiting by the time we got to the baggage claim. I didn’t find any “we were here” notes from the TSA in my bag, probably because they were too busy snapping at everyone at the checkpoint.

Concluding remarks
The job is still up in the air, but it looks promising. I think I could really enjoy this particular position and living in San Francisco. If it comes to fruition, I’ll move their in a few months. It would also mean a few trips back and forth, and thus more trip reports. I’ll also probably go to Israel between now and then anyway.

Continental
They’re still a good airline. I’ve had better experiences with them than any other US carrier. For the most part, Continental is reliable, polite, and they have good food. The SFO-Cleveland flight was an exception. The catering was sad and the woman at O’Hare needs her meds adjusted… actually, I think she probably needs to be pink-slipped for inpatient treatment, but she’s certainly unusual by Continental standards.

Now that some of the other airlines have reinstated some of their domestic first class frills, I hope that Continental will follow suit. I also hope that they’ll continue to outfit more aircraft with power outlets. I’d had my hopes up for that.

From an “IROPS” standpoint…. Uh-oh. The technology exists to take care of these hassles before a diverted flight lands, so it seemed pretty low-tech and stressful. But maybe they’ll get it right next time… once their lithium is within the therapeutic range.

The Westin St. Francis
It certainly does well in the “value for money” category. It’s a steal, in fact. The rooms were big, the service friendly, and the location excellent. It’s kind of just a big, nice hotel: not overwhelmingly memorable, but by no means flawed. I’d be happy to stay their again.

I’ll look forward to connecting with other FlyerTalkers if I end up in the Bay Area.