Short hair Francis

At the rate United is going, any living or extinct species will soon be Group 1.

Jebus is correct, I'm very behind be it facebook photos or Trip Reports.

Things I have lined up that needs to be written, not in that order
AA 32B F/J, 772 F, 77W J,
BR 77W J
CX 773 New Regional J
DL 738 F, 763 J
EY 320 J, EY/9W 77W F
GF 320 J
JL 763 J
MU 320 J, 332 J (yet to be flown)
NH 763 J, 788 J
OZ 763 J, 321 J, 388 J
PR 333 J
QF 388 F (yet to be flown)
QR 332, 319, 788 J
UA 788 J
US 752 J

Flying Eva is what killed the Gummy Bear in the first place, since GUM is a US territory.
You have to fly United for it to work, Cabotage issues

I'm not saying all deals won't died, just as people died, so do deals.
Only that deals shouldn't be dying because of stupid actions, things like posting on airline's twitter/facebook, call them prior to dying, or in this case file a DOT complaint.

Shame to the blogger that tried to buy and trying to fly a Cabotage when the said person knows it's not gonna work (and warn by others already), and to file a DOT complaint on top of that.

Thanks genius, to recuperate his 25K miles, he killed the Goose for the rest of us, not smart in the big scheme of things.

Sadly that is the Tragedy of the Commons and FT is a good reflection of that.

As to that, may he be tar & feather or in a Canadian way, drown in Maple Syrup might also work

EDIT - JAL Lounge admission was from my Admiral's Club.
United 772 I believe were from when they did Fleet Optimization and swapped CO 764 out to do TATL and ran UA 772s for GUM/HNL flights.
The Old Recliner UA 772 have all been retrofitted, either Hawaii or Int'l Config if I'm not mistaken
Don't quote me on it however

Ya, I booked my Gummy 7 days out, and was date restricted, it was that or nothing.
And HKG - GUM isn't daily makes things harder too.
Greedy Canadian ruined the batch at the Candy store is a good way of putting it.
I think I only did 2 Gummy ever, Boomerbangs yes I did those more.

RIP Lifey indeed.
I had a good joke on Lifey Wifey, as our joke goes

Old Lifey Wifey isn't it(regarding the 50% off to SAO in Oct), guess she went crazy again. New Wifey is kinda stuck up now, keeps raising her price, can't do mixed class (you couldn't before) but as they say, when she put out, you don't care about the little details

I'm not saying all deals won't died, just as people died, so do deals.
Only that deals shouldn't be dying because of stupid actions, things like posting on airline's twitter/facebook, call them prior to dying, or in this case file a DOT complaint.

Shame to the blogger that tried to buy and trying to fly a Cabotage when the said person knows it's not gonna work (and warn by others already), and to file a DOT complaint on top of that.

Thanks genius, to recuperate his 25K miles, he killed the Goose for the rest of us, not smart in the big scheme of things.

Sadly that is the Tragedy of the Commons and FT is a good reflection of that.

As to that, may he be tar & feather or in a Canadian way, drown in Maple Syrup might also work

Short hair Francis

Part 4 – And Kaboom, we’re in the era of Cost Cutting of 00’s, United Business IAH – CUN


Nov 18, 2013 – Monday
UA 1014 IAH – CUN 10:45am – 1:15pm (738/J)

Dumped into Terminal E at 7:30am, I need a shower after taking the Transpacific Hopper of GUM – HNL – IAH.

Houston George Bush Terminal E


Luckily the United Club wasn’t very far away.

Houston IAH Gate E11 United Club













I would say not a bad lounge as US lounges comes, it’s unique since I rarely see multi-stories lounge (excluding the front door). Bar and Seating on the Middle Level and More Seating, showers and office cubicles on the upper level.
I ended up finding a seat up in the Cubicles on the upstairs level to complete some work but not before that shower.

Ah, I needed that Shower after 16 Hours of Transpacific


Nah, I don’t trust $misek with my jacket

*Not a bad concept however

After a couple bagel and cereal and some work done, I made my way down to gate E21 at 10am for the 10:45am flight


*4th flight of the Trip, 10633 Miles Flown
United Airlines 1014
Houston George Bush to Cancun
Scheduled - 10:45am – 1:15pm, 2 hr 30 mins flight
Actual Departure – 10:37am
On Time Arrival – 12:42pm
Business Class, Seat 2E
Food – Refreshment
Equipment – Boeing 737-800 (16J/48Y+/96Y) Configuration



Hmm, the gate lice weren’t terrible on a Kettle Destination like CUN.
After boarding a wheelchair pax first, it was finally United Group 1.
Again, Can’t we segregate group 1 into First Class pax vs. Elites in Y?

United Airlines Boeing 737-800 First Class Cabin



United Airlines Boeing 737-800 First Class Seat





Part 4 Continues Below

Short hair Francis

Pre-Departure Beverage

*Anything goes unlike some other airline.

Flight was full which wasn’t unexpected, took close to 11am to get airborne after a long Conga Line from the earlier fog delays.

1 Hours 47 Minutes flight time to Cancun.


Drinks to start


Where’s the Shrimp Salad, the flight said snack. Well that got cost-cut my $misek to fill his CEO Bonuses, Ugh

I don’t think a Single Biscoff package counts as snack.
At minimum I thought it would be a snack basket.

That said, an angry United elite did hand out fliers so everyone can complain.

Worse of all, the entire catering was 20 Individual packages of Biscoffs for 16 First pax.
If all I wanted 20 packages of Biscoffs, I could’ve went to Walgreen to buy a package for 4.99.
Who’s the Over-Entitled one now?

El Cheapos!




Direct TV cut out half-way across the Gulf of Mexico as expected and we made our descent into Cancun around 12:20pm.




And around 12:45pm, UA 1014 landed into Cancun with a quick 3 minute taxi to the gate.

I wonder what lies in Cancun, last time I was in Mexico was in Tijuana back when I was like 10 y.o

Next Part
Part 5 – On the not-so-friendly beach resort of Cancun, Mexico

Madone59

Great TR SHF. This flier is funny....especially because United is such a respected international airline

FlyerBeek

You're absolutely right! I was a Navy pilot and having spent most of my flying tours in the Pacific I was able to get well acquainted with many remote island airfields (Wake Island being one of the larger of those airfields!).

-FlyerBeek

drminn

[*Don’t you just love airline marketing, it is a direct flight with a change of equipment.
God they spin it better than politicians. ]

It gets even more interesting if you miss the connection on your direct flight - huh?! Happened to me on one of those "direct" flights GRU-MSP with a change in DTW on Delta.

offerendum

Incredible

Short hair Francis

Madone59, As long as Dougie doesn't kill everything AA.
UA will still be the one known for getting rid of "Over-Entitled" Elites

Damn, firstly thank you for serving Flyerbeekand reaching to many places that are not reachable to the general public.

drminn, I can't imagine the trouble of rebooking something since your ticket will state
GRU-MSP as the segment, and DTW won't show up anywhere on the actual ticket.


Not necessarily offerendum, we all have our pet peeves and things we like when we fly on the home airline.
When those things go sour, people go pissed off.
Just ask the American fliers which Dougie got rid off our baked-on-board cookies

offerendum

People who care for their airline OK, undestand the point

SFO777

LOL. The best part is that the guy printed these out at home and distributes them on every flight. What a great idea.
Maybe I should do this on my AA flight. Oh wait, I don't have any more.
The US airline industry is a disgrace. Record profits and they're racing to the bottom to see who can get to Ryanair first.

Great report Francis!

Short hair Francis

I think his route is IAH-CUN, which is kinda tough to go to someone else.
I can totally see you doing that on the odd flight where AA's scheduling is better for you.

Record Profit where burn all the long term projections.
Take money and run for the hills.

Racing to Spirit

jfkeze

I guess if he or she is stuck on a certain route such as IAH-CUN they need to protest.
I mean, that's as kettle of a flight as you can get, so it's understandable that the service is not transcon.
But to only cater a pack or so of cookies per person?
That's just tacky not cheap...

Billiken

UA = Global Spirit Airlines

As always, I enjoy your reports.

Short hair Francis

Yes, I agree jfkeze
it's about as Kettle as you can get for a flight.
However, 1:30-2:00 Air time for a flight, should've been a Snack Basket.

Even my YYZ-LGA eagle flights are way better than just serving Biscoffs.
Eagle offers Biscoffs, Trail Mix, Cheese/Cracker, M&Ms and other "Snacks" for a shorter duration.

Plus don't mislabel Biscoff as a Snack, it's a Refreshment.
Want to serve a Refreshment, fine but be upfront about it @:-)

Thank You Billiken, happy to write reports and always looking forward to feed back.

Global Spirit Airlines, good one ^
Sign up for a our credit card and get a complementary Global Spirit Service Status!

Short hair Francis

Part 5 – On the not-so-friendly beach resort of Cancun, Mexico


Let me explain myself. While in college, I was never one of those that did a Week-Long Reading Week or Spring Break trip in an all-inclusive resort in Mexico, Dominican Republic or Cuba (thinking as a Canadian here) .

Oh Why?!? You’re missing out
Because that’s not my definition of a vacation
Spending all of my 1 week’s vacation at a beach is akin to sitting in jail while I could easily explore a lot of the world during that time.
And that thought holds through today…

I know
I’m missing all the tanning, well not that much for myself
The heat, but I’m not a big friend of the tropics in general, I don’t mind the snow or cold weather and much rather travel in 10-20C vs. 30C humid weather if you ask me
Yah the girls, that I can agree with
The food, nah probably not 3 Star resort food )
The booze, nope can’t hold my liquor but it’s not meant to be.

Plus all the mis-deeds of next morning
Who’s next to me in the morning, bahaha
Where’s all my clothes
Did I just say that last night…
Looking through the photos from last night, did I really do that…
Did I relieve myself in public or worse did I puke everywhere LOL

Of course you can easily do that in your college town too, but the ignorant traveler will always say, what happens aboard doesn’t really hurt my reputation at home.

Step back to Cancun, see it’s not really my travel profile to go to a Beach Resort and just lie down.
Wasn’t having much expectation for a 48 hour stop in Cancun except wanted to do a Chichén Itzá day tour and use the arrival and departure day as potential beach time.

Immigration took around 20 mins and I am in Mexico.
35 minutes later via a shuttle, I’m at the Hyatt Regency Cancun (or formerly the Hyatt Regency).

Here’s why…

Hyatt Regency Cancun


Lobby




Regency Club Suite





Seating Parlor




Additional Bathroom on the Parlor side

*Exactly the same as Bedroom Side.

Time for Relaxation



View of the Caribbean from the Balcony





Regency Club






Part 5 Continues Below