NorthwestCRJ

Well, you will hear all about my "fun" delay experence at Hartsfield at the return portion, and this is the flight down.

--This report is long. You have been warned. There is no turning back now, well, actually there is-- (All times are local)

We (my Dad and I) up at 5:30am was on the road to ORD at 6:00am. This was great for me because I have never used O'Hare domestically, I used it ONCE internationally, on Air Plus Comet to Malaga, Spain. I almost fly Southwest, I flew with them 10 segments, ATA 2 segments, and Air Plus Comet 1 segment and It was time to actually use ORD! Parked at the garage, checked in at Terminal One and headed to Terminal Two. Went to Gate H4 (i think) and wandered the airport, and right as were passing gate F4/F5, our flight had a gate change there- talk about lucky.

January 1, 2004
United Express flight 5816 (op. by Air Wisconsin)
Chicago O'Hare- Atlanta Hartsfield
STD:9:05am
ATD:9:35am
STA:12:00pm
ATA:12:00pm
Flight time listed at united.com- 1hour 58minutes
Flight time by crew-1hour 28minutes
Coach Class,Seat 2A Canadair CL-65 Regional Jet (CRJ) N437AW
Departure Gate: F5
Arrival Gate: T14

We actually got to walk outside and walk up the stairs of the plane! The CRJ was booked full, the flight attendent closed the door and did something cool- she pulled out the jumpseat out from the wall- she left it out for the entire flight, probably blocking the cockpit. Anyway, the CRJ was very comfortable, the bins were a little small, but the legroom was good and there was ample underseat storage. We were in a takeoff line along with AA, DL, U5 (USA 3000), and UA. We took off and had a really smooth climb. The engines were extremely quiet the entire time. Flight time was around one hour and twenty minutes, a quick flight. Small packets of snack mix were handed out and the lone flight attendent did a full drink service- I had water but noticed there was no full can service. Barely heard from the flight deck until decent and "Welcome to Atlanta". We were not told we had reached our crusing altitude until about one hour into the flight. We touched down at exactly twelve noon, and deplaned via the CRJ stairs at Gate T14. Looking at the flight board, it was going to keep going to Washington Dulles. Flight attendent allowed me to take pics of the cabin.

We took an airport express shuttle vans to Downtown Atlanta, and stayed at the Courtyard by Marriott Atlanta Downtown. Its a nice hotel, we had probelms at check-in, so we got a free breakfast. We stayed in Room 721, a standard room that overlooked the pool and spa. The spa was very hot and the pool was freezing. We used the wireless keyboard and paid $10.00 for in-room internet access on the TV, which did not work the next morning- so we got free internet . We went to Hooters for lunch and went to Hsu's Chinese Cusine for dinner. I highly recommend going to Hsu's. Its at International and Peachtree, I think. Got a great's night sleep at the Courtyard. Beds were great.

We went and used our free breakfast coupon at the great breakfast buffet they had, then I took a shower and we checked out, put our bags in a storage room and went to the World of Coca-Cola, which is cool, but not super impressive. Club Coca-Cola is cool, where you can sample Coke products in the US and all over the world (I had some Fanta Lemon, Fanta Birch Beer..etc. Watermelon..etc.) We explored Underground Atlanta (shopping mall) We got zoo tickets and wated for the Marta bus to the zoo for about 45 mins, until we went to go see if we could get our non-refundable tickets refunded. We did, the guy understood. We went to Mick's for lunch and went back to the hotel and got our bags and got a cab to the airport. As soon as we walk in, the fun begins.

Unfortunatly for the reader, it it 12:05am as I write this and I am way too tired and can't focus, so this will have to be in installments. Return flight coming soon. What do you think so far?

bergamini

You must be too tired if you thought the CRJ was comfortable with good legroom

I'm stunned that a flight between the two busiest airports in the nation that must be 800 miles apart would be done on an RJ. So much for easing congestion with capacity instead of frequency!

Nice report. What did they do at check-in that caused you to get free breakfasts?

kykate

Having flown MANY EMBs, I have to tell you that the CRJ is a VAST improvement! The stewardess and passengers can actually stand up straight in it (well, more of us than in the EMB!). Since I live in a rural area, the CRJ & EMB are the only choices, and I will take the CRJ any time.
Kate

bergamini

Not to go too far off topic, but the Embraer has single seats on the A side which give you more personal room than you can get on a CRJ because you will always have to be shoehorned in next to somebody.

NorthwestCRJ

bergamini, Apparently, we were never checked-in or something stupid like that. Rooms were being given out when we were told that there were none, so we told another staff member about this, she felt bad and gave us free breakfast!

NorthwestCRJ

Now, to finish that report.

I looked at my Dad and said "It's getting late. We should be getting to Hartsfield to avoid long lines".
We took a cab to ATL, where we walked in and saw the United Airlines line had more that 200 people in it, so we went and stood in the end, and someone told us that Chicago can usually handle 25 planes in 15 minutes, but due to weather delays earlier, they are having about 50 planes in 15 minutes, and ATC wants planes to land before they let more go. He then said we would get to the front of the line in one hour and twenty minutes. Then he called for all passengers going nonstop to Chicago, Denver, or Washington Dulles could come forward and check-in. We checked bags for flight 332, a scheduled to depart ATL at 7:25pm. Now scheduled to leave at 10:18pm. We went to T15 like he said, but checking the UA monitors, there were still 3 flights that had to go to ORD before us. We could of gone standby on any other flight to ORD, but we were told we actually could not because they could not seperate us from our baggage. Most people were carring on, and they got on other flights. Lucky for us, our A319 arrived from SFO, and our departure time was changed from 10:18 to 8:30. I went to the gate agent and asked if there were any Economy Plus seats open, and he asked me for my blue boarding pass, tore it into three pieces, and handed me two gold passes, one for me and my Dad. It felt good to be moved, until there were only 20 people on our flight, and they could move wherever they wanted, but not first class. After wating in Hartsfield for about three hours and thirty minutes, Bording was finally called for United Airlines flight 332 and we got on and took our seats in Row 7.

January 2, 2004
United Airlines flight 332
Atlanta Hartsfield-Chicago O'Hare
STD: 7:25pm
ATD: 8:40pm
STA: 8:25pm
ATA: 9:50pm
Flight time listed at united.com- 2:00
Flight time by crew: 1:35
Economy Plus, 7A, A319-131, N825UA
Departure Gate: T15
Arrival Gate: C20

The seats on United are very comfortable, right after we pushed back they put on a movie called "The fighting Temptations" it was OK, but I was mainly using channel 9, the in-flight cockpit radio channel Its great! We took off and our 3 flight attendents handed out drinks- full can- and if you wanted water, you had the option of getting more than one cup. Since we had only 20 passengers onboard a plane that can hold a lot more, you could have as many bags of pretzels as you wanted! Anyway, I was impressed with UA, showing a movie and having great service for a flight that is 1 hour and 30 minutes. Anyway, I saw an open row and went and got a window seat and turned on Channel Nine. Our little airbus was really being thrown around during desent.

- is the tower taking.

-United 332 cleared for landing
United 332 Okay
-United 332 say your gate
United 332 Charlie 20
-United 332 tell me if the gate is open
United 332 gate is open
-United 332 Okay taxi to Charlie 20 stay with me.
United 332 goodnight.

We got to gate C20, waited for about five minutes until the jetway was connected, we walked into ORD Terminal One and walked through the walkway with neon lights above. Got to a overcrowed Baggage Claim 6, waited 20 minutes until 332 bags started coming out, I grabbed both two bags, went to the garage and started the drive home. We finally got home at 11:00pm that night.

I was impressed with United, showing a movie and having a good crew. They were also good with dealing with the delay