UA 42 HNL DEN 2213 0903 763 3H was 2A Ch9^ Empower^

When I got on, most of the rather ungenerous overhead space
was full, but I found the last bin.

I voluntarily took an aisle seat, as I anticipated running
to the restroom several times over the course of the flight
streaming blood.

My seatmate was a Hawaiian woman who was going to a trade
show in Houston. She was most friendly and talkative, but
all I wanted to do was check out the catering and then get
some sleep.

Good service from a good, fairly senior crew, one of whom
kept checking in on me whenever I stirred from my slumber
and addressed me with more deference than I am due.

Warm nuts, towels.

An interesting meal choice: chicken katsu over greens with
potato salad on the side or fruit and cheese plate. It's
kind of odd eating soggy fried chicken at midnight. The
chicken was rather bland and rather fatty - it was thigh
meat, and katsu sauce, though of an inferior brand, really
did help. The potato salad was wretched. Dee Dee's fruit
and cheese plate looked pretty much like what the shorter
flights get, i.e., not great, not generous. Dessert was a
triple chocolate brownie from Love and Quiches.

I conked out after a Courvoisier or two and got some good
sleep. Woke up in the midst of a prior to arrival service:
another fruit plate with a Danish pastry on the side. I
passed on this and the second hot towel service and went
back to sleep, which I did successfully until landing time.

In the daylight I got a good look at the friendly seatmate:
she was actually quite cute and younger than I thought.

Be that as it may, she had to hot-foot it to some distant
gate, and I went to the RCC for an hour before

UA 422 DEN EWR 1013 1602 752 2A Ch9 Empower

where I boarded late (eschewing the red carpet) to find a
stuffily full plane with yet another very senior but very
competent and attentive crew.

When I saw that we had but two FAs for the cabin, I
despaired, but it turns out they worked their tails off
through the flight.

Warm nuts, towels.

The breakfast choices were a chicken teriyaki salad or
roast beef and swiss on onion roll. I said I didn't care.
The FAs came back twice to make sure that I
didn't care, asking more pointedly each time, so I
dreaded what was to come. Well, it actually turns out
the sandwich wasn't bad, though it was ice-cold. The
bread was kind of stiff but didn't taste bad, the garnish
of tomato and lettuce fresh, the beef juicy if well-done
and not too salty. I didn't eat the cheese, which was your
standard deli Swiss. Both meals came with a tomato bisque
that was quite tasty.

I was asleep when the announced warm chocolate-chip cookie
was served; usually the smell wakes me up, but I was full,
and I'm coming down with a cold.

We landed right on time, and I spent an hour at the RCC
before wending my way to the far end of the terminal for
my next flight.

US Air's version of Mr. Easy Chicken wouldn't check me in,
so I had to go to the desk, where the agent initially was
unable to do so as well, but after typing frantically for
a bit was able to issue me all four boarding passes.

Security was easy; some guy in front of me was caught with
a haggis, which made me howl with laughter, and then the
TSA people started laughing, and when the guy explained
what it was, the x-ray girl said, "it sure looks like a
stomach." He was allowed to take this dangerous item onto
the concourse.

The area was stuffy and crowded, and it took me a while to
find an electrical outlet - it seemed harder than in the UA
concourse. On the whole I find EWR less than pleasing, and
the A terminal the worst of the three, and the US concourse
not as nice as UA's (I've not been in the middle one).