It was a brief visit to my erstwhile stomping grounds - the
justification being a scholarship competition and some extra
United miles. In order to adjust schedules, I had a night
at the Marriott Quincy, which was fairly nice - a hard
uphill slog from the MBTA (later I discovered that there's a
free shuttle, about which the Website is silent); next night
staying over with a friend who teaches at the conservatory.
She'd arranged quartets, of which it was a pleasure to hack
through 76/6 and the second Brahms after having had limited
music, aside from the song that comes naturally in my heart,
for quite a while. Then downtown to judge our High School
Achievement Awards final, whose winners were Jee Jae Ahn,
piano, Lisa Barone, mezzo, and Chi Wei Lo, piano. Look for
the first of these to make a splash (possibly the two others
as well).

And so straight to the airport, which I reached quite late
owing to a fire at Downtown Crossing that shut the subway
lines (Boston has had some bad utility luck lately). Instead
of the rocking chairs in the quiet area between B and C, I
tried sitting upright and pretending I was on a plane.
Slept quite well in this configuration. But no way was I
going to miss out on the first flight out of town, free
wi-fi or no. So I passed up some nice seats on the 0855
for coach on the first flight.

UA7691 BOS ORD 0600 0742 E70 1A
was UA 881 BOS ORD 0855 1047 752
and 7501 ORD MCI 1215 1343 E70

I inquired casually about getting upgraded on this one but
had no high hopes, as the flight had been showing F0 for a
couple days. But the friendly agent gave me 1A in a jiffy,
and I seem to recall one seat up front going begging, so
much for F0.

Why a regional on the quintessential mainline route I can't
speculate, but at least it was a good regional.

Friendly male FA of about my age was attentive and nice
even to the coach pax.