Sunday we drove down to London to visit Hunnybear’s new niece Hannah. On the two-hour drive down in our friend Jonathan’s BMW (he’s in Seoul for a couple months) we got stuck behind some kind of caravan of motorcycle cops. They were driving in the left lane, varying their speed from right about the speed limit, 100 km/h, to about 120. Nobody was willing to pass them for about an hour, then Hunnybear, who was driving as it’s her neck of the woods, s-l-o-w-l-y passed them on the right, expecting flashing lights at any moment. They never came.

In London we ate at Katzenjammer’s Deli. It was excellent. I recommend the #10 Reuben, Reuben, Reuben. Everybody in the restaurant was oohing and ahhing over little two-week-old Hannah. We paid in Canadian money so it was basically free.

The drive back was faster because there was no cop caravan. We checked into the Sheraton Gateway Toronto Airport. It’s right in Terminal 3, so you could actually walk to your flight if you were taking Canadian, but not to United, which is in Terminal 2. They have a separate desk for Starwood Preferred Guest, but once again no one was staffing it. How rude! Checkin went smoothly nonetheless, although the room we got had a view of the parking lot instead of the airplanes and was not on the club floor. I think the hotel was sold out, though. For the first time in my life, I was able to use a UA coupon to reduce the rate to CAD$120/night from the weekend rate of CAD$170. I have my coupons arranged in order of expiration, and it turned out the first one I gave her was already expired. That means I went 15 months without being able to use one of those things. Amazing. I guess I need to try harder.

Although we weren’t on the club floor, she said we were on the SPG floor, which meant upgraded amenities (usually coffee maker and robes). They had the new bad policy for charging for calls over 20 minutes, but the phone lines were so noisy I couldn’t connect anyway. (It was the same at the Sheraton Parkway North.) It’s probably the local phone company’s fault, not the hotel’s. I was finally able to connect the next morning at the Maple Leaf Lounge.

The hotel was very standard and certainly a good option for anyone with an early flight. We used the video checkout and, as usual, the checkin in Toronto went by the book. There were a couple people ahead of me in the FC line and the agent asked for my upgrade coupon. I used a confirmable upgrade.

This was the first time I’ve taken an A320 out of YYZ. It was a nice plane for a one-hour flight, but I’m a little wary of taking it LAX-MIA next month. There are three rows of FC, and I was in 1B. Seats 1AB have the little cutout for extra legroom like in the 757; 1CD don’t, but 1C has more protection from incoming traffic. The bulkhead in front of 1B stops about six inches from the edge of the seat, so boarding passengers almost bump into you, although not nearly as badly as seat 9C on a 757. I think I have 1B on the LAX-MIA and it looks like the best bet all things considered. This is the only small plane United has with video, but we only got to see the Rod Serling safety presentation, not Jeopardy. I asked purser Katie about it, and she said if they didn’t have to pass out and retrieve headset cords there might be time, but as it was it wouldn’t work. She was very nice. Choice of muffin or bagel in FC on this flight, but being a Zoner I passed.

Next: Are Americans allowed to watch movies starring a man named Cuba?