Hi ... I'm a definite newbie here who has been posting trip reports in various other places for years (anyone here from the old RIME?) and who has only now, idle from an arm injury, blundered into this forum. Trip report 2/11 to 2/23, mostly recycled from something originally posted in RIME Cuisine.
UA 723, BOS-IAD. I was the only rev in the Premier Zone: I'd thought of upgrading to first, but then cheapness got the better of me - an hour in the air, no meal, no movie, no service, and the first seats in the 320 are nothing to write home about anyhow. They filled first with non-revs, and then the
Premier Zone with non-revs, leaving the rear of the plane to the ordinary fare-paying schmoes. (In their defense, they said that every butt in first class should be matched by one in the back third of the plane, for balance reasons). I was doing my usual doze when the purser (UA people outnumbered
the customers) greeted me by name and in honor of my exalted FF status got me my favorite plane drink, Courvoisier VSOP, on the house. Uneventful flight, landed just a tad early.
UA 7274, IAD-BWI. Got to the gate, and they said, we're putting you on a taxi, there's no plane. I asked how many others were supposed to be on the flight, and they said, just you. So I took the taxi, which promptly got stuck in rush hour traffic on the Beltway. Okay, so this poor driver is stuck

with a passenger on voucher (negotiated fare), and as there are noncom agreements between the Dulles cabbies and the BWI ones, he was faced with an empty trip back. So, total time for maybe $40-50 in revenue to the cab company (of which he would get what? half?) was anticipated at 4 hours. What to

do? He found some BWI cab that had just dropped someone off at Dulles, coming back empty, and flagged the driver down. "I give you $20 to take this guy to BWI!" he shouted. Quickly I was roused from my slumber, and so in the left lane on the beltway, horns honking all over the place, the transfer
was made, and I got to BWI 2 hours after my flight had been due had it taken off at all (turns out they eventually had run it, taking off half and hour after I arrived at the destination gate, where I met my ride who was just hunkering down for a long long wait). cotd