Return flights today…

April 23, 2000
AS 473 LAX-SEA Lv-934 Arr1210
McDonnell Douglas MD-80 N974AS
Another beautiful morning at Los Angeles, as the Super Shuttle picked me up at 7:35am. I arrived at LAX around 8:15am and check-in line was short. The check-in agent was very nice and efficient, and I went to the open area between T3 and Tom Bradley, and took a nice picture of a QF's Boeing 744 pushing back and heading off to JFK. Then I went to T3 itself and went to the gate areas of NWA and TWA. It was a very quiet morning and I sat by a window overlooking the activities at R/W 24RL. I took many pictures this morning - DL's 763 new livery, QF's 744 to JFK, NZ's Boeing 744 arriving from AKL, Mexicana's A320, VG's MD-11 with the World Cup Livery (PP-VPP)… quite a nice morning. I spent some quality time there, and then headed off to gate 31A. Boarding commenced early at 9am and I was seated on 2A this morning. A bottle of AS premium water was seating at my seat and I was happily watching planes. Push back was at 9:30am and takeoff at 9:37am. All in record time! Today's flying time was two hours and twelve minutes, and our cruising attitude was 31,000ft. The takeoff at LAX was nice with scattered clouds.

This flight was a snack flight for first class passengers, which was a plate of fruit (pineapple, grapes, melon, and strawberry) and a raisin scone with butter, which was nice. For Y class, it was a beverage service only flight. Anyway, the flight was excellent because I got to sit next to a QF's second officer in training. This nice young Australian was extremely friendly, and his friend and him were on their ways to Seattle for a month. They would be trained as a second officer for QF's Boeing 767-300ER. He was very enthusiastic about his job, and told me that he would head off to Hong Kong, Tokyo, Singapore, Mumbai , and Honolulu. He told me that he would be like to stuck at those Indian, Taipei, and Hong Kong flights for a while, because all the senior pilots bided for the Honolulu flights and Tahiti flights. Who would blame them? Anyway, I told him that Hong Kong was a fun place, and there would be many bars that he would like. He showed me one of the manuals from QF. He kept chatting with me because he was trying to stay awake - jet lag - they just flew in from Sydney that morning. He was also quite amazed at the lines of Dash 8 (Horizon Air) when we arrived at SEA. He was a big fan of Dash 8, and I told him that you chose the right place.

Anyway, we landed at SEA at 11:49am and parked at C12. The touch down was quite hard (it bounced back once) and this pilot commented on the steep descent into SEA. I told him that it was quite usual for the ATC in the US. He also amazed at the noise level of this MD-80s. I told him that it was actually quite good. The noise level was even worse on Boeing 737-400s. It was an excellent flight and I learned much from this young fellow. Good luck to him.

After picking up my bags and retrieving my camera from AS (I left my camera on the plane and AS paged me to go back to C12 to retrieve it. I really appreciated AS's friendly gate agent and their efforts to look for me), I went to the UAL check-in area. It was deserted due to Easter Sunday. I was checked in by a very friendly agent, and she actually tried to look for seats on a nonstop SEA-DEN flight for me. However, as usual, United cancelled one of its flight that afternoon and put everyone on the nonstop Boeing 777 flight. Anyway, I went to the North Satellite and was sad to find out that the udon noodle stall was gone forever, and was replaced by Burger King, Cinnamon Bun, and bagel place. I had a bagel and a bowl of soup, and looked around for planes. SEA was raining today, and took a few good pictures of AA's Boeing 777 to NRT, UAL's Boeing 777 to NRT, and NWA's Boeing 742 to NRT. I also saw the Aeroflot's Boeing 767-300ER.

UA 6876 SEA-PDX Lv1500 Arr1549
EMB-120 N233SW
Boarding took place at 2:48pm and walked down the stairs from Gate N13. Originally I planned to take a few pictures, but due to the wind and light rain, I boarded the plane immediately. There were not many passengers today - 6 to be exact. We could sit on anywhere after Row 6. I took a seat at 7A and our plane rolled to the runway at 3:03pm. After ten minutes, we took off. The flight was not too bad, as we climbed to our cruising attitude. The pilots did not make any announcement throughout the flight, until landing. The F/A was very nice and efficient, and we were served a beverage five minutes after takeoff, and she then passed around a snack basket with biscott cookies, vanilla or chocolate crème cookies, and bags of Skywest almonds. I took two bags of almonds, and asked for a third pack later (as souvenir, since it is Skywest labeled package). Descent began at 3:29pm and it was extremely bumpy, since we flew through many layer of rain clouds. One gentleman in front of me began sweating throughout the landing and approach. The F/A managed to continue to clean up the cabin, to refill the magazine pockets, and to clean up the cabin throughout the remainder of the flight. Even I admitted that it was really bumpy. Our plane was literally going up and down - like a roller coaster. We landed safely at 3:50pm and were given umbrella as we deplaned. The rain was light.

UA 1172 PDX-DEN Lv1654 Arr2010
Boeing 727-200 N7269U (old F class seats with no new feature)
I was impressed with the architecture on PDX. It was my first time here in PDX and I really liked the open windows and only wished that there were more planes laying around. Boarding took place at 4:21pm and I was offered a pre-takeoff beverage. This Boeing 727 looked a bit worn down, and everyone looked tired today. Door was closed five minutes before the ETD time, and we took off at 4:59pm. Our flying time was an hour and fifty-nine minutes, and the pilot did not talk much again. Nevertheless, Channel 9 was available and we climbed to 33,000ft for the whole flight.

Beverage was served after takeoff and the F/As took meal orders from the 1K passengesr and then from the front to back. Party mix came with my drink, but I declined after those delicious almonds from my last flight. There was a menu today - the new menu again. The meal came with a warmed white roll, and was an one-tray affair.
To Begin
Garden fresh salad (tomato wedges, artichoke hearts, shredded red peppers, and spinach)
Accompanied by roasted garlic vinigrette or ranch (not available) dressing

Main Course
Grilled sesame chicken with orange cashew sauce (the chicken was like rubber today and the sauce was not tasty enough. I ate it all because I was hungry, but definitely not United's best effort)
Served with baby bok choy (no green and definitely not baby) and yellow rice (curry flavored rice)
Or
Barbecue Pork Loin
Complemented by creamed corn and a potato pancake.

Dessert
Eli's Chocolate Mocha Mousse Cake (quite good)

Descent was bumpy and the F/A cleared the cabin early on. No hot towel… bad, bad, and bad. The plane landed safely at 7:58pm and parked at Gate B49. Not an impressive flight and F/As chose to chat after meal service.

UA 1609 DEN-ABQ Lv2145 Arr2256
Boeing 737-500 N941UA (old F class seat with Enlarged bins)
The plane came in on time from PHL, and the plane did not board till 9:23pm due to light load and the need to replace a purser in the last minute. The F/A arrived on time and everyone was boarded in ten minutes. We were offered a pre-takeoff beverage. No Channel 9 today and I listened to pop hit channel. The door was closed at 9:41pm, and we took off at 9:51pm. Since the air was bumpy on the way in, I expected the same bumpy air on our way to ABQ today. I was right and the F/A was seated for a while. We were cruising at 29,000ft for a bit and then moved up to 31,000ft. Beverage service finally began at 10:17pm and was served with a pack of pretzels. I think United really needs to work on its snack choices. It should follow the footsteps of Delta's F class, Skywest, Jetblue, and Midway, and begin to offer a basket of snack choices like almonds, dried fruits, muffins, chocolate, and cookies - at least for F class. Anyway, descent commenced at 10:26pm and I barely had times to finish my orange juice. After fifteen minutes, we landed at Albuquerque Sunport safely. Wow, it was a quick flight. Our plane was parked at Gate A3 after five minutes of taxiing. I checked out the arrival screen, and Southwest experienced massive delays tonight, with only one on time arrival for its Oakland flight. Most of its flights were delayed for more than an hour - must be the weather in the West. America West's last flight into ABQ from PHX was permanently delayed - whatever that means. Anyway, my bags came out among the first few luggages and the F class priority tags worked this time. I was home before midnight.



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Carfield
Menu Scavengers
Inflight food critics