From Brotherly Love to the Windy City
After checking out from the Park Hyatt, I plowed through my site visit at my company's branch office in Philadelphia.
After completing the visit, my "host" at the Philly office drove me to Philadelphia International Airport. As with many airports, the airport wasn't in the nicest section of the city, but rather in a heavy industrial area.
He dropped me off at the new Terminal B/C combined check-in facility. Formerly the two terminals had separate baggage claims and the ticketing was only in B, but they have since combined baggage claim and ticketing facilities of the two terminals to better serve US Airways/US Airways Express customers.
I checked in at the relatively-new US Airways Club. With the introduction of the new Philadelphia Marketplace, an area of shops and a food court connecting the two US Airways terminals, US Airways opened a single clubroom over the Phila Marketplace, replacing several dispersed between Terminals A B and C. Therefore, the club is quite large. Instead of dividing it into many sections, it is a single large room, with the couches and chairs arranged in clusters. It seems more spacious but can get noisy.
Armed with my First Class boarding pass (Upgraded in advance as Gold Preferred, comp certs collected), I walked around the Marketplace, and "dined" on a Bourbon Chicken dish at an Asian eatery. There was even a Hiemie's Deli, which is an excellent local Philly deli (I've eaten at their main branch many times).
I relaxed at the US Airways Club until my flight's boarding time neared. The aircraft arrived from Montreal a half-hour late, so in turn our departure was as late. The time was never made up, so we were late into O'Hare.
The flight attendants were very friendly. We were served a predeparture beverage as people marched aboard our 737. I, of course, had MY seat 1A.
We took off late as mentioned. Due to our late departure, no meal was offered. Instead, the flight attendant passed around a basket full of snacks, including Milanos and Rold Gold pretzals. Drinks were kept filled the entire flight.
I chatted with the flight attendants in the galley while they were taking a break, and apparently they knew nothing more than we on the US/UA deal. No inside info. Both of them expressed that they didn't want a merger. "We like things the way they are."
When asked about the whole stike business, she responded, "That's behind us now."
We arrived into Chicago, and I opted to stay at the O'Hare Hilton to avoid having to deal with getting into the city at night. It was a nice hotel, but no status with Hilton.
The next morning (today) I checked out of the Hilton, took a cab into the city, met with my client for the day, and took a cab back out to O'Hare.
Sorry for any spelling mistakes.
