I arrived at National, the old terminal, early Tuesday morning. At the TW counter I discovered that my F flight was really a Y flight, don't know why, nobody could tell me.

They told me all F seats were taken. I went through security and spoke to the gate agent. She said that F was full but she could take $75 from me and do a standby upgrade. But, she wondered out loud, what if I didn't get the upgrade. Well, then, she would void the transaction. It was as if nobody ever upgraded before, although she was with TW for a million years.

A seat was broken also, the tray wouldn't go down, so that was a possibility assuming that was okay with me. "We served people on pillow s all the time" she assured me.

5 minutes before departure, I got the upgrade and had a choice of seats. It turns out F was half empty (and this was day after Labor Day.)

Unusual to me is how they board. They boarded F, then elites, then "people who need additional time", then from the rear forward by sets of 6 rows. No mad rush to board either, different from my UA experiences.

The flight left precisely on time. A somewhat dilapidated MD-80. Meal was a blueberry muffin, orange juice, milk, cereal and fruit. I only ate the fruit. Service was good at first but then ceased to exist for the duration of the flight.

A smooth landing 15 minutes early.

I arrived in STL after my meeting in plenty of time for the 2:04 to DCA. The gate agent assured me I'd get on although the flight was full. Well, I didn't. No Y seat, no F seat, so I had to wait for the 3:50. The STL airport was packed.

The 757 was also packed. I got the next to last seat but only one of two that didn't have a person sitting in the middle, so I shouldn't complain.

On take-off, the 757 wobbled quite a lot which someone said is normal for the rear of a 757 although I've never noticed it. Service in Y was fine, with one beverage cart service, offer of refills, and trash pick-up.

Landing was quite hard probably due to the short runway.

My general impression of TW is that (no offense meant) everything is faded, old, dilapidated. It is just not working very well. I assume the aircraft are safe, but everything else was rather second rate. And this was a very expensive flight, $1200 for coach. They messed up my rservation (or someone did) and they seemed unable to handle basic upgrade procedures. The staff were nice enough to me but they were snappish with other people. I would not fly them if I had a choice of other airlines.