13) Arriving into MCO at 7:15pm, I had a little time to kill before my 8:25pm Metrojet connection to IAD so I popped into the deserted RCC where the CS rep was chatting on the phone about how she would spend her companion tickets this year. She turned out to be absolutely wonderful. She took a look at what I had been through and basically acted like an International First Concierge. She called down to the USAir gate and found out that there was a delay, had the gate hold my seat and told me to relax until 8:55. At 8:50 she reminded me to be on my way. At the gate, I told ‘em I was the refugee from United. The gate agent said: “Well, I’m truly sorry that your first impression this year of USAirways as a United 1k will be this flight.” Boy he said a mouthful. The Metrojet jet appeared to date back to the Allegheny days!!! The interior was terribly shabby, the seat pitch was tight and the plane was packed to the gills. Looking around from my vantage in 13D, I quickly decided to take the sensory depravation approach. I applied some nice smelling coconut oil to my upper lip, donned my Sony NC-10s and silky trip.com eyeshades and made like a corpse. About an hour into the flight some turbulence shook me awake. I took off my shades and ‘phones. The plane was fully lit, there were at least 3 kids crying and all around me I could see folks chomping on pretzels. I smiled to myself, rebuilt my cocoon and slept the rest of the way to IAD. Someone please tell me that the Metrojet concept will be abandoned once/when the purchase is finalized!!!!

14) Arriving at IAD, I was impressed with the new A terminal, but depressed that I had to wait for over 15 minutes (along with about 300 other pax) for the people-movers to get the people moving. Happily, UA had properly rerouted my checked bag, and I was in my car on my way home by midnight.

THE END