Now that's the way to get things started! Big menu, delicious scotch, l'amusee bouche (fun name if there ever was one) and crispy snack crackers. Sure, I don't like that said crackers were served in that box, but at least they tasted good.



My very French appetizer, which was all quite good. Well, I assume the foie gras was good, I have never developed a taste for it and it still sickens me. The menu describes this as:



A very impressive main course too. Though let me ask, what am I supposed to do with the cheese? Do I eat it after I eat my meat and potatoes? With my meat and potatoes? On top of my meat and potatoes? I was confused!

Also on offer was:


A very subtle dessert (Shortbread and choclate parfait and lemon meringue shortbread ) and a nice glass of Port rounded out my meal.

Sadly, my camera ran out of batteries at this point. Trust me, I'm already kicking myself for only bringing four extra with me. After that meal I reclined my seat and slept for three hours in a very comfortable position. I was very impressed with this J seat and in fact, it may be the best one I've flown in. I also liked the IFE which had plenty of movies and TV shows (I watched “Submarine” and then “The Fugitive” plus an episode of “The Sopranos”) and was very impressed by their Classic Rock CD Collection. Though their electronic music selection was pretty bad.

The second meal was cold (boo!) and featured:

The fresh fruit was a bowl of orange slices (classy) and everything else was pretty small. I remember being disappointed by the Y meal when I flew CDG-JFK last year and now I was disappointed by the J meal. Luckily, this was the only negative against AF on this flight. The crew was great and kept drinks flowing and they were very friendly and helpful.

Annoyingly, this time the winds from last week were against us and we arrived an hour late. Further annoying was the whole clearing immigration thing at Dulles. I walked off the plane at a very brisk pace thinking (hehehe I'm going to beat all these slow walking suckers) only to end up walking onto a mobile lounge. Luckily I positioned myself at the front of it so I managed to get off and get to a CBP agent without delay. But still, having to stand in the lounge and wait for it to fill up, then trundle across the airport at a glacial pace seems far more suited for 1971 than 2011. Oh and I got flagged to get the contents of my bag dumped all over the table by CBP. Still, jokes on them as it was 6 days worth of dirty clothes and the only thing dangerous I had, was my love for America.

US 2623 IAD-CLT 1959-2133 CRJ-900
US 1550 CLT-RDU 2240-2333 A-321



The US Check in machine was kind enough to rebook me for free on the 4 PM flight to Charlotte so I started planning on arriving home early. Which was good as it was already getting to be my European bedtime and I was running low on energy.



I'd never been to the Z Gates (or Z'Gates as I call them) at Dulles before and I ended up being really impressed. But as it turned out, I would be there far longer than I expected. The inbound aircraft had a bird strike and while they originally thought they could fix it, by 4:30 PM they canceled the flight and dumped me back onto my original itinerary.



Et tu, Mesa?





Here' s a laugh. I'll believe that there is going to be a new C/D Concourse when I see one with my own two eyes!



I ended up sitting at the IAD C17 Red Carpet Club for a while (across from a guy who was trying to win the Elton John look-a-like contest). Just a minor note of annoyance, once again there was no one upstairs to check people into the Club so we all had to wait to show our credentials to the two agents working the customer service desk downstairs. Of course, when I got there, both agents were helping customers so in line I stood while the passenger in front of me hemmed and hawed over whether she wanted 7C or 21B on her flight to SMF. Also, you want to know how classy the RCC is? Let me show you!





Next was Dinner at Gordon Biersch and watching the contents of the DEN flight spill out across the corridor as no mere gate could hold them! It's one of my least favorite parts of IAD (and trust me, I have a lot of least favorite parts of IAD). But finally everything was going to go right, right? WRONG! I got back to the Z gates and noticed no plane, and a line in front of the desk. I shouted “you've gotta be (expletive)ing kidding me!” when I saw:



Oh I was mad. I was mad as fire in fact (to borrow a phrase from my backwoods born boss). I got even more mad when they tried to convince me they had a very nice flight at 5:30 AM the next day. No. Freaking. Way. Eventually, I managed to wrangle a taxi voucher to DCA and a rebooking on the last non-stop to RDU from there. Oh and I was really mad at the following from US Airways: one of the agents, despite this plane being canceled because it broke and having a gate full of people who'd been waiting for 7 hours, kept shouting “no meal vouchers! No meal vouchers for anyone!”. Now that's the way to make up for a bad situation, by refusing to feed us despite your admission that this flight was canceled for m/x and the plane you tried to find to replace it with also went tech.

US 3981 DCA-RDU 2205-2309 CRJ-200
A $59 cab ride later (tip NOT included as I was reminded several time) and I was at DCA. Sure, I like DCA better than IAD and I was going to be getting home at the same time tonight I'd had planned on, by I was tired and not in a good mood. I'd been at IAD for six hours (clearing security three times) and gotten no where.





The US Club at DCA is nice, but despite numerous flights at 10 PM or afterward, it closed at 9.



Still, at least they have the good airport chairs at Gate 35A. And at this point, I probably could have slept on concrete.