trekwars2000

Flight #14: ORD-BOS, UA 1653, 737-900, N71411, n/a Ch9
Scheduled: 1057a-214p Actual: 1050a-156p. Flight on-time, upgraded ~36 hours prior (after my plat status posted the evening before)
Flown Miles: 867 EQMs Running Total: 81506 Delta to 1K: 18494

I am now typing this from the EWR Marriott. My luck has run out… Overall flight time for this flight was a quick 1h 46m which gave me ease in making my EWR connection. There was some computer issues happening at the time when I was sitting in ORD where I was unable to bring up any flight info via the mobile website. Thankfully that had no issue in an early pushback and arrival into BOS.

On this flight the crew was very good serving drinks/nuts first and then serving lunch. They also kept the drinks refilled during the course of the flight. Again, this was non-eventful with us arriving well early. After arriving I took the shuttle from the C gates to the A gates with plenty of time to make the connection. When I got to the A gates my EWR flight was posted at a delayed 311p departure.

Flight #15: BOS-EWR, UA 1152, 737-800, N78509, n/a Ch9
Scheduled: 255p-434p Actual: 305p-551p. Flight way late, not upgraded #20 on list.
Flown Miles: 500 EQMs Running Total: 82006 Delta to 1K: 17994

After a quick visit to the lounge they announced that my flight was boarding at 235p. I quickly checked my upgrade status and saw I was number 20 on the list (wow!) out of 62. That is more people on the list than E+ seats… Settling into my E+ aisle we quickly pushed back at a little after 3. We taxied out to some holding area with 5 parking spots and at 320p the pilot announced that there would be a weather update for us a 4p and our flight time to EWR would be 57m. I hate when this happens for me (a mileage runner) because I could have easily gotten on a 6p to SFO/LAX or 5p to IAH, but they don’t plan for runners and I was not at the mercy of sitting on the taxiway. After looking up all my options I realized if I didn’t make my flight I was going to have to overnight in EWR… ug!

At 330p the pilot came on and comped DirectTV to take the sting out of a possible missed connection. Reruns of Law and Order SVU were in my near future… At 355p the pilot let us know that the weather in EWR was lifted and we had a wheels up time of 432p. If this held I would be fine, of course it didn’t. After firing back up the engines at 420p we didn’t end up taking off until 442p. Flight was uneventful (as normal) with one beverage service provided. We landed at 538p on the south runway and had a long taxi to the gate. At about 546p, when we were sittin g near gate 87/88 the pilot came on and said there was equipment in our way and that we had to wait for it to move… After a few more minutes we were into the gate at 551p. I then received a call from UA saying I was rebooked in the morning on the EWR-LAS flight and that I would still be booked on the Vegas flight tonight if I could make it. Well, we arrived at gate 97 and I had a connection at 72. After about 4 rows of people let me pass them I got off the plane and ran to gate 72. I had never had an overnight due to weather for a flight on UA (over .5M miles), and I arrived at the gate at 554p, scheduled departure time for the LAS flight.

Of course no one was there and after seeing the departure time change on the board from 554p to 605p I got my hopes up, but the bridge was pulled from the A/C and the GAs came back up. I asked if they could let me on and they said no; they had asked OPS for a slight hold for connecting passangers and they said no. F Ops…

Wow, my first missed connection resulting in an overnight. I was told to go to gate 90 for rebooking but heading across from there to the lounge. Both rebooking and that lounge was a bit of a mess so I left there for the lounge at the 100s gates. No line to get in or for rebooking. The agent confirmed there was no options to the west coast (at least to Vegas) tonight and I asked her to secure a seat for me on the flight. She said I was in 3F, already confirmed in F, a little sweet to this sour story.

I decided to sit in the lounge a while and secure a hotel and have a few cocktails. After discovering that Marriott (I am a Platinum) has a hotel at the airport, I quickly booked it on points and proceeded to drink some whiskeys to help the “pain” of a misconnection (and being on the BOS-EWR plane for like 3 hours)…

I just got my room service delivered so I guess the discussion about CPM will have to come another time. I shouldn’t have made that “knock on wood” comment about EWR connections on mileage runs, as it has finally caught up with me. I will be on the 715a flight back home to Vegas tomorrow. I would normally try to get good routing (via LAX on the 630a) but my family was not expecting me to be away on Saturday so I need to get back home as early as possible.