March 11, 2013
United Airlines Seattle – Newark 705a – 320p 737-900 Economy Class
United Airlines Newark – Cleveland 616p – 805p 737-800 First Class

5:30am came way too early this morning – I could’ve easily slept another three hours. Yawn… Alright then, time to break camp and head out to gate N-16 for my 7:05am departure to Newark. The flight was showing completely full, including First Class. By the time I stepped off the train at the North Satellite, boarding was well underway so rather than purchase a cup of Starbucks in advance I headed right on board. It was either that or risk checking my bag to Cleveland where I’d really rather stay airside tonight.

As I entered the aircraft I heard someone call out my name – it was my seatmate from my flight out the other night. She was up in First. We exchanged quick pleasantries before I slouched on down the aisle to take my place amongst the great unwashed back in Steerage. At least I had an exit row aisle. Truth be known, unless one is a really large person those exit row aisles are not any less comfortable (to me at least) than the First Class seats and they offer better leg room.

As for the meal, the $5.95 hot meal option was a Jimmy Dean Breakfast Sandwich. When it comes to breakfast sandwiches, I think the gold standard is McDonalds’ Egg McMuffin. If that’s a 10, I’d rate Jimmy Dean’s not very warm and rather dry breakfast sandwich as served on today’s flight a five. On a more positive note, I’ll be on this same flight the day after tomorrow and I’ve already been upgraded so I’m looking forward to seeing how the other half will eat.

We landed on a murky afternoon at Newark. The sun was trying mightily to break through the cloud cover but only brief interludes of diffused sunlight ever made it through. Newark’s Terminal C has an excellent food court and so I stopped by the Wok & Roll concession for a plate of spicy chicken and rice. I used to order the two entrée dish, very affordably priced at just $6.99, but I’m just not as hungry as I was twenty years ago. One entrée and rice is plenty enough for me these days.

The United Club provided blissful sanctuary from the noisy masses down on the concourse. The bar has complimentary Sam Adams on tap, so I indulged in a couple of those while catching up on email and bringing this report up to date. I also set the framework in motion to disengage from Facebook. I signed up three years ago at the behest of my sister. At the time, Facebook seemed like a good place to post pictures from my Six Trains on Six Continents trip from 2010. Since then I’m hardly ever on Facebook. Maybe it’s just me but most of what I see posted is pretty mundane stuff like “The kids and I went out for a walk today. It was beautiful” or “I finally fixed my leaky faucet. Life is good!” Somehow, the need for all of my friends and family to know all about the minutiae of my day to day life or vice versa just isn’t there for me. I know, I know – something must be wrong with me relative to today’s society. Oh well. I’m not looking for a cure. I've still got a phone and email, not to mention a P.O. Box.

Flight time to Cleveland was one hour and seven minutes, much of it like riding down a dirt road in the back of a pick-up truck. The approach was particularly bumpy as we descended through wind and rain but no snow. We parked at C-10 and I headed down the concourse to the rotunda and the unoccupied gate I’d found last week. Tonight it was occupied but thankfully would not be seeing its first flight of the day until 8:30am tomorrow.
I read for a couple of hours and slept for several more.


March 12, 2013
United Express Cleveland – Washington DC 1015a – 1136a ERJ-170 Economy Class
United Airlines Washington DC – Denver 305p – 503p 737-800 First Class
United Airlines Denver – Seattle 657p – 852p 757-200 First Class

My favorite regional aircraft used to be the BAe-146. It featured a DC-9 sized cabin that allowed for 2-3 seating in coach and wide, spacious 2-2 seating in First. The 146 would still be my favorite regional aircraft were there still any available to fly here in North America. Unfortunately, most of the remaining 146s are in Europe and Africa so I’ll be lucky if I can log another two or three flights on them before they’re relegated to air cargo duty in some third world backwater.

These days, my vote for best regional jet goes to Embraer’s E-170/190 family of airliners. Like the BAe-146, they offer a wide fuselage that will comfortably accommodate a two-cabin configuration. And, I’m happy to report, they are commonly found around the U.S. and Canada, serving with the regional arms of Delta, United, US Airways and Air Canada as well as the mainline fleets of Frontier and Republic. The E-170 operating my flight to Washington this morning still wore United’s beautiful four tone blue and white livery. A small “Operated by Shuttle America” sticker adorned the forward fuselage. Although I didn’t score a First Class upgrade on this flight, I was plenty comfortable in my Economy Plus window seat.

Happiness is knowing that your next three flights have been upgraded. As I took my seat in the attractive forward cabin of United’s 737-800, I took a moment to log the aircraft’s N-Number into my flight log. A quick check of United’s fleet list revealed that unlike Alaska on which I’ve flown all but nine of the sixty-one 737-800s in the fleet, on United I’ve thus far flown just four of the one hundred and thirty in the fleet. Check back with me in ten years and maybe I can deliver a more impressive number.

Interestingly, our dinner choices this afternoon were exactly the same as those offered on my two transcon dinner flights. Also included on my tray was the diminutive two-shrimp appetizer. So – short rib and vegetables or penne pasta with veggies and marinara sauce? My seatmate had the pasta dish the other night and I thought it looked pretty good then, so that’s what I ordered now.



Penne Pasta and Veggies with Marinara dinner

Alas, the pasta looked better than it tasted. The sauce was very low sodium and worst of all, about 20% of the pasta was undercooked. Some of it was dry and inedible while other parts of it were just chewy. I believe I’ll stick with the short rib from now on. Dessert was a chocolate chip cookie, served in a small paper bag. What it lacked in presentation it made up for in taste.

The rest of the flight passed surprisingly quickly, due in no small measure to a new author I’ve discovered who possesses one of the most intelligent and engaging writing styles it’s been my pleasure to read. Anyone who likes a good espionage thriller a la LeCarre or Forsythe should check out a guy named David Stone. I really enjoyed his first book, The Echelon Vendetta, and before I’d even gotten a quarter the way through it I went out and bought all of his other novels. (A total of four to date).

Ah, it’s nice to be back in Denver. I’m from Colorado originally and I still own property in the state. Although I’ve flown into or out of Denver over eight hundred times, I never tire of the view or the airport. I do miss the old Stapleton a lot. I loved that old terminal building and the location, relative to the city, couldn’t be beat. Still, it’s hard to find fault with DIA except for its location halfway out to Kansas. We’ll all be a lot happier when RTD finally gets the light rail out to DIA.

United operates two United Clubs on DIA’s B Concourse. They are virtually identical and the United Club East was conveniently located right next door to my gate at B-42. Having flown between Denver and Seattle at least forty times over the past ten years – all of those flights aboard Alaska and most of them in First Class – I was looking forward to seeing how United’s First Class dinner service would compare to Alaska’s on this route . Let’s find out…

Shortly after taking my seat, my jacket was hung and I was offered a pre-departure beverage. United offers anything you’d like. Alaska offers only a glass of water. I requested a Jim Beam Black Label on the rocks. I then reclined just a tad and sunk back into the foam rubber ecstasy of my First Class seat which was much more comfortable than the hard, thinly padded seats that Alaska has chosen for its 737-800s and most of its -900s.

About twenty-five minutes into the flight, hot towels were offered. They were hot, moist and refreshing. Shortly thereafter drink orders were taken and drinks were then presented with a small ramekin of warmed mixed nuts. By comparison, Alaska offers just the drinks and a packet of pretzel based party mix.

Dinner was a choice between a Chicken Caesar Salad and a Hot Chicken Chipotle Wrap, both of which were served with a bowl of Cream of Mushroom Soup. I’ve flown Alaska’s First Class twice between Seattle and Denver over the past five months and in both cases there was no choice of entrée. I was offered a skinless chicken breast topped with a dollop of pesto salsa and accompanied by a side of mesclun greens with shredded carrots and a tomato or two. Both the Alaska and United entrees tasted just fine to me but of course United’s was a bit more filling.



Hot Chicken Chipotle Wrap with Cream of Mushroom Soup

Dessert was a warmed cranberry and white chocolate cookie as opposed to Alaska’s offering of a small but very tasty piece of chocolate from the Seattle Chocolate Factory.


March 13, 2013
United Airlines Seattle – Newark 700a – 315p 737-900 First Class
United Airlines Newark – Tampa 701p – 1006p 737-800 Economy Class

I must say that I’m very impressed with the number of times that I’ve been upgraded on my United flights. I’m a Premier Platinum level flyer and of the seventeen flights upon which I was eligible to have been upgraded, I’ve sat in First Class on eleven of them. I’ve been upgraded on four out of six transcons, including this morning’s. No complaints here.

Flight time to Newark was announced as four hours and thirty-three minutes, putting us into Newark Liberty International Airport a whole thirty minutes early – unless ATC has other ideas. I think getting into any New York airport early is a pretty impressive feat. Back in 1970, while flying between Denver and New York on a Convair 880 with a stiff tailwind, we touched down at JFK forty minutes early. I was probably the only disappointed passenger on the plane. It was only my second flight on Convair’s speedy 880, so named for the number of feet it flew per second. At one point the captain mentioned that we had a ground speed of about 720 mph.

It’s been twelve years since I last flew United First Class between Seattle and New York. Back in the good old days - which extended all the way into the nineties - this flight used to start out with menus and a nice hot breakfast. About an hour before landing, the flight attendants would wheel out this incredible deli cart complete with a nice variety of meats including salmon lox, a variety of cheeses and veggies, three or four different types of breads including bagels and finally a choice of Dijon, stone ground or regular old French’s mustards. It was awesome!

Alas, times have changed – rather drastically so. Today I was offered a choice of either cereal or an omelet. Of course, I went with the omelet and was pleased to receive not only a small cheese omelet but also a decent sized portion of broccoli quiche. It was accompanied by a small cherry tomato and a 3” round portion of turkey sausage. By 1970’s standards this would have been a decent coach meal. By today’s standards it’s a fairly decent First Class meal.



Cheese Omelet and Broccoli Quiche Breakfast

One of these days I really ought to take advantage of the free movies on the seatback TV. Still, I reckon I can always rent them at home for next to nothing and watch them on my old 27” television screen. Funny, my neighbor’s always on me about when am I going to get a new flat screen TV. For sure, I could certainly afford one but jeez – why get rid of a perfectly good TV – even one that’s almost twenty years old - that I’m perfectly content watching? I’m the same way with my cars. I kept my last truck through three engines and 493000 miles.

Rather than a movie I watched a bit of the NFL channel before dedication to task forced me to turn my attention to this report. I’m only a couple of days behind so I figure I’m doing pretty good. There’ve been times where I’ve gotten as much as a week or more behind. Good thing I’ve got a good recall for the details. Heck – I could probably write reasonably detailed trip reports from thirty or forty years ago. In fact I have. I got a good memory for this kind of stuff.

So you know how it is – you get busy doing stuff you like and time just flies by. Soon enough the captain came on and advised that we’d soon be commencing our descent into Newark. I was thankful if only for the fact that for much of the flight the First Class cabin sounded like a damned pneumonia ward. There were at least four different people coughing and hacking away as well as an unhappy child in the forward section of coach.

I regretted not having a window seat as we made our approach into Newark. Any of you that have done so before may recall the excellent views to be had of downtown Manhattan; including that new building they’re building to replace the World Trade Center.

Following a rather rough landing at Newark, we taxied into gate 100 some odd and I made my way to the United Club serving that section of the terminal. This would be the old Presidents Club that recently won Priority Pass’ North American Lounge of the Year Award. It is now the largest and certainly the nicest of United’s three lounges at Newark, primarily due to lots of comfortable seating and huge windows that let in lots of natural light and provide superb views of the ramp. I sequestered myself in one of the many attractive work stations, brought my flight log up to date and then took advantage of the shower facilities available at this lounge.

I haven’t flown all that often between New York and Florida, and most that I have done was years ago engaging the services of Eastern or National Airlines. I have fond memories of both the Ionosphere Club and the Sun King Lounge at New York’s Kennedy and Miami International airports. Those of us traveling in coach aboard Eastern’s L1011s were treated to full length feature films and steak with double baked potatoes. The lucky few up in First Class received a larger steak and a seafood appetizer. While National’s coach class catering wasn’t quite as good as Eastern’s; their attractive airplanes, bright interiors and beautiful stewardesses had you feeling like you were in Florida the moment you boarded the airplane.

These days of course the overall experience and inflight service is much more utilitarian, especially if you’re sat back in coach as I am on tonight’s flight. I would compare the legroom at my exit row seat aboard this 737-800 to that of a standard coach seat aboard the DC-8s and 727s that used to ply this route back in the days before deregulation. As for inflight meal service, well, I’ve brought my own food tonight – a good looking roast beef and horse radish sandwich that just seemed a bit more filling than anything on the inflight menu.

Arrival in Tampa was right on time, practically to the minute. I know the Tampa Airport well and over the years have discovered a great spot to crash for the night. I headed over there now and by 8:30pm Pacific Time had already called it a night


March 14, 2013
United Express Tampa – Key West - Ft. Lauderdale 8:30a – 1130a SAAB 340 Economy Class
United Airlines Ft. Lauderdale – Newark 1258p – 409p 737-900 First Class
United Airlines Newark – Seattle 716p – 1007p 757-200 Coach Class

By the time I woke up this morning at 7:00, I’d managed to knock off a good seven hours of sleep. For sleeping in an airport that’s about as good as it gets. In fact, I’d say it’s even a fair bit better than it gets most of the time. Most nights I’m happy if I can get five to six hours of quality sleep.

In any event, I woke about as refreshed as you can get after sleeping in an airport. After breaking camp, I took the train out to the A Satellite and stopped in for breakfast at a nice looking full service restaurant called the Green Iguana. I took a seat by the window and ordered coffee and a Western Omelet to accompany the morning newspaper. Wes Welker had signed with the Denver Broncos and some bishop from Argentina had been elected the new pope. In these times we live in, it’s debatable as to what the bigger news story was.

I was originally scheduled out on a 10:45am flight down to Fort Lauderdale but here it was just after 8:00 and I saw there was an earlier flight departing at 8:35. Better yet, this flight made an enroute stop at Key West – an airport I’d yet to fly into. To my way of thinking, why sit around Tampa when I could be enjoying an air tour of Florida? It looked to be a pretty nice day for flying – not cloudless but pretty damned close. I headed down to gate A1 and made the change.



Your SAAB awaits…



Exit row view

Although I snagged an exit row window seat aboard the SAAB 340 operating this flight, the large engine cowling rendered quality inflight photography a moot point. Still, the extra legroom was appreciated and as things turned out I was on the wrong side of the airplane for the best shots anyway. That’s alright. Key West would be my 323rd airport flown in to and I was looking forward to at least seeing the terminal building. Back in the 1970s, Key West used to be served by National Airlines with 727-100 jets. Although I had thought that the largest plane serving EYW these days was a regional jet, I have it on good authority that both Delta and Southwest fly down there with 737-700s.



Welcome to the Conch Republic ~ Key West Terminal



Key West Tower

I’ve driven US 1 down to Key West on a couple of occasions and if you’re not caught in weekend traffic, it’s a really pretty drive. Old town Key West has an attractive charm as well, though it’s been sixteen years since I’ve been there so who knows what it’s like today. Flying in, I was amazed to see just how built up the whole area has become over the years. It’s way too built up if you ask me. It’s harder to appreciate the beauty and get into the rhythm of the tropics when you’re surrounded by so much manmade kitsch. Hawaii and most of the Mexican beach resorts are the same way. I count myself lucky that I was able to visit them all back in the early seventies before they got overdeveloped. These days I’ll take a tent on a deserted beach in Mangareva or Rurutu any day over the big, shiny eyesores we call beach resorts today.

At Fort Lauderdale I relocated from the cramped confines of the SAAB into the cramped confines of the United Club. Originally designed as a Continental Presidents Club, this lounge was plenty spacious when it catered only to Continental clientele. Add United’s flights to the mix and I think Fort Lauderdale could use a larger lounge. Given the layout of the concourse however, I don’t see anywhere to put it except maybe up on the roof.

High winds around Newark had resulted in an ATC hold on our flight. The new departure time was an hour and a half later at 2:30pm. Sigh… Back to the lounge. By the time I returned to the gate a large crowd had developed and seemed more anxious than usual to board. Pre-board took longer than usual because there were about a half dozen wheelchair bound travelers. Gate lice were everywhere and after boarding for group 1 was clearly announced, I noticed the couple ahead of me had boarding passes clearly marked Group 3. I figured they musta been a coupla dang farners who dint speak no English, but then I overheard a snippet of conversation that indicated they were native English speakers. The gate agent just let them on through without comment. Maybe the trick is to just play stupid. It works well so long as the gate agents fail to enforce it for whatever reason.

This flight was completely sold out so I was doubly thankful to have a First Class seat aboard this almost new 737-924ER. It sported the new Sky Interior and five rows of grey leather upholstered First Class recliners. Soon I was sipping Jim Beam Black Label on the rocks while seatmate feverishly scratched off lottery and bingo tickets. He had a real intensity about him that was impressive to witness with the occasional sideways glance.

What a great day for a window seat! For starters we followed quite a colorful collection of aircraft out to the runway, each of them from a different airline. In order, we followed a Southwest 737-700, an AirTran 717, a US Airways A321, a Sunwing 737-800, an Air Canada A320 and finally, leading up the procession was a Delta 757-200. The bright yellow livery of Canada Sunwing’s 737 brought back memories of Hughes Airwest and its bright yellow “Flying Bananas”. The white and grey fuselage of our 737-900 was really rather bland by comparison.

Once airborne, we climbed out over the Atlantic and made a broad sweeping turn to the north. We stayed out over water for some time and those of us with windows on the right hand side of the airplane were treated to some pretty views of the Bahamas and the beautiful multi-hued waters below.



A beautiful afternoon at 37000’ off Florida’s East Coast

The luncheon service commenced as soon as we’d leveled off. Orders were taken by status first and then from front to back. Being a lowly Premier Platinum sat way back in 5F, mine was the very last order taken. The choices were between a salad topped with gulf prawns or a cheeseburger. Both dishes were accompanied by cream of potato soup. Amazingly, there was still a choice of entrees available when the flight attendant finally made it back to me. With our late 2:30pm departure, some folks must’ve given up and eaten at the airport. I’ve always preferred a hot meal inflight, so I went with the cheeseburger. It was… okay. Next time I'll get the salad.



First Class Cheeseburger with Cream of Potato Soup

Once again I took advantage of the shower facilities at the Newark United Club before heading down to gate 83 where my Seattle bound 757 awaited. Unlike last week when I also flew upon this very same flight, I’d not been upgraded to First Class so I took a moment to stop by the Wok & Roll concession for a plate of rice and bourbon chicken with extra packets of hot mustard. One nice thing about the bourbon chicken is that while it’s certainly flavorful, it’s not a saucy dish and so gives off a fair bit less odor than most of the more traditional entrees.

Once again, Captain Molly Flanagan was in the left hand seat. Who could ever forget such a lyrical Irish name? After a little more than an hour’s delay whilst attempting to repair some unknown “minor” issue, we finally took to the air for the projected five hour and fifty minute flight. I was comfortably ensconced in row 21 where I had seats D, E and F to myself. Due to the delay, the first round of drinks was on United. Following that up with my dinner and a couple more rounds, I was sittin’ pretty in the friendly skies and this near six hour flight flew by in a seemingly much shorter time. We landed in Seattle on a cool, rainy evening – just perfect for a bit of reading followed by a good night’s sleep.


March 15, 2013
Alaska Airlines Seattle – Juneau 750a – 945a 737-400 Economy Class
Alaska Airlines Juneau - Anchorage 2:20p - 3:35p 737-400 Economy Class
Alaska Airlines Anchorage – Fairbanks 345p – 434p 737-400 Economy Class

Years ago, I would have looked forward to flying back to Fairbanks through Juneau and Anchorage. Indeed, I would probably have even tried to get on the milk run up to Juneau - adding Ketchikan, Wrangell and Petersburg to the mix. Back then, it was all about flying as much as possible, regardless of any miles which weren’t offered anyway. These days, after having spent over 10000 hours aboard over 4600 flights, and especially after having just spent the past fourteen days adding another 77 hours and 32,000 miles to that total, I just want to get home. Besides, in just two weeks I’ll be back down here again with another 108000 miles of flying to look forward to.

In any event, I tried hard to find saver award space on a more direct route between Seattle and Fairbanks but alas, it was not to be. Its spring break for Alaska’s schools and business is brisk into and out of the state. As such I was pretty darned happy to have a seat at all, even though this flight was tagged with a 45 minute delay. No worries – I had a three hour layover scheduled for Juneau so now I had time to pop into the Boardroom, say hi to the girls, have a yogurt and then hit the surprisingly un-crowded Starbucks concession on my way to the gate. By the time I strode onto my Juneau bound 737, I was accompanied by a tall cup of dark roast coffee, a biscotti, two newspapers and the latest issue of The Economist.

Alaska’s Buy On Board menu included a delicious hot breakfast sandwich comprised of eggs, sausage and provolone cheese on sprouted wheat bread with maple butter. The eggs actually looked and tasted like real eggs and overall it was a big upgrade over the previous breakfast sandwiches I’ve had on Alaska.



The best Breakfast Sandwich I’ve ever had in the air

The forecast for Juneau this morning called for snow – lots of it. There was concern amongst both passengers and crew that visibility might be below minimums. It must be pretty snowy then because Alaska’s probably the world’s best equipped airline for dealing with such conditions.

Alaska became the first airline to use the Head-Up Guidance System which enables its planes to land in Category 3 weather such as dense fog. The system uses a head-up display that superimposes a holographic image of the approaching runway on a transparent screen positioned between the pilot and the cockpit windshield. Flight data from the instrument panel also is displayed on the screen.

As if that weren’t enough, Alaska was also the first airline to integrate GPS (Global Positioning System) with the latest in Enhanced Ground Proximity Warning System (EGPWS) technology. GPS employs a network of 24 orbiting satellites to triangulate a plane's position in three dimensions. EGPWS takes that information, compares it to an onboard computer database of contour maps from around the world, and then continuously updates the pilot on the aircraft's location relative to nearby terrain.

Using GPS and EGPWS, Alaska pioneered Required Navigation Performance (RNP) to fly contoured approaches and departures with pinpoint accuracy into and out of rugged Alaskan airports. Today, RNP technology is used at numerous airports in Alaska and is also spreading to airports in the contiguous states and throughout the world.

So – with all that going for us, I was curious to see what kind of weather might keep us from landing. On second thought however, maybe not. With the clouds being so low and with all the surrounding mountains, I think I’d be more comfortable just hanging out at 15000 feet or higher.

From a passenger’s perspective, our landing in Juneau didn’t seem at all out of the ordinary. We flew north past the airport, did a big sweeping turn and then lined up for the runway. As we dropped below the cloud cover I could see that it was indeed snowing pretty hard but the crew powered us in and put ‘er down just as if it was sunny and 80°.

As we were taxiing into the gate I looked at my watch to note the total flight time and saw that it was 10:45am local time. Who knows why these things come to me but it occurred to me that just 24 hours ago, at 2:45pm EST, I was flying through an entirely different environment. Let’s compare the two, shall we?



March 14 2:45pm EST ~ Just off Florida’s East Coast



March 15 10:45am AST ~ Taxiing into the gate at Juneau, Alaska

What a difference a day makes!

The same storm that was affecting Juneau was also making life difficult down the coast in Wrangell and Petersburg. Alaska 65, the flight I was due to connect to, was sitting in Ketchikan waiting for conditions to improve at WRG and PSG. At present, the estimated time of departure out of KTN was 1:30pm, almost five hours behind schedule. There goes my connection in Anchorage. I got on the free airport Wi-Fi and checked the forecast for the region. Not good. 100% chance of snow in Juneau all day and through tonight. I began to think about where I might stay tonight if I got stuck here.

Truth be known, sure – I was anxious to get home but what the heck – there are worse places to be stuck than Juneau, Alaska. If it came to it, I could get an affordable room and have a pretty nice night in town so, one way or the other, things would work out just fine.

It was about noon when the snow stopped, and by 12:30 there were even a few small patches of blue sky off in the distance. Further good news arrived with the announcement that AS 65 was on its way and was expected to land here in Juneau at 1:37pm. Awright! The way things were going, I might even make my connecting flight out of Anchorage.



March 15 2:05pm AST ~ A nice late winter day in Juneau

As things turned out, I did. AS 65 arrived right on its new time, we loaded up and got outta town with all the alacrity of a Southwest Airlines flight. Because the weather had cleared sufficiently, we didn’t even have to de-ice. One more interesting point – at least on a personal note – was that this was my 25th flight aboard N793AS, the aircraft operating AS 65. Although I’ve logged double digit flights aboard many specific aircraft over the years, there are only a handful upon which I’ve logged more than twenty flights. Ship 793 leads the pack with 25.

Upon arrival in Anchorage we parked right next door to the Fairbanks bound flight. There were about twenty of us making the connection and everything went very smoothly, including baggage transfer. Alaska really shined today – be it flying safely in less than ideal conditions to insuring that connections were met with only a small delay for all concerned parties. Well done, Alaska!

We arrived into Fairbanks – Alaska’s Golden Heart City – on a beautiful late winter afternoon. The skies were clear, the sun was out and the temperature was 28°F. It don’t get much nicer than that this time of year. God, it’s good to be home!

* * * * * * * * *

As to my experiences onboard United – I felt they were generally pretty good. I’ve logged over 1.2 million miles aboard United prior to these most recent flights. There’ve certainly been a lot of changes in United’s overall product over the past eleven years. From where I sit, the hard product has improved immensely with comfortable seats, easier upgrade possibilities and some nice onboard improvements like in more in-seat power outlets and seatback Direct TV. Unfortunately, the soft product in the form of meals has dropped off considerably, but then what U.S. airlines' hasn’t over the past ten years?

As a Premier Platinum level member of Mileage Plus, I’m quite pleased with both the points I’ve earned and the service I’ve received. I realize a lot of people here at FlyerTalk have not enjoyed the same quality of experience that I have – at least not in their minds. I’m a pretty forgiving guy these days for most airline related things. For example, I can’t imagine getting all bent out of shape because the flight attendants never referred to me by name during the flight. They can call me Mr. Magoo for all I care so long as they do their jobs well. As to United’s personnel, be they gate agents or flight attendants, I thought they all did a nice job. No doubt in the coming months I’m sure to encounter a less than stellar employee, but then I’ve encountered them now and then on all airlines - never with enough frequency to absolutely define the airline.

So – over the next nine months I look forward to putting in the miles to maintain my Platinum status for next year and perhaps I’ll even go the extra 25000 miles and go for 1K. Whatever happens, the real prize will be a First Class suite aboard the likes of Lufthansa, Swiss, Asiana or maybe even Singapore. I’m already looking forward to both the flights and the ensuing trip reports.

Thanks for reading along and Happy Contrails!