warakorn

Amsterdam - Houston United Economy Plus in ex-"Peter Max" Boeing 777-200ER (nice Greenland pics + Texas thunderstorms)

Last autumn I was flying to Texas - from the North Sea Coast of The Hague to the Gulf of Mexico Coast of Galveston, Texas.
I've chosen the United Boeing 777-200ER from Amsterdam Schiphol to Houston Intercontinental.
UA Star Alliance Gold pax get the chance to choose an Economy Plus seat for free after booking.
The lounge situation at Amsterdam for pax on Star Alliance flights is dreadfull.
From my personal experience, I have never encountered a full United flight from AMS (its my third out of AMS with UA - once to IAD on a 772, once to IAH on a 767-400,
and now again to IAH on a 77E). The same holds true now. I didn't have a seat neighbour.
This time United assigned a pmCO Boeing 777-200ER to this route. N77014 flew me over the Atlantic. The N77014 bird was painted with the NYC 2000 Peter Max livery. Sadely, that livery was removed in 2007.
The United crew was IAH-based and quite senior. I found the female FA's quite pleasant. The male FA's kept quite a distant to their pax.

This time I got lucky and our routing would take us over the Southern tip of Greenland - and the sun was shining over Greenland.

Before approaching Houston we had take some circles, because East Texas was covered by lots of thunderstorm cells.


Here are some meta data on the flight:
Flight: United Airlines UA 21
Departure from: Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, AMS, Netherlands
Take-off from: Runway 24, Kaagbaan, length 3,500 m / 11,483 ft
Arrival: Houston George Bush Intercontinental Airport, IAH, Texas, United States
Landing on: Runway 8R; length 2,866 m / 9,402 ft
Distance: 5,012 miles / 8,067 km
Duration: 10 hours and 14 minutes
Lounge at Amsterdam:
Aspire Lounge 41 (no Star Alliance Lounge in Schiphol)
Travel Class: Economy Plus
Pitch: 34 inches
Passenger load: approx. 80% (free seat next to mine)
Plane: Boeing 777-200ER
Registration: N77014
Livery until 2007: NYC 2000 Peter Max
Delivered to Continental Airlines: October 1999
Engines: 2 x General Electric GE90-92B
Take-Off Thrust: 92,000 lbf each
Route: via Southern Greenland (with scenic views of the glaciers)


Some impressions from The Hague (Den Haag) on the North Sea coast:









De Pier:



















Grand Hotel Amrâth Kurhaus on the beach:





Netherlands is not Texas (Dutch go by bike to work; Texans go by SUV):









Getting on a train to Schiphol Airport:









Amsterdam Airport Schiphol - Landside:





KLM passenger jet mockup:







Real or fake tulips?





Amsterdam Airport Schiphol - Schengen departure zone (its a nice airport in this section):









Moving through Schengen exit immigration checkpoint and landing in the Non-Schengen departure zone:





TUI Boeing 787-8:





KLM Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner:





KLM Airbus A330-200:





Singapore Airlines Airbus A350-900:







Mediocre Aspire Lounge 41 (quite modern interior design, but almost no hot food, stuffy, hot, full, dirty toilets; a section is cordoned off for SQ premium pax, making the available space even less; AMS is in need of a proper Star Alliance lounge with many longhaul departures from UA, SQ, and BR):







At least the lounge has a nice view over the appron:





Amsterdam is Delta country (an United been just a spoiler to the party):







Here is out bird to Houston - United Boeing 777-200ER - N77014, this was the former Continental Peter Max livery plane







The Economy cabin filled up quite nicely:





I've chosen seat 19L in Economy Plus, which had a free seat next to it according to the seat (and it remained free):





Some wing pics on the ground:







I like the smooth wing of the Boeing 777-200ER:





We push back around 30 minutes due to some late pax, whose bags needed to be removed:





Taking off from Kaagbaan (Runway 24) to the west:







Flight map:





Over Great Britain:





Complementary lunch (the chicken curry was not bad):







Economy Plus cabin:







Aft galley:





We are getting closer to Greenland:





Some nice photos of Greenland (we were lucky as we both hit the southern part of Greenland on our route and had clear skies over Iceland):







One can see our contrails:





Boeing 777-200ER horizontal stabilizer:



















Hitting the North American continent:







Approaching the Gulf Coast around New Orleans and turning to the west now:





Thunderstorm cells over Eastern Texas:







After 10 hours of flight starting our approach into Houston George Bush Intercontinental Airport:









Speedbrakes deployed:





Lining up on Houston Runway 8R (downtown Houston can be seen in the back):





Welcome to the United States of America:





Nice international line-up at the Houston International Terminal D (incl. an Air New Zealand Boeing 777-200ER from Auckland):





United widebodies at Terminal E:







We are getting a gate assigned there, as well:





United Boeing 777-200ER at Houston:





Pax arriving from international flights will walk to immigration on the upper second floor:





Air France Boeing 777-300ER to Paris CDG:





Sunrise near Galveston Island State Park, Texas on the very warm Gulf of Mexico (its definately hotter here than in The Hague):











Near Galveston Island Historic Pleasure Pier:





Thunderstorms are rolling in (lets get out here):





Here is the detailed travel video:






All my trip reports on FT:

Airbus:

Iberia Airbus A340-600 London - Madrid in Y

Air Caraibes Airbus A350-900 Guadeloupe - Paris in Y

Empty Finnair Airbus A350-900 Helsinki - London Heathrow in Y+ and AY Lounge Sauna

Finnair Airbus A350-900 Helsinki - Shanghai in Y+

Finnair Airbus A350-900 Hong Kong - Helsinki in Y+

Singapore Airlines Airbus A380-800 Singapore - New Delhi in Upper Deck Y

British Airways Airbus A380-800 Singapore - London Heathrow in Y



Boeing:

Asiana Boeing 747-400 Combi Tokyo - Seoul in F

Air Canada Rouge Boeing 767-300ER Montreal - Cancun in Y+

Air Canada Rouge Boeing 767-300ER Cancun - Toronto in Y

United Boeing 777-200ER Houston - Newark - Amsterdam in C

United Boeing 777-200ER Amsterdam - Houston in Y+

United Boeing 777-200ER Singapore - Hongkong in C

British Airways Boeing 777-300ER London - Shanghai in Y

ANA Boeing 777-300ER Singapore - Tokyo in C

Swiss Boeing 777-300ER Zurich - Hong Kong in Y

Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-300ER Hong Kong - Singapore in Y

TUI Airlines Nederland Boeing 787-8 Sint Maarten - Curacao in P

TUI Airlines Nederland Boeing 787-8 Curacao - Amsterdam in P

Air Canada Boeing 787-8 Toronto - London in Y

ANA Boeing 787-8 Shanghai Pudong - Tokyo Narita in C

United Boeing 787-9 Los Angeles - Houston in C



Trains:

CFR Calatori Bucharest - Istanbul Halkali in Sleeper Car

EuroNight Jan Kiepura Cologne - Warsaw in Sleeper Cabin

China High Speed Rail Shanghai - Xiamen in F

Caledonian Sleeper Train Inverness - London Euston in Sleeper Cabin

French TGV High Speed Train: Barcelona - Paris in F

China High Speed Rail Guangzhou - Shanghai Hongqiao in Y

Swiss Railways Lötschberg Mountain Line Bern - Brig in F

Ukraine Railways Kiev - Budapest in Sleeper Cabin

Virgin Trains West Coast London - Glasgow in F



Lounges:

Five Star Alliance Lounges: LHR

Four OneWorld Lounges: HKG

TBIT Star Alliance Lounge: LAX



Enjoy!