I had a week long work conference in New Orleans (NOLA), Louisiana at the downtown convention center. Due to schedules, United was the "best" option based on cost, times, etc. I left early morning on Tuesday out of a sleepy GRR (as usual), I think I avoided 3 people by using TSA PreCheck. I had 3D on the miserable RJ145 which I made a mental note not to do again as there is no storage for bags as it is a bulk head! Luckily this flight is under 30 mins most times so not too bad!
Arrived in ORD with plenty of time to spare so ran over to the United Club to kill a couple of hours, the ORD clubs are pretty nice this one was no exception, very roomy and modern and some decent food choices including a hot egg dish!
Grabbed 2A to MSY, plenty of leg room, the 737-900s are a really nice aircraft. PDB of water was offered as catering hadn't yet arrived, had there been would have been a full PDB offering and flight attendant made up for it once we were in the air. This flight was advertised as a "snack" flight but actually wasn't too bad (apologies for the blurry photo). Consisted of a fresh scone and fresh fruit and actually both were pretty fresh and tasted good.
Flight arrived about 20 minutes early so that was a nice change of pace, I actually have to say United's been improving dramatically on this front the past 6 months or maybe they are just cleverly padding their flight times so it seems that way?
I grabbed an Uber to the
Hampton Inn New Orleans Convention Center hotel. My Hilton status was recognized and was upgraded to a 1 bedroom 2nd floor suite. I was pretty impressed with how nice this was especially for a Hampton, it actually rivaled some core Hilton properties! Very nice large windows/light, open/airy room, full kitchen.
My conference was at the New Orleans Conference Center literally across the street! The conference ran from Tuesday to Thursday.
Did some sightseeing with the limited time I had, that's the one bummer with conferences you never really have enough time to see the sights and/or you are so tired that you can't.
I did swing by the
Creole Creamery one night for some really good ice cream!
Like all good things though it came to an end, got up Friday morning had a leisurely breakfast and grabbed an Uber back to MSY. LONG security line at concourse D, luckily PreCheck got me through in a few minutes although TSA was VERY disorganized, especially with all the laptop concerns lately.
Back on the friendly skies, notice the large left deviation we had to do to avoid weather!
The flight crews on this flight were the older BUT nicer United flight attendants. A PDB was in my hand within minutes and the entire flight I never went without a full cup, very attentive group. Another 737-900 so plenty of room.
The difference in services between flights on United is crazy, coming down did not have a PDB or warm nuts on this flight I had a PDB and warm nuts before our "snack" shortly after takeoff!
The "snack" was actually a pretty decent small meal, had a chicken wrap, fresh fruit and a chocolate for dessert. Key thing was everything was fresh and had decent taste for what it was!
Had a short connection at ORD so just enough time to get to the gate for more RJ145 punishment. Flight from ORD to GRR was VERY rough the entire time in the air but we did land on time, thanks United!
Overall loved New Orleans as this was my first time there, we will actually be going back in November of this year for a family wedding so will have more time to party/explore than what I did this time. United actually seemingly has gotten better, the food for what it was was not bad, flights ran mostly on time and good flight attendants, I still like Delta a bit better.