Sorry for the delay all.. I've finally gotten a change to sit down and write the trip report for the family summer vacation.. Here goes..
Started out on 7/8 on our way to LAS. Checked-in at BDL... Went to the FC/Premier line to check-in and see if I could get the 3rd person on the PNR in E+ seats. After the check-in agent looked like I was an inconvenience and told me I should *always* use the kiosk before coming to an agnet, he finally told me there were no E+ seats left on our Ted connecting flight. Fortunately, I got 1BCD for the family on our BDL-IAD ACA flight. Only a few more weeks of ACA here. It looks like they're all becoming Shuttle America flights on ERJs w/ 1 AWAC flight.
We get to IAD about 15 minutes early so I head over to the gate for flight 1551 to snag a 3rd E+ seat. The agent tells me to wait until 12:25 (flight departs at 12:50) to see if any E+ seats open up. 12:25 rolls around and I wait 10 minutes while a woman with her family of 4 is demanding international business class seats because the "agent" cancelled her flight because of weather. Like that agent personally cancelled her flight because of thunderstorms. Oh well. Finally get the 3rd E+ seat and board the flight. This Ted plane actually looked pretty new and clean. They finally get everyone on and realize that they printed boarding passes for 2 different people with the same seat.. All of the agents were confused.. I guess Ted forgot where he put people on his plane. The FAs finally said to just take an open seat. Flight takes off. All of the FAs were pretty friendly. The LCD monitor that was closest to our screen wasn't working right (very dark and hard to read), but other than that, the flight was not bad for 4 hours. We eventually get into LAS about 20 minutes early. Luggage service was very quick too.
7/16, we head to TUS for our return flight... If only they had that TUS-ORD non-stop established at the beginning of the summer... I first try to check-in online the night before and get the infamous "please check-in at a ticket counter".. Turns out our 777 for flight 942 (DEN-ORD) that day was changed to a 744!
I get to the ticket counter and get the exit row 46ABC for the family. We board flight 7150 TUS-DEN and take off about 15 minutes late due to crew rest restrictions.
The flight gets in about 10 minutes early and we head over to our gate for 942. Unfortunately, they were a little short on staff so they could not use both jetways. Nonetheless, everyone was pretty calm and boarded smoothly. We push back right at 12:50 and the problems begin.. Like all good UA FFers, I turn to Channel 9 and get on just in time to hear.. "Another one of those days at O'Hare huh??" "It wouldn't be normal if it wasn't".. We head out to one of the parking spaces near the runway and the pilot comes on to tell us we're going to be delayed 45 minutes... 45 minutes goes by and says it's gonna be another 2 hours.. Engines get turned off and they decide to turn on the movie. The pilot and FO were extremely nice and apologized profusely for the delay and even opened a couple of emergency doors to get some air flowing through the plane. The FAs came through with water and stuff. The 2 hours go by and we get told it's gonna be another 3 hours.. He starts up our engines to go back to the gate when all of a sudden, a thunderstorm hits DEN and we're not allowed to go back to the gate. Eventually, he gets a call from UA dispatch who says we can take-off in 45 minutes.. Woo hoo! About an hour later, we're off..
When we get off the plane, we hit the madhouse called O'Hare. I take the family to the small food court between Terminal 1 & 2 where it's slightly quieter. We didn't have to rush since our connecting flight was now 3 hours delayed. Get a small snack/dinner and head over to our connecting gate to BDL.
I have to be honest, I feel really bad for agents on days of weather delays. People just run to whoever they can find to get rebooked. While I do understand during days of storms nothing goes right, it makes it really hard for agents to work the flights they are supposed to when everyone is demanding first class on the next flight that was already oversold. Anyways, when we got to ORD, our flight was supposed to leave at 10:30. Much to my surprise, I checked the board on the way back from dinner and our departure had been moved up 20 minutes to 10:10. It is nice to see that flights that were to be heavily delayed can actually go the other way and be less delayed. ^ Finally, we board our flight at around 9:45 and we push back around 10:15. We get into BDL around 1:15 AM where there is only 1 person running baggage. It took about an hour to get our luggage.
All in all, I was quite impressed with the way UA handled things. I usually book the flights for my family who are adamend DL fans. There were pretty impressed with UA though and said they would definitely choose UA again, especially if they can get E+ seats.
They also liked the 744 from DEN-ORD.. I haven't been on one of those things in awhile. I gotta say though.. they are one impressive plane, especially in UA colors..
This is my first pass at a trip report here on FT. Let me know what you think.