UA 732 IAD BOS 1125 1254 733 2D Ch9 N (no audio at all!)

I'd been on the 12:30, operated by the hated Mesa, and my
2D had miraculously morphed into 1D, so I got my brother to
take me to the airport a little early so I could stand by
for the previous flight. Went to the D RCC, and the agent
just went ahead and put me into 2D on 732. I did my e-mail
and had a couple cans of grapefruit juice, and then to the
gate, where the incoming was just deplaning. Moseyed around
for 5 minutes and returned to find myself right at the tail
end of boarding, with a multi-striper taking tickets at the
gate. I joked that they were making him do everything on
this trip; he replied "next thing I'll be pumping the gas."

One of the last aboard; the very last was the said officer,
who introduced himself as Captain Tom [something] from
Tyler, Texas and ended his spiel with "We appreciate your
flying United, we need the money" and then mentioned that
any military on active duty report to the nearest FA (only
one did, and of course, was put in 1C, leaving 3 empties in
the front cabin).

The FA doing the safety demonstration p&med that it was
windy, and she had not enjoyed her last few landings, as
they were too bumpy, and she didn't like that one bit. I
wondered almost out loud how she chose that profession.

Courvoisier came ice-cold, but refills were offered by
the cheerful purser. We took off almost half an hour late
but landed about on time, with the purser giving a
humorous but somewhat forced welcome to Logan, reminding
us that even if we got up while the plane was still
taxiing, we would not beat it to the gate.

UA 881 BOS ORD 0900 1042 752 3D Empower N, Ch9 Y
was UA 877 BOS ORD 0800 0944 319 2D

Got the uncomfortable news that my flight was cancelled,
but it turned out I'd automatically been rebooked on the
next one. Despite this, Mr. Easy Chicken refused to cluck,
and I had to check in in person at a station where among
other equipment the passport reader was inop. Luckily I was
an easy case and got out of there in just a few minutes; so
on to security, which looked like a piece of cake; but
appearances can be deceiving. It wasn't just Ma and Pa
Kettle - in front of me were loads of Kettles, from teen-
to middle age. All with jars of jelly in their bags or
cellphones and change in their pockets. Took nearly half
an hour for about 10 people.

To the Club, where I heard a well-dressed fellow complaining
to Lynne about the Espresso machine. He said it had been
down for three months. Josie, the backroom girl, popped out
and said, no, it's been more than three months. Apparently
it was repaired and immediately went out again, and this
time the replacement part was nowhere to be found. The well-
dressed fellow opined that it was a disgrace (agreement all
round) and said that he was going to write to Flyertalk,
because after things get written up on Flyertalk, they get
fixed! After a brief chat with Lynne, I introduced myself to
him - so I met Flyertalker Exceller in person, no yellow
tags required.

Boarded up on time, taxied out, and then watched as a twin
Cessna was cleared - in the middle of rush hour - for an
emergency landing. That being accomplished routinely, we
were eventually cleared quite a bit late for takeoff.

A ham-cheese-egg croissant sandwich was (I am ashamed to
admit it) not at all unpalatable, the croissant really,
really flaky. Perhaps this was a function of their having
been partially heated in one oven and, it being discovered
that that oven would never get to food service temperature,
then transferred to another oven for cooking. The fruit
appie was standard, ice cold. Courvoisier went well.

The crew was pretty solicitous (quite senior and experienced
and not having gotten out of the wrong side of the bed).

Winds being favorable and shortcuts negotiated for, we
landed on time, and I discovered that I had to trek all the
way to the jumbo gates at the end of B.

Drink coupons cheerfully offered at the club, where the
Courvoisier was VS and stale.

UA 895 ORD HKG 1218 1755 744 15B Empower Y, Ch9 Y

For some reason, nobody at res or even at the RCC could
break the journey ORD-HKG-SIN in the record, so I was
(sigh) relegated to 15B even though I KNEW that 15A was
empty; 15A was taken on HKG-SIN by one bseller. Turns out a
late late late pax took the seat (for a long time it was the
only upstairs seat empty except for ...

When I arrived, there was a knot of folks in the row 15 area;
curious, I pushed up and saw legs, horizontal, on the floor.
Thought "uh oh," but then the legs moved; turns out it was a
maintenance guy trying to fix 13B; having failed, he taped
it up and we went with an inop seat. I reflected on the sad
loss of revenue, but then it could have been worse: there
could have been a marshal in the seat, and he would have
consumed food, drink, and fuel at United's expense, with
arguably no enhancement in safety.

Some guy finally showed up for 15A. He was a 1K late upgrade
by the looks of him.

I actually don't care for 15B. With the A and H seats, you
get this nifty extra work space (the bin lid), and it's
much cozier. I'm very much a 15AH person.

[note en route: I have 200 pages of proofs to look at;
on the way back, then. Instead, I'm bowing parts for
Mozart's Exsultate, Jubilate and a Schubert mass.

Warm nuts (seconds offered); warm towels.

to begin
Smoked salmon, pate en croute with pistachio, Wensleydale
cheese and vegetable crudite; Parmesan and pepper sauce

The salmon was okay; the pate was pretty standard; the
cheese was chalkier and sandier than usual; and the
crudite consisted of one baton each of zucchini and
carrot (all dried out) and one tiny asparagus spear.

Fresh seasonal greens; Buttermilk ranch or balsamic
Dijon vinaigrette

Out of a Dole package, but with the addition of a purple
olive and a slice of roasted yellow pepper.

main course
Braised beef short ribs with port wine sauce; twice baked
cheddar potato and green beans with pepper and marjoram

Sesame chicken with peppers; braised E-fu noodles and
sugar snap peas with sliced carrots

Pan-fried sea bass with royal ginger oyster sauce;
steamed rice and asparagus with red peppers

Please advise the flight attendant if you prefer to have
sauce served on the side

I told the agreeable South Asian FA that I'd prefer the
short ribs but if there was a run on them I'd take anything.
I heard everyone around me order the short ribs, so I said
to myself, fish, here I come. Imagine my surprise: short
ribs. And, unlike last time (when they were tough and
tasteless and almost certainly from the round), they were
actually from the chuck: three chunks of 3 oz each, one
somewhat tough but tasty, one tender but somewhat tasteless,
one tender and good, with a little vein of fat. The sauce
was almost hoisin sweet. The beans were just past al dente
and quite nice, but the potato was a gluey mess (didn't
taste bad, but the texture was tongue-coating mucilaginous).

dessert
International cheese selection; Kerrygold Vintage Cheddar,
Port Salut

Eli's Creme Caramel cheesecake

I had one slice of pretty good well aged Cheddar that had
begun to go crystalline. Noted that nobody seemed to be
interested in the cheesecake.

midflight snack
A variety of assorted sandwiches and treats
Hot noodles are available on request

prior to arrival
Asparagus and Asiago puff pastry with pomodoro sauce,
Black Forest ham and sauteed zucchini with basil

or

Fresh seasonal fruit plate with creamy yogurt

The "puff pastry" was actually a quichelike substance with
the crust soggy and almost like an "impossible pie" bottom.
The filling was onion, cheese, and fatty ham; on the side
lots of rather nice asparagus spears in mock Hollandaise
and a couple strips of bacon.

The wines:

Domaine Vincent Sauvestre 2004 Chablis - okay, slightly
thin, surprising stone fruit (pear, peach) nose and a
pleasant acidity with a pear-citrus aspect.

Kenwood Sauvignon Blanc 2005 (Sonoma) - I just had to try
this, because of the discussion of it on the boards. Well,
it's your typical slightly acidy gooseberryish citric SB,
with nothing notable about it at all. I think it might even
have undergone a touch of malolactic, as it was a little
softer than I feared.

Pedroncelli Three Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon
2003 DCV - didn't try

Clos du Bois Zinfandel 2003 (North Coast) - this was
almost stereotypically zinny, with plums and chocolate
giving way to raspberries and chocolate after a spicy,
plummy nose. It went nicely with the meat (a little
residual sugar in the wine), but with the cheese it
became just like a berry milkshake.

This flight came about as close to the Pole as I've gotten:
we crossed 80N 118W as I listened, and the next waypoint
was supposed to be 83N, but I was asleep by the time that
happened.

I slept quite a lot on the flight; at one point I woke up
and flagged down the rather agreeable FA and asked asked
for a Courvoisier as sleep aid. It came a double and warmed
to about the temperature of coffee. After I let it settle
down a bit it was not too damaged by the heat treatment,
and I slept for five hours at one go without other
pharmaceutical intervention.

A decent flight, pretty good crew, decent food.

There was a long list for showers at the TG lounge; I made
my way to the RCC (near gate 60; unfortunately, United
now flies from gates 46-50, quite a distance away), had a
refreshing shower, and had some mostly unpalatable snacks -
the hot dishes were vegetarian fried rice and bowtie pasta
with ground beef and raw peas; the dim sums were soggy
vegetarian spring rolls, very sweet pork buns, something
supposedly with prawns but that looked like surimi, and a
chicken pastry that was so nasty that I took a bite and
dumped the rest in the bin provided, making an emphatic
disrecommendation to the gent behind me who was considering
taking one.