Is it only me? Am I just dense?
Why is it when I read a post from someone who has been registered on FT for almost a year and a half, misposts a Trip Report in the wrong forum and mentions virtually nothing about the WorldPerks program except "I paid an F class fare so no type of upgrade was involved," that I get confused and wonder what the post is all about.
My assumptions about cabledave are that he states what are his preferences are as if they should be everyone's preference, never asks for information on FT and does not use the search feature. These assumptions were made by me after using the Search: All posts by this registered user. Further assumptions that I am going to make are that he made a flight with a connection as he posts the following[list type=1][*] In a market UA is now using commuter jets in.[*] Secondly the "2 chunks of beef 'appetizer'" he mentions in his "Trip Report" I have only been served on the flights out of msp and dtw to the west coast.[/list]I live in a section of this country where they happen to have carts to present and serve food in restaurants and perhaps other parts of the country do not have this option. These establishments run the gamut from chineses dimsum to the place where we ate the other night, Masa's. Even at Masa's some of the courses were presented and served to us from a cart. Guess what? Not having any perception that the quality was any different than food that was presented on a plate after being prepared in the kitchen I tipped the same. Tipped the same in both of those places same as I tip in places that brought the plates out to me after they were put together in the kitchen. Never have I ever got the perception that there was a higher quality from one or the other. I need to repeat that one more time for my own satisfaction. Never have I ever got the perception that there was a higher quality from one or the other. But like I said maybe I am dense. Well c'dave if you did hear the audio perhaps you might come to the conclusion as I. The conclusion being that the dj who is making the selections doesn't have the same taste as I. Found this to be true on NW flights that do have audio. So what I do is bring my laptop and cds that I like and I listen to what I like. Since you have posted in previous posts that you do not carry your laptop and other electronics onto the plane but watch it get thrown around by the baggage handlers I do not know what to suggest to you about an audio solution.
I know that a lot of the posters here are at an age where they have probably had the ability to have a PC or Mac all of their lives. I am of the age that I can remember when we got our first television. This means that I learned to read before I learned to watch TV. Even though I recently worked at an educational cable tv station I still find reading a book more entertaining than watching a movie on a little screen. Maybe it is only me again but I prefer reading on a plane and watching movies where all of the effects the director put into the movie are available - big screen - dolby sound - etc. Even though watching a movie with everything that the director meant for me to see is more pleasing than watching it on a little screen I have yet to find a movie that was more entertaining than the author’s original. This has been true whether I read the book before or after seeing the movie.
The other thing I enjoy on planes is sleeping. Always too many distractions at home or in the office. So the quicker they get the (not good) food service out of the way the quicker I can do the two things that I like to do while flying. I guess NW is a good fit for my preferences.
I will have to agree with you on one thing and that is that the food on UA is good to very good. In fact I wrote a long letter to NW (not a "Trip Report" to FT) and stated that same thing after I was given a FIM to a United Flight. Now maybe it was just a coincidence or most likely it was ready to happen anyway but a few short months later the food took a quantum leap on NW. I even put in some suggestions about parts of the meal they could lose and perhaps put more into other parts of the meal. Received a response about how they would forward my letter to the catering department. So I still believe that my letter to NW was a lot more effective than posting on FT for getting a change.
btw If you think the food was not good now think of how bad it could have been and then multiply that. A few short years ago it was not that bad it was even worse. I know a lot of flyers on NW are recent immigrants from other airlines (gee, I wonder why) but do a search from the early days of FT (In the Archives) and see how bad the food was. Maybe some of the other long time NW flyers might comment to that here in your "Trip Report" thread. As an aside, pre-FT I was a big time user of coach. So I learn that if there were things that I really wanted to eat on the plane than I should be prepared to bring them. Bring them I did and bring them I still do even though a great amount of my flying is upgraded first.
I wonder why people buy first class? Have they never heard about FlyerTalk and the wonderful things that are discussed there like elite status and comps and ConnectFirst, which has been discussed in the NorthWest forum. I will assume unless I am corrected c'dave's company paid for the trip. Ultimately if I am paying for first, I never have nor has my employer for any of the few business trips I took, I think that on the top of the list would be the following;
Once again thank you for your "Trip Report." Some day I am going to have to experience "a paid F class" and see if there is something I am missing. My best guess is it will be a newly formed empty space in my bank account and my perception will be why didn't I do a search on FT and find out how I could have experienced this without paying for it or at least all of it. Of course since I am dense maybe I just won't get it.