I traveled through ORD today, (only my second time in ORD, I do mostly coast to coast) and I noticed a few things that struck me as interesting.

1. Sitting in the international terminal food court for a short lunch, I was approached by an employee of JAL, who asked if I was a passenger for the noon flight to Tokyo. No, but thank you for asking, says I. Then I notice that JAL has sent no less than 3 of its employees to the area, courteously asking diners and customers in the nearby duty free shop the same question -- clearly their job being to herd the last passengers toward the gate for departure.

I was quite impressed with this -- talk about looking out for your customers. OK, I admit that on a Sunday, with a pretty empty terminal, this isn't such a difficult thing to do. Also, with only one flight that day (maybe?), they can take a lot more time to do these niceties. But, what a great feeling to know that they're watching out for you, whereas upon transferring to terminal 1, it was obvious that airline personnel would rather you not be at the gate in order to reduce their workload... I can't imagine any domestic airline sending personnel out to bring customers to the gate.

2. ORD (UA) has the most hierarchical of check-in services -- separate lines for Premier/Silver, PremierExec/Gold, and 1K, in addition to First, Business, passengers with bikes, passengers with animals/small children, etc... This was nice, since most airports have only a combined premier line. No waiting from what I could see in the exec lines, while if you were one of the poor masses in regular economy, both domestic & econ, be prepared to wait until Y2K.

The advantage gained at Premier lines is dampened somewhat by the 5-minute wait at
security -- they really need to work on this. Certainly it's a function of the large number of passengers through this terminal, but this wait at security was terrible. Following up from point #1, this is not the place to go and get the feeling that you're one of their individual and valued customers.

3. First time (!) flying on a 777, and it was a good experience. I think I may want to stick with 767s where possible, though (domestically) -- the services are quite similar, except in first (see below). The increased number of people in a given section of the plane creates (to me, at least) a noticeably louder environment (small children, etc.) 767s are better in this regard, maybe? I don't mind flying the newly outfitted ones.

I sat next to the wing -- and really got a feeling for how exaggerated everything is on this aircraft. Engines as wide as 737 bodies, gear large enough to crush large cars, etc. But the most interesting and shocking -- the huge amount of empty space in first class! It is almost wrong how much unused space there is up there! You could store your pet elephant behind your seat if you wanted... I know, seats need to recline into that space, but it really does seem a little bit empty -- makes you feel like UA just put in the seats, and didn't know what to do with the rest of the room!

Good travels, everyone.

Where I store my pet elephant is none of your business! I guess that makes me ElephantMan, right Catman? Good report, astro.


[This message has been edited by PremEx (edited 02-28-99).]

Nice report Astro -- full of keen observations. I too have had the JAL experience in HNL -- they go out of their way to make sure everyone who has checked in makes their flight. The opposite of JAL is HP -- was on a flight that had a mechanical. They boarded us, let us sit for an hour, then took us off saying it would be at least another hour. I went to the bar (next to the gate!) with about half the plane. Went back to check the status after about 40 minutes. Plane was gone! No announcements were made other than in the gate area. Rude gate agents said, "It's not our responsibility to make sure you make your flight". Oversold flight left with 63 on board. Duh? Near riot...

Great trip report. I agree on the "exagerated" nature of the 777. Sitting next to the wing, did you notice how far up they bend during flight??? The tips of the wings are well above the body of the craft when the plane is at cruising altitude...

Great report, Astro. A curious thing though: have you ever tried to catch a close connection at ORD???? That's a test of fitness and speed at times!

CATMAN in CHicago (and luckily doesn't have to deal with a connection!)


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CATMAN

For Internet-connections at ORD I sometimes use the O'Hare Hilton Business-Center (lowest floor, before entering the hotel). Any other public Internet possibilities known?

Catman, yes I just ran the ORD sprint a few weeks ago flying DEN to Ft. Myers FL, via ORD. I arrived panting at the gate to find that the flight was delayed. Such is life

-QL

The B Concourse in Terminal 1 at ORD has a new pay-for-time business center. You can connect to the internet over a T1 line, send/receive faxes, et cetera. The cost is $2.00 for the first 5 minutes, and $0.38/minute afterward.

--BBQ

[This message has been edited by BBQ_Pork_Sandwich (edited 03-01-99).]

BBQ:

Is that the new Laptop Lane that they're opening up near the baggage claim escalator at the bottom of the B concourse? I didn't think it was open yet. One other note about check-ins: Premier Execs & 1Ks share a check-in line , wish it was like this at other airports!

Regards,
- Anna

Astro

The reason the JAL pax service agents were looking for passengers was not to be nice. It was to prevent the possibility of offloading the missing passengers bags. It is standard practice, since PAN AM blew up over Lockerbie, that no bags travel without the passenger being on the airplane. It is easier to find the passengers than locating and offloading baggage. From personnel experience, when the ground handling crew starts going on a bag search on a fully loaded 747, its going to take a delay.

JayJ

at that time of the morning T5 at ORD is deserted anyway--they are just making sure no one dozed off. 4 hours later none of the European airlines bother, but there is so much more hustle and bustle.