Adios, 005 - transcon RT on 2 Mar
 

A tale of a couple hours in the lounge, a couple hours on
the plane, rinse, repeat several times. All because deirdre
posted that people were going to be on the final Continental
takeoff (but not the final CO landing, which I couldn't
afford, at least in the style to which I am accustomed -
good they were mutually exclusive).

For some reason the Metro was running very nicely, so I got
to the airport in time to think on "Fudd's or Five Guys?,"
to which the answer was, as I passed the former site of
Legal Seafood, Sam & Harry's. I'd eaten a really pretty
tasty ribeye here and decided to go for the sirloin strip
this time (for several more bucks). I should have been more
mindful of my other Sam & Harry's experiences elsewhere,
where the sirloin was not up to the quality of the other
cut. Anyhow, a 10-oz steak a la carte is $25, extras being
a relatively reasonable $4 each, sized, uncharacteristically
for a steakhouse, for one.

A nice, rather cute, smiling waitress.

I had the house light ale, a mild but respectable brew,
medium amber, almost opaque. Yeasty and a little bretty, but
not unpleasant. I'd guess this was a Dominion product.

The steak came, a thinnish cut, part of the tail attached,
but, wonder of wonders, a good fat cap. Regular-looking, cut
from frozen it appeared. Fairly tender, not too unjuicy,
mot too flavorful, and I was super thankful for the good
fat cap. Excellent for a supermarket steak; bordering on
disappointment for $40 a pound. Extra rare as ordered, with
half a head of roast garlic as the garnish (not so good as
last time). A side of creamed spinach didn't come; the
explanation was that "she's making a fresh batch." The fresh
batch eventually came. It's not rocket science to make: thaw
some chopped, half a pack per person, cook until tender, add
random dairy product, microwave until hot. strew with grana,
eh walla. In this case step 2 was omitted, and the spinach
was on the tough side.

A pretty expensive lunch, and only moderately good. By the
time I left the place was full of people eager to spend wads
of money.

Security was pretty breezy, although as has happened several
times they detected something at my waistline. The TSA's
jokey way of telling me to lose a few pounds, I think, or
else I shuck my dirttails in imperfectly.

The club was moderately busy. I went to my oasis, the work
carrels at the far end, where the guy two carrels down I'd
seen here a couple weeks ago, horrors, or was it in Philly,
worse? Same ugly tie.

The snack here today was regular Milanos.

You know what's better than Milanos? Mint Milanos. Haven't
seen these in a while. They were common in the early '70s
and then disappeared for a few years, then returned, and
now I don't know what has happened to them again. By the
way, orange milanos are wretched.

Alterra coffee tastes like train brakes smell.

positioning
 

US3379 DCA DFW 1325 1602 ER7 3A

I zooped down to the gate right at boarding time to find
no plane parked. Presently it showed up, and we took off
what, 30 late. I rather enjoyed the F retrofitted on the RJ.
The seat was pretty nice, and the FA was pretty nice but not
very available as she was back in coach for much of the
trip. The trip was scheduled for 3h 37, so I expected a
mealy sort of thing, but what came was the usual basket, out
of which I had the usual Biscoffs and a packet of cranberry
nut mix. Glenlivet was the high point of the flight.

A pretty view when we were just above the clouds - more
contrails than usual, I thought. Interesting cloud
formations, too. Apparently we were skirting thunderheads
and went way farther south than normal. Quite a few bumps in
spots. We pulled into the gate almost exactly an hour late.

The United club is off at the other end of the concourse (at
least it's in the same one). The Skylink takes just a couple
minutes, and I was behind a nourishing supper of Walker's
shortbread and Beam in good time.

US 545 DFW PHX 1830 2010 321 1A

F-f-for s-s-shome reason the trek back was longer than the
trip over, and I made it to about the middle of boarding,
by which time there was barely room in the overhead for my
very modest-size bag. After collapsing into my seat I told
the cute rather zaftig blonde FA to give me a double
Glenlivet, and I would not bother her for the rest of the
flight, and so it was. On landing, heartfelt thanks to her
and a walk down the concourse to the low A club, where
presently sbm12 came by, and we went upstairs to partake of
a few doses of inky liquid and/or suds. The plan was to
head out when the place closed at 10, but sbm12 got a text from
fenx, who was at the other terminal sans ticket. We hopped
the bus there, and sbm12 found him a gate pass; we continued
our socializing at the gate, where nothing of note was
apparently happening. Oh, at the ticket counter, sbm12 made a
hit with the staff, who had been settling into a nostalgic
funk; his enthusiasm was rewarded by smiles and a piece or
two of Continental memorabilia.

At the gate our numbers were increased by deirdre (the prime
mover of this exercise) and steve64. We had a good time
becoming acquainted and then after those formalities getting
to the real business of the day, discussing miles and points
and stuff.

As Shannon had said, there wasn't going to be any
commemorative hoopla; sbm12 did his best to create some, which
earned incredulity from the assembled crowd (it was actually
not that heavy a flight) and I believe gratitude from the
employees. He hung back chatting with them and thus became
the last passenger ever to board a CO flight.

flight itself uneventful
 

The flight took off a few minutes late after the impromptu
celebrations. I believe an announcement was made on board,
but I was in a certain state of dimness by this time so
cannot be sure.

CO1267 PHX CLE 2359 0546 738 7F

There hadn't been any saver F awards (or whatever they are
called these days), and I didn't feel like paying 25000
extra miles for one 4-hour flight. My colleagues all
ended up up front, through whatever instruments or
instrumentalities, but as I had the bulkhead row all to
myself, and was planning to sleep anyway, no worries, and I
actually slept pretty well after all the alcohol this day.
I'm sure it was a fine flight.

Afterward, the four of us had breakfast and a couple daycaps
at the club before dispersing to go our separate ways, sbm12
to deliver more of the goody bags that he had prepared to
sweeten the transition for the overworked employees and the
put-upon frequent flyers, steve64 and myself to our flights,
and deirdre to Cleveland, of all places.

UA4167 CLE BWI 0835 0958 E45 2A

Overheard at the gate. Apparently Premier Access gets you
zone 5, which understandably flummoxed and annoyed one guy
who thought he actually had been granted some kind of
privilege.

As I should have figured out when boarding with zone 1, it
gets mighty windy when the catering door is open. Ah well,
heavy the head and all that. Speaking of which I slept
through, staggered out, and as I left the FA thanked me
by name.

It was awesome meeting you!

Well done! Wish I'd been able to join you. When UA goes away, I'll be on that final flight for sure. ;)