IWontRegretThis

As a Den based Flyer, this makes me very excited

worldtraveller73

Another great weekend report SFO777!!

There is nothing like the audio sounds and imagery from the 9/11 museum. It's heartbreaking to walk through the exhibition, hearing those last answering machine messages to passengers' loved ones. Perhaps fortunate that our children will be able to learn about lives' lessons so vividly in a way that our current generation isn't able to do with events of past.

For what it's worth, I personally had a bad experience with Dial 7- exclusively related to the soft product. We had a driver who was not very good with english, got lost, then couldn't work the iPad machine to give us accurate billing. We had a great experience with Carmel and would recommend them anytime.

offerendum

Good news! So far DEN wasn`t a great option for me as BA only had this 3-class flights. And nearly 10 hours in J isn`t my dream.

SFO777

Thanks LANDJ999. Hope you enjoyed your trek and aren't too sore.

Thank you AAerSTL. Agree that it's a little dated and not sure we'd stay there again. But it was a great location for shopping and theater.

Thanks very much CHOPCHOP767. If you use Dial 7, make sure you the discount coupons.

Thank you thetravelingRedhead. I appreciate it. The museum is a very emotional experience. I would say that the Historical Experiences section was the most moving. It's a timeline of the day with a lot of first person experiences. The most chilling were the telephone messages from passengers and flight attendants from onboard the UA and AA planes.

Thanks AAExPlat. Can't agree more about traditional loyalty being dead. And DL exec just announced their goal of selling 70% of the front cabin. If they even come close to that, only the top tier elites can expect upgrades.

Thanks so much tng11. Time heals, and especially the lure of another First Class nonstop to Europe from Denver.

We did remark on that irony at the time.

Thank you BA5E and for your kind comments.

Indeed. And F award seats look reasonably plentiful. It's just those crazy BA fees that give one pause. The BA fees on a award ticket to London are $1,200 each! Jeez.

Thank you worldtraveller73. I remember you visiting earlier in the year. Those telephone messages were so moving. It took a long time for the museum to be built but I think the final product is an exceptional memorial and tribute to all that died that day.

Yeah, Dial 7 gets mixed reviews. We've never had a really bad experience although our driver this trip was a little strange and drove inexplicable slow at times and had trouble staying in our lane. Even Mrs. SFO777 got annoyed and asked the guy "why are you driving so slow?" Good thing he didn't speak much English.
Interesting name too... Gi No. Not Gino, but first name Gi, second name No. We did decide to Uber it on the way home.

I'm with you on that and the reason we never took that flight.

Miesque

Excellent trip review SFO777 - I have always been fond of Manhattan in December with all the Xmas lights and in fact will be heading there in a few days for a week's stay.

I have a friend that has keeps telling me me to try the London next time I am in NY so I especially appreciated your pictures and review. I now just don't stay in Midtown that much, I feel almost like a fuddy duddy, stating I have grown to like the "relative" peace and quiet down at the Conrad, especially a time like now when the tourist crowd traffic midtown in immense and some hotels midtown (especially times square) it feels like you are a salmon working your way upstream as soon as you walk out the front door.

I have to agree with the above poster regarding Dial 7, I tried them twice and have stuck to Carmel since then.

AAExPlat

I am not even sure that even top elites will get upgrades very much. On UA, only GS might have a really decent shot. I am under 50% on UA on the year and I am wrapping up December with 1 upgrade out of 9 segments as a 1k.

IWontRegretThis

Ive lucked out pretty well surprisingly on AA this year, Lots of DEN>LAX, LAX>JFK and even all my intl SWUs minus a friend to HKG from Dallas.

AA_EXP09

Not only you, there are may millions like you (Muslims)

SFO777

Oops. Almost forgot to finish this off...

The sun finally came out on a beautiful but chilly 32F/0C degree Sunday morning.





With a 12:20P departure from Laguardia, we headed down to the lobby around 10:25A. Our Uber driver showed up 3 minutes after I ordered it. With light Sunday traffic, we arrived at Laguardia just before 11:00A. Only one other person in front of us in PreCheck and we were in the Admirals Club a few minutes later.



New York Laguardia - Chicago O'Hare
American 331
737-800
12:20P-2:00P
December 7, 2014
Lunch

We arrived at the gate just as the GA starting boarding the First Class cabin. The annoying and obliviously loud moron in 5E. A Bose with music on loud moment for sure.



American's 40" pitch in F means the most narrow body legroom of any non-transcon US domestic plane. Unfortunately, the new USdbaAA is going to fix that and reduce legroom to squeeze in more & seats.







Since September 1st, new American management drastically cut back the quality of meals. In one day, AA went from best US food airline to worst. Anything other than pasta is largely inedible prison grade mystery meat lathered in goop. Despite management claiming that they would improve meal quality, nothing has improved. Nevertheless, Mrs. SFO prefers chicken so I ordered chicken for her while I stayed with the safer pasta.



Yikes. As expected, it was inedible. Hard to cut and tasted terrible.



My pasta was marginally better. We shared some of this to take the edge off our hunger and decided to eat at O'Hare.



At least it was edible in a 7-11 kind of way.



Yeah, that really looks good.



American used to bake cookies on board. Apparently that cost too much and now that buy in bulk at Costco and reheat them before serving. Even the flight attendants are embarrassed by the miss. I mentioned to our flight attendant that I missed the old American. She didn't miss a beat and replied "so do we".



More bad news today as our power ports weren't functioning. The good news is that AA gave us two $75 travel vouchers after I complained.



Once in Chicago, we headed for Rick Bayless' Torta Frontera where we shared a delicious Cubana sandwich.





Then to the Admirals Club for a half hour before our Denver flight.

Chicago O'Hare - Denver
American 151
737-800
3:55P-5:35P
December 7, 2014
Refreshments

Our Denver flight was a Boeing Sky interior plane with AA's new individual seat back entertainment system. A nice selection of movies. But these seats are not very comfortable.











Nice sunset in the foothills of the Rockies as we landed.



Thanks for coming along on our quick weekend in wonderful New York City.

SFO777

Thank you Miesque. Hope you enjoy your visit to New York as much as we did. We typically stay on the quieter upper east side but wanted to be closer to the action this time. We both find a couple days of NY hustle and bustle to be invigorating.

Yeah, UA and DL elites seem to be suffering than AA elites on the upgrade front.

I have not had a problem either missing only 2 upgrades all year. But I'm so down on AA and the US management, that I've become a free agent and am now booking on price and convenience, which means not much AA any more.

LANDJ999

Wow, that AA chicken looks nothing like any part of the bird , I've ever come across.
Compressed pieces maybe? And the pasta? Not Tortellini.
Nice call on the Cubano!

AKCuisine

Thanks for once again causing me to salivate while reading a trip report, SFO777.

Both the dining AND shopping photos made your weekend holiday look fabulous. I'm making notes for my next getaway ...

brooklynflyer82

Carmel is always my car service of choice when I use something other than UBER here in NYC. Also, if you plan ahead there are coupons you can print off the website that can save you $4 or $5 on airport trips.

Jimgotkp

Yum.. Tortas Frontera... I wish they had a location at every major airport...

CMK10

Thanks for coming back to wrap this one up ^