UA987 BOS JFK 320 3A Ch 9 Y Empower N
The flight itself was not particularly interesting.
It was an hour late, and the computers didn't show
this - the RCC people sent me out for boarding,
while at the gate they were still deplaning the
previous flight. We finally got under way about
the time I'd expected to be on the ground in New York.
As a result, my shuttle bus missed the 10:00 deadline
for getting on the Van Wyck (they've been closing it
because of construction on the monorail boondoggle).
As a result, I didn't get to Manhattan until midnight.

- - -

I went to the New York Historical Society for my first
visit in two decades. I'd used to go there as a student
and beyond, but recently the building has been closed
for renovations (and also because the organization has
been on very precarious financial footing). A pity: it
had been an oasis. Now, it's got a bit more of the
razzamatazz of mass appeal, with a Henry Luce Center of
its own (the big one of course is at the Met) and a
tourist-friendly $5 cover charge. But the collection of
Tiffanys is still there, and the Course of Empire by
Thomas Cole (as well as many other of the most important
Hudson River School paintings), and of course Audubon's
original watercolors for Birds of America. You could
spend all day there, easily. I spent half the day there
and went back uptown to meet my friend for lunch at the
Fish Restaurant, 108th and Broadway. I walked in just a
couple minutes late, and the guy came up to me and said,
are you waiting for someone? and I said yes, and he said,
well, she just called and said she can't make it because
she's been in a minor fenderbender. I didn't let that put
me off my feed, so I dined on tasty fried oysters, a sweet
coleslaw flavored with caraway, tamari fried potatoes, a
nice fresh salad with Asian vinaigrette, and the house
Pinot Grigio, which was fruity in both good (citrus, melon)
and bad (Thompson seedless) senses. A satisfying and
reasonable ($13 including tax and tip) meal. Aside: the
water, the bread, and the butter all seem to be scented
with lemon, so if you don't like lemon, don't come here.

- - -
Finally met up with my friend, who took me for a taxicab
cruise through Harlem to find a suitable place for dinner.
We were looking for spicy food, as I needed something
to blast through a head cold. We ended up at Gary's
Hot Pot, a neighborhood Jamaican restaurant at, what
is it, 133rd and Lenox, something like that. Nice
smells. Aura had a dark rich oxtail stew (tasty, but
I thought it could have been cooked longer), rice and
peas, and cabbage; I had the curry chicken (medium
spicy, pretty good, a generous portion), the same
rice and peas (delicious), plantains (okay). Homemade
ginger beer (very strong, very sweet) accompanied.
We also ordered red snapper in escovitch for the
table: it was good, also moderately spicy, but I
was happy with what I had ordered and didn't eat much
of the fish.

- - -

Got up early and took the subway (couldn't possibly take
longer than the shuttle bus) for $1.50 back to the airport.

UA821 JFK HKG 747 7A Ch 9 N Empower Y

This was the inaugural of the longest scheduled commercial
nonstop route, heading from New York, over Canada, past
the North Pole, through Siberia and Mongolia and China and
down to Hong Kong. United says that it's 8067 miles (for
frequent-flyer miles purposes); the New York Times said 8439.

I'm keying this part of the report to that of Flyertalker
tfung, who was in F on the same flight. I didn't see him, as
I was in C and the purser claimed not to have seen his name
on the manifest.

tf> got to JFK this morning at about 8:15am. Checked in and
tf> proceeded to the F class lounge. I walked around the RCC
tf> looking for other FTer's, but was not able to spot any.

Unfortunately, I didn't get there until well past 9, and the
Red Carpet lady suggested I shuttle back and forth between the
relative comfort of the RCC and the relative excitement of the
gate area, where there was a press conference, a ribbon cutting,
a smallish wheezy Chinese band, and food such as the breakfast
buffet at the Ramada would be proud of. So I was a moving target,
if anyone was looking for me.

tf> The airport setup for the innaugural flight was quite interesting.
tf> There were models standing in various places around the airport with
tf> kenneth cole clothing, and near the gate area, they were serving some
tf> food with a chinese musical band playing.

Ah yes, the models. I stood by one, thinking her to be a plastic
statue, until she started to move. She still looked like a plastic
statue; I was not really tempted to investigate.

tf> As the plane started to board, there were UA employees by the gates
tf> passing out Kenneth Cole bags to people who were boarding the flight.
tf> I personally didn't like the bags, so I asked one of the employees
tf> for their JFK-HKG nonstop pin that most of them seem to have.

But inside the bags were 1. a United Airlines keyring; 2. a United
Airlines/Kenneth Cole T-shirt; 3. a Kenneth Cole instant shoeshine kit,
with the $4.50 price tag still on it.

tf> As for movie selections, I don't remember that well, but it looks
tf> remarkably like the March selection. They were also supposed to show
tf> Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, but somehow the FA announced over the
tf> PA system, that particular tape decided to self-destruct in the video
tf> player, so they replaced it with something else.

They found a copy of it and played it later on in the flight. It was
dubbed in English and was truly laughable.

tf> I asked
tf> for a mid-flight snack, and there was a selection of noodles, fruits,
tf> biscuits and also a hot egg/cheese sandwich. The egg/cheese sandwich
tf> was quite good, but it was still one of those prepackaged things. UA
tf> could seriously improve on their mid-flight snacks service.

They came by (I'm told) twice while I was asleep, trying to unload
these. When I came to, there were no snacks to speak of left; they
eventually found one hidden in the back of the oven. I took it back
to my seat, had a bite, found it gross, then wrapped it up in a
napkin and ditched it in the lav. There were no crunchy snacks in
Business (Coach had the Japanese rice crackers) and, furthermore,
no chocolate, plus they ran out of bottled water in C (I got some
from Y). Not very gala for a gala inaugural.

tf> After the movie, I walked around the whole plane. F and C looked lik
tf> they were completely full. However, Y was very sparsely populated.

Half the passengers were in F or C. There were people taking
full-length naps in the center section of Y throughout the flight.

Dinner.

To begin
Cumin scallops and spiced shrimp
Plum tomato petals and sauteed escarole

The texture left something to be desired: the shellfish were
like rubber (but didn't taste bad). The escarole was really
spinach or something like it. Presentation was quite attractive.

Garden fresh salad
Asian sesame ginger or blue cheese dressing

OK.

Main course
Filet mignon with barbecue relish
Mashed potatoes and sugar snap peas with cilantro

Grilled sea bass with Asian chutney
Egg noodles with sesame seeds and a vegetable medley

Chicken curry with red bliss potatoes
Steamed rice and haricots verts

I decided to violate the "no chicken no fish" rule so
I could taste the curry against my memories of a real
curry. No comparison. The dish was a really nice tender
juicy piece of skin-on chicken covered with a gloopy
and almost unseasoned sauce. The rice and beans were
bad. Calling a green bean a "haricot vert" doesn't
make it any better, you know.

The 1999 Pinot Blanc from Willm, off-dry and fairly
fruity, went well, although the badness of the sauce
brought out a slight bitterness in the wine.

Dessert
Whipped Stilton cheese with sauteed sliced bread
Fresh fruit and a glass of Sandeman's Porto

A weird concept. I didn't even try the cheese,
taking a Courvoisier instead.

Eli's Praline cheesecake

I passed on that as well, having another glass
of Courvoisier instead. Nobody came by with a
refill liqueur service, though, and I had to go
back to the galley and wait while the flight
attendants (3 of them) finished their conversation
before getting my drink.

Prior to arrival

Penne pasta and three cheese sauce with roasted chicken,
fresh fruit appetizer
or
Fresh seasonal fruit plate with creamy yogurt

tf> Frankly, I wasn't very interested in either selection and was hoping
tf> that they had the bread bowl soup. But I guess they don't really serve
tf> it that often on international flights, and I think I've only had it
tf> in business class and never in first. Anyhow, I picked the Pasta,
tf> which turned out to be the most disgusting looking thing ever.
tf> Basically looked like pasta and puke mixed together. After summing up
tf> enough courage and taking a bite out of it, I decided it actually
tf> wasn't as bad as it looked. Quite good actually. But seriously, they
tf> need to do something about presentation! The fresh fruit appetizer
tf> that came with it was quite pathetic looking as well -- basically a
tf> few cubes of fruit that didn't really taste like much.

It was white overcooked pasta with a white sauce hiding shreds of
white chicken. Not even a piece of parsley to mitigate the grossness
factor. Not even a piece of green pepper to improve the flavor. Tasted
like halfway between mac and cheese and chicken a la king. Comforting,
but as consensus has it, really amazingly ugly. It had been blopped
onto the dish in a way reminiscent of elementary school cafeterias.

Mother nature determined our route: instead of getting right close to
the Pole, as the news said, we ended up getting no closer than 600 mi
from it, because of sunspot radiation issues. Then, after we traversed
Siberia, we turned west into Mongolia and went almost as far as Ulan
Bator, then left to Peking and finally straight south. After seeing
an isobar map of the region later in the day I surmised that we were
riding the waves to save fuel, and it worked: we landed with 36000
lb to spare, about 10%. I'd really been looking forward to the Pole.

We had an "expedited" approach into Hong Kong and landed a few
minutes ahead of schedule. We were met by an army of suited young
men handing out silver paper bags, each of which contained a United
t-shirt: I got a Small; others seem all to have gotten XLs. I don't
think I really look like that much like a child.

I wasn't thrilled by the level of the catering, especially the
paucity of decent things to snack on, nor with the service of the
JFK-based C cabin crew, who seemed more bent on enduring the trip
themselves than on helping us endure it. They did the minimum,
and they did it in a minimal way. I understand that the HKG-based
attendants working the Y cabin were better.

- -

B and I had gotten an industry rate at the Regal Airport (there had
been a slight misunderstanding: we'd wanted just the last night
at the Regal Airport and the others at the Regal Kowloon, but
as the rate was very favorable and we were meeting a mobility-
challenged colleague, we didn't fuss). It's a very new facility,
the largest in Hong Kong, and much better built than the
terminal itself, which is cracking and has water damage and
all sorts of other goodies. The hotel is supposed to be rated
at 5 stars: B estimated a 4, I'd have said 3 or so - but the
shower decided briefly to run out of hot water while I was
under it, so that might have affected my judgment. But on the
whole the place was comfortable and convenient, with one
notable great feature- a free shuttle that leaves for New
World Centre (where the Regent Kowloon and the Renaissance
Hotel are) at 8, 10, 3, 5:30, 8, and 10, returning at 9, 11, 4,
6:30, 9, and 11. The trip, in a clean new minibus, takes a tad
over half an hour. The driver does not accept tips. We took it
a bunch of times.

Ended up eating several times at the airport hotel
restaurants, which are not bad at all, and twice at
places in New World Centre. Not adventuresome by any
stretch of the imagination, but to give us some credit,
Hong Kong is peculiar in that many of the finest dining
is in hotels.

The first time we visited Rouge, the afternoon we came in,
the maitre d' said that there was no cook. So we went
upstairs and found a bell captain type person who made a
few phone calls and then ushered us back down, where we
were welcomed with feigned pleasure. We ordered dim sum,
and it was amazingly slow coming. It was also unbelievably
good. My idea is that they had to find a cook to make
our order. It was the freshest dim sum I've had anywhere,
and subsequent visits, although quite satisfying, were not
up to the same standard. Shrimp dumpling with coriander and
crab roe was one of the finest I've ever tasted. They
list it on the English menu as a chicken dumpling. Har
gow were filled with a whole big shrimp each, as well
as the usual chopped shrimp filling; the first time, the
wrappers were the most ethereal wonders I've ever
encountered; afterwards, during prime time, they were
quite nice, but not quite so nice. The rest of the things
were standards well executed: roast pork buns, shu mai,
taro dumplings, and so on were exactly what you'd expect.
Oh yes, shrimp toasts were kind of greasy, but the shrimp
paste was topped with a whole shrimp, which lent some
luxury to the experience. We experimented once with lobster
dumplings; they turned out to be extremely plain - big
chunks of lobster wrapped in a wheatier dough (green and
white versions) than the rice wrappers of the various shrimp
dishes. We kept coming back and ordering shrimp things:
the place was a short elevator ride from home, after all.

Jane wanted Peking duck. I found some places that involved
a taxi ride after the shuttle bus, but as it was late when
she wanted dinner (she had to stay in her room, which
overlooked the Qantas/Air China end of the airport, to
watch takeoffs and landings until there was nothing to be
seen any more), we went down to the ground level to the
Dragon Inn, where we most imaginatively ordered Peking
noodles followed by Peking duck. The noodles were the
usual thing, less sweet than American versions, quite
tasty. The duck was $260, fairly reasonable we thought
... until we found that if you want either a soup course
or a stir-fry course after the skin course, you have to
shell out $50 more. It was a good, not a great, duck,
(the skin not completely crisp but still not fatty) but
oh so convenient. We had the remains made into an
excellent Chinese cabbage and ginger soup. Customers: a
few Chinese groups, including a large family; no obvious
hotel patrons, the white folks tending to congregate at
the western-style restaurant or the AYCE buffet.

- - -

We left the hotel only once with Jane and did not eat
with her then: she wanted to shop - and we abandoned
her at a watch and pen store on Hanoi Road.

B and I did eat pretty well, though, on our own.
Here are the three meals (aside from snacking).

Petrus, 56th floor in the Island Shangri-La, Central,
near the Supreme Court (Admiralty MTR stop). This was
the farthest afield we went to eat. It was also the
most expensive place we found. Food was good modern
French-style cooking, service pretty close to
impeccable. We started off with glasses of a nice
sud-ouest Chardonnay from a house I was unfamiliar
with, which went well with B's crispy Dublin Bay prawns
(crispy because deep-fried in wonton skins) served
over mizuna salad and less well with my gamy duck liver
and duck confit sausage, served over sauteed cepes
and with a star anise-scented demi-glace. So I asked
for our Leoville Barton 1992; and the only time during
this meal that the service fell down was when they
didn't believe I wanted to drink it with the sausage.
I poured a couple fingers of this deep ruby, aromatic
minty wine for myself. By the way, we'd ordered both
the veal and the lamb medium-rare (sort of an atypical
request for a restaurant used to Chinese or British
dining habits) - but the sausage too came unbiddenly
medium-rare, which meant that the texture (not the
flavor) suffered a bit.

B had the poeleed veal medallions with cepes and
shiitake - something I wouldn't have ordered. It was
perfectly fine, just nothing to get excited about,
the veal tasting appropriately milky, the mushrooms
mushroomy. I'd suggested she do the special roast of
the day, medium-rare American beef rib roast, instead,
but you don't go to Hong Kong for American beef: nor
for veal, as it turns out.

My choice was lamb noisettes over ratatouille - pretty
much as expected, fine with the wine. The noisettes had
not been quite 100% trimmed, so I had a bone fragment or
two and a little line of gristle in my portion.

Desserts were a bit strange. Strawberry cake was a little
weird in texture, and the so-called bread pudding was
really a rice pudding with some flour in the custard to
make another unique texture. The tastes were not bad,
but coupled with the textures, they made an unsettling
experience. A plate of petits fours - better than the
real desserts - preceded the rather substantial bill,
which didn't come until asked for. By the way, we were
seated at a nice-ish window table, but at the end of the
evening, just before we had dessert, another couple left
who had had the best table in the house (panoramic view
looking out over Kowloon and the New Territories), and
we were asked if we'd like that table; we rapidly
assented. I'd say that for a consummate experience, at
which you pretend for a while to be master and mistress
of all that you survey, this is worth a try at least
once in a lifetime.

- -

Lai Ching Heen, Regent Hotel, New World Centre, Kowloon.

A hideous rainy day. As the shuttle bus lets you off
at the entrance to the Regent, this - or the Steak House
- was the obvious choice. We were greeted by an excellent
beef brisket soup (helped by a teaspoon of hot chili jam).

Following this, we had har gow (quite good, better than
most of what I've had in the US but not quite up to the
impossible standard set by Rouge) and beef balls (very
light and tender - usually this dish is kind of rubbery).

Then sesame fried prawns, which were pretty much the
usual thing; and frog legs in ginger, scallion, wine, and
lemon, an absolutely terrific dish, the small legs just
cooked, the flavorings delicate and perfect.

To fill up, bowls of yangchow fried rice, which were
almost as good as what I make (but with lots more shrimp).

The house dessert was "jasmine" soup - a semisweet soup
with water chestnuts.

I drank a fairly oaky, lemony Caliterra Reserve Chardonnay.
B had the extremely light and citrusy Anselmi Soave.

- -

Dynasty, New World Renaissance Hotel, New World Centre.
A heavy, delicious meat orgy. We started out with one
"deep-fried crispy baby pigeon" each: the birds were
actually marinated in maltose and spices and then
roasted. Absolutely wonderful, and a bargain at $50
each. Asked the very on-the-ball maitre d' for a dish
of greens, and he brought stir-fried sweet potato greens
(anyhow, that's what I think they were) in garlic sauce;
these were superb. The main course was a two-way combo
barbeque platter: you choose goose, suckling pig, soy
sauce chicken, jellyfish, or barbequed pork - two or three
choices for varying prices. We had goose, very good but
slightly lean, and suckling pig, very good but slightly
fatty. And after we finished the fairly generous plate of
meat, we looked at each other and summoned the maitre d'
- got a second platter, this time with a double order of
suckling pig. B was tired and not drinking, so I washed
this meal down with bottles of San Miguel. For dessert
we had sago pudding filled with mashed walnuts (the nuts
taste almost like chestnuts) and rabbit dumplings filled
with egg custard - a kid's dessert, three steamed rice
wrapper pastries sculpted in the shape of bunnies and filled
with blobs of egg yolk mixed with sugar; fun and tasty.

- -

Set the alarm for 7 so as to get B to her 9:45 departure.
Unfortunately, we both overslept the alarm. When I finally
woke, it was 8:26. Got her out of bed and hustled out of
there: checked out of the hotel by 8:50, got her into the
1K line and checked in by 9. Sent her off as I checked in
at my leisure and moseyed down to the United area: saw
her plane pulling out of the gate and no sobbing B at the
gate (nor at the RCC later). My own flight wasn't until
12:45, so I had plenty of time to shop the duty-free and
then use the balky slow Internet terminal at the club.

The Hong Kong Red Carpet Club. The usual drinks, plus Gammel
Dansk Bitter Dram and Courvoisier VSOP Exclusif. Bitter
Dram is like Angostura Bitters cut with vodka. The Cognac
was like Cognac cut with vodka - disappointingly without
charm or character but with quite a bite.

The draft beer was Carlsberg, with Beck's available in
the cooler. White wine was Patriarche Chardonnay, and
the red was a Vichon Cabernet.

Snacks: White bread (a toaster handy for making toast)
with a selection of jams. Chocolate cookies (like Oreos:
these went fast) and lemon crackers (like Ritz cracker
sandwiches with lemon creme filling: these did not go
fast). Regular crackers with an Australian Cheddar that
although mild did not taste bad at all - the cheese
label read: "Bonlac fine Australian Cheese. Dairy Good.
20 g. Tasty." Five things in bowls: Pretzels; a nut mix
of mostly peanuts with some fried green peas, plus a
few almonds and cashews; MSG-and-paprika-dusted potato
chips; beef curry flavored shrimp crackers; marshmallows.

UA2 HKG LAX 747 15A Ch 9 Y Empower Y

The flight loaded and left right on time. Service was
attentive and smiling, and there were plenty of snacks
on board. Quite a contrast to the inaugural. I had my
favorite seat and slept like a baby for much of the trip.

Lunch.

To begin
Sauteed salmon with shrimp cocktail, cabbage roll,
hard-boiled egg and fresh lemon. This consisted of a
nice though small slice of fatty poached salmon,
one large but rubbery shrimp, a cabbage roll stuffed
with shredded carrots and leeks. The egg was merely
the carrier for some egregious tomato sauce.

Garden fresh salad, oriental vinaigrette or Caesar
dressing

Main course

Filet mignon with tomato onion sauce, thyme potato
pie and sauteed spinach

Southern fried chicken with jus lie, chive mashed
potatoes and creamed corn

Cantonese-style steamed sea bass with ginger and
spring onion, Chinese seasonal greens and steamed rice

Had the chicken again. A generous and not overcooked
white-meat portion in a thick Panko breading that at
one time had been crunchy. The "jus lie" was a thick
brown beefy gravy violently and bitterly flavored with
rosemary. The taters were delicious, not from a box.
The corn (probably canned) were trapped in a stiff
gray jelly; not bad but weird. I tried the 1996
Ch. St.-Bonnet, a surprisingly respectable Medoc.

Dessert

Whipped Gorgonzola cheese with pistachios and sauteed
bread, fresh fruit and a glass of Sandeman's Porto

Ricotta cheesecake

As usual, I dispensed with the desserts, having
instead two glasses of Port.

Midflight snack
Please help yourself to assorted treats between the
two main meals

Copious snacks. Ramen bowls, fruit, Japanese rice
crackers, and an enormous pile of deli sandwiches.
Mine was pastrami round, porchetta, and cheese:
the pastrami was violently peppery but everything
else was okay. Also lots of Lay's potato chips and
bottles of water - I felt slightly guilty taking the
last bottle, but when I glanced over later the supply
had miraculously been replenished.

Prior to arrival
Mushroom onion omelette with tomato basil coulis,
roesti potatoes, smoked pork loin and a fruit appetizer
or
Fresh seasonal fruit plate with creamy yogurt

I slept through this. Woke up shortly before landing and
went to the bathroom; on my way back a flight attendant
stopped me and asked if I wanted a quick breakfast. I
passed but was grateful that she'd remembered and asked.

We put down a few minutes early, and immigration and customs
took mere minutes. Missed my lunch date at LAX. We talked
the next day: turns out he was stuck in traffic, and then his
truck overheated, and by the time he got to the airport,
I'd taken off to try to find a phone. And I couldn't get
through to his number.

I ended up just having enough time to choke down an order
of taquitos and a Budweiser at an outlet called La Salsa
in the United terminal. The food wasn't bad, and at $10
the price didn't look too bad either, considering where
I'd just been. The schtick of this place is the salsa
bar, which has everything from a mild avocado salsa
(tasty) to a quite respectable regular chopped tomato
sauce (tasty) to a habanero salsa (labeled VERY HOT and
in fact it is very hot and very tasteless). Then it was
on to

U*2040 LAX SFO 735 2D Ch 9 Y Empower N
which I basically slept through.

Met tom911 at the airport. We went down to Pier 39
for drinks: took a look around the place and decided
on Neptune's Galley, an upscale wood-and-plants
bar with a great view. I had half a dozen really good
oysters, coupled with the crisp fruity Vinum Pointe
Blanc, a mixture of Viognier and several other varieties.

Then it was to Angkor Wat on Geary at 6th Avenue to
dine with raffy and Tim.

raffy and Tim seem to be doing fine, not too
concerned by the economic downturn, willing to
chuckle at their former colleagues who ran away
to start dotcoms and who have now slunk back with
their proverbial tails between their legs. They're
heading off to the Seychelles in a couple weeks,
more power to them. It was a good-humored meal.

spring rolls - filled with chicken, pretty standard.
The hit was the sweet-sour cabbage served on the side.

chicken pineapple coconut soup - tart and sweetish,
reminiscent of tom kha gai but with pieces of fresh
pineapple. Very nice indeed.

curry duck - neither tom911 nor raffy care for duck,
but Tim and I really like the stuff, so we ordered
it. Forced our friends to try it, and both admitted
that it was better than the ducks of their memories.
A light red curry sauce, not too hot, helped it down.
Here, the duck is boneless and skinless, with most of
the extra fat cut away as well: I disapprove, but this
helped make the dish palatable for the duckophobes.

eggplant curry with minced pork and diced prawns -
pleasant, mild, lots of prawns; also in a mild light
red curry sauce.

prawns and pork - marinated in lime and something
and then grilled, served with more of that sweet-sour
cabbage.

beef - marinated in a sweet soy marinade and then
grilled, served with still more sweet-sour cabbage.

It was too soon time to head back out to the airport
(thanks, tom911!) so I could catch

UA4 SFO JFK 762 8A Ch 9 N Empower N
After the fiasco with the New York-based cabin crew on
JFK-HKG, I was prepared for the worst when I saw the
sullen (one guy looked just like Rocky) attendants on
this one. Surprisingly, they were efficient, competent,
and rather gracious, although somewhat monosyllabic. We
were delayed about 10 minutes for catering (on a 10 pm
flight!) - the food turned out to be an antipasto, only
the guy didn't know what it was called: he described it
to me as "some salami, some shrimp, some salad" and to
another as "some salami, some cheese, some salad." Good
drink service. Hot towels. Even an occasional smile. I
snoozed off and on, even though the C seats on the 762
are as uncomfortable as church pews and the footrests
are almost as good as those on the Greyhound bus. I
noticed that F were handed menus.

Landed a bit early, so I decided to wander about: saw a
sign for Terminal 7, so I headed down the corridor, found
a traffic jam, and retraced my steps back up to the main
area and found a shuttle bus (downstairs by the rest rooms).
The bus takes you to Gate 11-12, which means that in order
to get to the rest of Terminal 7, you have to pass security
again. I put my stuff on the belt, and some girl going to
London put her stuff on after me. The person running the
machine kept scanning the girl's backpack, and then she
challenged me: asked me if I had a sword in my backpack.
She pulled my LL Bean duffel (doesn't look like a backpack)
while the girl took the backpack away and disappeared;
meanwhile this guy at security kept saying "no, it's that
woman's backpack!" to the lady who was giving me a hard time.
I pointed at the x-ray lady and said to the guy, "I think
she's a lunatic." I had an hour before my flight and would
have been perfectly happy to be detained for a while if it
meant the x-ray lady's job. But after a few trips through
the scanner and the x-ray machine, each more inconclusive
than the last, it was determined that I didn't have weapons
on me, and I just hope that UA976 wasn't highjacked by some
girl with a sword. By the way, she had been really nervous,
and when asked to produce her boarding pass, she pulled
all this stuff out of her backpack, and one of the things
that fell out on the floor was a UA headset. I got this
really low opinion of her and wonder that security didn't
also. But the depth of stupidity of the Argenbright people
should never surprise one.

UA988 JFK BOS 320 3A Ch 9 N Empower N
Slept through this one as well. I think it was bumpy.
F was 11/12. Shortly before the doors closed, the attendant
in F pointed to the seat next to me and said "there's one,
but I'm sure they'll fill it." They didn't, even though
there were uniformed crew in the wayback.

A real tour de force, violist. Enjoyed it. I'll be doing 821 later this week, and 820 on the return next week. You and tfung don't give me much to look forward to, but at least it cuts out a couple of segments and a few k-miles JFK<->HKG

Thanks violist for an interesting report!

I still can't believe that United has not at least add a real midflight snack course on this really long flight. Your HKG-LAX flight has more food than the JFK-HKG flight. Even my American's TPE-SJC flight has a real beef noodles soup or sandwich for midflight snack. Plus all the snack carts...
I thought you are going to get a Kenneth Cole coupon... T-shirts seem to te the theme here.

Well, redeye flight is redeye flight. United tries very hard to eliminate meal service on the redeye flight. I believe that the snack service may disappear soon. I still think airlines should serve a continental breakfast prior to arrival on the redeye flight.

Thanks for the report!

Carfield

Hey violist!
Great report! It's interesting to see what other's thought of the inaugural flight. Still couldn't understand why the purser thought I wasn't on the manifest.. weird.. =P
Terence