DL IAD-CVG-CLE-CVG-IAD
Sep 24, 2001, 6:49 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: May 2001
Location: ATL
Programs: FL, AA, DL
Posts: 663
DL IAD-CVG-CLE-CVG-IAD
Okay, this is going to be a boring and somewhat rambling trip report, but I'm writing it so I can procrastinate on going into work. I'm coming off a 3-day weekend and am a little sluggish, so humor me. 
Usually I fly out of DCA, since it's 5 miles from my house, but had to switch the flight to IAD (30 miles from my house) for obvious reasons. I decided to take a cab to the airport and back since I'm not too fond of driving to airports, especially Dulles. My cab fare round-trip ended up costing as much as my ticket, and more than my two days of hotel (about $115 on the cab). Ouch. I'd forgotten how expensive that was. Next time I'll drive.
The cab driver on the way out was Afghani. It was a 40 minute trip, and we talked about current events the whole way, which is how I know he's Afghani in the first place. He left Afghanistan in '81 after fighting a year in the war as a teenager, ran a restaurant in Parkistan for 5 years, then came to the US. He was pretty anti-Taliban, and also anti-Parkistan as well. As far as the cab business goes he says he's down for the usual 5-6 trips from the airport he'll make in a 10+ hour day, to just 2-3 trips. He's hoping it will pick up soon.
IAD looked pretty deserted. I got there the requisite 2 hours in advance, and took about 2 minutes to check in through the Medallion line. Same two security questions, plus the "are you carrying anything sharp?" one added. I overheard the agents at the desk talking about how they usually worked DCA. I guess that means that some IAD people lost their jobs to accommodate DCA people with greater seniority? I should have asked, but they seemed busy so I continued on.
Security seemed a bit more focused. Some people were being spot-checked on their bags, and more people seemed to be waved down with wands than usual. I thought that my minidisc player (an uncommon electric item) might confuse people and cause them to search my bag but it didn't. There was a bin there of confiscated fingernail clippers and razors that someone newspaper-ish was photographing. I had to show my ticket and picture ID here.
I caught the mobile lounge to the terminal and noted how vacant it looked. Then again, I'm not sure what midday traffic on a Friday should look like, and Dulles is pretty vault-like and huge in general. Even when air traffic picks up the terminals will still be less crowded since you won't have Aunt Martha and Uncle Bob out at the gate to meet their nieces and nephews. I bought some water and jelly beans, and settled in to read a little Clancy for my hour and a half wait to flight time. Nothing like reading a plane hijack scene while waiting to board your flight...
It was my first Comair flight ever, connecting through CVG. The plane was pretty packed, and the flight attendant cheered at the sight of so many people. She said things were starting to pick up again. I swear, I've never seen a more perky flight attendant. The flight over was uneventful, with a standard beverage and snack service.
I've never been to CVG before. It seems like a nice enough airport. My continuing flight was a Delta flight so I got on a shuttle to switch terminals. Again, I can't estimate crowd sizes since I'm not sure what the Friday afternoon norm is. I grabbed a slice of pizza for a late lunch and made my way to the boarding area, where I encountered an obnoxiously loud businessman on a cellphone. He had it on hands-free and was apparently strategically placed so that his voice would echo, loudly, throughout the entire waiting area. There was no way to escape him! When I eventually boarded the plane he was yapping away in his first class seat, and I took a moment to be thankful that I couldn't upgrade my U-class fare. First class looked full. The back of the plane was about 1/3 full. The flight to CLE was short and uneventful.
Two nights in Sandusky, OH followed, home of Cedar Point Amusement Park. Had a blast, even though the friend who was supposed to meet me there ducked out at the last moment. He didn't want to fly because of the 'hassle'. Interestingly enough, the car I got from Hertz was a Monte Carlo from Quebec. The speedometer was in kph, with the mph in much smaller numbers underneath. And the odometer was in km as well, which made following directions (11 miles down this road) interesting. I'm guessing it might have been driven down from Canada when travellers got stranded after the attacks. Another thing I noticed is that there just aren't any gas stations near the rental car dropoff area. I ended up backtracking about 4 miles, but since I was there a billion hours early, it wasn't a big deal.
Cleveland has a fairly nice waiting area before you get into the secure gate area. I bought the world's largest frozen yogurt waffle cone, and managed to eat about a quarter of it before passing through security. The thing seriously must've weighed a pound. Security at CLE is two-step now. The first step has someone checking picture ID and ticket, and the next was the standard x-ray. I didn't notice anyone having bags searched, though there was a cop standing around supervising things.
The rest of the trip was pretty much the norm. I had two more Comair connections, and each of them had only one or two empty seats. I hung out for an hour at the CVG Comair terminal on my layover, and thought it was fairly nice. They were broadcasting the prayer service from NYC while I was there, and lots of people were watching. When they had the singing of the Star Spangled Banner hats went off, and a few people stood with hands over their hearts. Most people stopped to watch and everyone was quite. Afterwards in the terminal there was applause, and people who had merely paused to watch started on their way again.
I took another cab home, opting out of the Super Shuttle service that would have cut the fair in half. I had another Arab-American cab driver but he wasn't as talkative, and neither was I. He was friendly, though. We did talk about people who had taken cross-country cab trips the week of the attacks. He said that a few times a week normally he hears about Washington Flyer drivers being asked to take people to Richmond, to Boston, to New York, even to Atlanta. These are $500-$800 one-way fares. He says these are people who have had their flight cancelled and difficulties getting home, who absolutely have to (or want to) be there so that money is no object.
All in all, a good trip. I felt very safe flying. I did find myself taking more notice of Arab-Americans on flights, just out of curiosity. I was worried that I would feel nervous with them on flights, just as a gut reaction, but it turns out I didn't. I never saw any incidents of people (employees or otherwise) treating those I saw any differently as any other passenger, which was nice to see.
Usually I fly out of DCA, since it's 5 miles from my house, but had to switch the flight to IAD (30 miles from my house) for obvious reasons. I decided to take a cab to the airport and back since I'm not too fond of driving to airports, especially Dulles. My cab fare round-trip ended up costing as much as my ticket, and more than my two days of hotel (about $115 on the cab). Ouch. I'd forgotten how expensive that was. Next time I'll drive.
The cab driver on the way out was Afghani. It was a 40 minute trip, and we talked about current events the whole way, which is how I know he's Afghani in the first place. He left Afghanistan in '81 after fighting a year in the war as a teenager, ran a restaurant in Parkistan for 5 years, then came to the US. He was pretty anti-Taliban, and also anti-Parkistan as well. As far as the cab business goes he says he's down for the usual 5-6 trips from the airport he'll make in a 10+ hour day, to just 2-3 trips. He's hoping it will pick up soon.
IAD looked pretty deserted. I got there the requisite 2 hours in advance, and took about 2 minutes to check in through the Medallion line. Same two security questions, plus the "are you carrying anything sharp?" one added. I overheard the agents at the desk talking about how they usually worked DCA. I guess that means that some IAD people lost their jobs to accommodate DCA people with greater seniority? I should have asked, but they seemed busy so I continued on.
Security seemed a bit more focused. Some people were being spot-checked on their bags, and more people seemed to be waved down with wands than usual. I thought that my minidisc player (an uncommon electric item) might confuse people and cause them to search my bag but it didn't. There was a bin there of confiscated fingernail clippers and razors that someone newspaper-ish was photographing. I had to show my ticket and picture ID here.
I caught the mobile lounge to the terminal and noted how vacant it looked. Then again, I'm not sure what midday traffic on a Friday should look like, and Dulles is pretty vault-like and huge in general. Even when air traffic picks up the terminals will still be less crowded since you won't have Aunt Martha and Uncle Bob out at the gate to meet their nieces and nephews. I bought some water and jelly beans, and settled in to read a little Clancy for my hour and a half wait to flight time. Nothing like reading a plane hijack scene while waiting to board your flight...
It was my first Comair flight ever, connecting through CVG. The plane was pretty packed, and the flight attendant cheered at the sight of so many people. She said things were starting to pick up again. I swear, I've never seen a more perky flight attendant. The flight over was uneventful, with a standard beverage and snack service.
I've never been to CVG before. It seems like a nice enough airport. My continuing flight was a Delta flight so I got on a shuttle to switch terminals. Again, I can't estimate crowd sizes since I'm not sure what the Friday afternoon norm is. I grabbed a slice of pizza for a late lunch and made my way to the boarding area, where I encountered an obnoxiously loud businessman on a cellphone. He had it on hands-free and was apparently strategically placed so that his voice would echo, loudly, throughout the entire waiting area. There was no way to escape him! When I eventually boarded the plane he was yapping away in his first class seat, and I took a moment to be thankful that I couldn't upgrade my U-class fare. First class looked full. The back of the plane was about 1/3 full. The flight to CLE was short and uneventful.
Two nights in Sandusky, OH followed, home of Cedar Point Amusement Park. Had a blast, even though the friend who was supposed to meet me there ducked out at the last moment. He didn't want to fly because of the 'hassle'. Interestingly enough, the car I got from Hertz was a Monte Carlo from Quebec. The speedometer was in kph, with the mph in much smaller numbers underneath. And the odometer was in km as well, which made following directions (11 miles down this road) interesting. I'm guessing it might have been driven down from Canada when travellers got stranded after the attacks. Another thing I noticed is that there just aren't any gas stations near the rental car dropoff area. I ended up backtracking about 4 miles, but since I was there a billion hours early, it wasn't a big deal.
Cleveland has a fairly nice waiting area before you get into the secure gate area. I bought the world's largest frozen yogurt waffle cone, and managed to eat about a quarter of it before passing through security. The thing seriously must've weighed a pound. Security at CLE is two-step now. The first step has someone checking picture ID and ticket, and the next was the standard x-ray. I didn't notice anyone having bags searched, though there was a cop standing around supervising things.
The rest of the trip was pretty much the norm. I had two more Comair connections, and each of them had only one or two empty seats. I hung out for an hour at the CVG Comair terminal on my layover, and thought it was fairly nice. They were broadcasting the prayer service from NYC while I was there, and lots of people were watching. When they had the singing of the Star Spangled Banner hats went off, and a few people stood with hands over their hearts. Most people stopped to watch and everyone was quite. Afterwards in the terminal there was applause, and people who had merely paused to watch started on their way again.
I took another cab home, opting out of the Super Shuttle service that would have cut the fair in half. I had another Arab-American cab driver but he wasn't as talkative, and neither was I. He was friendly, though. We did talk about people who had taken cross-country cab trips the week of the attacks. He said that a few times a week normally he hears about Washington Flyer drivers being asked to take people to Richmond, to Boston, to New York, even to Atlanta. These are $500-$800 one-way fares. He says these are people who have had their flight cancelled and difficulties getting home, who absolutely have to (or want to) be there so that money is no object.
All in all, a good trip. I felt very safe flying. I did find myself taking more notice of Arab-Americans on flights, just out of curiosity. I was worried that I would feel nervous with them on flights, just as a gut reaction, but it turns out I didn't. I never saw any incidents of people (employees or otherwise) treating those I saw any differently as any other passenger, which was nice to see.
