Hi everyone,

Here is my first trip report after 911. Things have certainly changed for flying and you can sense the additional tension among the passengers. Even I felt a bit tense during my first flight. Nevertheless, my trips involve all Western destinations, but my next trip will involve Washington DC Dulles and Newark, NJ. Maybe I will have a different understanding there.

October 9, 2001
AS 499 LAX-SEA Lv1730 Arr2006 MD-80 N972AS
Since LAX is still closed for private vehicles, I log on to the www.supershuttle.com and book myself a shuttle. Pick up time was 2:30pm for my flight, which was fair. There was another pickup too. The trip to the airport was smooth and I had a great chat with this lady, who was born in Hong Kong and lived in Shanghai during the pre-Communist Shanghai. She had some interesting things to say about the politics in Hong Kong. She quickly pointed out that even the Nationalist Chinese government led by Chiang Kei Sek suffered the same kinds of corruption problems as the Communist China. Anyway, it was a pretty relaxed way to head to the airport.

LAX was very quiet and I actually liked it this way. No more crazy cars fighting spaces with limos, courtesy vehicles� Circling around the Tom Bradley terminal was not too crazy anymore. When we passed by Terminal 2, I spotted the brand new Hawaiian Airlines' Boeing 767-300ER with the new livery, instead of the ugly grey color scheme. It was nice. I was dropped off at Terminal 3, and the lines in Alaska Airlines were not too busy this afternoon. The agent told me that it was usually that quiet during the fall months, but of course, it was even more quiet now. Not much change for the check in procedures - the same three questions always asked by AS (Yes, AS always asks the question of "whether you bring any dangerous objects or firearms aboard this flight�", even before 911), the printing of boarding pass, and bag tags. The only change was that there were two security guards checking ID on the bases of the escalator. Only ticketed passengers are allowed beyond that point. Passing the LAX security checkpoint was no difficult task. Laptops had to be taken off for screening and the lines were not terribly long. Since I had two hours to spare, I used two MVP coupons for lounge access. The lounge was pretty full, compared to other times and only a few departures at that time. The TV was playing the CNN channel and many businessmen were watching it. But it was pretty disappointing to find out that there was no free drink. There are coffee, tea, and iced water, but you had to pay for everything else. Snacks are limited to cheese, crackers and apples. However, the best thing about it was the great view of Runway 24. Too bad, I had not bought a new camera yet. Nonetheless, activities are fairly limited to Southwest dominantly. Well, I spotted the British Airways' China livery, Mexicana's A320 with the original MX livery, Southwest's California one ,and EI's A330-200 (EI-EWR) heading back to Dublin.

Back to my flight, it was delayed due to late inbound flight - a pretty common occurrence, but nothing major. Boarding began at 5:34pm and nothing much has changed during the boarding process. The pilot was not there watching us, and the only change was that agents were checking ID again. I quickly took my seat, 2F, and water bottles were already placed there. To my observation, there was no secondary screening like other airlines this evening. The flight was half full in Y and full in F this evening. Door was closed at 5:53pm, but some aircraft activities in the alleyway delayed our push back time. We were on our way to Runway 24L at 6:05pm and took off after four minutes towards the golden sky along the coast.

Unlike other airlines, the inflight service was excellent this evening. The F/A served us beverage of our choice and some honey roasted peanuts after we reached a safe cruising attitude. A full dinner service was offered in both first and coach class. Economy class passengers were offered a choice of pasta and meat entr�e on tray with salad, dessert, and bread roll. For us in first, the dinner was delicious. Here is my description of the meal.

Salad - Mesclun greens with walnuts and kiwi slices, accompanied by Mustard vinaigrette dressing
Very fresh salad, and the use of kiwi was creative and the mix was not bad. There was an olive roll, too.

Main Courses
Beef fillet on a pastry bottom with onion gravy, carrots, and beans
that's the popular choice and it was ran out by the time it reached row 3
Or
Fettucine with shrimps and diced tomato on a lite tomato sauce
delicious and the cream sauce was not heavy� very pleasant�

Dessert - an okay raspberry-apple pie

The dinner was excellent and one of the best Alaska meals that I had. I guess the Los Angeles to Seattle routes must be a flagship route, since the food is excellent and economy class gets hot meals on trays. Even San Diego to Seattle passengers got only hot sandwiches for dinner. The rest of the flight was very quiet. To me, it was actually a bit tense� not much conversation going on, but the procedures on AS seemed unchanged. It was very DISTURBING to see that the front galley was empty and no flight attendant was guarding the cockpit door or monitoring the bathroom. I heard that AA's F/A purposefully to put a beverage cart in front of the cockpit. Passengers were still hanging out in the front section. I found it very strange and actually a bit uneasy. It was certainly the first flight since 911 and was a bit nervous. Although the front galley was always empty during mid flight back to the pre-911 days, I still think that the F/A need to be more vigilant these days. What do you all think? Am I over-reacting?

Soon we began our descent and it was a beautiful night in Seattle. Perfect view of Seattle, Space Needle, and surrounding area, and we landed on Runway 16R at 6:46pm. We parked at gate D9 and this flight was excellent. However, my guts told me that flying is a different from now on.

October 10, 2001
QX 2366 SEA-PDX Lv1430 Arr1520 Dash 8 Q400 N408QX
I checked in really early at Sea-Tac but the line was not particular long in Horizon Air's area. Even the AS lines looked normal. I guess the instant check in helped relieve the line a bit, unlike other airlines. The QX agent was very cheerful as ever and that was why I love this airline so much. Boarding took place at C2G and I chose to eat near the D age area. About the security lines, Seattle seemed to be a bit tense than LAX. The lines at the C gates were long and they also chose only to open two lines. Then I discovered the new D&N gates security checkpoints, and the lines were almost non-existent. I quickly went through the line, but I beeped when I passed the machine. Instead of passing a second checkpoint, I stood in line for the personal check. It was very extensive and they made me flip the belt buckle and touch my ankles. However, the arrangements were very chaotic. Nevertheless, that is the new reality.

Back to the Horizon gates, it was mad house. People everywhere and there was no where to sit. So I went to the AS/AA gate area and found a quiet spot to watch planes. Nothing much to see, except Asiana has stopped using Boeing 777-200 for the Seattle service. It used the Boeing 767-300ER for this particular day. More rains came and delays continued. Fortunately, our Dash 8 arrived a bit early and the turnaround time was quick. Unlike LAX, there was secondary screening in SEA. The gate agents announced a list before boarding, and those individuals had to go through a second check. I guess it was a random list. We continued boarding then, and the push back was delayed a bit. I walked towards the aircraft and there was light rain. I boarded the beautiful Dash 8 and found my aisle seat. The flight was very full today, but the seat next to me remained empty. Two AS F/As sat behind me and I overhead their conversation about turbulence and service on Horizon Air. The QX F/A told them the beverage service on the bigger planes was different from Dash 8-100. It was more limited with juice and water and chips.

Soon, our door was closed, and we took off from R/W16L at 2:54pm. The weather was very unstable but the F/A still provided us service on this short thirty-two minutes flight. The F/A first distributed the Tim's Cascade style potato chips with University of Washington's Husky print. Then they came by with a basket of treetop's apple juice and Horizon Air's water bottles. One thing different from my last Seattle Shuttle flight was the elimination of beer or wine service - symbols of Horizon Air. To me, it did not matter at all. Our descent to PDX was very bumpy and fortunately, this larger Dash 8 was a bit more stable. We finally landed on PDX at 3:26pm. We was only a little bit late.

AS 542 PDX-SAN Lv1715 Arr1933 Boeing 737-400 N767AS
Portland International Airport is always pleasant. The new B/C concourse was beautiful and made travel very stress free. The walk from A5 to C23 was a pretty long one, but good exercise. The activities in Portland were very few. Once again, Southwest had the place to its own. Horizon Air was the second, and of course, some AS planes were flying around. However, other airlines were not as frequently seen as AS, QX, and WN.

Boarding took place at 4:50pm and once again, some passengers were called aside for secondary checks. I took my seat at 1C and the flight was completely full this evening. The door was closed a few minutes late, but we managed to take off from Runway 10L at 5:31pm. Flying time was two hours due to some tail wind, and dinner was served to F and Y class. Like other PDX flights, F class did not have entr�e choice, and Y class got hot sandwiches. There was also no separate beverage and nut service, too. After we reached our cruising attitude, the F/A distributed our salad, drinks, and a cold roll. Here is the meal description -
Salad - 2 cucumber slices, tomato wedges, and radish slices with romaine lettuce and yellow pepper ring, accompanied by Albuquerque Ranch dressing and a sesame roll
not much to say about it - a fair salad and the roll was pretty hard

Entr�e - Tortellini filled with wild mushroom and cottage cheese, accompanied by tomato wedges, squashes, and zucchini sauce
Pretty decent - but I guess I like meat or seafood better� I recommend passengers flying the PDX-LAX/SAN flight to make a special meal request when u/g in first.

Dessert - Apple torte - very delicious because the F/A warmed it up

The meal was not great, but decent. The weather was a bit rough and fogs surrounded the San Diego area. We began our descent at 7:10pm and finally landed on R/W 27 at 7:31pm. We quickly parked at Gate 16.

Back to the "Cattle Car"
There are good and bad days when flying Southwest. This following roundtrip definitely reminds me why I hate Southwest, and why I will still stay away from it as much as possible. I thank Southwest for its low fares, but enduring those stresses created by its crazy check in system makes me turn away from it. Here is my "fun" ride to Las Vegas.

October 11, 2001
WN 1497 SAN-LAS Lv1245 Arr1355 Boeing 737-300 N690SW
A beautiful day in San Diego� My sister and I took the Xpress shuttle and headed to the airport at 10am. The lines in SAN were not bad, and we did not need to check any bag today. We checked the gate and went to food court for lunch. McDonald - here we come. Then, we decided to head to the gate earlier. We began standing at gate 4, as shown by the airport monitor. A couple passengers were already in line and we took the spots and spent our next thirty minutes standing. Then a Southwest agent approaced the gate, and hung around there for a few minutes. As we all expected that she was the check in lady, she ended up security checking some ladies. Then she went back to the counter and stood there. Finally, some newly arrived passengers went up to her and asked that was this the gate for the LAS flight? She said, "yes," and they were checking in at gate 3A. After staring at us for over 15 minutes, she suddenly realized that we were all waiting to check in for that flight. What a difficult task! She said, "oh, they are checking this flight on Gate 3A." Then we saw a small line but the screen said "WN abcd to Oakland� departing 4:55pm�" Due to a cancellation on one of WN flights to Oakland, we assumed that they were all being rebooked. Suddenly, our faces dropped and people once again put on the worst behavior. They all rushed to that line and cut lines, and do all kinds of things possible. Southwest is really good in exposing the bad behaviors of human beings. We were all mad, and this lady said, "well, they had problems with the computers there, and they messed up the gate." But then, Southwest still needs to tell us. I recall the monitor at PHX telling us where to check in. If your flight is being checked in somewhere else, they will write "but check in at Gate XX." No one decided that we might be confused. Why didn't you put a paper sign?" Do something! We were all pissed off, and I could not believe it. We were given number 40 and 41. Not bad� I guess� Then we moved to our next line - gate. We were in the line for almost two hours. What a day to start!

Then, how about safety? As we all know, Southwest's procedures are not about safety, but simply quick. There was only one ID check - it was at the entrance of the security check points. When I though Southwest would have to change a bit, nothing really changed. The door ways to the gate were still pretty wide opened at SAN, and everyone was free to walk around. They did not check ID again when we boarded (because WN used plastic and recycled them). Although TV told us how security was tight, Southwest has not changed a bit.

I did not do any plane-spotting but I could tell you that it is a "Southwest" land - sickening�

Our flight took off from Runway 27 at 1:05pm, and flying time was fifty-three minutes. We cruised to 31,000ft and were served a cup of beverage with roasted salted peanuts. Some chops into LAS� nothing unusual. We touched town on 1:54pm at Runway 25L. Thank god! The trip was done.

Then we went to the Park Place entertainment complex and decided to check in there for our hotel, Paris. It was a pretty smart choice because we could avoid the lines in the hotel. It was my first time staying at Paris. The room was okay and I enjoyed the short weekend. I lost money, but the shopping was good, with many surprising sales. I finally went to the Bellagio dinner buffet. It was very good and I had lots of crab legs and shrimps. The variety of food was abundant. The desserts were nice.

After three days of fun, it was back to Moowest�

October 13, 2001
WN 2051 LAS-SAN Lv1910 Arr2010 Boeing 737-700 N779SW
Fortunately, the check in was smoother. We went to the right gate, and I noticed that Southwest finally had to gave us a boarding document - a boarding card with our name, our flight, and reservation locator. Instead, there was no ID check in the gate. Oh... what the h#ll! Then I overhead the gate agent mumbling about the boarding documents, but I told myself - checking ID at the gate is the minimal that FAA will expect the airline to do - actually knowing who is going to be on the plane.

Anyhow this flight to SAN was forty five minutes with beverage and peanut service. I got Row 2 this time, and unhappy event had to happen. Then I saw a small document leather bag placed on my legal under seat space, and did not give much thought then. It was possibly from the lady sitting in 1A. However, during this particular time and just to make sure, I asked the lady in 1A if the bag was her, or to some passengers on prior flights. Then she yelled back, "no that was my bag, and there was nothing harmful there." Her tone was angry and annoyed, and then my sister and I discussed about it. She complained to the lady sitting in 1C about us talking in our native language, and asking her stupid questions. Then I said, "I was kindly asking her about the bag," and my sister reaffirmed that we just wanted to make sure that it was no somebody else. Her reactions are uncalled for, and as seasoned travelers, it was pretty common sense that bulkhead seats don't have a storing room in front of their seats; therefore you placed your bags on the overhead bin. You get nice legroom but get to sacrifice the possibility of storing your bags under your seat. That is a reasonable deal. When I think people's attitudes have changed, it was certainly not reflected in this occasion. Fortunately, the rest of the flight went well. The F/A technically worked up to the moment the gear was lowered. Unlike other Southwest's experiences, our aircraft was deplaned through stairs at gate 1. It was nice to deplane in this fashion, but the rather unstable Southwest's metal trolley made this experience a bit "shaky." The stairs were literally shaking as we descended.

October 15, 2001
AS 523 SAN-SEA Lv1823 Arr2103 Boeing 737-400 N797AS
Arrived a bit early at San Diego - almost four hours prior to departure! My sister had classes in the afternoon, so she dropped me off early. It was fine. I went to catch lunch in the McDonald again. I bought a couple magazines and really enjoyed the November issue of "Talk" with New York mayor in the cover. It was horrific to read about the 911 again, but found most articles well-written. I went up to the gate a bit early and was glad to catch the glimpse of British Airways' Boeing 777 (G-YMMA) with Union Flag livery. It was being refueled and reloaded at gate 1 in Terminal 2. Then I saw it take off from SAN's relatively short runway. Basically, Southwest planes had the most movements at this airport. I noticed that United was running a couple SFO flights as well, but the flights were empty. Some of the early flights offered to move passengers to earlier flight. But the Denver flight looked relatively full. Those United's A320s certainly looked very nice.

Our flight was sold out this afternoon and the Portland flight was doing well, but of course, AS cut the 5pm 739 flight to SEA, and another late afternoon PDX flight. It might explain the full load. Our inbound flight arrived a bit late from Seattle and our departure time was pushed to 6:45pm. No problem! The boarding began with those passengers, who were selected to be screened second time, and then general boarding began at the other line. Door was closed at 6:49pm, and we took off from Runway 27 at 7pm.

Flying time was two hours and 18 minutes, and our cruising attitude was 31,000ft. For us folks in first class, a dinner was served. It was actually the exact same meal served on my PDX-SAN flight, except that there was an entr�e choice. The second entr�e choice was "Seared beef tenderloin with bearnise sauce (bacon bits and gravy), potatoes, and some sweet shredded vegetable stuff (like radish). Although I was seated at 3D, I had a choice of entr�es and took the last beef. Sorry, folks, I already had the pasta on the way to SAN, and wanted to eat some red beef tonight. The meal was fine, and drinks were refilled for the rest of the flight. At this flight, the first class F/A stayed in the front galley most of the time.

For coach, they had a Texas style roast beef sandwich with pasta salad. I did not understand why SAN to SEA route, which was actually longer than LAX-SEA, got less food than LAX. Since SEA-LAX got hot dinner, I would assume the same case with SAN flight. Both LAX and SAN flights got the Southwest competitions and the leisure fare at SAN was actually more expensive than LAX. But then LAX got full hot dinner, and SAN got hot sandwiches. I really did not understand how airlines plan their catering.

Descent began at 9pm and we hit some bumps as we passed the Northern part of Oregon. Then we landed on Runway 16R at 9:22pm, and found our gate at C3. I saw the Aeroflot's Boeing 777 again. I just hope that a DL's Boeing 777 would park next to it, and it would be an interesting scene.

October 16, 2001
QX 2381 SEA-PDX Lv0830 Arr0920 CRJ-700 N606QX
Yes, I booked on this particular flight because I got to fly the brand new CRJ-700. The new regional jet certainly did not disappoint me. The brand new aircraft arrived early from PDX early, and our boarding began at 8:10am. Once again, a number of passengers went through a second screening. My excitement grew as I walked towards this brand new regional jet. Something different from the other turboprops or regional jets, we did not board through the stairs attached on the doorway, but Horizon Air used literally a walkway towards the plane. It was a pretty good idea and it was easier for the elderly and handicapped people to board the plane.

As I boarded into the new plane, it was exciting to see those new reddish brown leather seats with headrest, like CO's Y seats. It was very nice for a regional jet to have fancy seats, and the legroom was about 31 inches - not too bad. The overhead bins, however, were small like the Dash8-Q400s, so don't expect large bins. The bulkhead row was only decent with maybe one extra inch of legroom. I recommend Row 13, and the exit row had tons of room.

The load was rather light today, and I had both 10A and B for myself. The door was closed at 8:34am and we were off to Runway 16L for our takeoff. The aircraft was fairly quiet and the takeoff was smooth and the plane climbed very fast. It felt different from the Dash 8, and the flight was actually only twenty six minutes. Similar as other SEA-PDX shuttles, we got the apple juice or water, and instead of chips, we got a Quaker's Fruit and Oatmeal Very berry bar. The flight attendants also passed around coffee. The descent began very soon - not much after we leveled off. BTW, the view of Mt. Rainer and the range as we flew down to Portland today. The descent was very smooth and the F/A did not realize that we were landing that soon. Fortunately, they managed to bring a lady to her seat and picked up all the trashes. The landing was beautiful and soon parked at bay 47. We were at least seven minutes this morning. As we deplaned, the flight attendant had a basket of orange's NFL football chocolates for us. It was a nice touch.

AS 278 PDX-LAX Lv1005 Arr1225 Boeing 737-400 N772AS
Portland was beautiful this morning and my aircraft was actually at the gate early. Boarding was early at 9:35am and there was once again a second line for screening. Our purser this morning, Brendan, was wonderful, and the flight went very smoothly. Door was closed two minutes late, and we took off from Runway 10L at 10:15am. The pilot announced that our flying time was two hours and one minute today, and we would be in LA a bit early. We climbed to 33,000feet and the beverage service began after the seat belt sign was off. Today service was continental breakfast in first, and drink for coach. Brendan began the service with beverage, followed by the continental breakfast plate with fruit (a piece of cantaloupe with 2 � strawberries) and blueberry scone. Then Brendan pretty much refilled our drinks as often as one could. Then in mid flight, he came by warmed honey roasted almonds and mixed nuts, and served us more beverages. It was a wonderful flight in conclusion. Unfortunately, the lady in front of me decided to recline during the whole trip, so I technically had no legroom to stretch for the whole flight. My knee was touching the back of the seat in front of me. It was pretty awful and I could not sleep at all. Fortunately, we began our descent soon and my knee got relieved. LA was pretty hazy this morning and we touched down at Runway 24R at 12:14pm, but unfortunately, the taxi took a while but still made it a couple minutes early. A beautiful Singapore Airlines' Boeing 747-400 9V-SPC followed us, and I also saw LH's Munich flight landed - it was a Boeing 747-400.

In conclusion, this trip was nice, and I won't hesitate to get back to the mileage run again. However, there is something in my mind that has permanently changed. We are being more safety-conscious and more vigilant. But hopefully, it won't take away the fun from me for flying.

Enjoy!
Carfield

Thanks for your report, Carfield.

I think the reason why coach passengers on the SAN-SEA flight only receive a snack is because there is no competition. Alaska has the only non-stop service between SAN-SEA and PDX-SEA. However, between LAX-SEA, AS has competition from UA and must therefore differentiate its service.

Great report. However, unless that AS MD-80 was flying supersonic from LAX - SEA I doubt you arrived SEA at 6:46PM if you only dept. LAX at 6:05PM.

None the less I was interested to hear how your check in went at Terminal 3. I purposefully avoided LAX this week and flew into SNA because I thought LAX would be a madhouse.

As far as security on AS goes, I thought they did a good job. From seat 2D I could see the steel bar that was installed to re-inforce the cockpit door. The pilot also made an announcement that nobody was allowed to loiter in front of the FC lavatory and that the coach passengers should use the rear lavs unless a cart was blocking them. The pilot also stated that anyone waiting for FC lav had to wait by row six. The flight was suprisingly full. I'd say about 85%-90% of seats were filled plus all 12 in First.

[This message has been edited by toadman (edited 10-18-2001).]

A minor correction. UA (Skywest) also has non-stop SEA-PDX service.

A minor correction on my part also...I meant PDX-SAN, not PDX-SEA.

Carfield

Are you still collecting menus? Have various US & NWtransAtlantic BC, CX regional and long haul BC and FC, BA FC, and one SQ EC regional that should have a better home. E-mail me your address if you want them.

Carfield,
I thank you for your reports, they always provide quite enjoyable reading.

Unfortunatly, I do have to agree with you that "Something in my mind that has permanently changed."
For me, all the "fun" is gone with all this security business going on. I have traveled nearly 20 segments since Sept 11, including international, and it is just not exciting. I don't like the police state atmosphere that airport security has become.
I think that after my next trip I will be taking it easy for a while. I don't like seeing soldiers with rifles. It scares me.

Travel is just not a "GAME" to me anymore.

Thank you for sharing your journey with us, Carfield. I myself just returned to the skies this weekend. While I was by no means scared and not overly inconvenienced by the new security, I agree that much of the fun and excitement has flown away. Normally after I check-in I wonder the airport, collect timetables, etc. But this weekend I just headed right to the gate and sat there. That said, it was great to get my wings back, and I'm looking forward to my next trip.