Spent the weekend in DC (ok, really it was like spending a day in DC sandwiched between two days on airplanes as DL owns CVG). Since it was a quickie, I just wanted to share high/lowlights and overall impressions. Also, I tried to post a real trip report last night and lost it entirely because I had too many smilies. So I'm going to frown a lot. (kidding)

Itinerary was a NW Codeshare on CO Metal (I'm NW silver).

Itinerary

NW6926/CO3626 CVG-EWR 10/26 11:50 AM
NW8909/CO809 EWR-DCA 10/26 3:00 PM

Doubletree Guest Suites (GWU area) 2 nights

NW8906/CO806 DCA-EWR 10/28 11:00 AM
NW6525/CO225 EWR-CLE 10/28 1:40 PM
NW5383/CO3283 CLE-CVG 10/28 4:05 PM

Security

If you know CVG you probably fly DL. But there ARE other airlines that fly out of there... they just fly out of tiny terminals. CO flies out of T2 (which it shares with AA, TWA and UA/partners). It has a grand total of 8 gates and one concourse. I got there 2 hours early... quite unnecessarily. It took 10 minutes to get through the checkin, including requesting to be put on the upgrade waitlist for EWR-DCA, some mishap with getting my e-ticket itinerary over from NW, requesting an exit row seat and checking a bag (I didn't want to worry about whether or not one of my stops would be confiscating personal items of destruction like razor, nail clippers, etc.). Took maybe 15 minutes to get through security. I didn't beep and didn't get any extra search; they just wanted the laptop out of the bag. National Guard troops with sidearms here.

Never went through security at EWR or CLE, but EWR did have its DCA flights going from C114 and did have a baggage search table set up there. Saw one young professional looking woman selected for random search before I boarded.

Flights from EWR-DCA and DCA-EWR were "remain seated for the duration" as the flight is only 44 minutes. DCA had only two xray lines open, one marked laptop lane. They said laptops should be turned on, but didn't really make me do that. My one carryon did have lots of other gadgetry besides the laptop though, so I did get my bag searched (I had my digital camera, two pagers, my Bose headphones and an mp3 CD player). Took about 20 minutes to get through all of this, but if I hadn't had to get my bag searched probably more in the 10-15 minute range. Fortunate for me because in the other highlights section below, you'll see I didn't have much time to make the flight!

DCA camo guys (are they Nat'l Guardsmen too?) had big rifles instead of sidearms. That struck me because my first impression was that they must be toy guns given that those in possession of them were SO young! I think I'm getting old.

Flights/Gates/Upgrades, etc.

CO flies ERJs between CVG and EWR. Got exit row seats on both. The outbound flight from CVG was about 60% full while the return was about 80% full. Got the prepackaged turkey sandwich meal on the outbound flight (handy since I'd skipped breakfast!). Gate staff and crew were all very friendly. ERJ FA from EWR to CVG was named Dave which had me laughing every time the disembodied voice of the pilot addressed him. Uneventful flights but too bumpy for the sensitivity of the MP3 CD player (which did bad on both Friday flights -- it was darn windy).

EWR-DCA was a 737-300 with ten F seats. Got upgraded at the gate which surprised me. This flight seemed fairly full, but they loaded really fast such that we actually sat at the gate for a bit with the door closed before taxiing and still had an on-time takeoff.

DCA-EWR was another 737-300, but this one had the full 12 seats (3 rows on both sides) F configuration. Got EUA upgraded on this one, but no notification because I guess NW doesn't tell CO how to reach us. Flight went over the Pentagon in exactly the opposite path that the plane that crashed into it took. There's just a big hole on one side, but it looks like most of the debris has been removed from the crash site now. Flight was nice, short and uneventful.

When I got to EWR, I wanted to stand by for the earlier direct EWR to CVG flight (the computer wouldn't book me that way because the connection was scheduled to be about 40 minutes). Couldn't do it because I'd checked my rollaboard. Otherwise they said it would've been no problem as the flight was only about half full. Hung out at the PC near C74. A large supply of bagels was in evidence, so obviously MisterNice stayed home for the weekend.

I got a gate upgrade for EWR-CLE which was a huge surprise as the plane was almost completely full. Plus, that meant I was three for three! As a silver! There was some midflight rerouting that involved the pilot making a large 360 degree turn, but I was listening to music and only caught the end of the announcement. Unsure of what caused the change from the normal routing.

CLE-CVG flight was already mentioned so I'll just add that the runway for the regional jet flights was absolutely hopping. We had a long line for take off ("We're number four for takeoff, Dave, please be seated."). Took longer to get to take off there than it took to taxi to the gate in EWR. And in my somewhat limited experience, only CDG and ICN rival EWR for the length of the drive from the runway to the gate!

Stay in DC

Stayed at the Doubletree near the Watergate. Nice property, well maintained, friendly staff and HUGE room. This was bigger than my first and maybe even my second apartments. Overkill for a quickie weekend but I got a nice rate. Better than the $500/night rack rate listed on the door! Yikes!

Friday dinner was at the Thunder Grill in Union Station. Good food, slow service. Did some overpriced shopping in Union Station, too.

Saturday we did dribs and drabs of the Smithsonian. Heavy police presence all through the mall. Driveways were barricaded to drive throughs and only one door was opened at each building. The door that was open was staffed by police doing bag searches. They weren't as efficient at this as the airport security seemed to be. Low crowds, though they did pick up in the afternoon.

Had dinner with some DC area relatives on Saturday. The restaurant was a small French bistro in the Capital district but I didn't catch its name (it's next to a Ben & Jerry's if that helps). My relatives said it's only been open for about two months. Nice ambience, great food and reasonably priced for French cuisine. I recommend the Floating Island if you save room for dessert.

Other Highlights/Lowlights

Brush with celebrity: sat next to Steve Forbes on the EWR-DCA leg. Didn't talk to him, though. He was busily writing notes the entire flight and I was busy reading a John Sandford novel. Hopefully, some of the vibe for success just passed on by osmosis.

There was a USMC 26 mile marathon going on Sunday morning in DC which made getting picked up and dropped off at the airport a bit of a challenge. The super shuttle was late getting to me and found it darn near impossible to get to the airport from my hotel. He gets me to the terminal at about 9:50 for an 11:00 flight. Then turns out he gave one of my bags to someone he'd dropped at the previous stop! He did go back and get the bag (thank heavens it was still there!). CO had no elite checkin line open, but they did have 5 or 6 agents, so the long line moved fairly fast (lucky for me). I made it to the gate about 5 minutes before boarding started -- long enough to make that preboarding restroom stop so necessary for DCA flights these days.

I'll conclude with a side note to DL fans. It is normally MUCH more convenient to fly DL to DCA from here as they always had a direct flight. The friend I was meeting in DC had left Thursday night because she had a presentation to make at a seminar on Friday. DL had announced resumption of CVG-DCA flights as of Friday. So she flew to IAD rather than fly through ATL to DCA. But she tried to get on standby for a flight back from DCA with no luck. Apparently, DL still doesn't really have CVG-DCA and DCA-CVG flights despite the announcement.

Ok, long message for a quickie report, but hope it was useful for anyone travelling through these airports in the near future. And I hope I got under the minimum number of smilies this time!