the PHX Do
 

UA 535 BOS ORD 1200 1334 752 2A Empower, Ch 9

Bad start - we pushed off right on time only to sit there
off the gate for two hours. I'm glad that I decided to
upgrade this short leg, as the delay even in my usual 9A
would have been very onerous. Though there wasn't any
Courvoisier, a double Jim Beam was welcome, followed by
free-flowing Canyon Road Sauvignon Blanc, a surprisingly
okay wine, given that it's Sauvignon Blanc and retails at
$6 a bottle. The pilot kept us up to date on his efforts to
get us out of there but cited 30 mph winds and the dreaded
flow control. Eventually we took off, and an uneventful
flight ensued. Hot towels and warm nuts.

Thai chicken salad or turkey sandwich with seafood bisque
were the choices; I said I didn't care; surprisingly ended
up with the salad, which was better than previous iterations
- a breast cutlet marinated in coriander, lime, chile, and
coconut and broiled, served over okay greens with a sprinkle
of crisp cashews and "chow mein noodles."

We pitched or yawed or something quite a bit on landing,
which was almost exactly 2 hrs late, and I felt quite green.
Thought I didn't have a prayer of making the connection,
but my seatmate, who said that I'd likely make the flight,
was right (she said that she's an optimist, but I figure
it's a funny kind of optimist who hopes that all the flights
are delayed equally), and everything was way off, the
connection an hour and half late as well, so I had time to
make some calls, freshen up, and do an e-mail, in which
packet United told me that as I wasn't going to make my
connection, I was rebooked on the 6 am to LAX with an
express connection to PHX, getting me there at 12:41 pm -
which would have made a great mileage run but wasn't so hot
as I expected to see folks. As I was puzzling over this
proactive but odd rerouting, I got another e-mail saying
that the Ted flight was delayed and not to worry.

UA1495 ORD PHX 1510 1701 32S 10A Ch 9

Really took off after 5 and landed at 6:30. Bumpy on the
way up, smooth cruise, quite bumpy into thick overcast at
PHX. I'd originally had 3A but submitted to the siren call
of the exit row, which has great legroom but no recline
(row 11 has both, but I didn't switch out until I was sure
that they weren't going to substitute a mainline 320, and
by this time 11 was full). I slept but fitfully.

TransWorldOne picked me up; we'd considered going to the FT
Mexican dinner, but as it was an up in the air sort of thing
until I finally landed at PHX (har har), we decided instead
to go straight to JanAZ's and raid her fridge when we showed
up. So we immediately hightailed it out to Peoria and had
dinner with Jan and Newself - it was a nice BBQ chicken
meal, which it turns out was prepped by Jan's daughter
Megan (who wasn't there, having gone out dancing with some
more age-appropriate companions).

Next morning the order of business was the simulated Space
Shuttle mission; present were JanAZ and myself as well as
Viajero Joven, SchmutzigMSP, and uva185. We had a pretty
good time, but I thought that it was suited to a somewhat
younger audience, and I doubt I'd do it again without the
need to entertain children (the documents say that the
tasks are described at a 4th or 5th grade level. More
about the mission at azchallenger.org .

Flyertalker Marty (handle unknown, sorry) had overslept and
was unable to join us for the mission. He apparently hung
around in the parking lot until we were done, a bit past
1:00, after a short delay at Flight Simulator.

At Jan's suggestion we had a pleasant enough lunch at
McDuffy's, where we commandeered the patio and didn't get
around to talking about points until after a quarter hour of
local transportation politics issues: I believe this may be
a record. I had a decent burger and 37 ounces (in two goes)
of Kilt Lifter; Jan tried the soup and sandwich combo - a
pretty good turkey sandwich and a wretched French onion.
After which we parted ways, Jan and I to our respective
naps.

=

The main event was at Bill Johnson's Big Apple, which is an
amusing place in the red-light district known for its
kitschiness more than for its cuisine. We were supposed to
be 15 but attritioned to 10. Some people might have showed
up at the wrong Bill Johnson's, perhaps.

Present: Viajero Joven, uva185, SchmutzigMSP, Marty,
cmdinnyc, MileageAddict, TW1, and the three of us.

They gave us the jail, a separate section of four booths
for four. Our waiter was perhaps miffed by the small
amount of booze we consumed but warmed up a bit over
the course of the meal. I didn't find anything I liked on
the beer list so had Jim Beam instead.

Marty wanted to do the Big One, which I'd thought of having
but decided I couldn't face just before a 1771-mile flight;
the fact that an attractive young health nut was sitting
next to me had something to do with it as well. So Marty
gave up, saying that it wouldn't have been fun to do it all
by himself. The Big One is a 24-oz porterhouse, pretty big
in anyone's book but by no means un-doable: the schtick is
that when you finish it you get a t-shirt that says "I ate
the Big One," which is free advertising for the place plus
appeals to the juvenile sense of humor of a certain portion
of the clientele, including myself.

Our table did okay, not notably, with three prime ribs and
a ribeye. The salad that one starts with is some slightly
waterlogged greens paired with some peculiar dressings (the
cinnamon dressing was perhaps the peculiarest of the lot) -
not unpleasant I guess. The main courses come with rolls, a
starch, and baked beans. The prime rib was clearly Select,
precut, and needed the "au jus sauce"; TW1 said that his
ribeye was fair. As a promotion commemorating the 50th
anniversary of the restaurant, they were offering apple
pie a la mode for 50c. As inveterate bargain hunters,
seven of us got pie, one got just ice cream, and two of
us were virtuous. Not much more to say about the food.
The conversation was as good as it could be, given that
we were sitting in three booths and were gabbing across
the corridor and the back of the seats and whatnot.

Jan got me to the airport at 9, and when I enquired about
an upgrade, the agent said it was pretty full. What if I
swapped in my DM number, I asked. She typed a while and
said that for my sake she wouldn't do it but encouraged me
to check at the gate, as things could change. Okay. Said
bye to JanAZ (who had some success with her inquiry at
the counter) and Megan, and went up to the absolutely
empty security checkpoint. Normally, with nobody else in
sight, I'm usually pulled over for a secondary just for
practice, but they didn't even bother, so I had half an
hour to enjoy the club. There the concierge told me the
flight was oversold in F; further, the bar was closed.
But there's good free wi-fi (the network is called AWA
and the password is Portland5 - this is case sensitive -
I don't have qualms about giving out this info, because
the network doesn't extend much outside the club).

At ten the club closed and I went out into the world;
checked with the gate, as suggested; the agent put my DM#
in and told me that I'd "popped up to the top of the list"
and would likely clear, as I'd gone ahead of a Gold and
an undisclosed number of Silvers. I cleared a few minutes
later along with the Gold. On boarding it was certain that
none of the Silvers cleared, as there were but two empties
left in the cabin. Y was full as well. This was my best
experience as a newly demoted Platinum (I'd qualified via
a promotion for CP through 2/07, but I never got a card;
after the merger thing, I received a Platinum credential
instead, and all the pissing and moaning I could do was
ineffectual, so I resolved to credit my miles henceforth
to UA, on my numerous shorthaul flights).

US1550 PHX CLT 2245 0528 321 6F Empower

We took off pretty much on time and had a heavy tailwind,
so got in a hair early. I had a seat in the last row, by
a guy next to whom I have sat at least twice before but
with whom I have never exchanged a word.

Good crew, who were sufficiently friendly and attentive
and warmed my Courvoisier. Snack basket had the usual
suspects but no XOXOs.

At 3:10 am ET I was wakened by some remarkable turbulence;
otherwise it was an uneventful flight.

Hey, here's something from the snack basket for
Everything Counts: www.biscoff.com/miles . If it were
ruger xoxo.com/miles I would have made Chairman's again.

UA7178 CLT IAD 0619 0752 CRJ 3A

Got to the United gate to hear that the plane was still
in the hangar ... some maintenance issue or another.
There were some uniformed folks looking slightly uneasy,
so I asked one of them if he was deadheading. No, he
replied, I'm flying the plane. Had a little chat about
the vagaries of flying and of commuting.

At this point I was actually getting hungry and regretting
that I'd not done the Big One the night before!

They announced an ETD of 7:30, but at 7:30 the plane had
not shown up; the captain suggested I make alternate plans,
as my connection to UA388 looked to be in doubt, and so
the 1K desk, after an aside that my itinerary now looked
"somewhat impossible," booked me on the USAir nonstop. I
unchecked myself and got a new BP at the C/D Airways Club.

US 998 CLT BOS 0930 1143 319 1A

I completely slept through this flight, which came in 20
early but had to wait 10 for someone to do the jetway -
looked to be a very senior GA, who was out of practice
and thus very slow and very careful - you couldn't even
feel the jetway when it contacted the aircraft.