V-Flyer

Connecting from my earlier flight from Heathrow, I made my way to the Continental transfer desk to see if I could get myself onto an earlier flight to Chicago as it was only 3pm and I was due to fly at 7.20pm. The agent explained that because my flight was a codeshare on United, she was unable to get me onto one of the earlier Continental-operated flights and that the agent at Heathrow who had said had put me on standby for those flights couldn’t have possibly done so. With that, I made my way over to Terminal A on the AirTrain and to the United ticket desk where it costs $50 to be wait-listed so I opted to remain on my original flight leaving me with a 4 hour gap. Having disposed with my luggage, I went to the food court and did a bit of work while watching the tarmac.

Decided to go through security 2 hours prior to departure and once again the rate limiting factor was getting shoes off and on. The concourse we entered was for the use of United, Alaska and Air Canada and consisted of just a Hudson News, a Starbucks and a shop selling sandwiches and with the brain cells starting to lag, I settled to watching a couple of episodes of Family Guy. Boarding begun about 30 minutes prior to departure and proceeded so quickly that we were able to push back from the gate 10 minutes early. However, this did not translate to an early take off but as the flight time was only 2 hours rather than the advertised 2 hours 45 minutes we still made it to Chicago 30 minutes early. The flight was extremely uneventful, one drinks service and overhead TVs showing various shows including 30 Rock and Friends. The only intriguing aspect to the flight was a gentleman seated across from me who was very jittery, getting out of his seat at every opportunity, even when the seatbelt sign was on, to either go to the toilet or get some gum from his bag in the overhead locker – perhaps just a nervous flyer. Once landed, it was quite a long walk to the baggage claim and exit where my arrival coincided with the appearance of my bag before heading to the hotel shuttle area.

So, my first time on United and as a means to get from A to B, I couldn’t complain. My only other domestic flights have been on JetBlue where the addition of DirectTV is a bonus but otherwise at the right price, I wouldn’t have a problem travelling with them again domestically.

Jonathan

Did you listen to channel 9 ?

Thank you for the great 2nd leg.

Scrooge wrote:Did you listen to channel 9 ?

Love Channel 9.

Mind you, we were flying to BOS from ORD in 2003 and we asked the CC if they knew the score between the Cubs and the Big Fish (Florida Marlins) in the NCLS final. They talked to the Captain and he informed everyone that he will be switching Channel 9 to a sports radio station for pax to listen to the game.

Scrooge wrote:Did you listen to channel 9 ?

Unfortunately not, to be honest I just dozed for most of the flight.

Jonathan