Bloody Mary Morning - Great Flying Song

Written in 1970, a few years before the invention of Bailey's, the Willie Nelson song Bloody Mary Morning is a fun song about flying. Or maybe a broken heart, I hear what I want to hear.

New QANTAS Logo

Well it's more like an updated logo and font, but big news from an airline with the same look since I was born. 

Current QANTAS Look

Not Having Good Luck to Asia on United

I spent a few hours hanging around Denver watching my departure move further and further back. Then I got on the plane, heard the wheels up time, and then exited aircraft and left for home. My flight with a 3 hour connection in SFO wound up miss-connecting by 15 minutes. Less than half of my Asia trips have gone correctly this year. Two of them were scrubbed completely. United is not running a good operation.

Memories of Better Times

Boeing Sold 14 (Maybe 28) 747's

Boeing sold 14, with options for 14 more, 747-8 freighters to UPS. They are an existing 747-400 customer and probably got these for a steal since Boeing was planning to shut down the 747 production line once they filled their remaining orders. This will keep the 747 program alive for another year.

I Don't Have Many Cargo Airline Shots

The A340 is 25 Years Old and Obsolete

Good thing Airbus paired this design with the A330 or it would have been dumped years ago. It has a limited future with VVIP operations, small carriers, and for it's long overwater (not ETOPS limited) range. You can buy one ready for airline service for $20,000,000. 

Most Operators Have Replaced It

First - Coach - First Crossing the Pacific

First class over the Pacific can be one of the best in flight experiences available, see ANA, Cathay Pacific, or JAL for examples. As per tradition, US carriers do it worse or not at all. United is no exception. They run domestic configuration 737's out of Guam all around the Pacific. They also run a domestic 777-200 from Guam to Honolulu and regional upgrades don't work on this flight, so be ready for 7 long hours in coach. From Honolulu, it's all domestic configurations.

Like I'm Flying to Boston

Regional Upgrades Work HKG-GUM

This means passengers flying the equivalent distance of LAX to London have to do it in planes made for LAX to SFO. Even worse there is no free food or alcohol. United has a monopoly, more or less, on the central Pacific routes and no interest in improving the onboard experience. Be prepared.

View from GUM United Club

Breakfast on a Domestic 737 Flight for Comparison

Breakfast HNL-IAH - Meh

Meal Leaving HKG on 737

Double Amex Points!

Shop small and get double points when using a registered Amex card. Not as fun as free money ($25 or $10 a card in previous years), but still a worthwhile promotion.

Delta & Amex Are Friends

Longest 777-200ER Flight In The World

United Airlines operates the longest 777-200ER flight from EWR to HKG, about 16 hours on board and over 8,500 flown miles. I flew it in coach. It's not bad if you have a good seat and travel prepared. 

Economy Seat Recline

Open middle seats make a world of difference. An open row is amazing. Otherwise shoot for an exit row (right side is better than left) or Economy Plus. I booked an exit row when I make my reservation then hold onto it until I'm at the gate and get a decent feel for the seat map. I was able to switch into an open middle row of 3 seats at the last minute and have all that space to myself.  It made for a nice trip.

777-200ER to HKG

Fly with ear plugs and an eye mask. The cabin is always noisy and next dark. Also avoid caffeine for the day. It's hard enough to sleep on board. Take a walk around the cabin every hour or two when awake. It helps. Also stock up on podcasts or bring a book, the TV's don't always work.

Exit Row Leg Room

Broken TV - It Reset After About 20 Minutes

Pack snacks. The food is ok, but infrequent.  The beer is free and the wine is undrinkable. Spirits cost money.

Pasta Dinner

More Pasta

Noodle Breakfast - Good

More Noodles - Still Good

Happy Weekend!

Going somewhere fun?

Air China Has Great Star Alliance Award Space

Good View From Houston United Club

Go to the third floor of the E11 United Club in Houston. It is less crowded and the views are great.

Ample Outlets, Quiet, & Views

Odd Emirates Advertising

Emirates paid for an ad to have me join their company as a pilot. I have less than 1 hour of total flight time at the controls, so this may be misguided advertising.  The website was an interesting view into their push to poach experienced pilots from around the world.

Emirates Never Goes Small

Window Seat With Nothing To See

Window seats are still fun, even if you're just flying over ocean the whole way.

I Am Biased

I Like This One

Fun picture.

Amazing Regional Jet

Post 787-900

Happy post #789.

A Virgin Atlantic 787-900 at LHR

British Airways 747-400 First Class

After an amazing experience in first on the A380 and a lousy ground experience at Heathrow, I went to board my 747-400 to Denver. I've always loved the 747 because it looks great and goes interesting places. Sadly, airlines don't share my love of the aircraft and are phasing them out. As part of this plan, airlines are not upgrading systems or interiors. Maintaining yes, but improving no.

747 First Class Seat Room

The first class cabin has 14 seats in the nose section of the aircraft. It felt a little bit cramped, but only 50% of the seats were occupied. The space was much more limited than on the A380 and the TV system was a previous version with fewer options and lower resolution. The age showed.  

Closet on 747 at my Seat

The service on board was great from the moment I stepped through the door. First class service is the same regardless of aircraft. The meal service is at your leisure, so I opted to dine over Canada. I was tired and well fed, so the option to not rush was welcome. I also really enjoy the tea service. The personal tea pot was fun.

Seat on 747 - Goes Full Flat

It was a good flight and I slept well. BA's bad ground service continued in Denver. My bag was one of the last out, even though it was tagged priority and first.

IHG Share Forever Math Problems

IHG send me this email:

Dear Andrew,  

Our latest promotion, Share Forever, has ended and we’re happy to see how much you’ve achieved. You earned a total of 67,600 bonus points, and that means it’s time to enjoy your rewards. Share Forever 2016 was just one of the many ways we’re helping make your stays more rewarding, so stay tuned for more ways to keep your earning momentum going.  

That's amazing news, except I only earned 3,000 points. Thanks guys for crushing my dreams.

More Crush Dreams from a Points Program

Good Looking CRJ700

The CRJ700 can look good, as long as it's not parked at your gate.

The Sunset at DEN Helps

Milwaukee Departure

I enjoyed Brewfest and got a fun picture on the way out of MKE.

Evening Departure to Denver

Marriott Now Has 3 Loyalty Programs

The Marriott take over of Starwood is complete and members can now link their accounts between the Ritz, Marriott, and SPG programs. Your highest status will be moved to the other programs. No word on when or how SPG will be rolled into Marriott.

Sheraton HK - It's Much Nicer Than It Looks

United 777 - 10 Wide in Coach

As part of United's goal to suck the fun out of air travel (why else remove Channel 9?), they are going 10 wide in coach on new 777-300ER's that will be delivered in the next few years. I was dreading flying in those (747's are 10 wide in coach, but the cabin is 25in wider), but relaxed because the current 777-200's are 9 wide. Except not, at least one is 10 wide (see Version 5). I was unfortunate enough to pull the short 777 straw recently. The seats were a tight squeeze in every direction, even in Economy Plus. The seat padding is miserable for an 8 hour flight. There was also no IFE offered. The top off a agonizing flight, there was a 3.5 hour mechanical delay and I missed my connection.

Looks the Same from the Outside

10 Wide and No Padding to be Found

Southwest Airlines Standby

Southwest will now allow you to do same day standby, providing that you are elite, traveling alone, already at the airport, and the flight you want to be on leaves within 2 hours of the original flight. And you'll have last pick of seats.  That's an incredibly small baby step from the USA's largest domestic carrier.

New Paint, New Policy - Somehow United Does it Better

United Domestic Breakfast 2016

Dr. House has a quizzical look, but it was better than you'd think.

There Was Cheese!

United Mechanical Delays

Four of my eight flights this month on United have been delayed for mechanical reasons. I also had a trip to Asia scrubbed last month due to mechanical issues. I'm wondering if this is part of a larger problem developing for United.

Work Darn You! Work!!!!

United Club HKG

The United Club lounge at Hong Kong (HKG) lets you pour your own booze. The hideous catch is that I don't want to drink any of it.

No Thanks

Happy Travels

Great day to fly.

Happy Flying

Not Bad for Speaking My Mind

I've earned enough miles for a one way flight by taking surveys. Not bad.

Labor Day Travel - Relax

There will be extra amateur travelers at airports this weekend. There's also a hurricane spending the last of its energy on the east coast. Relax, plan for everything to take longer, and be flexible. Good luck.

Give Yourself Extra Time

Delta Business Class Now 70,000 to Europe

I didn't receive an email about this change. No other members seemed to have a heads up on the 15,000 mile price increase for a round trip. BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Delta.

15,000 More Miles to Sit Up Front

Busy Weekend

The 'purse puppy plague' was a topic of conversation from my parents after their flight from ATL. Thank's people for making the flying experience worse.

Can't We Try to Make Flight Peaceful?

Delta Award Search

The cheapest ticket was a business class fare halfway down the page. Not very sporting there Delta.

15,000 More Miles for Basic Coach

Dull Times

Happy travels.

I Need Some Air Time - Even Delta Sounds Nice

United Airlines Carry Over Carry Back

Well that didn't go to plan. I am trying to reach 1,000,000 mile status with United and booked a 20,000 trip (DEN-EWR-HKG-GUM-HNL-IAH-DEN) without a stop. There was little room for disruptions, but the weather was clear everywhere I was flying.

The Original Idea

I make it to EWR early, but saw my flight to HKG was an hour delayed for a mechanical issue. The aircraft had been on the ground since the previous evening, so I assumed it was being worked on. I went to the United Club to wait for my 777 to pull up. My gate was visible from the lounge, so I relaxed (as much as one can in such a chaotic and crowded place). I had a three hour connection in HKG that was just bumped down to 2 hours. Still time to shower.

While going through the bottom shelf (free) drink offerings at the United Club, I saw my flight was now delayed 2 hours. There goes my shower, but the trip will still work. I checked at the desk and there were no alternate options to transport me to Guam in time to rejoin my itinerary. She added me on the last flight to Denver that night (6:25 departure) as a standby, just in case. She wrote "carry over / carry back" on my new boarding pass and explained that if I needed it, I would get home and receive a full refund. It would be like the round trip to EWR never happened.

Then my aircraft was towed into the gate. The flight was estimated to arrive in HKG just in time for me to make my connection. This assumed it pushed back at 6:00. I boarded around 5:55 and was the last person on. I even was upgraded for operational reasons! This happened once before in my flying life on a 90 minute flight. This was huge and I was thrilled to have a flat bed. The flight attendant brought me an ice water and I started rummaging through the menu and amenity kit. I ordered the salmon entree. 

Seat 11A on a 777-200

The clock kept ticking and ticking. We missed the 6:00 push back and the door was open with EWR gate staff still on board. I tried to relax, but also decided that if the door was open at 6:15, I would leave and run to the Denver flight. I did not want a 23+ hour connection in HKG. 6:15 came, I grabbed my stuff (most of it actually) and left. I was taken off the flight and raced to the Denver gate. I had a boarding pass waiting. I traded a flat bed for Economy Plus. It hurt.

My Seat Went Empty

I made it back home and slept well. I check the flight status the next morning and saw that I would have landed in time to see my next flight depart. I was frustrated a mechanical issue cheated me out of an upgrade lamenting that I'll never be as lucky again. I also submitted a refund request that should take a week to process.

Departed Just in Time to Misconnect