An interesting day of flying….

An interesting day of flying….

11

I was finally looking forward to some fun (my perverted sense of fun, that is), given that I was scheduled to fly through Washington Dulles earlier today. And amazingly enough I connected through Washington Dulles without any sort of a delay. My flight from Tampa to Washington was great. The purser was very professional (her voice was even borderline seductive as she made the announcements on the PA…. that earned her a “Going the Extra Mile” certificate from me) and thanked everyone in first class for their business — “I see you’re a 1K with us and I just wanted to thank you for your loyalty, we really appreciate it.” Other than that it was an uneventful flight.

I got to Washington Dulles and my flight to Seattle was oversold by seven people. Unfortunately they didn’t need volunteers, but that was fine by me given how smooth everything went. The departure was interesting, though. Before we left the gate the captain announced we would be de-icing and that there would be a few other things that might seem strange to us, but that we should rest assured it was normal. For example, they powered up the engines to near full power several times during the taxi, and after de-icing and before takeoff we held short of the runway as the first officer came into the cabin to take a quick look at the wings and make sure that there wasn’t too much snow on them.

My seatmate happened to be a congressman. I really couldn’t care less, but the flight attendants constantly referring to him as “congressman” while calling me “hun” kinda ticked me off. I guess I should check my united.com profile and make sure I don’t have “hun” selected as my title. 😀

Service was decent overall, but I’m really starting to feel bad for Seattle based flight attendants. At United Seattle is one of the most senior bases. I’m convinced two of our flight attendants had over 100 years experience between them, and one of them happened to be the first class aisle flight attendant. She was decent, not particularly friendly but not rude either. But I do feel bad for her; she struggled with all the walking!

Now it looks like my return tomorrow evening might be fun. The flight is zeroed out thanks to earlier flights being canceled, so I’m hoping for the best. This was initially booked as a simple trip but has turned into quite an adventure, at least in theory.

Conversations (11)
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  1. UAPlanePullWinner New Member

    Hope you make it back. If stuck in IAD, take a ride on the AeroTrain. It is pretty awesome and steps from the LH Lounge.

  2. Frank Guest

    I was in 4B on that flight. I noticed Congressman Smith (who is my congressman) sitting back in 6A. Hope you had an interesting conversation! I sat next to Congressman Dicks on that same flight about a year and a half ago and it was quite entertaining.

    By the way, you're being kind to the older First Class flight attendant. She wasn't outright rude, but she managed to skirt as close to the line as...

    I was in 4B on that flight. I noticed Congressman Smith (who is my congressman) sitting back in 6A. Hope you had an interesting conversation! I sat next to Congressman Dicks on that same flight about a year and a half ago and it was quite entertaining.

    By the way, you're being kind to the older First Class flight attendant. She wasn't outright rude, but she managed to skirt as close to the line as possible, rarely saying "please" and never saying "thank you" or "you're welcome". It was just painfully obvious she didn't enjoy her job. And if you're in customer service and don't enjoy your job, then for everyones' sake, you need to be in a different line of work. At one point she spilled wine on the person sitting next to me -- on his pants, on the divider, but thankfully missed me. "Sorry," she said. "That was why I didn't want to pour over his [my] keyboard." And then she walked off, leaving it to the other flight attendant to help with napkins. Nice.

    What happened with your flight back? I can't imagine much is flying in that direction...

  3. Gene Diamond

    Congrats on making it through yesterday. I thought you were going out today. Best of luck on your return!

  4. gba Guest

    Are you planning to return through IAD? According to fly.faa.gov it's closed until 6am tomorrow.

  5. Olav Guest

    You sure she didn't say HON? ;-)

  6. Rufftackle Guest

    Good lucky trying to get back home lucky!

  7. Paul Member

    Lucky-I bit the bullet and rescheduled myself. While I was scheduled to traverse IAD on Sunday, they raised the predicted snow from 24 inches to 30+. The chances of having the airport open Sunday morning are very slim. I can't afford to get stranded since I have to be at work Monday morning, so bypassing that whole mess....

  8. Gary Gold

    British Airways has always been great for choice of titles.

    Perhaps your profiles somehow got crossed?

    "Ben the Hun" -- great great (etc) nephew of Atilla.

  9. Matthew Member

    @DiscoPapa: The Congressman I worked for in 2005-06 used UA every weekend to fly from IAD-SAN on YCA fares. He was a 1K but not a GS--unless GS wasn't specified on the BP at that time. We would get calls, however, from UA if there were irr/ops or even if his upgrade cleared--sometimes thanks to a little tinkering from inventory management. Also, "Congress" was listed next to his name on the BP.

  10. DiscoPapa Member

    Did you convince the Congressman to do some MR's when Congress is not in session? Or do you think United gives him GS?

  11. Iceman Guest

    Coincidentally/ironically, Adam Smith's father worked for United Airlines, at least according to Wikipedia.

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UAPlanePullWinner New Member

Hope you make it back. If stuck in IAD, take a ride on the AeroTrain. It is pretty awesome and steps from the LH Lounge.

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Frank Guest

I was in 4B on that flight. I noticed Congressman Smith (who is my congressman) sitting back in 6A. Hope you had an interesting conversation! I sat next to Congressman Dicks on that same flight about a year and a half ago and it was quite entertaining. By the way, you're being kind to the older First Class flight attendant. She wasn't outright rude, but she managed to skirt as close to the line as possible, rarely saying "please" and never saying "thank you" or "you're welcome". It was just painfully obvious she didn't enjoy her job. And if you're in customer service and don't enjoy your job, then for everyones' sake, you need to be in a different line of work. At one point she spilled wine on the person sitting next to me -- on his pants, on the divider, but thankfully missed me. "Sorry," she said. "That was why I didn't want to pour over his [my] keyboard." And then she walked off, leaving it to the other flight attendant to help with napkins. Nice. What happened with your flight back? I can't imagine much is flying in that direction...

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Gene Diamond

Congrats on making it through yesterday. I thought you were going out today. Best of luck on your return!

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