An early morning wake up and no running this morning as to dark and the “fitness centre” at the hotel opens to late. Not to worry, will enjoy a day of rest and relaxation as I fly across the country. A light breakfast and a final check of emails before I jump onto my free shuttle to the airport.

Upon arrival at Terminal 3 at SFO I noticed that this was not a good thing to be here at this time. It looked like a madhouse at the Economy check in and security. Fortunately I had access to Premium Check In and also Premium Security. Thank the lord. No real wait, was directed to a self check in machine and figuring it wouldn’t work for me, I waited for someone to come up and offer assistance. After 2 or 3 minutes no one came. So I gave up and put in my confirmation number still expecting it to fail on me. It didn’t. Now this is where I should of figured things were not as expected. My boarding pass spat out both flights as United First. Hrm thats wierd. I figured I would deal with it at the gate and get through security while I could.

I was directed to premium security after asking where it was, and soon enough I was in the queue. I grabbed a few zip lock bags as I didn’t have the right size and some spares will come in handy later in the trip. Security was a non issue, not even a grope from the TSA 🙁

Once through I went in search of the gate so I could get my bearings before running a few errands. I found the gate next to a customer service point so queried my boarding pass. I was told all was fine and it was just a system issue. I double checked my seat on seat guru and I was still allocated a backwards facing seat. Awesome. I convinced the agent to reprint me passes on real stock rather than the flimsy crap the self service kiosk spits out.

With that done I went in search of a banana, some coffee & some water. No access to Red Carpet Club meant I couldn’t get this free. I explored the terminal for a while getting heaps of photos and searching for a retro jet. No dice 🙁 I browsed the shops for a bit (if u walk into the Ghiradelli shop they give you samples) and soon enough I could see a crowd gathering at the gate. Figuring the gate lice were starting early realised there was only 15 mins to boarding and a plane was at the gate. Unfortunately my worst fear had come true, an aircraft swap. We were changed to a domestic configuration 757-200 🙁 No more backwards facing seat.

I was a little dissapointed but thems the break. What was good for me though was that I was not in economy as a lot of people were about to get bumped. Volunteers were bound to be asked for. I ended up joining the back of the scrum rather than sit down as it wasn’t worth it by this stage with only a few minutes till boarding time.

United Airlines
UA972
San Francisco to Chicago O’Hare
1011-1625
Boeing – 757-200 (N581UA)
First Class – Seat 6A

Boarding: 0941 (Gate 82)
Push Back 1020
Take Off Roll: 1032 (Runway 1R)
Top of Descent: 1530
Touch Down: 1604 (Runway 10)
Shut Down: 1610 (Gate C26)

With boarding called on time, I gave it a few minutes to let the scrum die down a little before getting in the boarding queue and then having to fight through the pushing and shoving of the DYKWIA crowds. I got through soon enough and was shortly on my way down the jet bridge.

At the door there was quite a wait for people to get into the aircraft as their million & one carry on bgs were stored. I was welcomed on board, directed to my seat. Jackets were hung, no pillows on offer but blankets at the seat. No sign of headphones or menus (neither ever offered). But I settled in and was soon offered a pre departure beverage of choice. As we waited during the boarding process the Captain gave a very thorough flight introduction including telling us where we were going to fly over (Sacremento and Sioux Falls were the two I distinctly remember. Channel 9 was active (yay) and soon enough we were pushing back. Numerous times the crew were advising people to fix, up there bags before takeoff.

We pushed back a little late and listening to Channel 9 was awesome for this as i could tell exactly what was going on. We taxiied pretty quick to Runway 01R and after a little hold we were airborne. Right turn towards Oakland and Sacremnto and a nice long climb to altitude. Orders were taken and was originally told the only option was a Turkey Sandwhich, however after being told that a salad was also available and I had the option due to status I took it.

A beverage was offered next and I took a diet coke with lime and some warm nuts as my tribute to lucky from “One mile at a time, a blogger I enjoy reading. With those cleared away lunch was soon brought around and my Southwest Chicken Salad with soup and Breadsticks was offered and I settled in to enjoyed this lunch while watching the movie, Water for Elephants.

Lunch was cleared away, coffee and an oatmeal cookie fresh from the oven were offered and I savoured this with one of my samples of San Fran chocolate, while writing part of this trip report as well. After a while I gave up watching the movie and settled into reading my book on my tablet while listening to channel 9. Now lets discuss this lovely function that is only available on United. Channel 9 is an audio channel which feeds the air traffic control feed from the cockpit direct to the audio system. Whatever the pilots hear, you hear. It is an avgeeks dream. I loved it. While I sat there enjoying it, the world passed away below.

Eventually we started to descend and with Ch9 running I could hear it coming. It was a very slow, gradual descent but as we got closer to Chicago you could hear the ATC get crazier. The O’Hare airport is one of the busiest so you can expect it to get crazy. The landing was silky smooth and I was to distracted shooting photos to really notice. We had a fairly quick taxi to the gate and we were released to the masses about 20 mins early.

Once on the ground the emails flooded in and the tweets were flowing as I was trying to get some tickets to the daily show. Some where released and as I ambled through the terminal trying to get the tickets i had no idea where I was going and ended up walking the whole length of the C concourse. Unfortunately no tickets 🙁

One good thing about going from Concourse C to Concourse B is the use of the trippy tunnel. O yeah. I had camera ready to snap away. Took a number of photos in the tunnel all while I am sure annoying lots of people as I was gawking.

Once out into the B concourse I went scouring the terminal for any signs of a retro jet, but sadly no luck. I wanted it so bad I swear I walked that terminal about 3 times and those terminals are not small either. By the time I had realised what the time was I was meant to be boarding so rushed to the gate. But it was still full of people. Just then the gate agent made an announcement that he had no computer access to either of his terminals so he could not board till further notice.

We waited and waited, with no updates. Pretty soon departure time came and went but then the announcement came. He said and I quote. “Ladies and Gentlemen. This will not be pretty at all. I am going to board two classes and two classes only, no status, no zones. This will be a slow manual process. We will board First then Economy. If you are standby on this flight, you will not be clearing this flight. Unfortunately I can’t do anything about this, I do apoligise. We will now board First Class.” With that the masses pushed the gate but those of us in First made our way to the front.

United Airlines
UA692
Chicago O’Hare to New York La Guardia
1730-2046
Airbus – A319 (N840UA)
First Class – Seat 1A

Boarding: 1735 (Gate B6)
Push Back 1752
Take Off Roll: 1812 (Runway 9R)
Top of Descent: 2011
Touch Down: 2107 (Runway 22)
Shut Down: 2112 (Gate C7)

Once through I manged to get down the gangway fairly quickly after my beloved boarding pass was cut in half. Can’t have everything I guess. I made my way down to the aircraft where most people were in a jovial mood. Even the crew were in good spirits. Joking around. I found my seat, stahed my gear easily and made myself comfortable as somehow, a passenger made it onboard the wrong flight. This was not going to be pretty.

As boarding progressed it was obvious this flight was not going to be full but that didn’t matter to me much. Channel 9 didn’t sound like it was active, so I asked one of the crew if they could ask the captain to turn it on. I was informed it was and after a bit of playing we got it to come on. What more could an avgeek want. A comfy seat in the pointy end, live ATC on the audio and the chance to spot at a busy airport on the taxi out.

We eventually pushed back from the gate and as we got clearance to taxi it was obvious on Ch9 we were not going anywhere anytime soon as we had missed our slot, we were heading to the penalty box. Where we sat for about 5 or more minutes. A string of United and American Eagle CRJs were cleared infront of us. We were told to clear our holding spot and move and do a 180 turn to get out of the way. The pilots did not like this at all and protested to which they were promptly told to do as told by Chicago ground control. As we were doing this we got our paperwork and were given clearance to the active.

Again we held, longer and longer, but no word from ATC as to why. But to the front I saw 2 CH46 Bullfrogs take off. Thats a bit wierd what are they doing here, wait Obama is in town. Yep sure enough 2 minutes later, Marine One takes off (at least one of the VH3’s was Marine One). Twice now I have seen Air Force One… score.

A few minutes later we were cleared for takeoff and on our way. We roared past the VC25A (Air Force One) hiding off to the side and went airborne heading over Lake Michigan. Since they were going to play the same movies I got stuck into the trip report waiting for the “snack” service (which is really a light dinner). Options were again a Turkey Sandwich or Chicken this time over Pasta Salad. Chicken it is, but no offer of nuts 🙁

As the flight cruised on I worked on the trip report some more while listening to channel 9 and tried emptying the aircraft of diet coke with lime. As we approached the mid flight point I could hear lots of deviations for weather and as we were cleared to descend we were told it was gonna get bumpy. It wasn’t that bad really and to be honest i’ve been through worse. It was a long long slow descent almost an hour as we were held over New York. Eventually those lovely words “United 692 cleared to land” were said.

We landed and a quick taxi to the gate and everyone was in a mad rush to get off the flight it seemed. I wasn’t in a world of a rush so lolligagged a bit before heading to the baggage claim area and by the time I had my jacket on my suitcase was out. I quickly dialed the limo company followed instructions and waited for the car. After a while, eventually found the driver (what do you expect when every car company uses black Lincoln Town Cars) and I was headed to my hotel, the Element Time Square West.