I had to be in Las Vegas for the Photo Marketing Association show and needed to arrive for a dinner Monday. My original plans were CO 5954 LGA-CLE at 8:30 tomorrow, connecting CO 581 CLE-LAS.
According to the current weather forecast, I could just about guarantee that the inbound flight making up my first leg tomorrow would not get into LGA tonight, and since it was a Chatauqua flight, one would think that would only complicate matters further.
So while at breakfast with my lovely better half this morning, she suggested I leave today. I called the Elite line at CO, and explained my situation to a very helpful agent. She said there were no weather waivers as yet but she understood and agreed with my concerns. Since I only have to be there tomorrow, I offered to fly to CLE today, to get out before the weather hit, spend the night in CLE and fly on my original flight tomorrow.
As there were no waivers in effect yet, she asked me to hold for a minute, and got a supervisor to approve the even exchange for leg 1 of my trip--so now I am leaving this afternoon well ahead of the storm, will spend a quiet evening in CLE and head to LAS as originally planned tomorrow.
I think others must have the same idea--the first time I called elite it didn't register my number and I was handed off to the general res line with a 30 minute wait. I called back and dialed my OP number in and got right through to this wonderful agent.
I checked in for the new flight on line, and it asked me if I would like to stand by for the upgrade, and of course I said yes--the agent was apologetic on the phone she couldn't do it, but I was happy in the exit row anyway. I packed and left the house around 1:20, stopped for gas, and made my way to LGA with no troubles. I stopped in the Presidents Club and visited with the ladies there for a while-they gave me the phone number for the club and said they'd be happy to help me in the future if I can't get through to res...very thoughtful.
I realized after the fact that I forgot my phone charger, so about 3PM I made my way down to Airport Wireless. Picked up the travel charger, and while at it, a new bluetooth headset--I got tired of the Jawbone earpieces constantly breaking. Went through security (I was alone going through for the moment), and headed to the gate which was full. I recognized one of the two agents at the gate, but stayed clear for a while as she did standby's. I had heard that all the remaining flights were full from the ladies in the club, so I guess that others had my idea.
The inbound arrived a few minutes late, and they disembarked, and appeared to just be waiting for the crew for the outbound. I heard my name paged and went to the counter and was handed a new boarding pass for seat 1F. I graciously thanked the agent, wished her luck with the pending storm, and got ready to board. Once the crew was in place, they called first, and I made my way down to the plane, stowing bags and settling in. A predeparture beverage was served in the midst of boarding, and the flight attendant apologized that the closet on this aircraft was very small, and they had a wheelchair in it--I replied that I was happy to hold my own coat.
The door closed RIGHT on time, and we were off. A short taxi to RY 13 and after waiting for about 5 other aircraft we took off to the southeast--I noticed that there was no right turn to 185 degrees as usual on the 13 departures, but we headed straight, and I got a great view of Citi Field, and what was Shea Stadium next door. Climbing out right into the clouds, we turned west and before one knew it we were descending into CLE. Very pleasant crew, nice overall flight, almost full...the approach to CLE was a little bumpy, and there appeared to be flurries around but we landed and made our way to the gate, a couple of minutes early.
Once off I was chatting with a gentleman who had been seated opposite me who also changed his flight from tomorrow's -- and couldn't get his Blackberry turned on--so I opened his connection for him, and as we walked to the shuttle bus area, I noticed that all flights to NY and EWR are cancelled tomorrow---so it was in fact a smart move on my part.
After wisely making it into CLE on Sunday evening, I had a leisurely morning doing some paperwork and phone calls, a nice full breakfast courtesy of Hilton Diamond benefits, and a quick shuttle ride back to CLE (it was 8 degrees in CLE). I arrived around 10:45AM for my 12:40 flight. No wait at security, and off to find the President's Club.
Settled into the club, had some juice, read the newspaper (yes I still read newsPAPERs). The club was somewhat busy..but not with angry complaining people. I had noticed on the way down that flights to EWR and BOS were actually leaving within the hour...special services desks were relatively quiet. Based on people I spoke to, many others like myself made proactive changes to their itineraries and flew on Sunday in order to avoid the storm.
I made my way to the gate about 50 minutes prior to departure after remembering they usually start boarding LAS flights around 40-45 min prior to departure. The flight crew was just going on board as I arrived at the gate, and 10 minutes later they began boarding F class. I made my way onto the new 737-900ER (without IFE I might add), but was glad to notice they had the in seat AC power. The flight attendants were busy, and actually managed to do a full predeparture beverage service AND hang coats while the basically full flight continued boarding--very well done.
The door closed almost 10 minutes prior to scheduled departure, and we pushed about 5 minutes ahead. A long taxi to RY 6R and we took off on a windy day--the Dash 8s ahead of us were off in less than 1000 feet of runway! Climbing out to the northwest, I had a clear view of downtown CLE--turned west, we arrived over Chicago only about 25 minutes after takeoff.
Lunch was a choice of a shrimp salad or Reuben--I had the salad the last 2 flights, so I braved the Reuben--not bad at all, and the cream of mushroom soup was very good. After lunch, I read a bit, Ipod'ed a bit and actually slept for a half hour. They were predicting an early arrival, however, headwinds took care of that.
Finally we were on the descent and arrived on 25R at LAS--nice view of the city and runway on the arrival--with a long right turn to final. We taxied in and arrived right around scheduled time--I noticed that these -900's usually sit a couple of hours before flying out again.
When I arrived at the tram I was glad to see both operating again--unlike 2 weeks ago. The taxi line looked long but it went quickly and I found my way to Planet Hollywood. The check in line was busy, but I found the Starwood Preferred desk and checked in there--got a nice room upgrade for having Starwood Gold, and got on with the rest of the show....
After what seemed like an interminable week at PMA in Las Vegas, I was finally ready to come home. I declined an invitation from my Japanese colleagues to go to a nightclub Thursday night, as it was just too late--and at the same time I was thankful I wasn't on a 6 or 7AM flight.
I packed up, checked out of Planet Hollywood, and took a cab to the airport--took about 10 minutes. Although I was going to try the PDA checkin feature, and had confirmed that it was available at LAS, I went to a kiosk and got printed back up just in case. This turned out to be a good move, as NONE of the sensors could read my boarding pass on my phone, so I wound up using the printed back up. More about this later.....
Through security, I took the train to Terminal D, and made my way back to the Presidents Club between D33 and D35. Although this in a different wing of the terminal, it's only about a 7 minute walk to D19-21, CO's gates. The club was bright and cheerful with a handful of customers. I actually had a decent breakfast there--cereal with real milk, juice, coffee and a toasted bagel! The staff was particularly friendly.
I finally made my way to the gate, just as the inbound flight was arriving a few minutes late. They turned the aircraft quickly, and we left within a couple of minutes of schedule! On board, with a full flight boarding, we had full predeparture drink service, as well as all coats hung up--two FA's working on this made it relatively easy. There were a couple of angry customers in the back, whose bags had to be checked, and a last minute question as to whether or not there actually was a seat for a non rev made the boarding process interesting, but again, we were buttoned up and on our way relatively quickly.
Lunch was a choice of a salad with chicken or the Reuben--having had the sandwich on the way out, I opted for the salad. It was accompanied by tomato basil soup which was almost as good as the cream of mushroom, which is my fave. Service was very pleasant, efficient, and CONSISTENT with what I have come to expect of CO.
We wound up arriving just a couple of minutes behind schedule at IAH, and on the taxi in I forwarded the checkin email and boarding pass I had gotten for the flight to Mr. O'Leary to report that it was unreadable to the scanners. He responded as I was walking to the PC club that you must request the PDA boarding pass initially, and the printable ones were not readable. I responded that one should still have the option to print a BP EVEN if using the PDA check in, and he agreed.
After noticing a gate change for my flight to LGA, I decided to forego the club and went right to the new gate. There was a crowd there, and the flight showed a 15 minute delay. The announcement was made that there was an AC issue on the plane, and an engine cowling was opened. The story seemed a little questionable, however, as two TSA agents with wands, plus a Harris County Sheriff's Seargent boarded the flight--the TSA folks never got off--they must have exited rampside. As boarding was finally announced, I passed the officer in the jetway, and we exchanged a pleasant greeting. I won't speculate on the issue, but it was apparently resolved.
Once aboard, again predeparture drinks and coats to closet were handled promptly, and since we had a slow taxi out with a little wait, due to ATC at LGA (even in good weather!), they did the menu choices before take off. The choice was another hot sandwich or lasagna, and I voted for the lasagna, which actually was quite good.
We finally took off, and headed north in a winding turn out of IAH. Drinks hot towels and dinner were served promptly, and there was actually a movie I wanted to see (Rock Star). I enjoyed the film, as this was the only leg in which IFE was available--this was a 737-700, while the rest of the trip was all on 737-500's and 737-900ER's which don't have IFE at the moment.
It looked like we were cruising a little low, and it turned out that apparently we were --Flight Aware showed after the flight that our cruise altitude was only 25000 feet--unusual for such a jet. We began descent, and did the long turn to the northeast, to land on RY 22 at LGA. After taxiing to the gate, I deplaned, thanked the crew as I usually do, and found my car for the ride home. We arrived in LGA about an hour late--which meant my wife and inlaws were actually ahead of me -they picked up Lauren at Penn Station at 8:45, and I arrived at 9:30. The first text message when I got my phone back on was from Lauren--Where are you?
All in all it was a good trip--and once again CO shows consistency in product and service.
Now let's see if I get to take them to SEA next week.....
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