Unlike my first-hand experience on United’s inaugural of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner this past November, I’ve been following the action of its re-debut today on Twitter.

United Airlines Flight#1 departed the gate in Houston this morning on-time at 11:00 a.m. and was airborne 13 minutes later.

Prior to departure from gate E7, a ceremony of sorts took place with the crew, CEO Jeff Smisek and Boeing’s chief James McNerney. One of the zinger comments from Smisek during the event was something to the effect of, “this (the 787) was an expensive piece of tarmac sculpture,” according to several accounts.

Well, it’s certainly sculpture no more and will be arriving on-time at O’Hare within the hour. The same aircraft turns around as United Flight# 2 headed back to Houston at 3:40 p.m.

I’ll be keen on reading the reports from my inaugural buddies @airchive and @airwaysjack who are both on the flight. And CNBC reporter Phil LeBeau will have updates as well, featuring interviews with Smisek and McNerney.

After initial domestic runs, United will shift its 787 flying to primarily international routes as previously planned.

I’d book a 787 flight… would you?

Related posts:

United Dreamliner Inaugural Flight Review: Houston to Chicago on November 4, 2012

United 787 Dreamliner Inaugural Takeoff Video

Seats Are Aplenty on Re-Debut of United 787 Dreamliner

– Follow Darren Booth on Twitter, @FrequentlyFlyin, for more airline, hotel and travel industry news, reviews and opinions.

I’m catching up with last week’s notable airline news items and American’s new boarding process, tested earlier this year, is a hot topic.

Basically, American Airlines is now allowing those passengers without carry-ons requiring overhead bin space to board ahead of Group 2. The test of this new process, rolled out systemwide last Thursday, was a resounding success according to American’s press release:

The test received overwhelmingly positive feedback from American’s customers, and agents like the new process because it allows for smoother and quicker boarding for everyone.

But based on several Twitter conversations I had today, as well as an interesting Forbes article, compliance and enforcement issues could create more drama and negative impact than the reportedly two minutes the new process saves in boarding time.

Virgin America tried a similar boarding system, but abandoned it after such compliance and enforcement issues arose. From the Forbes article:

In fact, Virgin America has already tried and abandoned American’s new process. “It is more efficient and you do get a lot of people on the aircraft more quickly,” said Virgin America CEO David Cush, in an interview. “But it’s difficult to police. You get into a debate about how big is something that fits under your seat.”

Additionally, Cush said, early boarding passengers would sometimes glance up at all the empty bin space overhead and then place their carry-on in the bin. Virgin America dropped the process in 2011, after about half a year. “It may work for American,” Cush said. “I applaud them for trying different things. It didn’t seem to be an overwhelming hit for us.”

While I can see gate agents policing the new system at the boarding door, once the passenger is onboard nearly all bets are off as to where their underseat item actually gets stowed.

Flight attendants tend to do a wonderful job with announcements and shifting items to make more space, but they can’t be at every row, nor would they know that the person walking onboard fell into this group. It’s effectively an honor system and we all know how well some travelers abide by the “rules.”

It will be interesting to see if American’s new process goes the way of Virgin America.

Read more:

American Airlines Testing New Boarding Procedure

Is American’s Preferred Seat Allocation a Bit Excessive?

– Follow Darren Booth on Twitter, @FrequentlyFlyin, for more airline, hotel and travel industry news, reviews and opinions.

Conventional wisdom in the miles and points arena is that you generally shouldn’t hang onto a huge loyalty program balance. “Earn and burn” is the more popular motto these days as redemption rates rise quickly and programs evolve to make using your hard-earned points more difficult.

But let me tell you… am I ever grateful to be sitting on 400,000-plus United Airlines miles this week.

This past weekend I attended a fantastic BoardingArea conference in Colorado Springs and got home late Sunday night. Very early Monday morning, I heard my phone vibrate with an incoming call, but I dismissed it and didn’t look to see who it was.

Not being able to fall back asleep wondering who the hell would be calling me at an ungodly hour, I eventually got up to see it was from my Mom, who happened to be in New Orleans on a Mother’s Day weekend vacation with her sister and niece.

And the voicemail that was left brought instant panic as my Mom was being ambulanced to a hospital for mostly unknown reasons.

While family was there to support her and relay details back to the rest of our family, it was urgent that I got there as well as my brother. I definitely would have purchased the very high last-minute revenue ticket, but having those accumulated United miles to ease the financial burden was a godsend.

Long story short, my Mom is “okay.” She’ll be discharged shortly and I’m arranging to get her and my brother to their respective homes on miles. And let me also just mention how grateful I am that United leaves a seat or two open in first class and doesn’t upgrade everyone in the queue. I’m able to book my Mom a seat up front, where she’ll need the extra space and comfort.

I normally wouldn’t advise anyone to hoard a balance of airline or hotel points, but am I ever grateful that I had a stash to fall back on this week.

CHICAGO – Earlier today, a woman was seen leaving the United Airlines employee parking lot headed West on Algonquin Road in her car, making a quick escape from the airline’s Executive Offices.

Security cameras later revealed she pulled into the lot undetected and snuck through a door that hadn’t been securely shut alongside one of the long corridors of the building.

Footage inside also showed she entered the employee logo gift shop and about 15 minutes later, exited with a bag of United Airlines collectibles and memorabilia.

Megan Smith, the shop clerk working at the time, later revealed in interviews that the woman seemed enthusiastic and excited to be shopping for items branded with United’s logo.

Ms. Smith went on to say, “she was beside herself mentioning how much her son was going to love the things she was picking out.”

The mysterious woman paid with cash, so there is no way to track her identity. If you have any information regarding this incident, please contact Darren Booth at Darren@frequentlyflying.com.

That was the headline and article, or so I’d like to think, back in the early 1980s in suburban Chicago. The story is true, actually, and I know exactly who did it.

It was my Mom, and I will always be grateful for having such an unconditionally loving mother that she’d risk trespass charges to get her United-loving son something unique for his birthday.

I love you, Mom, Happy Mother’s Day!

Darren

Mom and Darren (early 1980s)

[And yes, my astute long-time readers, this is a repeat of my Mother’s Day post from two years ago, but hey… it’s my blog and prerogative ]

United Airlines is reportedly spending $50 million this year to renovate and refresh many of its United Club locations, and I had the chance to visit the recently redone Denver West location yesterday.

Basically what they’ve done is swapped out the seating for new chairs, tables and counters identical to what’s in the newest club location at Chicago O’Hare’s Terminal 2 (F-concourse).

[My apologies for the poor quality iPhone images – the lounge was rather busy and I was trying to be as discreet as possible.]

United Club Denver West - Seating Area

United Club Denver West - 'Short' Tables

United’s clubs in Denver are known for their lack of power outlets and you’ll still have a hard time finding them if you’re seated in the new leather chairs. But they have at least added counters along the windows with outlets, as well as included plugs underneath some of the tabletops.

United Club Denver West - Window-side Counters

United Club Denver West - Seating

United Club Denver West - 'Hidden' Plugs Under Some Tabletops

The Denver East location has yet to receive the refresh and sports the same old worn furniture with highly limited access to power outlets. The view, however, remains one of the best features of either club.

United Club Denver West - View

Related posts:

United Club Membership Using Miles to Return, Plus More

First Look: United Club Redesign, New O’Hare Location

United Club Rate Increase

Last month I published a seat map of American’s “Standard” DC-10 from 1985 sporting a spacious coach cabin. I noted in that post that a mere two years later in 1987, this same aircraft was reconfigured with 22 additional seats in the rear cabin and promised to share the higher-density layout.

Here, then, is American’s DC-10 Luxury Liner seen flying the skies in 1987 for this installment of Vintage Airline Seat Maps.

The additional seats came by way of adding a pair of two-seaters on each side of the aircraft in between doors 2L/R and 3L/R, a pair of two-seaters in the rear-most section and three rows of middle five-seaters. If you’re doing the math, that’s one too many seats – note the very last row in the middle section formerly had four seats, but now only three.

Surviving this configuration, though, was a coffee bar in the very back along with two coat compartments (for coach!).

In first class you’d find me in a window seat mid-cabin, such as 3A or 3J. And in coach I always loved sitting near the engines as they had such a distinctly fantastic howl.

Where would you sit?

American Airlines DC-10 Standard Seat Map (1987)

Related posts:

American Airlines DC-10 ‘Standard’ Seat Map from 1985

American Airlines DC-10 ‘Dining in the Sky’ Seat Map

American Airlines DC-10 ‘International’ Seat Map

I posted previously about the TSA PreCheck identifier beginning to appear on boarding passes for those who qualify for the program. And having just checked in for my United flights, I can report a slight change from what the TSA announced.

From the TSA blog (bolding mine):

Eligible passengers will see a TSA Pre✓™ indicator on all boarding passes, even when flying out of an airport where TSA Pre✓™ is not available.

But on United, at least, the PreCheck indicator only appears on my boarding passes (both mobile and paper) from departure airports where PreCheck is available.

Paper Boarding Passes With & Without PreCheck ID

Mobile Boarding Pass Without PreCheck ID

Mobile Boarding Pass WITH PreCheck ID

This isn’t anything earth-shattering for those of us in the know, but it should help eliminate confusion for the infrequent, yet PreCheck-approved fliers.

Related posts:

TSA PreCheck for International Itineraries to Begin, Plus More

United MileagePlus, TSA Secure Flight Names Must Now Match

Here’s a United mileage run with oodles of availability I found this morning that I haven’t seen posted elsewhere.

This $99 one-way base airfare between San Francisco and Charlotte was filed back on April 26, and given it hasn’t been pulled yet, this post might stay useful longer than my last mileage run tip. It works in both directions, but I focused on zero- and one-nighters available originating in San Francisco.

Here’s the nitty-gritty and an example itinerary.

Routing: San Francisco to Los Angeles to Washington Dulles to Charlotte r/t

Routing rules: SFO-LAX/DEN-WAS/HOU/DEN/CLE/CHI-CLT

Travel period: Now through January 5, 2014

Dates I found available: Dozens, particularly in Sept/Oct/Nov

Number of nights stay: Many 0-night or 1-nighters available

Day of week restrictions: None

Fare basis: NA14KN, 14-day advance purchase

Fare: $249.40 roundtrip all-in

Premier Qualifying Miles earned: 6,576 (assumes 500-mile minimums)

Cents-per-mile (CPM): 3.79

Example itinerary: (click the image for a larger view)

The above itinerary was found using ITA Matrix, but can be booked on United directly with ease using Hipmunk.

Related posts:

Save Time Using Hipmunk for Multi-Segment Mileage Run Bookings

How to Find Mileage Runs – 2013 Edition

Here’s a television ad you likely won’t see aired in the U.S. Anti-energy drink maker Zenonade from the Czech Republic launched a new ad campaign having a little fun with the flight attendant safety demonstration. I’ll let it speak for itself:

I got quite a chuckle out of it given my closeness to the industry, but would the average traveler or TV watcher think it’s funny? Discuss.

(Hat tip: @theflyingpinto)

Related posts:

Cruel, Yet Hilarious, Airport Prank

American Airlines and Klout, a web service that scores your overall social media influence, teamed up for a new contest. They’re giving away free Admirals Club day passes to anyone whose Klout score is 55 or above, plus an entry to win an annual membership.

Just go to http://aa.com/klout and sign in with your Facebook or Twitter account to see if you have “klout.” For scores under 55, there’s a drawing for a day pass (or an offer for $50 off a membership, based on some reports).

I hadn’t signed into Klout in ages (there are just so many social media things I can do each day), but I did indeed score a free pass.

Klout was already an approved application on my Twitter account, but if you don’t like that type of thing, you can de-authorize them after checking your score for this contest.

The printable day pass I won is valid until July 31, 2013. Here are the T&Cs:

1. NO PURCHASE OR PAYMENT OF ANY KIND IS NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN. A PURCHASE WILL NOT INCREASE YOUR CHANCES OF WINNING. 2. OPEN TO/ENTRY DETAILS: Open to legal residents of the 50 United States, the District of Columbia who are 18 years (19 in Alabama andNebraska, 21 in Mississippi or older and no computer, mechanical device, or electronic device at a place of business in the State of Georgia. 3. Sweepstakes begins at 11:59 a.m. [Central daylight time (³CT²)] on May 6, 2013 and all entries must be received by 11:59 a.m. [CT] time on May 31, 2013. 4. PRIZE DETAILS: One Prize consisting of one (1) year membership to Admirals Club ARV $450. 5. ODDS: Odds of winning depend on number of entries. 6. ELIGIBILITY: Employees and agents of Sponsor, Administrator andaffiliates, agencies, distributors, wholesalers and retailers, and members of such employees¹ and agents¹ immediate families and individuals living in the same household with such employees or agents, are not eligible to win. 7. Void where prohibited. 8. Participation is subject to complete Official Rules by which all entrants are bound. Available at www.aa.com/klout. 9. Entrants release all parties from all claims/liability arising from this Sweepstakes or acceptance/use of any Prize. 10. Sponsor: American Airlines, Inc. 4333 Amon Carter Blvd., Ft. Worth, Texas 76155.

Related posts:

Yet Another Gift from American Airlines

A Surprise from American Airlines Arrived in the Mail

Review: American’s Flagship Check-In and Lounge at LAX