Boarding for my third and final leg on inaugural day was a more civilized affair. While there were many passengers standing around gate C14, no one was crowding the lanes.

United Dreamliner Inaugural: Introduction

United Dreamliner Inaugural: Pre-Departure Festivities

United Dreamliner Inaugural: UA Flight 1116 IAH to ORD

United Dreamliner Inaugural: Chicago Arrival Celebration

United Dreamliner Inaugural: UA Flight 1510 ORD to IAH

United Dreamliner Inaugural: UA Flight 1209 IAH to LAX

This time I was seated in the forward BusinessFirst cabin in the middle section, aisle seat 2D. I forgot that non-bulkhead seats have the very small footwell – stick to row 1 or 4 if you want a larger footwell.

Everyone in the forward cabin was uber enthusiastic, so this flight felt like another inaugural. There were a mix of United employees, Flyertalkers, bloggers and other #avgeeks in the BusinessFirst cabin (and maybe one or two “regular” people, but they were equally keen on the aircraft). The fresh batch of flight attendants, however, didn’t seem all that excited and carried themselves as if it were any ol’ flight.

We pushed back on-time and were airborne within minutes. I do quite love the Sky Interior and took particular notice of it on this flight.

Check out the varying degrees of window darkness in the following two pics. Row 1 has their “shades” fully open in the first pic while row 2’s shades are partially closed. And the second shows a fully darkened row 1 and partially darkened row 2. The jury is still out for me whether the fully darkened shades will be completely effective on a long-haul flight overseas when the sun rises before the cabin does.

Dinner onboard was a choice between chicken cacciatore or pasta – I went with the former.

After dinner, literally everyone was up and about either chatting or getting an airborne tour of the pilot rest area. My thoughts on the inflight crew being “meh” changed ever so slightly because of their willingness to let us up for a peek.

Back at my seat, I noticed the scuff marks (not from me!) on the seat shell in front of me for the first time… this poor bird is already getting banged up. Hopefully a little cleaner will polish those right off.

Both the excitement and length of the day were getting to me at this point, so I reclined back and dozed off until nearly landing.

And finally, here are my random impressions and comments.

• It’s a noticeably quieter aircraft.
• As I mentioned above, for the larger footwells in BusinessFirst, go for the bulkhead seats in row 1 or 4.
• The bar area in the forward BusinessFirst cabin is aesthetically appealing to see while seated, but I would have placed it behind row 3 thereby shifting the center section of seats a bit further away from the lavatory doors. All of the aisle seats in row 3 (particularly the center section) would get a yellow SeatGuru rating from me.
• Since the pilot rest area is above row 1, there is no overhead bin storage in the center section. And row 2 (center) only has a half-bin on each side (if that).
• The inward opening lavatory doors don’t operate smoothly (and I don’t think it was just me).
• Will the darkening windows be fully effective when the sun rises and the entire cabin is sleeping?
• Row 16 has a fantastic amount of legroom along the windowside bulkheads – the center section of row 16 appears to have slightly less room.
• I think United missed the boat in not putting a window in the lavatories a la ANA’s 787s.
• I had no sense of a lower cabin pressure or higher humidity setting – perhaps I will on a long-haul flight.

Have you flown United’s Dreamliner yet? What are some of your impressions?

Related posts:

United 787 Inaugural: Chicago to Houston

United 787 Inaugural: Houston to Chicago

United 787 Inaugural: Pre-Departure Festivities

After a flight that went by far too quickly, we were on final approach for runway 10 at Chicago O’Hare International Airport.

United Dreamliner Inaugural: Introduction

United Dreamliner Inaugural: Pre-Departure Festivities

United Dreamliner Inaugural: UA Flight 1116 IAH to ORD

United Dreamliner Inaugural: Chicago Arrival Celebration

United Dreamliner Inaugural: UA Flight 1510 ORD to IAH

United Dreamliner Inaugural: UA Flight 1209 IAH to LAX

Source: United Airlines

Captain Jim Starling brought us in for a smooth landing as you’ll see in the video below, which includes the water cannon salute at gate C20, deplaning and preparations for the arrival ceremony.

I was the third passenger to exit the aircraft among cheers and applause from a crowded gate room.

Jeff Smisek

Jeff Smisek deplaned behind me receiving a warm welcome and staff escorted him over to the stage area. Once all passengers and the crew had disembarked, Charles Duncan, United’s vice president of operations at ORD, kicked off the celebratory speeches by Jeff and Captain Starling:

And with that, the successful revenue inaugural of United’s Boeing 787 Dreamliner had concluded. But my day was young and after a quick visit to the United Club with Bruce and Mommy Points, I headed back to gate C20 for the return flight to Houston.

Up next: UA Flight 1510 ORD to IAH

Related posts:

United Airlines Boeing 787 Inaugural: Flight 1116 IAH to ORD

United Airlines Boeing 787 Inaugural: Pre-Departure Festivities

United Airlines Boeing 787 Inaugural: Takeoff Video

One week ago yesterday, I flew on United’s inaugural Boeing 787 Dreamliner flight from Houston to Chicago.

United Dreamliner Inaugural: Introduction

United Dreamliner Inaugural: Pre-Departure Festivities

United Dreamliner Inaugural: UA Flight 1116 IAH to ORD

United Dreamliner Inaugural: Chicago Arrival Celebration

United Dreamliner Inaugural: UA Flight 1510 ORD to IAH

United Dreamliner Inaugural: UA Flight 1209 IAH to LAX

The excitement following the pre-departure festivities at gate E5 in Houston culminated with very crowded boarding lanes for flight 1116 bound for Chicago.

I was among the first dozen or so to make it onboard and each passenger was greeted at their seat with a “Proud to fly the 787 Dreamliner” folder. It contained an inaugural flight certificate, 787 infographic card and an invitation to share pics and video with United’s social media team.

I was seated in 4A for this historic inaugural and my seatmate was to originally be Bruce (NonRevAdventure.com), but he fell victim to a mysterious and non-self-initiated seat change. I was very curious to find out who the “seat poacher” ended up being.

I settled in as boarding continued, lightened my electronic window shade that took quite a long time (all were darkened upon boarding) and snapped a couple of pics.

The flight attendants did an amazing job ushering everyone onboard and directing them to the appropriate aisle to walk down. Virtually everyone was taking pictures or video as they boarded. It would be a while before the seat poacher appeared, but he eventually did.

Mr. Hxxxxxx sat down in 4B and didn’t seem all that enthusiastic about the occasion. Hmm. He kept to himself as I was busy investigating my surroundings and occasionally standing up to snap additional photos and chat with people I knew. He was, however, gracious enough to honor my request for a picture of me in 4A.

The seat itself is your standard Continental BusinessFirst seat, which I find infinitely more comfortable and spacious than pre-merger United’s lie-flat offering. As boarding continued, people were a flurry around the cabin mingling and sharing their enthusiasm.

It was an exciting start to a memorable flight. We pushed back on-time amongst a throng of United employees watching from the tarmac. Here’s the video showing our departure, including the takeoff and champagne (or cider) toast by Jeff Smisek once we were in-flight.

Once the seat belt sign came off (and even before), many people were filing up and down the aisles filming the momentous occasion. Television crews and other media outlets were occupying Jeff Smisek’s time post-toast. Meanwhile, I took a closer look at the seat and my surroundings, including the fan-like overhead air nozzles.

Prior to breakfast being served in BusinessFirst, I headed to the nearby lavatory just forward of door two. It’s an incredibly spacious handicap-accessible lav with an inward opening door that took me by surprise. The touchless flush and sink features were fantastic. Now, if Boeing could just come up with a mechanism to avoid having to lift the seat/lid…

Back at my seat, Mr. Hxxxxxx sat there unenthusiastically as he had from the beginning watching the IFE. My curiosity was peaked as to who he was exactly and I was fascinated that he kept such a stoic and thoughtless presence about himself. Oh well. Not everyone is an aviation enthusiast.

Breakfast arrived and I was incredibly unimpressed. I thought United always served a choice of an omelet or cereal dish, but maybe that’s just on my constant mid-con or greater mileage flying. This was a ham muffin with egg, as well as fruit, yogurt and either a croissant or cinnamon roll. Ehh.

After eating, I was rarely in my seat. Everyone (except 4B) was milling about, chatting away, taking pictures and simply standing in the aisles sharing their excitement. It was a fantastic experience and it came to an end far too quickly.

Before I knew it, we were descending for our approach into Chicago. Settling back into my seat, I brought my video camera out again and… (sorry FAA)… filmed the approach. You’ll see that in the next installment.

The in-flight crew on this inaugural were simply fantastic. They were consummate professionals in handling the occasion while at the same time equally enthralled by the experience. Kudos to them!

Much more is to follow, including my overall impression (pluses and minuses) of the 787.

Up next: Chicago Arrival Celebration

Related posts:

United Airlines Boeing 787 Dreamliner Inaugural: Introduction

United Airlines Boeing 787 Dreamliner Inaugural: Pre-Departure Festivities

United 787 Inaugural Takeoff Video

I was planning on writing up a single post covering the United Airlines Boeing 787 Dreamliner inaugural on November 4, 2012. But with the volume of pics and video I’d like to share, I’ve decided to use a more traditional trip report method by breaking the posts up.

United Dreamliner Inaugural: Introduction

United Dreamliner Inaugural: Pre-Departure Festivities

United Dreamliner Inaugural: UA Flight 1116 IAH to ORD

United Dreamliner Inaugural: Chicago Arrival Celebration

United Dreamliner Inaugural: UA Flight 1510 ORD to IAH

United Dreamliner Inaugural: UA Flight 1209 IAH to LAX

I booked my reservations on August 31, the day before Dreamliner availability went live (see this post for my reasoning). My first LAX-IAH-LAX ticket was paid with cash and I upgraded the IAH-LAX portion immediately with a Regional Premier Upgrade. I booked the IAH-ORD-IAH ticket as an award as the same-day roundtrip fare was in excess of $1,000, a bit more than I was willing to spend. While BusinessFirst was available in both directions, I opted to fly coach on the ORD-IAH segment for the sake of experiencing both cabins.

I flew into Houston on Saturday morning November 3^rd to buffer in enough time in case of delays or cancellations (eh hem… Bruce aka @NonRevAdventure). There was no way I was going to miss the inaugural. Oh, and Bruce did make it down from Chicago in time, happily, but a tweet from him mid-Saturday afternoon noted his original flight canceled. And as a non-revver, that could’ve spelled a load of trouble for him getting to Houston.

On Saturday morning at LAX, I signed the FlyerTalk board (using my handle “UNITED863″) in the United Club noting my itinerary before heading off to the gate for my 737-800 flight to Houston.

It was a fairly uneventful flight, though the video safety demonstration wasn’t playing properly. The flight attendants kept trying to restart it as we taxied to the runway to no avail. As such, the pilots had to pull onto a parallel taxiway and pause until the flight attendants were able to complete the now-necessary live safety demo. Afterwards, we were airborne quickly.

Breakfast in first class consisted of a cheese omelet with sausage and a spinach-filled quiche type thing, along with fruit, yogurt and a croissant or cinnamon roll.

As the safety video had its issues, the in-flight entertainment system was also non-operational the whole flight. No live TV for me this time. Cloud buildup was dense as we approached Houston and I do quite love the view it provides.

After landing and arriving on-time at the gate, I waited more than an hour for the courtesy shuttle to my hotel. While waiting, the clouds darkened and once I got to the hotel, thunderstorms blew through for the next hour or so. Afterwards, it was a cool and partly cloudy evening, so weather looked like it wouldn’t be a factor for the 7:20 a.m. departure on Sunday.

Up next: The Pre-Departure Festivities

Related posts:

United Airlines Boeing 787 Inaugural Takeoff Video

United 787 Inaugural Info, Plus Delivery of Second Dreamliner

Video Tour Inside United’s First Boeing 787

I had a fantastic day of flying yesterday on United’s inaugural flight(s) of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. I flew on the first three revenue flights from Houston to Chicago, Chicago back to Houston and from Houston to Los Angeles. Phew. I’m exhausted (but in a good #avgeek way).

A full trip report will be coming soon to Frequently Flying, but in the meantime… how about a takeoff video of flight 1116 on November 4, 2012 from IAH to ORD:

I’m getting excited for United’s inaugural of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner on November 4! And they sent me a little preview of what to expect at Houston Bush Intercontinental Airport on Sunday morning. First, the basics:

Flight 1116 is scheduled to depart from IAH at 7:20 a.m. with an arrival at Chicago O’Hare at 9:51 a.m. The flight will depart from gate E5 with boarding estimated to begin at 6:35 a.m. But the fun starts earlier than that.

I’ll be at the airport at 5:00 a.m. for a sponsored media event, and then the festivities for everyone (assuming you’re airside) open up, as follows:

At 6:25 a.m., we will begin our pre-departure event. Jeff Smisek, United’s president and chief executive officer, will make remarks at the gate and there will be a ribbon-cutting with members of the crew.

There will be an opportunity to talk with customers, United executives and employees before and after the pre-departure event.

At 6:35 a.m., general boarding will begin. At 7:20 a.m., the flight departs.

Inflight, we will have a brief toast prior to the normal beverage and snack service. After that service is completed, you will have some time to shoot video and take photos inflight. We expect to arrive in Chicago at 9:50 a.m.

After arrival, we will have a short post-arrival event at the gate at Chicago O’Hare International Airport.

I didn’t specifically ask, but I’m hoping United issues inaugural flight certificates to every passenger as they did for the 777 in 1995 (as well as other goodies).

If you’re not flying on the inaugural, be sure to follow me on Twitter as I’ll be tweeting pics and updates throughout the day from Houston and Chicago. And for those of you who will be there, I look forward to meeting you!

In other United 787 news, they took delivery of their second Dreamliner yesterday and it flew to Houston earlier today.

Related posts:

United Airlines Inaugural Boeing 777 Flight in 1995

Video Tour Inside United’s First Boeing 787 Dreamliner

My Strategy For Booking a 787 BusinessFirst Seat

Today is National Aviation Day, celebrating the history and development of aviation in the United States (and worldwide for that matter). It’s also fittingly Orville Wright’s birthday, who would have been only 141 today. Franklin D. Rooselvelt established the holiday in 1939 via presidential proclamation.

Someone earlier today tweeted the question, “What was your first flight?” Mine was in April 1982 from Chicago O’Hare to Phoenix on an American Airlines Boeing 727-200. I remember barely being able to sleep the night before out of sheer excitement. The return to Chicago was equally exciting and it was on a DC-10 – an aircraft that was #1 in my book for a very long time, eventually being replaced by the 747.

Some of my other memorable aviation firsts:

• I flew a 747 for the first time in June 1990 on America West Airlines from Phoenix to Las Vegas. I was the only passenger in first class.
• I was onboard the inaugural United Airlines Boeing 777 flight from Denver to Chicago in 1995.
• My first mileage run was in 1988 on a same-day Chicago to Detroit turn. I mostly did it just to fly, but I was also already hooked on racking up miles.
• My first international flight was from Washington Dulles to Paris in 1991. I was originally supposed to be on the nonstop from Chicago that cancelled. When I very immaturely complained about it at Dulles (how can an 18-year old be a “DYKWIA?”), I was given an upgrade to first class seat 2A, completely bypassing business class. I was a Premier at the time in Mileage Plus.

And finally, my most memorable moment in aviation was my first solo flight in a Cessna 172 in August 1989.

Yes… I really was that skinny, those are indeed high tops and I was sporting a mullet. [Sigh]

What are some of your memorable firsts in aviation?

Related posts:

Trip Report: United Airlines Inaugural 777 Flight from Denver to Chicago

Four Reasons I Love Window Seats When I Fly

I was going through my photos yesterday and came across the batch of pictures I took when I flew on the inaugural United Airlines Boeing 777 flight from Denver to Chicago on June 7, 1995. Knowing there are a ton of aviation geeks out there like me, I figured it would be worth it to post a vintage trip report of my experience and share the pictures below.

I was employed by United at the time, took a vacation day that Wednesday and purchased a revenue ticket to ensure I’d have a seat on the historic flight. As I recall, the ticket was about $240 for the same day ORD-DEN-ORD trip and luckily I still had elite status with United so was able to upgrade into Connoisseur Class on the all-important 777 segment. I was a ‘Premier Emeritus’, the “soft landing” United used to bestow on elites in the year following not having requalified for any status. This was in the day of paper 500-milers and I do remember I had only two left so my flight to Denver that morning on a 757 was in economy. I broke the rules and booked my own reservation (a no-no for employees to book their own revenue tickets at that time) and also self-upgraded the DEN-ORD segment, but did that within my 24-hour window per the rules. Sorry United!

It was a beautiful day to fly and I arrived in Denver early leaving about an hour and a half to savor the departure gate festivities at B36 for United flight 910.

The gate area was decked out with balloons, beverages, food & cake and several members of the media were present along with United executives.

After a ribbon-cutting ceremony it was time for boarding and my heart was racing in excited anticipation of the historic flight. The business class cabin on the initial configuration seated 49 passengers and was divided into a three row cabin forward of door two and a four row cabin aft.

Onboard, champagne was served to the Connoisseur Class cabin along with commemorative baseball caps and inaugural flight certificates.

I had hair (and acne)!

Although I was disappointed in not having scored a window seat, I was still able to witness many of United’s employees and airport workers watching us taxi out to the runway. The flight was fantastic and I noticed Lester Holt, a CBS news anchor in Chicago at that time (now on NBC’s Today Show), was seated in the rear Connoisseur cabin. The flight flew by and we were far too quickly arriving at our gate in Chicago.

It remains to this day one of my all time favorite experiences flying United and I hope you enjoyed the flash back photo tour.