• Twitter has been abuzz today covering American’s inaugural Boeing 777-300 flight. AAdvantage Geek has a great post reviewing his walk-through and be sure to follow @airchive for real-time flight updates.
• Meanwhile, another 777-300 inaugural was grounded. Aeroflot had planned to launch flights tomorrow, but forgot one minor detail… the “type certificate” from the Russian government. Oops. The inaugural has been postponed.
• Iberia Airlines unveiled their swanky new business class dubbed Business Plus. The cabin looks fantastic and features all-aisle access, fully flat seats and a nifty entertainment system. The new cabin will debut on the airline’s freshly delivered A330s, the first to enter service in February.
• Sticking with oneworld carriers for a moment, Malaysia Airlines becomes the latest oneworld alliance addition. And in celebration of the occasion, American Airlines is offering double redeemable miles for flights on the carrier from February 15 to April 15.
• The European Court has ruled that airlines must compensate passengers for severe delays or cancellations in the event of weather or natural disasters, not just mechanical related issues. I’m not so sure I agree… imagine the expense!
• Frontier Airlines will launch Denver to Cincinnati service this May. Six weekly flights aboard Airbus A320 jets will begin May 16. CVG has historically had some pretty high airfares… we’ll see if this brings them down a bit (in competitive markets).
• Boston certainly has had its share of aircraft incidents (glad my 4 flights last week to/from BOS were without troubles). A Delta Air Lines MD-90 evacuated its passengers on a taxiway due to a brake fire, possibly before the aircraft even took off.

Related posts:

Notable Airline, Hotel and Travel News: January 30, 2013

Notable Airline, Hotel and Travel News: January 29, 2013

Notable Airline, Hotel and Travel News: January 28, 2013

• American’s inaugural of its Boeing 777-300ER occurs tomorrow flying from Dallas to Sao Paulo. We’ve all seen the exterior and interior images from American, but here are some new ones from the Dallas Morning News blog.
• Sheraton Hotels (part of Starwood) will open 30 new hotels over the next 12 months. Half of the new properties will open in China with additional new locations sprouting up in Latin America, the Middle East and Turkey.
• Spirit Airlines will be adding several new routes, including Houston to LAX, Baltimore and Philadelphia to Las Vegas, and Minneapolis to Denver. Fingers crossed for a fare war, though legacy airlines tend to distance themselves from Spirit’s “sales.” One of these days I’ll fly Spirit just for the sake of trying them out.
• Brussels Airlines announced that Washington Dulles will be their next U.S. destination. Service is slated to begin June 18th with five weekly flights IAD-BRU using Airbus A330 aircraft. One Mile at a Time (Ben) just flew them from JFK in business class. At the minimum, it’ll bring another Star Alliance mileage redemption option to Europe from the East coast.
• Emirates Skywards members can now redeem miles for JetBlue flights. The partnership between the two airlines previously only allowed Skywards members to earn miles on JetBlue.

Related posts:

Notable Airline, Hotel and Travel News: January 29, 2013

Notable Airline, Hotel and Travel News: January 28, 2013

I completed my multi-part United Airlines Boeing 787 Dreamliner inaugural trip report last week, so be sure to check it out in case you missed it. Here’s a time-lapse video of how ship 3904 (registration N20904) came to be:

Related posts:

United 787 Dremaliner Inaugural: Introduction

United 787 Inaugural Takeoff Video

Video Tour Inside United’s First 787 Dreamliner

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

When I returned to gate C20 after a brief visit to the United Club, the gate room was as packed for the departure as it was for the arrival. A line of 25 to 35 people had already jammed the boarding lanes and after a brief delay, boarding began for flight 1510 bound for Houston.

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

There were several of us taking the return flight back to Houston after having just arrived on the inaugural. And there were a few very enthusiastic first-time riders, as well, most of whom were sitting in BusinessFirst. I purposely decided to fly coach on this flight to see how the ride was in back and selected 16A, the bulkhead window seat.

Besides row 7 on United’s Airbus(es), this was the most spacious bulkhead seat I’ve experienced (exit rows excluded). I had a fantastic seatmate in 16B, Chris Sloan of Airchive.com, and a United employee sat in 16C.

We pushed back nearly on-time with minimal fanfare, though a few people watched us taxi away. I heard a couple of claps upon liftoff, but nothing like the inaugural round of applause.

Once airborne, Captain Starling came on the PA welcoming us on the 787 and gave a brief review of our flight path. As I usually do, I pulled up the IFE screen from the armrest to activate the map.

I was impressed with the size of the screen and absolutely love how new and undamaged it was. Those poor things get banged around so much that I’m certain by now they’ve seen some abuse. The control unit is located in the hard-walled seat divider (no movable armrests in the bulkhead).

I took a quick trip to the lav before beverage service started and noticed the unique ashtray next to the door.

Once we hit cruising altitude, the crew began their service. Chris and I began a friendly and informative chat with the United employee in 16C and Jack Harty of Airways Magazine joined us in the bulkhead. What was unusual is it seemed that we were the only four really enjoying the ride and having a mini party while the rest of the cabin remained silent. Perhaps more was going on ahead of the curtain.

A little piece of Continental Airlines made its way onto this flight in the galley.

The flight sailed by as Chris, Jack, the United employee, myself and another enthusiastic rider who sat further back in the cabin were deep in conversation on all things United and aviation.

Houston weather was pleasant when we landed and pulled into gate. There were some new riders waiting for the next flight to LAX and many of us who disembarked headed over to the windows to capture a few photos of this beautiful aircraft.

I had nearly two hours before my final flight of the day back to LAX, so I said goodbye to Chris and Jack and headed to the United Club to upload my pictures and video on my laptop.

Up next: UA Flight 1209 IAH to LAX and my overall impressions of United’s 787

Related posts:

United 787 Inaugural: Takeoff Video

United 787 Inaugural: Chicago Arrival Celebration

United 787 Inaugural: Flight 1116 IAH to ORD

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

It’s hard for me to wrap my mind around the fact that Boeing 777s have been flying for more than 17 years. It still seems like a brand new airplane to me. And since I’m in an inaugural mood this week from my 787 ride, here’s United’s initial layout of their 777-200s for this installment of Vintage Airline Seat Maps.

United was the launch customer of the 777 with the inaugural flight occurring on June 5, 1995. First Class seated 12 passengers in a 2-2-2 configuration with 64 inches of pitch between rows. Connoisseur Class offered 49 seats in the 2-3-2 layout with 49 inches of pitch. (As a point of reference, United’s non-flat bed 777s currently flying have 55 inches of pitch in Business Class.) And economy class seated 231 passengers in the 2-5-2 configuration with 31-33 inches of pitch (this was pre-Economy Plus).

I loved row two in First, row nine in Connoisseur and the first several rows of coach.

Where would you sit?

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United Airlines 767-300 Seat Map (1998)

United Airlines L-1011-500 Seat Map

United Airlines 747-SP Seat Map

Inaugural day had arrived with my alarm going off at 3:30 a.m.

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 was very thankful for the extra hour of sleep due to daylight savings time ending, but it was still a slight struggle to wake up. My excitement for the day ahead and downing a couple of cups of coffee quickly shook off my grogginess, and I arrived at the airport at about 4:45 a.m.

I first bumped into Jack Harty, of Airways Magazine, as we were both on the quest for a cardstock version of our boarding pass. All of the machines in the lobby area, however, only printed out the thermal paper type. I’d end up waiting until I was airside to get the heavier printout to keep as an unadulterated (non-TSA abused) memento.

At 5:00 a.m., those of us with invites met with members of United’s Media Relations team for a rundown of the morning’s festivities (mentioned in this post). Shortly after, I made my way through security and headed down to gate E5 with Chris Sloan of Airchive.com.

United had the gate area decked out with balloons, tables, banners, TV monitors showing 787 specs and a very generous assortment of continental breakfast items, including 787 cookies.

At about 5:30, members of the media were invited onboard for a tour. First, my pictures:

And here’s the video version:

I was in the first wave of media people through, so back in the gate area, I had plenty of time to catch up with good friend Bruce of NonRevAdventure.com. And I even had the pleasure of meeting some of my blog readers and other enthusiasts. By now, the gate area was bustling with excitement while TV and newspaper journalist were interviewing passengers.

Around 6:30, Stephanie Buchanan, United’s vice president of the Houston hub, kicked off the other festivities, including a speech by CEO Jeff Smisek and ribbon cutting ceremony.

And with that, it was time to board!

Up next: UA Flight 1116 IAH to ORD

Related posts:

United Airlines Boeing 787 Dreamliner Inaugural: Introduction

United Flight 1116: Inaugural 787 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