A tip of the wings to United who supplied free snackboxes to all the passengers (those who weren’t members of FlyerTalk will soon be as I think they think United always buys lunch for members of FlyerTalk. Wondering what’s for lunch? The ‘Active’ one of our favorites because it features “Hannah’s Honey Cured Turkey Stick” and i’m not making that up.

This flight has to have the highest per capital of headphone usage on any flight I’ve ever been on. Counting heads … an astonishing 80% of passengers were listening to Channel 9 during the takeoff and landing. And they seemed to all take them off once the in-flight entertainment started on the video preferring to move up and down the aisles visiting with each other.

Here’s the aircraft that we are flying, boarding right now. Word has it that the tower will clear this flight as it taxis and takes off as FlyerTalk1. Now, how cool is that?

Returning after all the morning tours, this line of FlyerTalkers feel as if they “own” the Red Carpet Club today. When’s the last time you entered any airport lounge and didn’t have to show a card or any I.D.?
The price of admittance? FlyerTalk and for those of the Woodstock generation: let your freak flag fly. In this case the freak flag of FlyerTalk is the screaming yellow luggage/greeting tag.

There’s nothing better for any traveler to read than the words, “on time.” Here’s positive proof that things are off on a good start — mid-page United #678 to Newark … “On Time.”

The Chicago group of MegaDO flyers were divided into two groups by self selection, one group off to view a behind the scenes of Flight Ops as experienced by the flight attendants and the other group off to experience United’s ground control. They all left the Red Carpet club with smiles full on.

Here’s United Airlines ‘Captain Denny’ signing autographs and copies of The Age of Flight, a history of America’s pioneering airline, United. A wonderful 250-page coffee table book given to each member flying today.

About 50 members of FlyerTalk have gathered In the United Red Carpet in Terminal C to meet and mingle before flying today, they got to meet the Captain of today’s flight as well as meet and chat with Graham Atkinson, the president of Mileage Plus. Every single person has been quoted as saying … “I’m excited.”

It’s 5am in the Windy City and as darkness continues to hover, there’s a scurry of activity in and around ORD as the devoted of FlyerTalk begin to stir. My already tired eyes see early humor from the posts on FlyerTalk already starting to flourish — don’t these people ever sleep? And, there is already our first casualty — one of the members has lost his passport en route and now won’t be able to come along. Yes, life as a frequent flyer takes no vacation even when FlyerTalk flys. How many times have you stressed out when losing something along the way. I’ve witnessed scores of travelers frantically searching for their boarding passes seconds before entering the domain of the TSA and even myself had to crawl hand and knees underneath the x-ray machine to rescue my lost drivers license when and over stuffed tray flipped when entering that same x-ray machine. Very sad news for one of our companions and I just know that some enterprising flyer will want to know — “was this person in a biz class seat and since they won’t be joining us what are the odds that Mr. Coach could snag an upgrade?” I know how these travelers think, which is why I welcome you along for this trip. Read on and laugh. Read on and wish you were here. Just read on.