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My trip to Chicago (now with return trip)

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  • My trip to Chicago (now with return trip)

    I'm kind of in a rush, but I wanted to get this on here before I leave on Wednesday.

    We were going to Chicago to meet up with my brother, sister, and brother-in-law for my brother-in-law's brother's wedding. My parents like to fly direct, so I turned to United, the only airline with direct flights to Chicago from CHS. While making the reservations, I found it was $140 less to switch in CLT on the way there and to go back direct. We decided to do that.

    We got to the airport at ~11:25. I told my mom that we needed to check in with US Airways (even though we made our reservations with United--we were on a US Airways flight to CLT), but she told me that we should check in with United. Sure enough! When we got to the United check in desk, they told us to go to the US Airways one! We checked in there pretty easily and then I found out I had been randomly selected for the extra security stuff! Yay!

    We hurried to the security checkpoint. This was the only time I had ever seen a line at the Concourse B security. I was funneled off to the side, where I waited in a line with 2 people in front of me. They were taken pretty quickly, but they kind of forgot about me. 20 minutes later, they took me through. I ran into the concourse just in time to hear the final boarding call for my flight, so I ran onboard.

    -------------------------------------------------

    6-25-04
    US Airways
    UA #2814
    CHS-CLT
    Sched. Dep.: 12:25
    Act. Dep.: 12:20
    Sched. Arr.: 1:20
    Act. Arr.: 1:07
    737-300
    Seat 16A

    I got on the plane and found my seat. Not to much legroom, but it was enough. The mayor of Charleston was sitting a couple rows behind us, so he chatted with my dad for a minute. The security stuff was done on the overhead monitors. Unlike my last flight b/w CHS and CLT (actually it was a CLT-CHS flight), the f/as were very attentive and walked through the cabin several times. The flight was pretty uneventful. It was so short that no drinks or snacks were served.
    The captain said it was partly cloudy in CLT, but we descended through large storms. On the ground it was raining. We pulled up to the gate--C11 or C15 if I remember correctly.

    -----------------------------------------

    Our connecting flight was leaving from B14, so we had a long walk. Thanks to the moving sidewalks, though, it was easy. The CLT airport is so convenient. It is always a pleasure to switch there. I got a drink from Starbucks in concourse B right by my gate. I went over to the gate right when I expected boarding to begin, but the plane was not at the gate yet. Finally, the plane pulled up, but right before it was to a point where it could attach to the jetway, the tarmac cleared. All the planes stopped moving. The gate agents announced that there had been a lightning strike within airport grounds and that the plane could not pull in to the gate, as no one was allowed out on the ramp. After about 20 minutes, the plane pulled in. It deplaned quickly and then we boarded.

    --------------------------------------

    6-25-04
    US Airways
    UA #2026
    CLT-ORD
    Sched. Dep.: 2:10
    Act. Dep.: 3:30
    Sched. Arr.: 3:05
    Act. Arr.: 4:30
    737-300
    Seat 18A

    Although the flight was late, the f/as were just as cheerful. We took off and ascended through heavy rain clouds. We went through a lot of turbulance--my mom got really scared. For someone who is so interested in aviation, I feel like it is wierd how I hate turbulance! Parts of it were pretty scary for many on the flight. There were a couple of screams. Once we got above the clouds, though it was calm. I took out my laptop and watched the simpsons. The f/as came around with the beverage cart and gave full cans of soda to everyone!
    We started to descend through the clear Chicago sky. We circled around downtown and touched down at O'hare.

    ------------------------------------------

    We made our way to the baggage claim and waited 31 minutes for our bags! After that, we took the L downtown and had a fun weekend in Chicago!

    Here we go:
    Aircraft: 8/10 (they showed 2 things: their age and how well they were maintained)
    In-flight service: 9/10 (they couldn't have been nicer!)
    Baggage: 5/10 (they got it there, but we had to wait a long time)
    Overall: 7.5/10 (US Airways handled everything very professionally.

    EDIT:
    the first flight had 117 people on board.

    The second had about 120.

  • #2
    Nice Report!

    I take it you landed in Terminal Two. My cousin is a flight attendant for Air Wisconsin so she is in Terminal Two a lot. Did you notice that it was very warm in the terminal? Just wondering because she always notices it, and so does my uncle when he flies US into ORD.

    Patrick



    Next Flights:

    October 14, 2006 - Airtran MDW-MSP
    October 16, 2006 - Airtran MSP-MDW

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    • #3
      Yeah...I'll talk more about that on the return trip on UAX.

      That concourse is a sh!thole!

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      • #4
        Here we go...the return trip:

        After a fun-packed weekend in Chicago and the milestone of my first scotch , we left Hotel Le Meridian (which is an awesome, modern hotel!) for O'hare via the L. The train kept stopping in between stations, so we only got there about 1 hour before the flight was scheduled to depart.

        Check in was completely chaotic. The line for domestic e-ticket check in stretched out the door. I left my parents in line, found an open e-ticket kiosk (between 2 long lines of people waiting for kiosks. you should have seen the look on their faces when I walked up to the open one in between them) and got my parents to check in there. Unfortunately, our flight was delayed from 1:50 until 3:30!

        We went through security at the opposite end of the check in hall. It was the checkpoint that is the closest to the UAX terminal. I convinced my parents to walk with me into the main United terminal, which is in a few of my architecture books. The tunnel is awesome! While walking through the terminal, i did not see one a/c in the new color scheme. United is really taking their time with those--but it's okay--they're bankrupt!

        We walked back to the regional sh!thole--I mean concourse where we had arrived on US Airways. Our gate was all the way at the end. It was either F11 or F14. Anywho, it was a small room, about 2x the size of my living room on the first level. It was so hot and crowded. It was 2:00 and the only things we had to eat were bagels from the Cosi across the street from our hotel. We decided to go to Chili's to have some salads. At least it was an excuse to get out of that hell-hole they call a gate area.

        After lunch, my mom and dad went into one of those news and books stores and I went to check out the FlyI gate. There were 48 people sitting in the gate area when the next CRJ pulled up. Not bad for such a few number of connecting flights! After that, I went back to the store my parents were in and we proceeded to the gate. The little room was even more hectic than before! They started boarding our flight through the same door as a flight going to Hartford, CT. When we walked out the door, a gate agent stood in front of 4 CRJs asking each person: Charleston, Hartford, Birmingham, or Milwaukee?

        We proceeded to the correct CRJ and walked up the steps of my least favorite a/c!

        -------------------------------------------

        6-28-04
        United Express (ACA)
        UA #7320
        ORD-CHS
        Sched. Dep.: 1:50
        Act. Dep.: 3:30
        Sched. Arr.: 5:00
        Act. Arr.: 6:20
        CRJ-200
        Seat 11A

        I got on the plane and was immediatly greeted by our friendly f/a. The pilot came on and told everyone to find their seats quickly, as he wanted to try to save as much time as possible. I took my seat next to a business traveller who had trouble pulling the cell phone away from his ear when it was time. We taxied out to the runway, cut in front of all the other airplanes and took off.
        The seat had a lot more legroom than I remembered from UAX CRJs. Other than the fact I could hardly see the window, much-the-less see out of it, I was pretty comfortable.
        When we selected our seats, there were only 3 seats open besides ours. It wasn't like they had roped off the exit rows and the first few rows, because the empty seats were in those rows. The flight had more than 10 open seats. This really surprised me.
        The takeoff was a little turbulant, but nothing to complain about (except the fact that it was a CRJ). The f/a (I think her name was Mandy--I didn't really catch it though) started the beverage service. She made a point to initiate conversation with almost every passenger--a nice touch. When she got to me, I asked her about FlyI. She said that she had already been the f/a on a few of the flights and loved it. She was so enthusiastic about it! This kind of attitude will get FlyI far. I told her I ws flying them in August. When I asked her--she was kind of surprised. She asked me if I was a f/a too. I guess I don't really look 13...at all...
        (By the way--she gave full cans of soda )
        Soon after, the pilot asked her to make the final run to collect the trash from the cabin, as he was turning on the fasten seatbelt sign for the last 40 minutes of the flight. He warned us it was gonna get pretty bumpy. When a pilot says this--you know you are in deep sh!t! Anyway, it never really got bumpy--at all. Better safe than sorry! We had a smooth touchdown and we pulled up at gate A5, United Express' new gate in CHS.
        I was very surprised to see that the ground crew unloading the bags were all women/girsl who looked about 20. I have a new impression of DAL global services now! (they are the ones who employeed these ladies )

        So--I made my way to the baggage claim, waited 14 minutes for the bags to come and went home.

        The end.


        Okay:
        Aircraft: 6/10 (It was a CRJ...)
        In flight service: 9.5/10 ( )
        Baggage: 9/10 (that's a long time to wait, but I was pleasantly surprised with who was unloading it )
        Overall: 8/10 (ACA did great!)

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