767-322ETOPS From United States of America, joined May 2001, 324 posts, RR: 0 Posted (10 years 10 months 1 week 5 days 20 hours ago) and read 1030 times:
I'm going to be doing a mileage run on UA, just checking to see if would be worth making a trip report afterwards.
Scheduled equipment: Canadair jet, J41, and A320 (my first UA Airbus ride).
Jason Seiple From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 1, posted (10 years 10 months 1 week 5 days 20 hours ago) and read 991 times:
Sure, we'd love to see a trip report.
I'm sure the UAL lovers over on flyertalk would like to see one there too.
You'll find there are very very few people on this board who know what a mileage run is or would consider doing one. They aren't as frequent flyer mile crazed as we on flyertalk are.
SQA340 From United States of America, joined Aug 2000, 702 posts, RR: 5 Reply 2, posted (10 years 10 months 1 week 5 days 8 hours ago) and read 981 times:
A detailed trip on a J41 will be one nice report. A pilot once said that the CRJ is safer than a 737.
Exitrowaisle From United States of America, joined May 2000, 257 posts, RR: 0 Reply 3, posted (10 years 10 months 1 week 5 days 6 hours ago) and read 975 times:
Sure, any (real) trip report would be great...just please write more than "A320 is powerful, landed on time, I love United." However, it seems like most of the people who tell us about an upcoming trip never bother to write a report. Frankly, I'm going on a plane next week too...so what?
Looking forward to hearing from you when you get BACK!
Ah414211 From United States of America, joined Mar 2001, 204 posts, RR: 0 Reply 5, posted (10 years 10 months 1 week 5 days 6 hours ago) and read 970 times:
Mileage Run!?!?!? Is that what we call them? I thought I was the only one crazy enough to fly just for the miles or for the heck of it
Jason Seiple From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 6, posted (10 years 10 months 1 week 4 days 22 hours ago) and read 968 times:
Ah414211,
I guess you can classify yourself as a "mileage runner" now like some of the rest of us. My friends thought I was crazy when I first started by taking a few cheap TWA trips to bump my account to Elite level. However, they weren't laughing when we took a class trip and as we were preparing to board, the agent called my name and gave me a first class boarding pass.
I don't know if you are involved over there or not, but you might check out http://www.flyertalk.com
It is a haven for mileage addicts.
767-322ETOPS From United States of America, joined May 2001, 324 posts, RR: 0 Reply 7, posted (10 years 10 months 1 week 4 days 10 hours ago) and read 968 times:
I will definitely do a report when I return. The flight is Aug 6th. I promise to elaborate on the A320 as much as possible. This is my first time on ANY A320, so I'm going to soak in as much as I can.
I also booked another mileage run for the end of August: LGA-ORD-RSW on UA. Equipment = 757 & 727. I'm glad I'll have a chance to fly the 727 before UA sends them to early retirement.
Jason is right on the money with Flyertalk. I learned a lot of stuff there, including getting cheap fares with no minimum return. My LGA-PIT ticket was only $97 (all in), and the LGA-RSW ticket is only $138. It's worth it to keep my Premier status, plus I love to fly.
Later this year I'm going to do a JFK-SIN run, 21,000 miles & a chance to fly across the pacific in a 744!
767-322ETOPS From United States of America, joined May 2001, 324 posts, RR: 0 Reply 9, posted (10 years 9 months 3 weeks 3 days 11 hours ago) and read 940 times:
Here's the trip report:
Arrived LGA at 5:30am for 6:30 departure to IAD. This was a mileage run so I had an eTicket that I booked at united.com. Checked in at Premier counter, only 1 person in front of me, things off to a good start. eTicket says to make sure you bring credit card you paid with, but the agent didn't even check. Went around the corner to the RCC and hung out there until 6:10 boarding time. LGA has a nice RCC, this was the first time I was in it. At that time of the morning it was pretty empty. They have a beautiful 1/100 model of a UA 777 on the counter.
Overall itenarary was LGA-IAD-PIT-IAD-LGA. 1st segment was United Express/Atlantic Coast Canadair Jet. Started boarding at 6:15. Flight was pretty full, only 2-3 empty seats, luckily the one next to me was one of the empty ones. This was my first flight on a regional jet, and I was struck by it being larger than I expected, but also pretty small. Seating config was 2-2, I had seat 12C, last row on starboard side. Next time I'm going for row 13 as it seemed to have a bit more leg room. This plane reminded me of a toy version of a jetliner because everything was at a smaller scale. It had overhead bins, but they were tiny. It had a single lav, but it was REALLY tiny. I'm 6'2", and it was a real pain to use it due to curve in the fuselage. Single FA did a soft drink service and the meal was a no-fat quaker granola bar. The seats definitely leave something to be desired.
Take off was on time, flight was smooth and landing at IAD was uneventful. Arrived at Main terminal (I think gate 11). The flight to PIT was scheduled for 9:30 leaving from A11 and it was only 8am so I took one of those funky shuttle bus things over to Terminal C. I went to the RCC near gate C17 and hung out there for about an hour. This too was a really nice RCC. The room overlooked a gate with an Air Canada F100 parked, but nothing happened with it while I was there.
Around 9am I took the funky bus from C to A and walked down to gate 11. The flight was on time, and I hung out until 9:15 when they did boarding. Plane was a J41. I was seat 10A last one on port side. It was a single seat with not even an arm rest. This was the absolutely most cramped seat I've ever sat in. I even cut my finger trying to jam my briefcase under the seat. Left on time. Due to haze, couldn't see much on the ground as we climbed out of IAD. About 50 minutes flight time to PIT. We circled downtown PIT before landing. It was interesting to see the new baseball and football stadiums from the air. Arrived at gate 51. Was very glad to get off the J41. Not only was the seat uncomfortable as hell, but the plane was hot as hell due to lame air conditioning. The Canadair wasn't that great, but it beats the J41 by a mile.
I had some time to kill because it was around 10:45am and my return wasn't schedule to depart until 1:10pm. Walked around a bit, and checked out the US hub section which was very busy. Decided to check in for return before getting something to eat, so took the train/transport to the main building. Exited secure area and headed for united ticketing. UA agent told me that the 1:10 was going to be at least an hour late, which would mean missing my connection at IAD. This was at about 11:00am, she said US had a flight direct PIT-LGA leaving at 11:25. She called over to US, they had a seat, and I ran back to the train to get back to the gates. Made pretty good time, and got to gate A2 at 11:10. They gave me seat 7F. I boarded the plane, and after the J41 it was like a palace, a nearly new A319. The flight was pretty full, but I still enjoyed the normal sized seat.
Crew meant to start playing the in flight safety video, but put in an entertainment video by mistake. For this reason, and others, the overhead video screens went up and down 3 times before the safety video played, it got to be pretty funny. In flight service was soft drinks and "Sky Mix". Flying time was around an hour and we landed on time at LGA.
I was glad to get home really early (4 hours earlier than scheduled), but now I need to make sure I get Mileage Plus credit for return trip as the UA agent in PIT said I would, and the whole point of this thing was to accumulate 2000 status miles for PremierExec next year.
SegmentKing From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 10, posted (10 years 9 months 3 weeks 2 days 13 hours ago) and read 927 times:
Just a reminder: our Premier Exec status is based only on *actual* miles flown... as the crow flies, from what the PE desk said (damn them to hell) and doesn't include bonuses
did you do any shopping @ the midfield concourse while you were in PIT? ? ? ?
767-322ETOPS From United States of America, joined May 2001, 324 posts, RR: 0 Reply 11, posted (10 years 9 months 3 weeks 1 day 23 hours ago) and read 920 times:
SegmentKing: Unfortunately I didn't have time to do any shopping since they got me out of PIT on the US flight so quickly. I am going to do this run again in September as UA dropped the fare this week to $86 and plan to take my time checking the whole place out. From the little that I did see, it was a really nice airport.
I just checked my MP summary online, and my status miles reflect the 500 mile minimum that UA offers, even though actually distance was something like 200+ miles. I'm a regular Premier right now, so the 25% bonus doesn't count, but the bump they give to the 500 minimum did count (I'm happy to report).
On the next run I'm doing I was able to schedule it so I'm taking a 737 both ways between LGA/IAD so the E+ seats should be a big improvement over the Canadair. No choice but a J41 to PIT, but the turbo props can be fun to fly and I'll try to ignore the lack of space and warm temp!
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