My wife has recently taken a job that has her working in London a few weeks of every month until April. One of these trips was extended to 3 weeks so I set out to visit her to break up the monotony of being away from home. CO offered a few attractive flights, but as CLE no longer has a direct to LHR or LGW from CLE, and price was my biggest concern, i opted for a US flight thru CLT. All included it was $630, and that included a few premium seat selections.

The lovely thing about leaving CLE on any airline other than CO is the relatively light terminal traffic outside of the C concourse, this is especially true in the A concourse. I made my way thru security and found my gate, and my 737-400 that would take me to CLT.

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I payed a $5 to be close to the front, just because i like to take pictures like this one

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Our gate neighbor, a CRJ

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UA A320 Taxiing in.

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Shortly after liftoff from CLE

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Legroom on the 734

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Cabin shot

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Luxurious domestic service  

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A sea of US tails around sunset at CLT

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Originally i had chosen seat 18A, a seat that was free, but according to the check-in kiosk i was booked into 22F. I asked the gate agent about it, and they said "i dont know, sometimes the computer does that." After that a more knowledgeable ticket agent told me "that was just a seat preference, it was not a reservation" so after a quick check of seat guru, i see that 22F is a bad seat, and i see the whole idea behind this. i had to pay the $30 fee to get a decent seat on this flight, which i did in a pinch because i was about to board, so they make you think you have a decent seat, then they give it to someone else, and you pay the $30 to not be in an awful seat...great idea guys.

View from my $30 Shangrila

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Seated next to me was a very nice Welsh girl who i got along very well with, we talked and joked thru a lot of the flight.

The oddest thing to have happened to me on a flight then happened. A young wiry man was brought up from the back, and told to take one of the open seats in the middle section, he put his carryon into the bin and began to sit down, when a gentleman told him that he had purchased the empty seat beside him, choose another. this didn't suit him and he began to throw a silent temper tantrum which culminated in him smashing his head into the overhead bin. The FA told him to calm down, and as we had just pushed back, another FA went to talk to the captain to see if we would return to the gate. It seemed for a minute like we would, but then he was taken up into Envoy class and we continued on...What a way to get an upgrade.


In the middle section a man was reading on his kindle shortly before takeoff and the flight attendant told him to turn it off. he smirked a bit, i think he thought that it wasnt an electronic device, but didn't argue with her, which was nice to see for a change. After being told to shut off his kindle he did this.

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he later used his empty row to his advantage

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after a bit, the meal service came, i chose the chicken. it was good. I had tried to eat at CLT but the bagel i got had very strange looking roast beef on it, so i mostly ate the bagel.

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Luckily i had purchased that sprite at CLT because the half a can would not have done for the entire meal.

view of the A330 cabin from 11A

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less ample legroom

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while in England got a chance to see my favorite EPL team, Aston Villa play against Manchester United (2-2 draw)

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After 5 days with my wife, it was time to head home unfortunately. Took the gatwick express back out to LGW and after a quick stop at a shop for a bit of lunch, i headed to the international departure area.

my A330 back to CLT

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This gate neighbor made me a bit envious.

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This time i had my section of 2 seats all to myself, which really was nice, a place to put your belongings, and still get full leg-room. Meal again was chicken, and again was pretty good all things considered.

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a bit of Entourage on the IFE

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a little before landing we got a turkey and cheese sandwich which really was quite good.

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Immigration at CLT was fairly bad...even though we had arrived a bit early, two full planeloads should not overwhelm a department like this. First problem is they had all agents doing US citizens AND foreign visitors, to me it would see easier to have a few concentrate on US citizens, with a certain set of questions, and a few concentrate on visitor, with a different set of questions, as well as other things visitors require. At the end of the citizen queue and the visitors queue were two people letting people thru and telling them what gate to go to. at first it seemed like a lot of visitors were going thru and not many US citizens...i thought this was just paranoia, until one lady counted 12 visitors going thru between 2 US citizens...i'm not saying US citizens need preferential treatment, but both lines were long, and they should have been given equal treatment. when a passenger brought this to the attention of the man letting visitors go, he snapped back "well, you can go and wait in that line if you want, but I guarantee that isnt moving faster"

great service.

After that, and rechecking my bag after customs i took an escalator that dumped me out into the ticketing area of the airport...and i had to go thru the normal domestic security...the last few trips i took there was a dedicated security line for internationals.

After a bit of gate confusion, i found my flight to CLE on a CRJ-900

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really a lovely plane

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after getting to my "window" seat of 8F i figured i would need make a note for seat guru.

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somewhat cramped cabin.

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Got home right on time, got my bags and was out the door...

with all of the different ways to get to England US wasn't terrible, and as i just booked my flights for february, they are certainly the cheapest.

[Edited 2011-01-31 08:59:26]