I had booked this reward ticket months ago, realizing that it might have been impossible to travel anywhere around Christmas and New Year's. As it ended up working out, I could do it, except that I would have to fly out on Christmas Day and in first class... bummer I know.

I got to Washington's National airport at a quarter past 9 in the sleet and the cold. Luckily the weather did not seem to be effecting the flights. I quickly moved inside the warmth of the terminal and proceded to the first-class/OnePass elite check-in line. Just to my luck I was second in-line behind a large family checking in a huge amount of luggage to some Latin American destination. But very quickly I made it to the front of the queue handed over my driver's license and was quickly checked in. After that I proceded to the security checkpoint where I was able to dodge a few errant passengers in line and clear checkpoint Charlie. This took all of 15 minutes. Fairly painless for holiday travel.

Aircraft of note at National that morning was America West's N915AW "Nevada" operating the 10:30am flight to Phoenix, an Alaska 737-700 departing to Seattle, and a Frontier 737-300 with the Cougar or bobcat tail outbound to Denver.

12/25/2002
Continental Airlines 259, B737-500. Seat 1A
As soon as boarding for first class was called I quickly walked over to the gate and boarded the aircraft. I was greeted by the F/A and after stowing my bag she took my jacket and hung it up. As regular boarding commenced the flight attendant came around taking pre-flight drink requests. I just had a glass of water.

Our plane went out full, which made me happy to be in first class.

After we cleared the 30 minute perimeter, the flight attendant came around taking lunch and drink orders. Today's choices were a grilled chicken salad or a crab cake sandwich, both served with a vegatable beef soup. I opted for the crab cake sandwich. Before lunch was brought out a quick drink service was offered, I had a coke, served in a glass, with a 1 ounce bag of Blue Diamond Smokehouse Almonds... which were quite good.

Lunch was served on a tray with (I think) a blue linen, a white linen napkin with real metal forks and spoons, but a plastic knife. The crab cake sandwich was pretty good. My only complaint was that the crab cake was soggy... but I just had to remind myself it didn't come freshly out of the deep fryer. But it was served on an excellent sourdough roll, with romaine lettuce, tomato slices, with cole slaw and thousand island dressing on the side. The dessert was a Russel Stover's Almond and Caramel chocolate. Once the meal service began, the flight attendant came around with wine. I had the white, I think it was a Chardonnay, which was very pleasing. After lunch was cleaned up from the flight attendant periodically came through the cabin seeing if we wanted anything else.

Strong headwinds made the scheduled 3hrs and 33 mins stretch out to more like 4. This flight had originally been scheduled with a 737-700... which would have been prefered given it had IFE on-board. But I guess beggars cannot be choosers.

The seat itself was an older style first class seat, without the winged headrest.

Because of the headwind we arrived in Houston a bit late, which was compounded by a late arriving gate agent to drive the jetway to the door. As soon as I grabbed my bag I head out the door to check the boards to see where my connecting flight was. So with less than 30 mins to go I dashed from C-42 to C-17... just in time to meet the final boarding call.


Aircraft of note in Houston:
Terminal D was full of heavies that afternoon. The KLM Asia 747-400 was looking quite nice under the sunny Texas skies, along with a pair of CO 777s, an AF 777, a LH A340 and a pair of BA 777s... one with the tartan tail and the other with the Chelsea Rose tail. There was also a 767-400 departing for Honolulu and Air Canada's A319 retrojet parked at terminal A.


Continental Airlines 1812, MD-80. seat 2B

I got on-board in the final stages of boarding and quickly stowed my bag and parked my butt in 2B. Once the horde of people headed towards the back cleared out a bit the flight attendant came around and picked up the jackets of the late arrivals. After that she took pre-flight drink orders... this time a Ginger Ale for me.

Once loaded up we pushed back from the gate and quickly taxied over to runway 15R for departure.

Once in the air the flight attendant took orders for the in-flight snack. This time it was a cold plate with chicken and salmon... I decided to partake with a Bailey's on ice to wash it down. By the time we settled into cruise the snacks were brought out. It consisted of a small piece of salmon and several slices of chicken breast, served on top of oriental noddles over some sort of green leafy thing, with cucumber slices and a seasame sauce. I didn't eat the salmon as I am adverse to such things, but the chicken was quite good and I was a big fan of the sauce (which was good for dipping the cucumbers) and the noodles. Plus the Bailey's was a nice touch.

After the snack was served the flight attendant came around with the same two choices of wine... I declined this time. Once the snack was cleaned up from she came around many more times, asking me if I wanted more Bailey's... was she trying to get me drunk and take advantage of me??? I wouldn't have minded to say to least.

Anyways... we arrived on-time into Phoenix with a smooth touchdown on 25L. The only aircraft of note in Phoenix was an Evergreen International 747. There were plenty of America West jets parked on hard stand all over the airport... they most certainly were not running a full schedule that day.


Overall I was very impressed, as usual, with Continental's in-flight service. Riding up front was certainly a treat. A treat that I'd like to do more of in the future. I prefered the seat in the 737... it was noticably wider than in the MD-80... plus it had more padding for the butt and I believe that the seat pitch is a bit tighter in the Mad Dog.

I fly back on the 3rd, reverse routing, but this time in the back of the bus.

Happy Holidays.