Life as a frequent flier is not always fun, contrary to what the movie "Up in the Air" showed. Waking up at odd hours, traversing timezones, forgotten cellphone charger or medicines, every little annoyance adding up. And when the unpredictable weather and random flight cancellations are factored in, it is almost a perfect recipe for disaster. I see all the people stranded on their way to or out of Europe in last few days, and I realize I could have been one of them. In fact, I was, briefly in Berlin, before I was accommodated in a nice hotel, provided with food and was put in a direct flight to US next morning.
All because once my original flight to Cleveland via Zurich and Toronto was canceled, I could stand in the infinitely shorter rebooking queue for first and business class travelers, and get a seat in the direct flight to Newark next morning. If I were in the general queue, with a million people, I would have never made it. That's what happened n Paris last year, when I spent all my day standing in queues, and my night sleeping at the airport. I was a lowly "silver" then, in Delta frequent flier program.
Now after flying over 50,000 miles (when all said and done, I will end up flying almost 75,000 miles this year), I am "gold" in United, and what a difference that made. Flying back to Dresden via Frankfurt last time from US, I was stuck in an utterly chaotic snow covered Frankfurt airport. But instead of standing in endless queues, I could queue up sitting inside the lounge, and spend the night at airport Sheraton, before getting a first class train ticket for next morning, all on Lufthansa. Yes, lounges are nice with free drinks, internet and relaxing ambiance, and domestic first class upgrades are fun, and it is cool to see my bags coming out first, but the real benefit of having "status" is how you get treated in case of these irregularities. To use a borrowed phrase, that is indeed priceless.
Showing posts with label United. Show all posts
Showing posts with label United. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Thursday, August 28, 2008
No fear of flying
Like the song says, I have been pretty much everywhere. I should rather say, I have flown to everywhere. Starting from the bumpy ride from Atlanta to Gainesville in the propeller driven apology of a plane to huge Boeing or airbuses for coast to coast or transatlantic sojourns, it has been a long ride, in the true sense of the term.
And like all folks who pretend to be geeks, I love to find out how things work. No, not how that giant metallic structure stay afloat midair, that is trivial. Rather I love to know what goes in behind the scenes. Some of my experiences in all these years, not always exactly pleasant though, helped untangle some mysteries. I would take this chance to bask in the glory of my acquired wisdom now!
"Taking over the plane" : Not as alarming as it may sound. The first time I encountered the phrase when having missed an earlier flight, I was trying to get a standby seat on the next flight five hours later, and the agent at the gate told me she can give me a seat only when she takes over the plane, which would happen an hour or so before the take off. Then I learnt before that, the check in counter controls the plane. I was trying to book a flight within a day, and I could not get a seat assignment, either online or by phone. They simply said, the airport has taken over the plane. So that is that.
All those "special" seats: United has premium economy seating, with a little bit of extra leg space, and they try to sell it to you before the flight. The best way to get them? In a full flight, just do not choose any seats. They would be forced to hand them out eventually- I managed to fly on those quite a few times without paying an extra cent. Same with Northwest, they charge for those spacious seats at exit rows, and often times try to force people to buy them so that they can seat together. Again, traveling solo has its own advantages and checking in late often means they have no choice to give an exit row seat to you. Feels less like a herd of cattle packed in.
And finally, "Channel 9": The only reason I love United. For those uninitiated, channel 9 broadcasts the communication of the pilots with the control. Again, there are different controls taking over the plane at different times - starts from ground control who directs it till take off, then to successive "centers" as it flies by and finally to the ground control where it lands. And it is so much fun listening to the exchanges. All the code names and jargon's, how I love them. It also gives you a sense of power, listening to the instruction to turn right by some degrees and then actually feeling it turn or the warning of "weather" up ahead and then seeing the seat belt sign come back to life. They have intersections in the sky, and routes precisely documented by altitude and angles. And on ground, its pretty much like the traffic on roads, "follow the heavy American jet" or "stay close to the pack". Fascinating stuff.
And like all folks who pretend to be geeks, I love to find out how things work. No, not how that giant metallic structure stay afloat midair, that is trivial. Rather I love to know what goes in behind the scenes. Some of my experiences in all these years, not always exactly pleasant though, helped untangle some mysteries. I would take this chance to bask in the glory of my acquired wisdom now!
"Taking over the plane" : Not as alarming as it may sound. The first time I encountered the phrase when having missed an earlier flight, I was trying to get a standby seat on the next flight five hours later, and the agent at the gate told me she can give me a seat only when she takes over the plane, which would happen an hour or so before the take off. Then I learnt before that, the check in counter controls the plane. I was trying to book a flight within a day, and I could not get a seat assignment, either online or by phone. They simply said, the airport has taken over the plane. So that is that.
All those "special" seats: United has premium economy seating, with a little bit of extra leg space, and they try to sell it to you before the flight. The best way to get them? In a full flight, just do not choose any seats. They would be forced to hand them out eventually- I managed to fly on those quite a few times without paying an extra cent. Same with Northwest, they charge for those spacious seats at exit rows, and often times try to force people to buy them so that they can seat together. Again, traveling solo has its own advantages and checking in late often means they have no choice to give an exit row seat to you. Feels less like a herd of cattle packed in.
And finally, "Channel 9": The only reason I love United. For those uninitiated, channel 9 broadcasts the communication of the pilots with the control. Again, there are different controls taking over the plane at different times - starts from ground control who directs it till take off, then to successive "centers" as it flies by and finally to the ground control where it lands. And it is so much fun listening to the exchanges. All the code names and jargon's, how I love them. It also gives you a sense of power, listening to the instruction to turn right by some degrees and then actually feeling it turn or the warning of "weather" up ahead and then seeing the seat belt sign come back to life. They have intersections in the sky, and routes precisely documented by altitude and angles. And on ground, its pretty much like the traffic on roads, "follow the heavy American jet" or "stay close to the pack". Fascinating stuff.
Tuesday, January 31, 2006
Flight 93
I ended up watching this one quite accidentally last night. I am not sure if they are calling it a movie or a documentary - but its a in a way either. They never really go beyond the information available in the public domain - do not speculate on the conspiracy theories that abound (a la Fahrenheit 911) and still convey the intensity remarkable well.
Everyone knows how things went on a chilly Tuesday morning a few years ago in east coast. Hijacked air crafts were turned into actual weapons of mass destruction - which perhaps changed the modern history like no other event. And we all also came to know that while three flights managed to hit their apparent "targets", one - the "United Flight 93" crashed into a Pennsylvania field just minutes away from Washington D.C under somewhat mysterious circumstances. The flight was hijacked - and was probably headed towards some D.C landmark - when apparently the passengers, knowing what is going on all around tried to take back the control of the aircraft. That's is as much we know from the telephonic conversations some passengers had with their families back home. And then the plane went down in a blaze of smoke - leaving only charred debris. Some say it was the passengers who preemptied another suicidal mission. Some say military air crafts gunned it down to protect White House at any cost. And probably we will never know the truth.
I wished it would have gone somewhat into that. It never did. It just created the events of that fateful morning with dramatic visual effects. It never goes beyond the prepared script - but it never needed to. It replays the phone calls of the last minutes with minute details - letting the audience though a range of emotions - from anger to frustration to sheer helplessness. In that sense it succeeds in serving a grim reminder of the terror and showing how ordinary Americans, "united" by the circumstances, desperately tried to prevent another catastrophe. But whether they succeeded or not will remain an open question - but their heroic efforts are the stuff of which folklore's are made of.
Everyone knows how things went on a chilly Tuesday morning a few years ago in east coast. Hijacked air crafts were turned into actual weapons of mass destruction - which perhaps changed the modern history like no other event. And we all also came to know that while three flights managed to hit their apparent "targets", one - the "United Flight 93" crashed into a Pennsylvania field just minutes away from Washington D.C under somewhat mysterious circumstances. The flight was hijacked - and was probably headed towards some D.C landmark - when apparently the passengers, knowing what is going on all around tried to take back the control of the aircraft. That's is as much we know from the telephonic conversations some passengers had with their families back home. And then the plane went down in a blaze of smoke - leaving only charred debris. Some say it was the passengers who preemptied another suicidal mission. Some say military air crafts gunned it down to protect White House at any cost. And probably we will never know the truth.
I wished it would have gone somewhat into that. It never did. It just created the events of that fateful morning with dramatic visual effects. It never goes beyond the prepared script - but it never needed to. It replays the phone calls of the last minutes with minute details - letting the audience though a range of emotions - from anger to frustration to sheer helplessness. In that sense it succeeds in serving a grim reminder of the terror and showing how ordinary Americans, "united" by the circumstances, desperately tried to prevent another catastrophe. But whether they succeeded or not will remain an open question - but their heroic efforts are the stuff of which folklore's are made of.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)