My Trip Back East
Happy New Year everyone! Here are some worthy moments from my trip back east. I left Davis for Philadelphia on Friday, December 28, 2007. I was flying United from Sacramento to Chicago O'Hare connecting to Philadelphia. I had heard plenty of horror stories about United and I was quite apprehensive.
I had a connection time of slightly more than an hour in Chicago O'Hare. Unfortunately, due to snow in Chicago that morning, the flight coming into Sacramento was delayed and we took off from Sacramento over an hour late. We made up some of the time in the air and landed in O'Hare at around 8:40 p.m., about 45 minutes behind schedule. I switched on my cell phone when landed on the runway and immediately received a call from Capstone who was tracking my progress and updated me on my connection status, which was quite helpful, albeit a little creepy.
My scheduled 8:53 p.m. departure to Philadelphia was delayed to 9:00 p.m. and then again to 9:04 p.m. giving me precious minutes to make my connection. Unfortunately, the captain announced that the gate was still occupied and it would take about 10-15 minutes for us to get to the gate. At this point, I gave up my chance of making the connection. I thought it would have made some sense for the flight crew to request all the passengers making connections to get off first while the rest remained seated, but they didn't and I wasn't able to follow Capstone's advice, which was to flag down a flight attendant to request they do that. To further compound my bad luck, I was all the way in the back of the plane.
We got to the gate at about 8:50 p.m., but I only exited the plane at about 8:58 p.m. and made a dash for it. My connecting flight was in the next terminal over. I run across a few gates, down an escalator, on a moving walkway, then along another moving walkway (seeing the crowd on the walkway, I rightfully concluded that it would be faster if I ran alongside it rather than on it), and up an escalator into the next terminal and down a few more gates until I reached B6. Arriving breathless at 9:05 p.m., I noticed the gate door closed. The person at the counter asked me to wait a minute, but nonetheless I piped up and asked him if I had missed my plane to Philadelphia. He asked me if I had a ticket and when I replied in the affirmative, he got me on the plane. There were a number of people like me and by the time we all sat down and pushed off from the gate, it was about 9:20 p.m. Thanks to favorable wind conditions, we reached Philadelphia on schedule. I was almost certain that my luggage would not arrive and neither would I have faulted the ground crew, who had only a half an hour at most to transfer the suitcase.
Not only did my luggage arrive, however, it was one of the first few pieces to roll in on the conveyor belt in Philadelphia. On the whole, I was pleasantly surprised with my United flying experience. Maybe American airline operators are not hopeless, after all. I still would not fly an American carrier on a long-haul route, but my esteem for them has gone up slightly.
So anyway, regarding my trip thus far back east, it has been amazing. I had forgotten what it was like to be in a big city and it was wonderful to be back in Philadelphia over the weekend. I've eaten food so far in Rangoon, had bubble tea in The Bubble House, went to my favorite bar in the world, The New Deck Tavern (where, unlike in Davis, they know what a martini is and can actually make a decent one), had food in Philly Diner as well as amazing Indian food in Iselin, NJ. It's been amazing thus far being back east.
Right now, I'm staying with Mani in Ocean Grove, NJ. Tomorrow, I'll be heading up to my favorite city in the world, New York City where I want to have food in Big Wing Wong Chinese Restaurant in Chinatown and Mandoo Bar in the Korean section in Midtown. On Thursday, I'll be heading back to Philly and am hoping that my favorite food trucks will be open so I can grab lunch. On Friday, we'll be dropping our friend back to Binghamton, NY. I'll be in Philadelphia on Saturday and half of Sunday. This trip has been amazing so far, I just wish it didn't have to end so soon. I miss the east coast!
I had a connection time of slightly more than an hour in Chicago O'Hare. Unfortunately, due to snow in Chicago that morning, the flight coming into Sacramento was delayed and we took off from Sacramento over an hour late. We made up some of the time in the air and landed in O'Hare at around 8:40 p.m., about 45 minutes behind schedule. I switched on my cell phone when landed on the runway and immediately received a call from Capstone who was tracking my progress and updated me on my connection status, which was quite helpful, albeit a little creepy.
My scheduled 8:53 p.m. departure to Philadelphia was delayed to 9:00 p.m. and then again to 9:04 p.m. giving me precious minutes to make my connection. Unfortunately, the captain announced that the gate was still occupied and it would take about 10-15 minutes for us to get to the gate. At this point, I gave up my chance of making the connection. I thought it would have made some sense for the flight crew to request all the passengers making connections to get off first while the rest remained seated, but they didn't and I wasn't able to follow Capstone's advice, which was to flag down a flight attendant to request they do that. To further compound my bad luck, I was all the way in the back of the plane.
We got to the gate at about 8:50 p.m., but I only exited the plane at about 8:58 p.m. and made a dash for it. My connecting flight was in the next terminal over. I run across a few gates, down an escalator, on a moving walkway, then along another moving walkway (seeing the crowd on the walkway, I rightfully concluded that it would be faster if I ran alongside it rather than on it), and up an escalator into the next terminal and down a few more gates until I reached B6. Arriving breathless at 9:05 p.m., I noticed the gate door closed. The person at the counter asked me to wait a minute, but nonetheless I piped up and asked him if I had missed my plane to Philadelphia. He asked me if I had a ticket and when I replied in the affirmative, he got me on the plane. There were a number of people like me and by the time we all sat down and pushed off from the gate, it was about 9:20 p.m. Thanks to favorable wind conditions, we reached Philadelphia on schedule. I was almost certain that my luggage would not arrive and neither would I have faulted the ground crew, who had only a half an hour at most to transfer the suitcase.
Not only did my luggage arrive, however, it was one of the first few pieces to roll in on the conveyor belt in Philadelphia. On the whole, I was pleasantly surprised with my United flying experience. Maybe American airline operators are not hopeless, after all. I still would not fly an American carrier on a long-haul route, but my esteem for them has gone up slightly.
So anyway, regarding my trip thus far back east, it has been amazing. I had forgotten what it was like to be in a big city and it was wonderful to be back in Philadelphia over the weekend. I've eaten food so far in Rangoon, had bubble tea in The Bubble House, went to my favorite bar in the world, The New Deck Tavern (where, unlike in Davis, they know what a martini is and can actually make a decent one), had food in Philly Diner as well as amazing Indian food in Iselin, NJ. It's been amazing thus far being back east.
Right now, I'm staying with Mani in Ocean Grove, NJ. Tomorrow, I'll be heading up to my favorite city in the world, New York City where I want to have food in Big Wing Wong Chinese Restaurant in Chinatown and Mandoo Bar in the Korean section in Midtown. On Thursday, I'll be heading back to Philly and am hoping that my favorite food trucks will be open so I can grab lunch. On Friday, we'll be dropping our friend back to Binghamton, NY. I'll be in Philadelphia on Saturday and half of Sunday. This trip has been amazing so far, I just wish it didn't have to end so soon. I miss the east coast!
posted by Vivek at 8:36 PM
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