UAL 3747 (LH 3451) IST - FRA Dec 16th A321 D-AISE Got to the airport a bit earlier than the usual time for 1:50 pm departure as had to return a rental car. The check in lines for Lufthansa flight was long but when I told the agent helping people on the line I was Star Alliance Silver she told me that I could use the Business Class counter. Not only that I have received one day pass to Lufthansa's biz class lounge in Istanbul. Sweet :) The incoming flight from FRA was a bit delayed and we pushed back at 1401 local time. The weather was pretty crappy and it was getting worse by the minute with snow and lowering ceilings. We took off about 30 mins late on runway 36 towards Black Sea. After this the route was a typical one , turn left to pass north of Bulgaria, south of Romania. Pass over Yugoslavia, Budapest, Austria and then land in FRA. The winds were from the east that day so we landed on 07L and as usual we had to get on one of the A gates that was farthest from the C gate where the 777 I was supposed to board was sitting. As we were landing an ATA L1011 with old c/s was leaving the US military compound at the south end of the field. As we disembarked the plane the German Customs police was there to great us just in case someone wanted to sneak into Germany :) UAL 945 FRA-ORD Dec 16th B777 No time to get the reg. Due to the delay leaving Istanbul, I was worried if I could make it to my connecting flight. Before I went through the entire terminal I went through the first security control where I was asked where I was coming from, my passport, my legal status in US and if I had anything battery powered in my book bag. I figure that not a lot of people know about radio scanners at the airports so I had to demonstrate how it worked to the guy doing my security check. After this we went downstairs, long walk with maze like route... The problem with LH UA alliance is that they still cannot assign seats on each others res. systems. This was a problem on my way to Turkey on the LH flights but it becomes a major one on the way back to US. They don't even see your FF status on the computer and they assign you seats on the very back. After going downstairs , there was a huge line for both ORD and JFK flights. They put only two x-ray machines in an area where passengers of a 747-400 for JFK and 777 for ORD were supposed to go through. I guess everyone were in cheerful holiday mood that people started to cut off each other and call names. I assume since they didn't know each other names they decided to refer each other as "sl*t" , "bit*ch" or even "c**k sucker". :) Colorful moments of the trip needless to say.. After this point we were told to get new boarding passes , issued by United not by LH. Oh well, just another line .. As we got closer to the gate there was another screening point where one guy was asking questions and another was observing the questioned. Different from the earlier security people these were Americans. Finally I made it to the gate to get on my seat 20A. We taxies to runway 07L before the LH 747-400 for JFK. On the way there I have seen 737-800 with winglets with TUI color scheme. It looked better than the ones I have seen online. The most interesting airplane to me was a LH 737-300 with a forward cargo door. I didn't know LH had 737-300 QC models in the fleet. Heck, I didn't even know that such a configuration existed for 737-300s. 9 more hours to go to ORD in the non Economy Plus seats of 777. I don't know why United advertises the Economy Plus on 777s. There is NONE! At least not on the two flights that I have been on. Maybe my luck.. Of course ,we had the usual problem with the entertainment system. They had to "reboot" it couple more times. After two movies and some chow I decided to stretch my legs and went to the back of the plane. Got to talk with a flight attendant about the situation of the airline, the furloughs, funny stuff that she experienced , how she hated the Vegas flights, etc. etc. :) We landed on 9L at ORD at 1924 local time. Getting through the US Customs was a breeze. Getting to the Customs was another story. I guess whoever designed the International Terminal in ORD though that we have to walk so many miles in order to stretch or legs. UAL 959 ORD - SEA Dec 16th N838UA A319 I love A319s except for the limited amount of F Class seats. I was hoping for an upgrade on this flight but since the number of F seats are limited on the A319 that didn't happen. At this point I was tired and needed a better seat. The only one in Economy Plus that was available was by the exit row in the middle. Thank god Airbus people didn't put any seat right by the exit door. So the regular middle seat becomes a window seat also.. We pushed back at 9:15 pm and took off on runway 22L. To my surprise the Ch.9 was on. YAY!!! The weather in SEA area was pretty bad with winds gusting to 40 knots. After we started our descent for the airport the plane was going through what I call "real flying" :) We landed on 16L and after landing pilot reported about 20 KTS of wind sheer between 400 and 200 above ground. I was happy to be home after 24 hrs of trip door to door.. The happiness lasted until Monday when I found out that I was pulled out of the Boeing project and got the pink slip on Friday. Now I have to get ready for another SEA-IST trip right after the new years.. BAHA Fan of having all this time in my hand so that I can write trip reports :)