Now I don't have to take the flight since Baha has told me all about it...:) BAHA, call the TSA Comment line about your Laptop sitting there waiting for it to be stolen problem. They need to hear about these things. From the feedback I am getting, BDL TSA needs some customer service practice. Walter DCA ----- Original Message ----- From: "Bahadir Acuner" <bahadiracuner@yahoo.com> To: <AIRLINE@LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU> Sent: Saturday, June 08, 2002 13:16 Subject: Trip Report BDL-ORD-CMH > Booked the ticket through United's website the night before less than 24 hrs > before the trip time. Despite that, the round trip ticket was still $158. It > doesn't get any better than this, as you log on and get the flights you > want, get the seats you want to sit on, including the aircraft types that > you want to fly in. > > My original itinerary was : > AIR> Jun 7 UA# 1085 BDL --> ORD 5:19 pm 6:54 pm > AIR> Jun 7 UA# 1548 ORD --> CMH 9:00 pm 11:10 pm > > I returned the rental car at Budget and headed to the terminal area via the > Rental car shuttle. Checked in through the First Class and Premier counter > even though there wasn't too many people standing in the line for the > regular economy class ticket. > After a smooth check in I decided to carry everything with me, which turned > out to be a smarter choice for the second leg of the flight. > > Extremely high level of security was interesting at BDL. Much higher level > compared to last week. Besides the regular "take your laptop off, put them > in the plastic container, etc" drill everybody with blue shirts and khaki > pants were ordered to step aside to go through more security. I didn't have > a blue shirt on, but tell me who is not wearing khakis in this day of > business casual environment. When my turn came I was told to empty my > pockets, put everything in the little plastic container. Then the security > guy asked me if I minded if he searched me. He did the regular handheld > security device thing. Then my belt buckle was beeping, so he asked me if it > was ok for him to check behind it. Following that I was ordered to take my > shoes of, they went to the x-ray machine to get x-rayed. All this happened > when my laptop was still sitting at the end of the x-ray machine. I told him > that they should come up with a way to give the laptops back to the person > before they go through the search, otherwise they will have incidences of > laptop robbery. He didn't seem to care. > > I headed to the gate A3 for the flight to ORD after this whole thing was > over. > > UA 1085 BDL 5:19 pm ORD 6:54 pm > A320 N442UA Seat 11F (second over wing exit row) Ch. 9 ON > > Gate A3 area was full of people. The flight was coming from ORD and it was > pretty full. It took some time for the United people to get the plane ready > for departure, while people from Signature fueled the plane. We boarded the > plane at 5:08 pm. While we were at the gate the clearance people told us to > plan for a wheels up time for 2139Z (539pm local) and clearance was void if > not off in 10 mins. We pushed back at 21:25Z (5:25pm local) and headed to > runway 33 for a west bound departure. > > According to the f/a's announcement in the cabin the flight continued to > Omaha. The nice thing that F/As did in this flight was to make all the > announcements over the public announcement system, rather than cutting off > Ch. 9. I love it when they do it like that! :) > > At 2137Z (537pm local) we were told to taxi into position and hold (line up > and wait for our JAA readers). We lifted off before the runway 6 > intersection and around 1600 feet Bradley Approach cleared us to 10,000 > feet. As we took of from runway 33, an American Airlines flight bound for > O'Hare (AA 1945) was about to take off from runway 6. I figured we would be > at the freq. together. After 8,000 feet Bradley Approach handed us over to > Boston Center which cleared us direct SYR (Syracuse VOR) and told us to keep > our climb up to 17,000 feet. > > Passing 13,000 feet we were told to give a call to the higher sector of > Boston Center at 121.35 and those guys assigned us FL230. As we were > climbing AA 1945 was in trail so they were getting the same altitude > assignments for us with a 5 to 10 min lag. As a final altitude we were > assigned FL350 and AA flight was given FL 390 ( I am guessing the AA > equipment was B737-800 as I have never seen an MD-80 fly that high). After > about 10 mins or so, Boston Center told both of us to stop our climb at > FL330 for traffic. Turned out that traffic was US 782 flying at FL 350. > > While we were in contact with Boston Center at 123.87 they were dealing, > what I speculate , with a lost aircraft. It was C-MIFC and the controller > asked the pilot if he/she was around Ottawa. Finally he told the pilot to > tune to Watertown VOR at 111.10 and tell him how many miles DME and which > radial he was on. I couldn't really figure out what was going on as the > other aircraft was talking to the same ATC guy in a different frequency. > > After level flight drinks and food was served. Even though the departure > time was suitable for a dinner only drinks and snack mix was going to be > served. However, as the F/As pointed out, there was a special treat to Eli's > cheesecake chocolate chip cookie. That was one of the best chocolate chip > cookies I have ever head in such a long time, that when the F/A went around > for a second time with a bucked of cookies , I decided to grab another one. > :)) > > Out flight followed with a flight over Canadian airspace. Eventually we > climbed to FL350 and we were in some cirrus layers. So it was a bit bumpy at > the altitude but the amount of bump that I can handle versus the amount of > bumps pilots report it's not always the same. Of course, they have to think > about people who are not used to bumpy plane rides; and that's fine. We > contacted Cleveland Center at 120.62 and Toronto Center at 134.92 in that > order. We then went back to Cleveland Center at 126.52 which told us to > descend down to FL330. Once we contacted another sector of Cleveland Center > at 133.87 they told us to slow down to 250 KTS for spacing. Once they told > us to descend to FL310 we were told to speed up to 280 KTS. > > Chicago Center at 126.12 told us to descend to FL280 followed by FL200. > Passing 25,600 feet we called Chicago Center at 132.20 which took us down to > 15,000. The weather is Chicago couldn't be better, which meant an on time > arrival to ORD. It was my lucky day. :) > > Once at 15,000 feet we were cleared to 8,000 and told to contact Chicago > Approach at 124.35 which told us to intercept the localizer for runway 22R. > Approach first told us to slow down to 210 KTS and then we were told to > maintain 170 KTS or faster till the Ridge (??) outer marker. We contact the > tower over the market when our F/O asked if we could roll all the way to the > end of the runway. This was done to minimize the taxi time, and worked out > perfect. After a nice landing we were at the gate C25 3 minutes ahead of > schedule. > > > UA 1752 ORD 7:15 pm CMH 9:30 pm > B737-300 N344UA Seat 20F (the row before the last) Ch. 9 ON > > While I was in the previous flight I got suspicious about the long layover > in ORD and voila I discovered that United had an earlier flight leaving > O'Hare at 7:15 pm. My luck during the day continued, as the gate of > departure was almost across the arrival gate. > > As I was on standby status for the flight I didn't care much about the seat, > it turned out that I got the last open window seat. The plane was 99% full, > except the middle seat between me and the girl at 20D. As I said before it > was my lucky day :) > > Listening to metering, I was feeling bad about people going to MSP as there > was a ground stop for those flights due to some thunderstorm activity there. > We pushed back at 1752 local and we were told to taxi to runway 14L via > B-A6-J and holding short of 9L. We contacted tower at the 9L hold short > point and we were cleared to cross the runway. During our long taxi I > noticed that there was a nice run up facility in the middle of the field for > engine run-ups. There were no signs on it and I am wondering if it's owned > by the airport or one of the major airlines in ORD (AA or UA). I also > noticed a B1900 with United Airlines colors at the airport, I thought Great > Mistakes , errr Great Lakes, stopped serving ORD some time ago. Of course, I > could be wrong on this. > > We took used the real estate on the runway until the 22R intersection. After > lift off we turned heading 100 , contacted the approach and flew to the east > passing over the north side of downtown. That was a moment of regret for not > having my camera with me, but with all the hassle of carrying a camera, I > think it was a right decision. > > We were cleared to 13000 feet north of downtown. Then we turned heading 090. > By the time we were to the eastern shore of Lake Michigan we were at our > cruising altitude of 23000 feet. Chicago Center cleared us direct to Gipper > (is this a VOR or an intersection?) > > Once we were at the level flight, flight attendants came out and served > drinks and regular snack mix. Since the flight was short and the plane was > full of pax, by the time they came to me we were already at the descend. > Chicago Center told us to descend to FL210 with 320 KTS or better and they > switched us over to Indy Center at 128.07. This frequency was extremely > busy with Jetlink (Continental Express) and Comair call signs. We were first > told to descend to FL170 followed by 10,000 feet. Indy Center told us to > maintain a good rate down to 13,000 feet. > > Passing 10,000 feet we contacted Columbus Approach at 125.95. We were > followed by a Northwest flight (couldn't catch the flight number) and were > assigned runways according to our gates: us 10L and NW 10R. After a smooth > touch down on runway 10L we rolled until taxiway E1 and directly proceeded > to our gate B11. > > > OVERALL : > - I got really lucky with stand-by and a good weather at ORD. > - United is still my favorite domestic airline in US because of Ch.9 and > Econ +. > - Cannot beat $158 r/t less than 24 hrs before departure time. > > ORD = Chicago O'Hare > BLD = Hartford/Windsor Locks, CT > CMH = Columbus, OH