I'm finally sitting down to write my trip report for my Thanksgiving trip to Medford, Oregon. Better write this one before my next flights. :) Tickets were purchased via Orbitz in September. A case of Orbitz having better prices and/or flight times than United.com. Codes: MFR = Medford, Oregon MRY = Monterey, California SFO = San Francisco, California Thursday, November 27, 2003 United Express operated by SkyWest Airlines flight 6704 MRY-SFO Scheduled: 0710-0744 Actual: 0710-0732 CRJ-200ER N952SW Crew base: Palm Springs seat 9A Thanksgiving morning. Not sure what to expect, and I've never flown out of Monterey before. Arrive in the terminal a little after 0500. About three people ahead of me in line to check in at United Express. I get in line, and a TSA agent asks me if I have any bags to check. I indicate I do and give it to him. He takes it over to a station and does his thing, then places it with other bags where the UAX agents can get to it. I check in, the agent gets my bag and tags it. Head over to the security checkpoint. Again, just a few people in line ahead of me. Past security there are no services, just a restroom and a TV showing CNN American Morning (regular CNN, not CNN Airport Network). I spend most of my time staring out into the dark. Before my flight, American Eagle and United Express flights to Los Angeles depart, and there is also announcements for America West Express to Phoenix, though they are in a different boarding area. Eventually my flight begins boarding through gate 7. Everyone is invited to board at the same time. MRY does not have United's boarding pass scanners, instead the agent tears off our ticket stubs. We walk out into the ramp and board our CRJ. Aside from the equally-sized America West Express CRJ, it's the largest aircraft on the ramp (United Express also uses EMB-120s to MRY, and American Eagle is currently using only the Saab 340). This aircraft has cloth seats. Exactly on time at 0710, our aircraft pulls away from the gate and heads to runway 10R for departure. During taxi the flight attendant advises that this will be a 22 minute flight. Since personal electronic devices cannot be used for the first or last 10 minutes of the flight, personal electronic devices cannot be used at all. There will also be no service on the flight. The captain also comes on and advises that our cruising altitude for the flight will be 11,000 feet. We take off, make a gradual U-turn and head out over Monterey Bay. I'm not sure exactly where we crossed back over land, but I'm guessing somewhere west of Santa Cruz. A few more turns and we are on the approach to SFO. We touch down at 0732 and taxi to the gate. We park at gate 78, exit onto the ramp and go up some stairs into the terminal. I have a distance of exactly 0 feet to my connecting flight, since it will be departing from gate 78 as well. The gate 78/79 area is at the end of the concourse, and used to be a decent spot for photos. However, the very end of the concourse is now roped off so you can't get right up to the glass. United Express operated by SkyWest Airlines flight 6744 SFO-MFR Scheduled: 0845-1000 Actual: 0851-1002 CRJ-200ER N941SW Crew base: Sacramento seat 2A Despite leaving from the same gate, the aircraft is different. My inbound aircraft is still there. CRJs are small, so more than one fits at the same gate. Boarding passes through the scanner, down the steps and up into the airplane. The flight is oversold. There had been several announcements in the terminal but apparently they didn't get enough volunteers so one person ends up having to get off as there's no seat available. We pull away from the gate and head to runway 1R for departure. We do a simultaneous departure with a United Express EMB-120 on 1L. Despite the Brasilia's slight lead, the CRJ quickly overtakes. In flight service consists of a bag of snack mix and choice of beverage. Cruising altitude for this flight is 31,000 feet. I pass time reading SkyWest Magazine and staring out the CRJ's too-small, too-low window. On account of window alone, the ERJ beats the CRJ in my opinion in the 50-seat category. Weather in MFR is overcast. The fog has lifted enough to be able to land. We descend through the clouds, emerging just a minute or two before touchdown on runway 14. We taxi to the ramp, parking at the jetway. I meet my grandparents and brother, and head over to baggage claim. My bag comes out, and off we go. Sunday, November 30, 2003 Stuffed with Turkey, time to go home. I'd been following the weather reports for SFO and had come to one conclusion: My brother's 1905 flight to Seattle on Horizon Air was going to leave before my 1755 flight to SFO. I was right. United Express operated by SkyWest Airlines flight 6480 MFR-SFO Scheduled: 1755-1925 Actual: 1957-2159 EMB-120ER N291SW Crew base: Portland seat 2C I arrive at MFR, and the line isn't too bad. Much better than two years ago, when the line to check-in for the United 737 stretched past the Horizon counter. The earlier flight hasn't left yet. The agent checks my connection (leaving SFO at 2015), which is supposedly leaving SFO on time. They know there is no chance of making that with our delay out of MFR, so the agent manages to find me a seat on the 2230 flight. She issues me boarding passes for both. I tell her I appreciate her trying to solve this now, rather than just getting me to SFO and leaving me to work something out with the agents there. There is plenty of time before either my or my brother's flight (which is pretty much on time) will be boarding. So we head over to the restaurant. Out the window we can see my aircraft. Shortly after we arrive, the pilots and flight attendant for my flight arrive and sit down at the table next to us. We have a plane. We have a crew. We just can't land at rainy SFO. We sit and eat and talk, leaving when my brother's flight, a Dash 8Q-400 arrives. My brother and I go through security, sit down, and wait for his flight to board. Eventually he boards and his aircraft leaves. His aircraft is N400QX, Horizon's first Q400. Eventually, we are able to board. Through gate 1. This is the only flight where the attempt is made to board by sections. Absurd with a Brasilia. MFR used to be a United/United Shuttle station, so it has a boarding pass scanner. Out onto the ramp and into the Brasilia. Leather seats. We pull away from the gate at 1957, but hold short at the end of runway 32. Captain explains that we have been given a wheels up time of 2010, so we wait there for a few minutes. We finally start rolling on our takeoff run at 2012. It's turbulent for most of the flight, but the flight attendant manages a drink service. She also finds out where we're going, so she can give the info to the pilots to try and ascertain the status of our connecting flights once they make contact with SFO. They eventually do, and we find out the most of our flights are delayed. The most concerned passenger, from those I am able to hear, is one going to Sydney. Can't say I don't blame her. I'm not too worried; worse case it's about a two hour drive from SFO to MRY. On approach to SFO I can see other aircraft's lights. It's completely overcast, so I don't have the slightest clue what we're doing on our approach. It's not until we're on the ground that I can get my bearings and figure out that we had landed from the east on runway 19L. We taxi to the ramp and park at the United Express terminal. It's a separate terminal, and also labeled as gate 87A. United Express operated by SkyWest Airlines flight 6544 SFO-MRY Scheduled: 2230-2307 Actual: 0025-0054 EMB-120ER N563SW Crew base: Monterey seat 4A From what I had been able to gather, my scheduled flight to MRY departed right around the time that I arrived. Compounding the weather, there also seemed to be a mechanical issue with our aircraft. In the end, we were the very last flight to board out of the United Express terminal, through door 2. However, we did taxi away from the ramp before the other flight. Flight in the end was not full. Took off from runway 10R. Weather was bad, still raining. So a turbulent, but short flight. No service, in fact the flight attendant remained in her seat for the whole flight for safety. Touched down on runway 10R at 0054. Taxi to the ramp, then walked through the drizzle to the terminal. Baggage claim at MRY consists of a ramp agent driving up and placing bags on a slanted metal shelf. I waited for mine to be unloaded, grabbed it, and went home. Next up: San Francisco to Honolulu on Delta, next week. -- David Mueller / MRY dmueller7@xxxxxxxxx http://www.quanterium.com