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As mentioned before I was crazy enough to spend the better part of three days on planes zipping across the continental United States. The only purpose of the trip being to collect frequent flyer miles. As First Class earns triple miles it was only reasonable to do this in style.



The first day I left my hotel in the Minneapolis airport area at 5:30AM and was in the United Red Carpet Club lounge at the airport well before the scheduled flight to Charlotte. On board a few drinks were served along with a few snacks from the snack basket ... that's what they call a First Class breakfast at US Airways.



In Charlotte we were delayed on the ground due to a mechanical problem. A cover on one of the exit doors in Economy Class was missing. They could not find a spare part in Charlotte. Luckily a passenger found the cover underneath a seat and we were off to Phoenix with a delay of about two hours. This meant that lots of people would miss their connection - as would I. At the last minute a gate agent gave a stack of boarding passes to one of the flight attendants. During flight the flight attendant distributed those roughly thirty passes to passengers who have been rebooked. I did not not receive anything.

Lunch was served during the flight and I went with the chicken salad option. Basically it is a salad topped with a huge chuck chicken with a bit of BBQ sauce. As a personal touch the flight agent emptied a bag of the US Airways snack mix over the salad. Adding a bit of crunch it wasn't bad but then I wonder what happens to people with allergies to nuts.





Once we arrived in Phoenix I went to the transfer center to sort out my connecting flight issue. My flight already left and they proposed to rebook me on two Southwest flights via Las Vegas to bring me to Spokane at around 10PM. My original routing via Seattle wouldn't have brought me there faster but then I'd also have a 5+ hour connection in Seattle which would have allowed me to revisit the Pike Market. Adding Southwest to my ticket with a 45 minute connection in Las Vegas wasn't something I was looking for. I already feared that US Airways would act up when it comes to rebooking situations on my United Airlines tickets so adding another low cost carrier to the mix surely won't make it easier. I told the agent that I have to intentions of ever arriving in Spokane as I am on a mileage run. She well understood the situation and rebooked me on a direct flight to Denver. I'd miss out on my Phoenix-Seattle-Spokane-Denver flights but could pick up the mileage run in Denver the next day. It would also allow me to get some sleep in Denver. I was hoping US Airways would issue a hotel voucher right ahead but the Phoenix agent was not allowed to do that for Denver. In Denver I could not find an agent at 11PM and thus decided to take matters into my own hands. I called various hotels inquiring about the United Airlines distress rates and found the Crowne Plaza (great hotel!) at $54 (which I'll get back from someone).

In Phoenix I was lucky (if you want to call that) to experience the earthquake that hit the Baha California region. It was barely an earthquake that far away but at least something to talk about for the next few hours.

Well rested I arrived in Denver the next morning for my flight to Tampa, Florida. The moment I entered the First Class cabin the flight attendant Connie greeted me and offered a drink pre-departure. This would become the best flight on the trip. Before lunch Connie came by thanking me and my seat mate for our business. She greeted us with our names (and remembered them throughout the flight!) and asked for our meal choice to make sure that we as important 100K (United Gold Status) and Star Alliance Gold (me as Lufthansa Senator) members would get our first choice.



The salad is one of the most common staples on United flights I believe. I'd consider it healthy and quality-wise it's quite OK. It could be a bit more pink inside, though. Upon arrival in Tampa I was hoping that Connie would also be the flight attendant for the next flight but she wasn't. The flight to Chicago couldn't be more disappointing. The flight attendant did his job but that was about it.

Just like on every long United flight a bowl of hot nuts was distributed along with a first round of drinks. My usual choice was a Diet Coke with a slice of lime. In this case I didn't get ice nor a lime.



For dinner (yes, the flights were planned so that I'd get a maximum number of meals) I again had the option of a steak salad which I declined in favor of horrible cheese tortellini.



My last flight would take me from Chicago to Minneapolis - usually a 50 minute hop. The moment we were about to push back from the gate lightning struck the terminal building and all working personnel was ordered inside to sit out a thunderstorm that was unfolding above the Chicago airport. United planes have a nice feature which allows passengers to listen in to the communication between the aircraft and Air Traffic Controllers (ATC). Over that channel 9 it soon became obvious that the airport came to a halt. We sat on the tarmac for about an hour before we were pushed back. I could see lots of planes passing us. Every one of them basically means another two minute delay while lining up for take-off. The female pilot asked ATC if she could take another runway to get around a bit of weather. She was allowed to do so and turned around on a taxiway and probably saving us 15 minutes or more.
Throughout the flight we experiences some mild turbulences and had a nice lightning show going on outside. Soon we arrived in Minneapolis and I called the courtesy shuttle to my hotel where I'd spend the next four to five hours before heading out for the next set of flights.