Other than posting meal pictures and mentioning my aircraft “downgrade” on my Sunday night redeye, I didn’t really write anything about my mileage run this past weekend (although a hotel review is on the way, stay tuned). I did, however, have a few fun interactions and observations.
First of all service has been phenomenal on United lately. I don’t know why things would be improving, but I haven’t seen United this good in years. Planes have been clean, I don’t remember the last time I had a delayed flight, and the pilots, flight attendants, and gate agents have been uniformly friendly. I’m really finding it hard to mention anything negative. Keep it up!
It was also one of those weekends where I ended up talking to every flight crew, which is always a great way to pass time. On one flight I had a flight attendant as a seatmate in first class, and she was a hoot. Actually, I think it’s the first time I’ve ever discussed religion and politics with anyone on an airplane (I didn’t initiate it and it’s not usually something I do). It was quite entertaining as she was an ultra-conservative, something you don’t expect from a flight attendant — “I just tell people that if they want the truth they should listen to Rush Limbaugh.” She also gave me a psychic reading. Anyway, it was fun talk to her, and the last time in forever that I can remember talking to a seatmate from takeoff to touchdown.
Speaking of seatmates, this might be a good time to mention that I must be anti-social. It has been forever since I’ve talked to a seatmate prior to sitting next to this flight attendant. There’s only so many times you can have the same, superficial conversation without going senile. Maybe it was fun for my first 500,000 miles, but I’m over it. Don’t get me wrong, when I sit down I smile and say “hi” to my seatmate, but that’s the extent of it. If they want to talk I’m happy to listen (although if I’m not interested I won’t be asking questions back), but I’m still amazed by how bad the timing of some people is. For example, my seatmate on my last flight decided she wanted to start a conversation with me as we were 15 seconds from pulling into the gate and I was checking my email on my phone. Seriously?
Am I the only one? I’ll never be the one to start a conversation because I know that there are days I just don’t want to talk. And frankly I don’t always want to explain that I’m flying eight segments for 36 hours straight just to earn miles. But come up with something other than “heading home?” or “traveling for work?” to start a conversation, please.
On another note, I had one of the best Premium Service crews I’ve had in a very long time this past weekend. I have a bunch of luggage tags on my laptop bag, including a United strap that many flight attendants have (it’s not the crew tag, but just a strap that says “UNITED”). As I sat down in seat 6C on my Premium Service flight I was approached by one of the flight attendants, who I remembered flying with before, and he said “don’t think I’m not vigilant, I see that tag. You know we’re supposed to pay extra close attention to security now. Do you work for us?” I just smiled and didn’t respond. He came back shortly thereafter and said “OK, fine, so where’s the flight attendant based that you’re sleeping with?” I just responded with “for security reasons, I can’t tell you.” Well, eventually I had to explain why I had the tag — he said that was the only way I was getting my meal choice. 😀
Anyway, it was a fun weekend of flying and it always makes me happy to see United running so smoothly.
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