Normally a 6.09am departure would be a major pain in the rear but when your body clock is located in a time zone somewhere between Reykjavik and Labrador things are a bit easier. We were up bright and breezy at 2.45am and after a shower (and obligatory fight with the shower curtain – I hate those things!) we left the hotel and arrived at LAX’s Terminal 7 at 4am.
There were three flights ahead of us:
Los Angeles (LAX)-Denver (DEN)
Denver (DEN)-Newark (EWR)
Newark (EWR)-Dublin (DUB)
As mentioned in my previous blog the flights were booked through continental.com but as the first two flights were operated by United I could not check in on the Continental website. However, I could check-in on united.com but not for the final sector. Slightly annoying but them’s the breaks. The LAX-DEN segment was very full with no two seats together available so I ended up upgrading to Economy Plus. There were also very few seats available on the DEN-EWR flight but there was one set of two together – aisle and centre. Normally I prefer a window but again them’s the breaks.
Due to the lack of access to a printer at the hotel we decided to just pick up our boarding passes at the airport. We had no luggage to check-in but the self-service kiosk told us we needed to contact an agent nonetheless, presumably because we were travelling international on the final sector. We bided our time and eventually got ‘processed’ but we got boarding passes for the EWR-DUB so all’s well that ends well. There seemed to be an over-reliance on the self-service technology, i.e. not enough staff. A lot of people that had to check in luggage were losing their patience. But isn’t that easy at 4am?
We breezed through security and headed for a caffeine stop. We found a quaint little place called Starbucks – they must be up and coming…. Once we got the beverages I made a beeline for a bakery type place called La Brea. Two croissants cost over $8. “These better be good” I muttered to myself. They weren’t. Ironically La Brea is Irish for “bright day”. The place did play some pretty appropriate music though – “Welcome to the Jungle” by Guns N’ Roses and “No More Mr Nice Guy” by Alice Cooper.
The B757-200 to DEN boarded and departed on time. There seemed to be quite a few passengers transferring from Hawaiian flights. I wonder how long their tans lasted in Colorado! The flight was uneventful but the extra legroom in Economy Plus was nice even if it was a relatively short flight.
Thanks to the winds blowing off the Rockies flying in and out of Denver was a bit like a mini rollercoaster - the sort of rollercoasters that wimps go on, the sort of rollercoasters I prefer. This was my first time at Denver Airport and it intrigued me. It is massive in land size and, with 51.2 million passengers, it was the tenth busiest airport in the world in 2008. However, there appeared to be no buildings or any sign of civilisation near the airport – landing, departing or when on the ground.
We were in Denver for just over an hour - enough time for my wife to insist that we upgrade to Economy Plus for the next flight at the United desk. After a few minutes of looking at a computer with a furrowed brow the United agent informed us there were seats in an Emergency Exit row. I'm not sure if this is Economy Plus but the legroom would be appreciated. That amounted to $54 each. $108 to potentially save people's lives. Nice.
Yet again our flight was on time. While the LAX-DEN flight was operated by a B757-200 in the ‘new’ United colours this flight was operated by a B757-200 in the old colours. It was overcast in Denver so the aircraft didn’t exactly brighten the place up!
I forgot about Channel 9 on United flights until my wife handed over her headphones and said "listen to this". Thumbs up to United for offering such a service. It was good to know what was going on especially with a weather system heading towards the East Coast from the west. Indeed 90 minutes out from Newark we experienced continuous light chop for about 45 minutes or more. As we approached Newark ATC informed our crew that due to the weather aircraft going into Newark were going to have to enter a holding pattern, starting with us. "I think you should start with the next guy" quipped our flight deck to ATC. In the end we held for about 15 minutes before being cleared to Newark and we descended through the murk. The cloud base was very low and we landed on a damp runway.
There was plenty of confusion for the passengers (including us) connecting from Terminal A to Terminal C. Firstly, people were escorted down something akin to an emergency exit and boarded on to a minibus that whisked them off to another part of Terminal A where people had to get off and get on a slightly larger bus to Terminal C. Then we were ushered up another emergency exit to the terminal. I was expecting to have to go through security but no we were straight into the airside part of the terminal. So from LA to Dublin we would only have our ID checked and bags x-rayed once despite taking three flights. As a passenger it's great but from a security point of view I'm not so sure.
Before taking the fifth and final flight of the trip there was time to have some pizza at Famous Famiglia Pizza. It was famously mediocre and boasted being the official pizza of the New York Yankees. “Figures” my Red Sox supporting wife said.
I found the terminal at Newark to be nice or am I just too used to Dublin Airport? We boarded and departed on time for “Dublin, Ireland”. It was re-assuring we weren’t going to Dublin, Ohio I suppose. The people that sat in front of us were the same people that sat in front of us on the outward DUB-EWR flight. Good to see we weren’t the only people that went to the US for the weekend!
I took some Tylenol PM shortly after boarding and passed out shortly after take off. It really speeds a transatlantic flight! I woke up a few times due to turbulence but quickly fell asleep on each occasion. We landed in “Dublin, Ireland” around 7am.
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