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Los Angeles International
I took the airport shuttle of the Hilton LAX to the airport, which dropped me off at terminal 6, where Continental and United’s Pemier Counters are located. An agent was checking if one was eligible for the counters and let me pass as I showed my LH Star Gold card. I noticed, other passengers were turned away. I used a self check in kiosk. Like on previous attempts, the Lufthansa Senator card failed, but the reservation code worked and my boarding pass was printed.
At the security checkpoint of terminal 6 were short lines on this early Thursday morning and I passed security in less than 10 minutes. I decided to visit the Continental Lounge this time and headed over to terminal 6. I have been there before, but that was back in 2006 as CO was part of the Skyteam alliance. WiFi is still free for everybody in the lounge.
My flight left from terminal 8 and so I left the lounge earlier and walked slowly towards terminal 8. The monitors still showed the flight on time, but as I arrived a few minutes before boarding should start, the plane had not even arrived. I thought this might become a deja-vu.
There was no announcement made, that the flight would be delayed and at this time there was not even an agent present at the desk. The flight did not seem to be full, as the monitors were still showing one open seat in First and all names on the standby list were cleared.
Later at least the monitors switched to a delay of ten and later twenty minutes, but still no announcement was made although an agent was now present at the desk and the plane had meanwhile arrived.
Later the screen showed that they were looking for volunteers and a few people rushed to the desk. The agent, who had no colleague to support, was on the jetbridge at the time. I doubt that the monitors were correct and therefore did not really queue at the lines for volunteering; other passengers closer to the gate had the same thoughts as I overheard. Later as the agent returned one passengers asked the agent, who replied the flight was not even completely full. He insisted that they were looking for volunteers and wanted to get the money and get on a later flight. The agent looked really annoyed about him after he replied this over and over again. The other passengers who rushed to the desk as the sign was asking for volunteers had already left the desk, but this passengers was either too stupid to understand that the monitor was wrong or tried to annoy the agent that much that he gave up. The later one would not happen though. In the meantime another agent arrived from a nearby gate to assist her colleague and the boarding announcement was made. As boarding had now started, I did not follow the discussion which was still in full swing while the second agent was boarding first class and Global Service Members and later 1K, PE and Star Golds.
01 July 2011
LAX – SFO
[Los Angeles International – San Francisco International]
UA 556 (United Airlines); Airbus A 320 (N497UA)
Gate 81
12:05 – 13:25 [effective 12:26 – 13:32]
Economy Class
Seat 26 C
I entered the plane and was welcomed by the flight attendant in the front galley while her colleague was doing paperwork. I proceeded to my row and stored my carry on in the overhead bin and my laptop under the seat in front of me. The flight was not full, I noticed at least two open seats. Again, many passengers had carry-ons which were way oversized. Announcements were made asking passengers to store larger items in the overhead bin and smaller under the seat over and over again. But like on previous flights not many people cared how they stored their belongings in the overhead bin. It seems that no carry on had to be gate checked this time.
The safety demonstration was done by showing the video on the screens. I already had plugged in my headphone, as channel 9 was available on this flight. The captain, who had already welcomed us on board, had mentioned channel 9 to be available.
Our Airbus A 320 was pushed back at 12:26. This A 320 was newer than the one on my flight on Monday, June 26. It was delivered on September 18, 2002 and made its first flight on July 12, 2002. On February 07, 2004 it was transferred to TED and re-configured with an 156 seats all Economy Class configuration. The plane came back to the mainline on January 06, 2009 and re-fitted with 12 seats in First Class and 132 seats in Economy Class.
It was equipped with the very same IAE V2527-A5 engines as N414UA on SFO – LAX, which were powered by the captain at 12:39 and we climbed over the Pacific and made a turn to the north heading towards San Francisco.
Our flight time was a short 55 minute as the captain had told us in his welcome speech.
Once in the air, the crew did a beverage round in Economy. The flight itself was smooth and I listened to channel 9. Soon we began our descend into SFO as the crew had not even finished the beverage round. They continued, while one flight attendant was beginning to collect the trash in the first rows. They were able to finish the beverage service but had to speed up things a bit.
We touched down at 13:26 and taxied to terminal 3, where the UA gates are located. We arrived at the gate 72 at 13:32 only 7 minutes late. Not bad, given the delay of 21 minutes in Los Angeles.
Deboarding was more civilized than on the SFO-LAX flight in Monday. I headed to the exit and the shuttle for the Hilton SFO / Bayfront, my home for the next night.