I’ve never needed wheel chair assistance before but I will on a southwest trip RNO LGB RNO this weekend. My first question is the appropriate tip. I’ve been told 5 dollars each time I’m assisted. Is that right? I plan to walk onto the plane at the gate. Will SWA preboard me? If I wait at the escape ...
Jump to postI really don't understand why any airline would sell a 35 minute connect at any major airport. I can understand it at a small place like my home base at RNO where gate to gate is rarely more than 3 minutes, but SFO? If you are in a 180 seat plane at the back, it can easily be 10 minutes from gate ar...
Jump to postI just made a booking LAX-AKL-LAX this week, and I did it through an agent in NZ. It seemed the best way to get up to date NZ requirements. Once things get more normal I may go back to online booking, but for now I want the extra hand holding.
Jump to postWonder when we'll see construction of T9. LAX is full of construction now :(. Hopefully, LAX will come out much nicer and more modern :D. T9 will give UA much needed facility space and hopefully another version of Boarding Area G out of SFO. The schedule they published at a board meeting 2 months a...
Jump to postI dread any flight with a large group of unsupervised or under supervised teenagers, regardless of religion. I was once on a flight from Rome to New York with a group returning from a visit to see the Pope. Probably not Jewish. I was in business and was wondering why the seat belt sign went on and s...
Jump to postMy first flight was on a Lockheed Electra, a 4 engine turboprop. I was not prepared for the noise. All I can remember was the stewardess (flight attendants not invented yet) screaming at me WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO DRINK? And I screamed back COKE PLEASE. Her head was about 1 foot from mine. Airline wa...
Jump to postI've taken several UA regional trips in the last 3 months, all booked long in advance, all had one or more changes. UA sent me an e-mail and offer to change on every one.
Jump to postNot really a lot of obstacles near RNO 16-34. It's been clear here for days. Only problem is Rattlesnake Hill in poor weather. Maybe I should point out that 16R-34L has been closed for a while for maintenance. The other runway is a bit shorter.
Jump to postIt is hot (currently 99F) but that is not a lot hotter than a typical summer day in RNO. The aircraft is a 737-900 and the flight length is 565 miles. I'm surprised that aircraft would be unable to carry enough fuel for a non-stop trip. The last time I had a refueling stop out of RNO was a very long...
Jump to postCheck that survival rate again. In the US there are about 12,000 new cases per day and about 300 deaths. My math says about 97.5% survival. That’s not very precise because rates are changing and deaths lag infection by a few weeks, but close enough.
Jump to postI was amused by the comment that COVID has a 98% survival rate and most deaths are in the elderly. The death rate for the elderly in the US is now very low because more than 85% of us have been vaccinated. Most deaths now are younger people. Last I checked that’s more than 300 per day. For perspecti...
Jump to post1:50 should be good enough at SFO if the customs and TSA people are at full strength. I wouldn't stand around or stop to buy a snack until very near the departure gate. There's a bit of a walk from international arrivals to domestic TSA, and then UA has a lot of gates at SFO so more walking possible...
Jump to postIgnoring COVID for now, you are connecting at SFO in March and SFO is your first US destination so you have to clear immigration and customs there and then go through TSA. Please tell me you have allowed many hours for this. The only good news is that your flight arriving from Asia won’t be delayed ...
Jump to posthttps://simpleflying.com/american-airlines-check-in-outage/ An example of the delays well into the day after the problem was resolved, was a friend of mine was deluded from departing San Antonio to DFW on AA for 2 hours. Perhaps the word "deluded" was an autocorrect substitution, but if n...
Jump to postI don't wear my shoes in bed at home, and I don't wear them in my airplane bed. I'm almost always in business class long-haul. I do wear shoes walking around either on or off a plane. The only time I walk around without shoes is when I am on a carpet I know to be clean (my own or a friend's.). When ...
Jump to postI have always hated the way the LAX airside buses are operated. I often have been bused from the TBIT bus terminal (a miserable experience itself) to a remote gate. They have a huge fleet of buses and I suspect the drivers are not paid a lot, but they never use as many buses as they should. When the...
Jump to postWhen EU spoke about this first back in March, they stressed the need for secure digital certification. Don't see the U.S.CDC paper certification being accepted you can hardly prove them being authentic. The State of Nevada WebIZ system can be used to see all my immunizations going back at least 10 ...
Jump to postIt will often work, unless it is cloudy at SFO and they shut down a runway or two. The international and domestic terminals are adjacent and connected airside. Using the moving walkways and a brisk pace it will usually be only about 15 or 20 minutes (max) gate to gate. If the weather is poor the inc...
Jump to postI’ve been looking at the UA travel ready center to see how vaccination data is uploaded, but haven’t been able to find it. The vaccine card that you get normally is not a very reliable indicator. It is easily forged. Does UA have some way to check a government database? I know that in Nevada I can ...
Jump to postI’ve been looking at the UA travel ready center to see how vaccination data is uploaded, but haven’t been able to find it. The vaccine card that you get normally is not a very reliable indicator. It is easily forged. Does UA have some way to check a government database? I know that in Nevada I can s...
Jump to postHalf the gates are gone now but it was still very crowded. Heidi’s is still there but there was no place to sit down to eat. Waiting until I was on my CRJ-200 didn’t seem any better. Maybe post COVID UA will go back to larger aircraft DEN-RNO. My incoming E175 was at a normal gate so that was much b...
Jump to postSorry. I did mean B gates. It’s late and I’m tired!
Jump to postI was connecting to a CRJ at DEN a few days ago and found myself waiting at gate C94 for a while. It was a less than enjoyable experience. Way too crowded and poor food choices. There are some new gates under construction nearby, probably 61-79 and it looks like the 80-94 gates are too close for the...
Jump to post1175 could not have survived if they were much more than 200 miles from HNL according to what I’ve heard. The main problems were vibration and drag from the damaged engine. They would have been better off if it had just cleanly separated from the wing. Has anyone ever considered a mechanism to safel...
Jump to postI disagree with most of the comments about autopilot functions in cars. I've been driving a Tesla X for 5 years, and use the autopilot feature all the time. Just like in a plane, it is a useful aid, but that doesn't mean you stop driving. At least in the Tesla overpowering the steering control is tr...
Jump to postglideslope wrote:Was the paint a Broccoli or Asparagus based formula?
Depending on the aircraft the first class lavs may not be any larger. The UA narrow bodies I’ve been on have the same size for all classes IIRC. Some of the newer UA 777s have a handicap lav about twice normal size but just one per aircraft. You have to ask where it is or look kind of loony as you t...
Jump to postI used to do something similar on flights between LAX and AKL. I’d just set the web page location setting to US or NZ and see which cost less. The difference in a business class ticket could be quite large. To make it actually sell you a ticket you had to be able to pay in the appropriate origin cur...
Jump to postI think the real problem is that this is borderline useless and can provide a false sense of security. There is no way to know if the traveller contracted the disease after being tested. The only safe thing at the moment is a post-travel quarantine. Since significant numbers of people will be vaccin...
Jump to postWhen I’m in a lay flat business class seat in a modern more or less private pod I change into pajamas and take off shoes and socks to go to sleep. I am covered by a blanket and put shoes on to use the lav. Hope you aren’t offended but that’s why I paid for a bed.
Jump to postRNO - booming up there, hard to find a place to live BIL BZN SGU - as others have mentioned DEN - the Metro keeps growing and growing, plus pull from mountain communities/Boulder/Colorado Springs RNO had spare capacity before the pandemic so they have a lot of growth potential without any construct...
Jump to postThere should probably some minimum size requirement to be interesting for this thread. I can offer one more international airport big enough for a wide-body jet serving the principal city in a nation that you can easily walk to: RAR, Rarotonga in the Cook Islands. I flew there in both a 737 and a 76...
Jump to postI don't often pass through PHX. Sorry I couldn't get a picture we taxied by quickly and I just had a few seconds. I thought I looked carefully for a refueling boom, but I may have missed it. They were the dull dark grey I've seen before on KC-135s. I certainly am not an experienced spotter, that's w...
Jump to postI noticed two USAF aircraft at PHX today that looked like B-707s but they had no refueling boom or obvious unusual antennae. Anyone know what they are?
Jump to postWhen flying long haul I change into pajamas as soon as I board. Never had a problem. I'm usually on UA wearing UA branded pajamas so it would be hard for them to find fault with that! I actually feel bad about the pajamas on takeoff for safety reasons but I want to get changed before anyone else has...
Jump to postIf I am headed out on a TPAC flight, I do my very best to avoid LAX. I go through a lot of nonsense with security due to implants, so the idea of fighting my way to another terminal and going through that again is something I try my level best to avoid. When I travel to Spain and have to connect in...
Jump to postIf I am headed out on a TPAC flight, I do my very best to avoid LAX. I go through a lot of nonsense with security due to implants, so the idea of fighting my way to another terminal and going through that again is something I try my level best to avoid. When I travel to Spain and have to connect in...
Jump to postI guess there was some sarcasm in my SFO comment, as someone pointed out it's tough to predict clouds months in advance so I just presume SFO will be messed up and down to two runways instead of four. When I connect at SFO I allow for hours of buffer. The museum displays in the United terminal can a...
Jump to postMy roulette wheel info may be out of date, but in the past the wheel was only held to the table by gravity. This was done so the wheel on a given table could easily be changed. If there was some number favored due to a small fault then the player could not know which table that wheel was at. Such a ...
Jump to postI usually lose my bet on the beef/chicken/fish gamble. I'm not going to do it for money.
Jump to postI've only flown a few time recently but each time there were changes to pre-check in RNO and LAS. The pre-check lines were closed. The regular lines were mercifully short so not much delay. The problem is that pre-check customers have different security protocols. In all cases I was given a card or ...
Jump to postI can now add MD-87 and B737 to the list of tankers flying over my house. The Air Force flies their RNO based C-130s nearly everyday for training. Is there an air tanker adaptation they could be using?
Jump to postI live between Stead airport north of Reno where a lot of tankers are based and a number of fires south of me in the last few weeks. The closest was about 4 miles away. Just about every kind of tanker used in the Sierra has flown about 3000 feet over my house. The only one I have not seen is the 747...
Jump to postI was there 13 years ago as part of a larger, South Africa/Botswana trip and the falls were amazing and there is a lot of activities to do around there, I think it is worth a couple days, you can go white water rafting, game sighting as well as the falls. Thank you for that very much, sir. The game...
Jump to postMaybe you should let them know. They might change their mind after knowing about that fact. :bigthumbsup: :D I guess my comment did sound kind of silly. I should have mentioned that my reason for the comment was that it didn't seem all that long ago. The only reason I remember it is that was the fi...
Jump to postIt seems strange to see OKS go. I was on the first revenue Trans-Pacific flight Maybe you should let them know. They might change their mind after knowing about that fact. :bigthumbsup: :D I guess my comment did sound kind of silly. I should have mentioned that my reason for the comment was that it...
Jump to postAgree on the “niner” thing. Not sure where that comes from but it’s not commercial flying. I’ve thought another thing for several years. I can see where a lot more ATC commands converted into data and uploaded directly to the flight computers. It goes along the lines of automation and makes sense. ...
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