Over the years, I've had a hard time sorting pictures, writing trip reports and working at the same time after returning from a trip which has lead to incomplete trip reports. So this time, I decided to write one ONLY after I had all of the pictures and report sorted out. I took the old folks and myself on this trip in October, but it has taken me until two weeks ago to finish organizing everything in the few spare moments I have after work. I've broken my report into the sections listed below.
United Airlines UA 660 LAX-ORD First Class
United Airlines UA 476 ORD-YYZ First Class aka Business Class
UP Express From YYZ to Toronto Union Station
Things We Did In Toronto Day 1
Things We Did In Toronto Day 2
Dinner At CN Tower
Via Rail Business Class Toronto to Quebec City via Montreal Part 1
Via Rail Business Class Toronto to Quebec City via Montreal Part 2
Fairmont Chateau Frontenac
Things We Did In Quebec City Day 1
Things We Did In Quebec City Day 2
Things We Did In Montreal Day 1
Things We Did In Montreal Day 2
Single Night In Ottawa
Niagara Falls and Niagara Falls Marriott Fallsview Hotel & Spa
United Express UA3400 YYZ-ORD First Class aka Business Class
United Airlines UA 592 ORD-LAX First Class
United Airlines UA 660 LAX-ORD First ClassTrip time again with the old folks to Eastern Canada for little over a week. After a full day of work for myself and my dad, we took the FlyAway bus to LAX. All seemed good with traffic until we hit the 10 freeway at which point we slowed down to a crawl. The FlyAway dropped us off right in front of the entrance to the new Premier Check-in area. Since our last visit through terminal 7, United has swapped the location of Premier Check-in with coach checkin area and in between them, opened up a new much bigger consolidate security area. Check-in went painlessly and I was advised that our flight was running late. I thanked the agent and headed directly to the PreCheck security lane which while only had few people ahead of us, those few people created a traffic jam due their ignorance on how TSAPre works. The one lady who was creating the majority of the problem was finally moved aside and a physical pat down was performed by a female TSA agent.
After security, we headed directly to the new LAX United Club. This whole terminal was a mess during the construction of the now open Club so I really wanted to see what it looked like. Since we were flying international in premium cabin, the three of us were granted access after our boarding passes were scanned. The new club is bigger and brighter than the previous dump. The Club had the same fluorescent-ish lighting in the terminal inside the club. The food seems to have not changed at all even with the renovation. Same stuff as last year, just in a better location. My mom did make a comment that the two soups on offer tasted freshly made and out of a can. Staff seemed to be busy constantly refilling and clearing dirty dishes away.
I headed out to the famous patio of the new club, which after taking one look, should be called infamous patio. With all of the hype about the patio from the CC bloggers when the club opened, I was expecting something that could be the envy of every AVGeek but in reality it was small with filthy windows. The only real view you have is of whatever is parked at 70a. I mean it was SMALL.
Our flight which was already running behind was showing on the app as running further behind schedule. Our connection to YYZ was getting close to undoable. I went up to one of the customer service agents to figure things out before the caca hit the fan. The agent advised me that she could reserve my parents and I on a connecting Air Canada flight which was leaving later in the morning. She advised me that our reservation was good for our original flight to YYZ and the new one if we missed the original flight to YYZ. All we had to do was see a customer service agent in Chicago for new boarding passes if a missed connection were to occur. I thanked the customer service agent and went back to the table where why parents were at.
While waiting for very late aircraft to arrive from Chicago, my parents dozed off in the United Club. I took the opportunity to go around the club while it was not busy, taking pictures. When our aircraft finally did arrive, I was notified via the United App and we headed down to the gate. During our wait in Group 1 boarding, the app updated our flights arrival time into ORD which now would arrive after our flight to YYZ is scheduled to depart. Didn't bother me since I had already figured all this out at the club. Other passengers were trying to figure out their connecting flight issues at the gate podium but the gate agents finally made an announcement that they needed to board the flight so for everyone who has connection questions to call the 800 number or wait until they get to Chicago. Its times like this that I'm glad I am a United Club member. I told my parents that we were taking Air Canada now and we will be having breakfast on the next leg instead of a lousy muffin which United serves in the morning in first class.
Boarding for only first class passengers was called after all the pre boards had boarded due to the need for aisle wheelchair in coach. Since our aircraft is a 757-300, first class passengers would not get in the way of anything going on in coach during boarding. Unfortunately, the wheelchair jam wasn't isolated to coach as the gate agent thought and the aircraft boarding door was blocked. We must have waited in the jet bridge for a good 10 minutes waiting for whatever was going on to clear. The first class passengers ahead of me were visibly annoyed being stuck in the jet bridge. The wheelchair jam finally cleared and we were able to board the aircraft and take our seats at row 1.
Shortly after taking our seats, PDB were offered by the FA. I took a gin and tonic but my parents passed. My seat and the cabin really was showing its age and making lots of noises if one moved a bit. The bottom practically had no cushion. I'm not sure if this was by design or if it has been flattened and worn away over the years. After the usual pre departure stuff, we pushed back and after a short time taxing, we were rolling down the runway to ORD. Due to the lateness of our aircraft, two flights tow ORD were departing simultaneously tonight. As soon as the FA's were released from the seats, they made their usual announcements regarding the inflight service on the flight. Without fail, the pilots kept the seat belt sign on until we reached cruising level forcing passengers to get up and go to the lav anyways.
When the FA for first class came through the cabin taking drink orders, I ordered another gin and tonic. The infamous redeye snack basket followed closely behind. The FA illuminated the snack basket with a flashlight so we could at least see what we were grabbing. Once my drink and trash were collected, I reclined my seat and tried to get some sleep but it was no use. The seat was so uncomfortable that my sciatica on my left side was starting to flair up. I wished I had packed my muscle relaxer for this trip, but since I've not had a sciatica flair up in a while I didn't think I would need it, but all it took was couple of hours in this terrible seat to flair it up again.
Since I couldn't sleep, I played around with the BYOD system on my iPhone trying to kill time. I was mostly interested in the progress map to see how long I had until I could get up and out of this terrible seat. Every time I moved a bit the seat creaked and cracked. I tried to stay still as much as possible to not wake up the other passengers who seemed to be trying to get some sleep. The rest of the flight was uneventful. I did ask the FA if there was any stroopwafel available but she said no without even looking. Once on the ground we parked at gate C21. The united app also showed that our original flight to YYZ had been delayed as well and has not departed yet. As soon as the aircraft doors opened, the gate agent made announcements regarding connections and also said "Toronto passengers please go to your gate. Your flight has been delayed." At this point, we rushed off the plane and made a mad dash for the B concourse from the C concourse where we were parked.
More Pictures of the
LAX United Club And
United Airlines UA 660
Last edited by
seat38a on Wed Dec 20, 2017 4:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.