Thanks to Chris Sloan of Airchive, I recently had the chance to take a couple hour tour around the grounds at Los Angeles International Airport. I’ve spent a ton of time at LAX ever since I was young, but I was amazed that I learned a couple of new things on this tour. While many people would call LAX a living piece of history in itself, there are a few tucked-away gems that you might not know even exist.

You can see my entire slideshow including great shots of an American CRJ in the new livery, a Qantas A380, two Virgin Australia 777s facing off, and more, but this post is going to highlight those four pieces of history.

1) Hangar One

In the southeast corner of LAX, south of the runways, you’ll see a hangar that looks different from all the others. While most hangars are just big boxes, this one has some style to it, an old school Spanish style, actually. That’s Hangar One, and it’s the first building built on the site back in the 1920s. At the time, it was a minor airport called Mines Field with no hint of what it would become decades later. I knew about Hangar One and always watched it as I drove by on the 105 freeway, but I hadn’t seen it up close until this trip.

The building is now a registered historic building so it’s not going anywhere (unlike the other early buildings on the site which are long gone). Our guide told us the building is used by Menzies today, a company that handles aircraft and cargo services.

2) Original LAX Terminal

LAX was really nothing until after World War II when airlines began flying to LAX as the primary airport in the area. Between then and the early 1960s, terminals were built at the east end of the airport, on the north side of runways 25L/R. In 1961, the central terminal area we know today started opening to the west, and those old terminals were replaced by maintenance, cargo, and administration facilities… or so I thought.

Apparently the current United (pre-merger) maintenance facility sits in what was a terminal building back in the day. The structure was never razed. The photo above shows the old United logo (from pre-2004) hung over the door. You can’t get any closer unless you’re with United. If you’re driving by on Century Blvd, you won’t see it because there’s that new white and yellow building blocking it from the street. And if you taxi by on an airplane, you’ll see the back of it which is a hangar with a big “United Air Lines” written on the top. If you look closely at the asphalt, you can still see where some of the concourses used to sit before they were removed.

3) Western’s Headquarters

Though it’s hard to imagine it today, LAX used to be the home base for more than one large passenger airline. One of those that called LAX home was Western Airlines which kept its base there until it was acquired by Delta in 1987. Though I knew that the headquarters was around, I never knew exactly where it was. What I remembered was that there was a reservations center on Century Blvd just before you entered the terminal area, but I didn’t realize that was also the headquarters building along with maintenance base.

The photo above was taken from the old control tower looking east down Century Blvd. That building with the tan top with the Delta jets to the right is the current maintenance base at LAX for Delta. Just to the left of that, you can see what looks like an attached brick building with white on top. That was Western’s headquarters, and you can still see it as you drive by on Century. Sadly, I believe it is mostly if not entirely empty today, though the maintenance base behind remains active.

4) Continental’s Headquarters

When most people think of Continental, they think of Texas, but for 20 years Continental called LAX home. The legendary Bob Six moved the airline to LA in 1963. He built a headquarters complex west of where the current terminals are. (It’s accessible today on World Way West with access from Pershing Dr.) The picture above is of the courtyard area with the headquarters building on the left and the maintenance facility on the right. When Frank Lorenzo bought Continental, he merged it with Texas International and moved the headquarters to Houston, almost exactly 20 years after the airline arrived in LA.

Chris Sloan reminded me of a darker side to this building. This was the place where Al Feldman, chairman and CEO of Continental, killed himself. He was hit hard by the death of his wife and put all his time into running Continental. When it appeared that this efforts to engineer an employee buyout were going to fail and the takeover by Lorenzo was inevitable, Feldman lost hope and ended his life.

The ghosts of this building remain locked inside. As you would imagine from that picture, it’s empty today and not likely to be used again soon. The maintenance base, however, is still used by United. For the last couple of months, it’s been home to a 787, waiting to fly again.

[See the rest of my photos]

There are a lot of different milestones that can be used to determine when a merger is truly complete. The one I always use is when you can no longer book a flight on both airlines. For United and Continental, that day comes this Saturday.

In the wee hours of early Saturday morning, United’s Apollo reservations system will be shut down in favor of Continental’s SHARES system. In fact, we’ll see a lot kept from the Continental side, even though the United name will reign supreme.

Beginning on Saturday, you will no longer be able to book a flight on Continental – they’ll all be on United. This is great news . . . not that the Continental name is disappearing but rather that there is only one airline to deal with. This means no more problems of working with two different airlines even though they’re really one.

Considering I spent over an hour trying to use a Mileage Plus member’s miles to upgrade a Continental flight last week, this piece of the merger couldn’t come soon enough.

Of course, the transition won’t be easy. It never is. The United reservations folks will now be forced to use an unfamiliar system. Training undoubtedly helps, but it’s still a big change. And then there’s the physical switch itself.

It is no small task taking all that reservation data, putting it into a new system, and then hoping it all works as planned. It’s never a perfect transition. Remember when US Airways and America West flipped the switch? There were a lot of problems.

So, if you’re flying United for the week beginning this Saturday, give yourself some extra time at the airport just in case. Here are some other things to keep in mind.

Reservations
Since the airlines are moving to Continental’s reservation system, it’s those record locators (confirmation numbers) that will survive. If you booked on United before the system switch, I would assume that there will be a mechanism for the new system to still recognize those old numbers when you try to use them. But if you had a split reservation with both United and Continental flights, you’ll be fine just remembering the Continental number going forward.

UPDATE: I just received clarification from someone at United that this is not quite what’s happening. Both United reservations and Continental reservations will be transferred into a new SHARES system, so there will be a new reservation number assigned to each reservation. If you have a reservation with both United and Continental flights, you will have three record locators: the old United one, the old Continental one, and the new combined United one. The key point? Any of them will work when you try to pull up your reservation.

The Website
If you’re one of the few people who love the not-so-affectionately nicknamed United.bomb website, then you’ll be sad to know that the Continental website is the survivor.

It’s really going to be a carbon copy of the current Continental website. For a pre-production version of the new site, head over to pss.united.com and you can play around.

MileagePlus
March 3 also will be the effective date of the new MileagePlus combined frequent flier program. If you have a Continental OnePass number, that will be your Mileage Plus number. If you have a current Mileage Plus number from United, then that’s toast.

If you had both and linked them, then you’ll just consolidate under the Continental number. If you never had a OnePass number, you’ll be getting a new one from United.

Patience is the key in the next couple weeks. If you’re flying United, it could be rough going as the systems combine, but in the end, it will be a much better experience since the airlines will operate as one.

There are more things to be merged, but most of those aren’t as visible to travelers. This is the big weekend.

There were a couple of somewhat minor milestones in the eyes of travelers this week, but I thought it was worth sharing.

First, Continental and United started operating on a single operating certificate. Even though they’re using the old Continental certificate, the United call sign is surviving. If you’re listening to air traffic control, you will no longer hear “Continental” being used. For travelers, this means nothing since the passenger cutover isn’t until March. But it’s still one more step in the integration.

Also this week, US Airways operated the last flight with former America West 737s. Flight 48 arrived in Phoenix from Vegas early on November 29 at 144p. This also marked what I consider the official death of the already dramatically reduced Vegas hub with the end of flights to LA and other places.

If you want to get all misty-eyed and reminisce, go for it in the comments.

Airline Wi-Fi Check: Which Have It? – Conde Nast Daily Traveler
In light of United’s announcement that it was putting wifi on its whole mainline fleet, it seemed like a good time to do a wifi roundup to see who has it and where.

United and Continental Merger Will Make Flying to Europe Easier – Conde Nast Daily Traveler
United is doing some interesting things with its new combined fleet, and that means new destinations from Dulles that couldn’t be served before.

This week is the GBTA Convention (formerly known as NBTA until it decided to go “global,” or something like that), and the new United is taking a page from the old Continental playbook by making a bunch of announcements. See, GBTA is the big event for corporate/business travel, and Continental has long treated it as important. It rolled out its flat beds in business class there a few years ago, and now it’s focusing on other product enhancements. What’s the verdict?

There are a few good nuggets of info in here, but there’s also a lot of repeat announcements. One you get through the noise, the announcements are mostly great news. The team is finally fixing up the United fleet while bringing over some old favorites to Continental. Let’s go over them. (I’ve saved my favorite for last.)

• New: United Will Convert Interiors on 14 Previously-Domestic 767s
  United has long had a sizable fleet of 767-300s that it split in two. Some were outfitted with three-cabins and flew internationally while the others were domestic birds with a domestic-style first class and a sea of coach. Now the 14 previously domestic birds will get a hybrid international configuration with only two classes (actually 30 in biz, 49 in Economy Plus, and 135 in coach), but they’ll get the well-liked Continental flat bed up front. New seats will be put in, but it’s unclear if the old, tiny overhead bins will be replaced. I like this – gives some flexibility to the United fleet, but it will be interesting to see what airplanes replace that capacity on the domestic runs.
• Old: United Will Put Flat Beds on Continental 767-400 Fleet
  This was supposed to be done by next summer anyway, and now it’s apparently being reaffirmed. The twelve 767-400s in the Continental fleet will get flat beds. No surprise there. Here’s the chart of what the fleet does and will look like. United says it will have 185 birds with flat beds, but I count 193. Are there some retirements that I’m missing?

  Aircraft	Flat Beds Current	Flat Beds Planned	Pct Complete
  CO 757-200	41	41	100%
  CO 767-200	0	0	100%
  CO 767-400	0	12	0%
  CO 777-200	22	22	100%
  UA 757-200 p.s.	0	13	0%
  UA 767-300	21	35	60%
  UA 777-200	17	46	37%
  UA 747-400	24	24	100%

• Old: United 777s Will Keep Getting Flat Beds
  United was painfully slow at putting flat beds on its 777s, and now it’s only at 17 of the 46 in the international fleet. Sounds like the process is starting up again, and I’ve confirmed that these airplanes will all get the current United flat bed, not the Continental one.
• Old: Continental Fleet Will Get Economy Plus
  This is old news, but I guess it gives a little more color on the timing. Economy Plus will start being installed on Continental airplanes this fall with 38 done by year-end and 100 by the end of March next year. Economy Plus seats will come from current coach seating while premium cabins will remain unchanged in size. It’s not just mainline but also any aircraft with more than 50 seats, per the United standard. That means the Q400 props will get Economy Plus and First Class. We had a Twitter discussion on this awhile ago trying to remember the last prop that had First Class. It’s been awhile.
• New: United Will Expand Overhead Bins and “Refresh” Interiors on the Airbus Fleet
  Try boarding a United A319 and you’ll probably run out of bin space before general boarding even begins. So, the new United is nearly doubling the size of the bins to make them more functional. This will help the onboard experience, probably to the dismay of those who thought that problem was bad enough that it would convince United not to keep charging bag fees. Plus, the new United will “refresh” the interiors to give them a better appearance. This is long overdue on much of that fleet.
• New: Streaming Movies on 747-400s
  It wasn’t long ago that CEO Jeff Smisek said the product on the 747s wasn’t acceptable. To fix it, he’s committing to put a wireless streaming offering on the airplane. It’s like what American is doing on its 767-200s today with Gogo. You can log on and pay to watch movies or TV shows, etc on your own device. That’s great, but there’s one problem. This wasn’t accompanied by an announcement about putting power outlets in coach. Considering the long haul flights that the 747s operate, without power, this is useless. Let’s hope that announcement comes soon.
• Old: United Will Put Wifi on the Legacy Continental Fleet
  Those airplanes that have LiveTV on them (old Continental domestic planes) will also get wifi eventually. The timeline says next year, but I’ll believe it when I see it. This is old news.
• Old and New: United Will Redo p.s. Airplanes
  Jeff said before that United’s p.s. fleet that flies between LA/SF and JFK will get flat beds. This repeats that claim, but there’s more. p.s. will have 26 of the current Continental flat beds installed along with 70 Economy Plus seats, 44 in coach, power in every row, on demand audio/video and wifi. That means it won’t be the same configuration that Continental has on its 757s today. Continental today has only 16 beds on its 757s, so this will continue to be a separate fleet.
• New: Channel 9 Will Be Offered on Continental Aircraft
  I saved my favorite piece of news for last. Channel 9 will not only be kept on the United fleet, as previously stated, but it will be expanded to the Continental fleet. This is great news for those of us who like to listen to the conversation between the cockpit and air traffic control.

That’s it for now. As you can see, it was an announcement full of a lot of things we’ve heard before, but there are some encouraging nuggets of awesomeness (like Channel 9) in there as well. In short, Continental is fixing up the neglected United fleet while bringing over some old favorites to the Continental fleet. These are all great things, and the direction of the announcements is quite promising. It’s good to see some real investment in the passenger experience for everyone instead of just the premium travelers as had been United’s sole focus before the merger.