This is sort of a hybrid trip report in that I didn’t actually go anywhere domestically in New Zealand, but I had to see Air New Zealand’s domestic check-in process for myself. So I’m combining that with my flight home. Overall, it was another very good experience, though I think the service level was slightly better on the way out than it was on the way home. (And yes, I ended up in business, not premium economy.) I promise, this will be my last ANZ post for awhile.

My flight home was at 715p, but I was able to arrange a visit to the domestic terminal at Auckland first. When I interviewed CEO Rob Fyfe back in May, he explained that their new check-in process for domestic flights would allow people to arrive only 15 minutes before their flight. I had to see for myself.

The airline arranged for John Whittaker, the man in charge of the domestic operation, to take me out there. He set up a booking for me so I could go through the process myself. It lived up to its billing, for the most part, though security slowed me down to make 15 minutes a little too tight. Here’s a 2 minute video of me walking through the check-in process.

This process really eliminates lines almost entirely. Sure, if people have complicated changes or problems that need addressing, they have to see an agent, but the vast majority of people don’t need that. They just need to drop a bag off and get checked in. If you don’t have a bag, you really don’t even need to go to the kiosk. You can print out a confirmation page at home or you can pull up a barcode on your phone and just walk through security. At the gate, you can scan your pass and it will spit out a receipt for you. Then you’re on your way. You only need to check in at the kiosk if you have a bag to drop.

Now, the only problem with an arrival 15 minutes before departure here is the security line. I was there at the absolute peak of the afternoon and it took about 10 minutes to get through. Domestic security is much easier – no shoes off, and heck, they don’t even check your ID, but it did make a 15 minute door to plane timeline pretty difficult during the afternoon rush. Still, you could easily have made it in 30 minutes.

Once through, there’s a really nice lounge that has food and showers, but the gate is where it got interesting for me. Instead of having a big podium for check-in, the focus is really on the gate reader. That’s where the work gets done. There is just one employee, a turn manager, who handles the flight on the ground, but a flight attendant comes off the plane to board the flight as well.

On the ramp, only one person pushes the airplane back. He has a remote that controls the unmanned pushback tug which works on a rear wheel (at right). Then he stands at the front of the plane and walks it back. Pretty slick operation.

Once I was done getting the tour, it was time to head to the international terminal. Unfortunately, they aren’t connected in Auckland. I could walk it, but there were thunderstorms around, so John drove me over on his way out.

The check-in area is enormous, but I went to a small private room on the side set aside for premium cabin check-in. It’s a more intimate setting with a few desks of people to check you in. Up to this point, my efforts to snag a window in premium economy had failed. The flight was full, and I was only willing to take a window so I could rest my head. So, I checked in and got my boarding pass for the upper deck in business and then headed to security.

Immigration lines were about 15 minutes long, and then security took 10 seconds. On the other side, I went up to the relatively newly renovated Air New Zealand lounge. The place was massive and had all kinds of areas – kid zones, no cell phone zones, massage areas, etc. I settled in for a few minutes of email checking before our concierge Brigitte came to meet us. She said that they were able to arrange a premium economy seat downstairs if I’d like, but I cracked.

I had gotten lost hiking on Waiheke Island (at left) earlier in the day and missed my ferry. My feet were cut up from what I believe was a rogue blackberry bush, and I was a little sunburned. The thought of giving up a flat bed right then was too much. Sorry guys. I’ll just have to find a way to review the new premium economy when it rolls out later this year.

They announced in the lounge that everyone had to leave for our flight early for the extra-special TSA-mandated patdown. Joy. So we went down to find a couple of gates isolated from the rest of the concourse with a makeshift partition. First, we waited in a 10 minute line just to talk to someone. They checked our passports again and made sure it matched the name on the boarding pass. Then they checked some magic list. I wasn’t on it, so I thought that was bad news, but now I think it was the opposite. I moved up to the next person who checked my boarding pass and sent me through a corridor that dumped me out at the gate. Others had to get the full pat down and search and that took a very long time.

The partitioned gate area was too small, so everyone was standing around like sardines waiting to board. Brigitte circulated around the room answering questions while the rest of us watched boarding time come and go. Security had managed to delay our flight by about half an hour, and the staff looked to be a bit frustrated that there was nothing they could do.

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January 28, 2010
Air New Zealand #6 Lv Auckland (AKL) 715p Arr Los Angeles (LAX) 1015a (same day)
AKL: Gate 8, Runway 23L, Dept 15m Late
LAX: Gate 28, Runway 25L, Arr 32m Late
Aircraft: ZK-NBW, Boeing 747-419, Named Wellington, Maybe 90% Full
Seat: 20A
Flight Time: 11h51m

We did finally board and I took my seat upstairs with two other journalists. An older American woman boarded right behind us and the flight attendant said to her, “It looks like you’ll be sharing the cabin with these gentlemen.” The woman looked startled and said, “What?!” After repeating it, the woman breathed a sigh of relief. “I thought you said ‘Germans’.” We couldn’t help but laugh.

We took off and passed by some beautiful storm clouds before pointing northeast toward LA. I passed on dinner, flipped my bed down, popped some Ambien, and woke up 7 hours later. I was up for good at that point, so I tried to flip my bed back, but I was struggling with it a little. Nobody came to help. My glass of water also remained empty all night. The service during the middle of the flight wasn’t quite up to the level of the service on the way down, but the service at the beginning and the end when most people were awake was excellent.

I had a bacon roll once again, but this time it was more like the English-style of bacon. Delicious. (No bubble and squeak was offered, by the way.) Brigitte came up to chat with me as part of her rounds, and I found out she had only been doing this for a couple months. She used to be a journalist. So I asked what she recommended that people do in LA, and she said that she doesn’t usually get many requests for that. But when she does, it’s usually for long layovers, so she’ll point them to a beach or Santa Monica; something close by. She said that each time she travels, she tries to explore a new area so she can recommend it.

Then she went above and beyond.

Brigitte handed me her card and said that she had spoken with our concierge on the way down and he told her that I asked him for the registration of the aircraft. So she got the registration for me and wrote it down without me having to ask. Wow.

I naturally assumed that this was some sort of special treatment and she said that no, they talk like this all the time. If a couple is on a honeymoon, for example, the outbound concierge will tell the inbound concierge so she can ask specifically how the trip went and offer them a celebratory drink or something along those lines. Fantastic service.

Though we had light chop for the first two-thirds of the flight, the last third was pleasantly smooth after the sun came up. We landed just a few minutes late, and immigration was quick and painless. I didn’t have a ride, so it took me 2 hours to take public transit home. Not exactly what I was hoping for, but maybe LA will get its public transit act together one of these days. Nah, probably not.

[See More New Zealand Pics]
[See New Zealand Videos (some better than others)]

Good morning from beautiful Auckland, New Zealand. Don’t ask me what day it is, because I have no idea. This whole international dateline thing still messes me up. Over the weekend, Air New Zealand flew me down here for a big media event today launching their new cabin interior. Though I will have full details tomorrow, early reports are suggesting there will be the ability lie down in coach. Yes, you’ll want to read tomorrow’s post.

But today, let’s talk about the existing product and the flight down from LA. It was absolutely stellar. Comparing Air NZ to my Air France flight to Tahiti last year is like comparing Singapore Airlines to Alitalia. There isn’t a comparison.

Air New Zealand provided the ticket down to Auckland and yes, they flew me in business class. Despite some people telling me I’m insane, I’m actually trying to get downgraded to premium economy for the flight home so I can give you a report on that, but the flight is full and they say it may not be possible. I’ll keep you posted.

Back to this flight. I got to the airport at 530p, two hours before departure. I figured I didn’t need to be there that early, but there were a few of us on this trip together so I thought it would be nice to meet them in the airport for a little bit. I was also a little concerned since you aren’t allowed to check-in online. (I’m told they’re considering that for the future.)

I walked up to the premium check-in area and they instantly gave me my boarding pass and asked if I was happy with a window on the upper deck. No problems there, of course, since I had snagged my seat a few days earlier online. Then, the agent came around from behind the counter and escorted me to the lounge.

Wait, that didn’t sound right. I double-checked to see if this was something they did for all their premium customers and he said no. He was just given instructions to escort our group. Ah, I see. Not a fan of that. That’s not exactly helpful for me to give an opinion on what other customers will see now is it? If you were traveling outside our group, you had to face a roughly 30 minute line which I skipped. Once Northwest left Terminal 2 at LAX, they took away the premium security line, so the experience has gotten a bit worse in that regard.

After cutting in line at security (grr), I went up to the lounge. I had only been in the tired, worn old Northwest lounge in Terminal 2 at LAX, so seeing the much larger, nicer Air New Zealand lounge was a good surprise.

There was not only a large area with cold cuts and other snacks, but it looked newly redone with plenty of room and even some showers. I later found out that while we had to use the old Northwest lounge when we flew Air France business class to Tahiti last year, Air France First Class passengers get to come here.

Once again, the special treatment continued, much to my dismay, with a corner of the lounge blocked off for our group to get together. I met the other writers would be joining me down to NZ along with Kathryn Gregory, Air NZ’s Marketing head in the US and Roger Poulton, a 40 year Air NZ employee who is now Vice President of the Americas. He came to see us off while Kathryn was flying with us.

In the lounge, we got to know each other and I wandered around to take it all in. Then, the inflight concierge Aaron Nelson came through. I’ve written about Air New Zealand’s concierge program before and how I think it’s a great idea. Now, I had the chance to dig in and try it out.

Aaron had actually been working as an account exec with the airline before he decided to apply to become a concierge. Right now, concierges are based in Auckland and London and only operate on the North American routes. They arrive about 1.5 to 2 hours before the flight and immediately start looking for any problems to solve. I asked Aaron how they measure the success of the program and he said it’s all about complaint reduction. Air NZ has a zero complaint policy, and routes with concierges have seen complaints down by more than 20% while other routes haven’t seen that drop.

So he wanders the gate area looking for anyone who needs help. He introduces himself to everyone and offers his assistance throughout the flight. He’s not a flight attendant, so he doesn’t have the same rest rules. He is responsible for helping anyone who asks throughout the entire flight. When he wasn’t helping, I saw him constantly roaming the aisles to reach out to people.

After monopolizing his time, I told him I would come and bother him on the airplane again so he could do his duties before we boarded. They started boarding the flight but we waited until the end to get on. We left the lounge and got on the plane about 10 minutes before departure.

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January 23, 2010
Air New Zealand #5 Lv Los Angeles (LAX) 730p Arr Auckland (AKL) 525a (on 25JAN)
LAX: Gate 22, Runway 25R, Dept On Time
AKL: Gate 10, Runway 23L, Arr ~15m Early
Aircraft: ZK-NBU, Boeing 747-419, Named Rotorua, Full
Seat: 20K
Flight Time: 12h10m

Immediately after boarding, I headed upstairs to my seat. I was instantly greeted by name by Marian our flight attendant (as were all the other business class passengers, I checked) and was asked if I’d like a tour of the seat so that I could know where everything was. Having flown in this seat once a couple years ago, I didn’t feel the need for the tour, but I let them do it anyway.

Soon enough, Aaron the concierge had come up as well to check on our cabin and see if we needed anything. Soon, we were buckled up and ready to push back one minute early. Unfortunately, they routed us around to the south runways so we had to taxi for quite awhile. The good news is that Air NZ lets you use your inflight entertainment the second you board, so I just fired up a movie.

We launched peacefully into the beautifully clear night, the first one we’d had in LA in a week, and pointed the nose south toward NZ. It was a straight shot over nothing for about 12 hours.

I had been offered a pre-departure drink and my order had been taken for a drink right after takeoff as well. Determined to get a good sleep, I stuck with water. Soon enough, they started coming around with dinner service. I was actually drifting in and out of sleep, so I woke up to find my tray out with a tablecloth on and a glass of water waiting. I’m not sure how they did all that without waking me up, but they did.

I just wasn’t hungry and instead was more concerned about trying to get sleep, something that is nearly impossible for me on an airplane. The flight attendant offered me a light dinner or simply just an appetizer and dessert after I turned down the full meal, but I told her that I thought I would pass. She had that look of a concerned mother but she obliged.

I decided that I would watch a couple movies and then go for about 8 hours of sleep, if I could. A 12 hour flight is just about right for that. So, toward the end of my second movie, the lights were dimming and others had gone to bed. Marian and Aaron both came back asking me if I would like to have my bed made up. See, this is the same seat Virgin uses where they flip the seat over so you have a flat bed on the back.

I told them I would do it once the movie finished. As soon as it finished, I had another flight attendant come up and ask if I needed my bed made. I went back to the lav, got ready for bed, came back out, and sure enough I had my bed made waiting for me.

Aaron the concierge came by once again to ask if there was anything else I needed, and we got into a brief discussion about how I could spend my single free day in Auckland. I purposefully didn’t do any research because I wanted to see what the concierge could do. He asked me what type of things I liked, and after a few minutes, he promised he would have a great itinerary ready for me when I woke up.

With that, I laid down and popped an Ambien. I now love Ambien. I went to bed around 8p Auckland time. Though I woke up briefly a couple times (the last row of biz upstairs is right next to a little self-serve bar, so it’s a little annoying), I didn’t wake up for good until about 315a when they started waking the cabin up for breakfast. Unreal. I simply can’t sleep on airplanes like that, and I was thrilled.

Marian came through gently offering to turn beds back into seats for those who were ready. I took her up on it, feeling fantastic after getting so much sleep. And now I was hungry.

Marian brought a cart through with a variety of morning drinks. I opted for a delicious strawberry smoothie. Then she came by with fresh fruit and cereal to start.

Aaron dropped by while I was eating to give me my personalized packet with suggestions of how to spend my time in Auckland. I asked him if he did this often, and he said on this flight he had put together about 10 itineraries. It’s usually between 10 and 15.

While some of the materials were pre-made, some he actually typed up in his workstation and printed out for me. He also included a card with his email address and a general Air NZ concierge email address if I needed any further help. Apparently, if someone is having flight problems or other issues, he can radio ahead to take care of them. If they ever get inflight internet onboard, I can only imagine what he’ll be able to do.

Before he left, I asked if he could find the aircraft registration for me. Within a couple minutes, he was back with it. (This was one of Air NZ’s vintage 747s – nearly 20 years old.) Then it was time for more breakfast – this time I took a croissant but passed on the vegemite. Ugh, nasty stuff.

Then Marian came through offering bubble and squeak (pass) or a bacon sandwich. Clearly I opted for the latter. I was expecting a bacon sandwich to be more like what you get in Europe – more of a ham/pork sandwich, but no. This was the bacon we know and love in the US, and it hit the spot.

Soon enough, we were descending into Auckland. It was nice to finally see land after a dozen hours over water. We landed and I paid particularly close attention to the people sitting around me to hear if they said anything about the flight. I heard things like “incredible service” and “just a fantastic seat.” There were a lot of happy passengers, and I was one of them.

We headed off to the hotel to relax and more importantly, shower. I’ll have reports tomorrow from today’s interior reveal.

As usual, we had a fun but short weekend in Indianapolis. After having my fill of good food and hanging out with the inlaws, I was ready to head back. I actually was looking forward to these flights since we had booked First Class on American. They did not disappoint.

Back when we were looking at holiday flights over the summer, the prices were pretty high for the return on this peak day. So, we looked at mileage availability. American was our first choice since we could use one way awards and the outbound flight was cheap enough to buy. Sure enough, they had a perfect flight in the afternoon going through St Louis. While coach was only available at the higher 25,000 mile one way level, First Class was able at the saver level. That required the same number of miles as coach. Needless to say, we flew up front.

We arrived at the airport in a light snow. When we tried to check-in online the night before, we were told we couldn’t. Not sure why, but we just checked in at the kiosk when we arrived at Indy with no trouble. It spit out our coach boarding passes right away – no First Class on this little plane.

The airport was fairly empty for such a big travel day, and we parked ourselves at the gate waiting for the flight. Our plane was a little late getting out to Indy, probably because of de-icing, but we didn’t mind. Our layover in St Louis was long.

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December 27, 2009
American #5049 Lv Indianapolis (IND) 1220p Arr St Louis (STL) 1220p
IND: Gate B7, Runway 23R, Dept 43m Late
STL: Gate C9, Runway 30L, Arr 40m Late
Aircraft: N376SK, Embraer ERJ-135, AA Connection Colors, Mostly Full
Seat: 4C
Flight Time: 39m

I thought we were supposed to be on an ERJ-140, but instead an ERJ-135 pulled up. This was also operated by Chautauqua, just as our Midwest flight was, but this one still had its American paint. That won’t last for long as American continues its St Louis hub downsizing.

We boarded early and took our seats, just one row behind our seats on the flight from Milwaukee. There was very little to distinguish this flight from our last except for the big Eagle bolted on to the front bulkhead.

We ended up being even later because we had to de-ice ourselves before taking off into the muck. Once on our way, drinks were served and we sat in the clouds for much of the ride. Toward the end, we peaked out briefly and then we stared our descent into a cloudy and snow-covered St Louis.

When we landed, it was overcast, and we taxied to our gate. Soon, we could see the sun peaking out. I was excited to be in St Louis once again after a long absence. When I was in college in DC, I used to fly Southwest between Baltimore and the West, and at least one of my usual two stops involved St Louis.

What we arrived to find was a very sad, declining airport. American has settled its remaining flights in the front of the C concourse. Concourse B now only has AirTran with the rest of the gates shuttered. Concourse D has one Frontier gate and a couple of flights for Great Lakes and Cape Air with their little puddle jumpers. The rest of the long concourse has actually been boarded up and you can’t even go down there anymore. If only those TWA-red walls could talk . . .

Lots of businesses were boarded up and there were very few people anywhere except for at the beginning of C concourse where American was clearly having a good day. I saw flights to places like Wichita and Jacksonville, knowing that those would all be gone in a matter of months. You could probably fit all remaining St Louis carriers on a single concourse, except for Southwest which remains in the East Terminal, separated from everyone else.

[See all my photos of St Louis Lambert's sad decline]

I found myself a power outlet to plug in for a full charge as we waited. I spent the rest of the time trying to help some clients who had the potential of missing a connection in Chicago. (They got an earlier flight and made it.)

Soon, it was time to board.

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December 27, 2009
American #1727 Lv St Louis (STL) 210p Arr Los Angeles (LAX) 430p
STL: Gate C6, Runway 30L, Dept 30m Late
LAX: Gate 48B, Runway 25L, Arr 10m Early
Aircraft: N553AA, Douglas MD-82, Silver Colors, 100% Full
Seat: 4D, First Class
Flight Time: 3h36m

As boarding started, there was a pretty good squall passing through dumping snow on the airport and reducing visibility significantly. We took our seats in First Class and the flight attendant came by and took our coats. This MD-80 was nearly 20 years old, and it looked a little worse for wear.

Immediately after we sat, our flight attendant came by and offered us drinks. Kirsten had champagne and I had a very generous helping of scotch. The rest of the plane boarded and soon it was time to take off.

In the few minutes between boarding and departure, the squall had moved out and a low partly cloudy layer took over. Thankfully, that meant we didn’t have to de-ice, so we made our way to the runway and took off. Here’s the video. (And yes, I know I’m not supposed to have my camera out . . .)

I was excited to sit up front in an MD-80 for the first time, because I had heard it was so quiet. It was certainly quieter than in the back, but I didn’t think it was anything special. The service, however, was, thanks to our flight attendant Robin.

I was bummed to find out there wasn’t any internet access on this flight, but I still had my computer with me to do plenty of work. Robin immediately showed up with a hot ramekin of nuts and asked for drink orders. I lost the contest so I was the designated driver to get us home. I stuck with water after my generous helping of pre-departure scotch.

I browsed through the inflight mags, and that didn’t take very long. In addition to the usual American Way, American also has Celebrated Living for premium class passengers. This is a magazine for the rich, and it had very little content. My guess is that most people sitting up front on this flight weren’t interested since it didn’t appear to be a big money crowd (though maybe Jenna Fischer from The Office was interested; she was two rows behind).

After wolfing down the nuts, I went to work, but Robin came by and refilled me. Mmm, delicious. Then she came through asking for meal choices. The options were steak salad or a chicken sandwich. I was very happy to get the last of the latter.

The sandwich was basically a piece of chicken and a bunch of cheese – you can’t really go too far wrong with that. There was also a very crisp salad which, yes, had the legendary olive that disappeared in the height of cost cutting days in order to save money. There was also a bag of pita chips which I saved for later.

After lunch, Robin came through with a warm chocolate chip cookie that really blew the Midwest cookie out of the water (I know, I know – American doesn’t give you a cookie in coach so it’s not a fair comparison), and then I kicked back to do some more work.

The snowy terrain made for an amazing view all the way across the country. The Rockies were absolutely spectacular, as were the red rocks of Utah and Arizona. We hit some bumps west of the Rockies, and about an hour before landing, a high overcast layer showed up to dampen the thrill of the view.

Robin came through to refill our drinks one more time, and then it was time to descend. We sat in a murky cloud layer for awhile before breaking out over the Inland Empire. Robin came through and returned everyone’s coats. Her friendly smile had everyone in a good mood. It was a nice ride in as the sun set and we taxied to the gate. Soon after, we were home.

It seems like I’ve been trying to fly Midwest for years. When I was in school in DC in the ’90s, I always wanted to fly the airline that had fancy seats and delicious meals. Even more recently when the product had been completely altered, I still tried to fly them. They canceled our flight before we could try it. But this was finally going to be my chance to “fly” Midwest. I put that in quotes because there’s really very little “Midwest” about it. In fact, I would argue that the cookie is pretty much the only thing left. Don’t get me wrong, the flights were nice, but a blown connection meant our trip took a lot longer than we had hoped.

We paid a mere $158.70 per person for the one way on a redeye to Milwaukee with a 2.5 hour connection before heading on to Indianapolis. Leading up to our flight, I watched the potential ice storm approaching Milwaukee with fear. This was going to be ugly. Surprisingly, it was actually the weather in Denver that caused us problems, not Milwaukee.

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December 23, 2009
Midwest #754 Lv Los Angeles (LAX) 1130p Arr Milwaukee (MKE) 511a
LAX: Gate 67B, Runway 25R, Dept 2h31m Late
MKE: Gate D47, Runway 7R, Arr 2h30m Late
Aircraft: N914FR, Airbus A319-111, Stretch the Egret Tail, 100% Full
Seat: 8A
Flight Time: 3h31m

This flight comes in to LA from Denver as a Frontier flight and then turns to Milwaukee as a Midwest flight. They don’t dedicate aircraft to one operation. The snow in Denver kept causing taxi delays, and we sat at home watching the flight get pushed further and further.

It did get in the air (finally) and we headed to the airport. There was no line at security, and we wandered up to the same gate (at right) we used to fly Virgin America before they moved from Terminal 6 to Terminal 3. People were sprawled out as best they could (the armrests aren’t moveable, drat). The only other flight around was a Copa flight down to Panama.

I saw on FlightAware that our plane wouldn’t be arriving until just before 1a, yet they had a 117a departure posted. Yeah, right. Our flight had been delayed so much that I was now afraid we would miss our connection. I went up to the gate agents to ask.

There were four agents standing in a circle, three with their backs toward me. I asked them if there were other flights with seats available were we to miss our connection in Milwaukee. A grumpy woman behind the counter said that wouldn’t happen.

After her repeated assurances that everything would be fine, I finally said to her, “look, can you just tell me if there are other flights to Indy with room just in case?” She said, “they’ll handle that in Milwaukee, but you won’t miss your connection. They’re holding all flights in Milwaukee.” I’ve heard that one before. Exasperated, I just looked at her and said, “You can’t just check?”

Apparently annoyed that I had tried to ask her to be helpful, she started typing in her computer while the agent next to her reminded her that the code for Milwaukee was MKE. Oh boy.

A couple seconds later, she said, “nope, no seats for the rest of the day. But you’ll make your connection.” They said the same thing in an announcement to all the customers.

As predicted, the flight arrived at about 1a and took absolutely forever to turn around. My understanding is that the PA system in the gate area doesn’t work, and they’re still waiting for LAX to fix the problem. That only added to the chaos to hear agents shouting things out. The line to board backed up to the beginning of the jet bridge, and it was moving very slowly. Eventually, we all got on the plane, but the turn took a solid hour.

The flight itself was a blur. I’m not sure if they served the traditional Midwest cookie because I actually passed out pretty quickly from exhaustion. Everything else on the plane was distinctly Frontier. Midwest isn’t even a brand anymore – it’s just a name they seem to use for selling purposes but that’s it these days.

Frontier does have some nice leather seats with headrests and, of course, LiveTV, so I can’t complain. I woke up over the Rockies and went in and out of sleep the rest of the flight. When we passed over Iowa, we hit some bumps, but that was about it. The captain told us it would be bumpy coming in to Milwaukee, but it wasn’t at all.

We landed in a dreary, cold, and snow-filled Milwaukee about 10 minutes after our connection was supposed to leave. I whipped out my phone and found that our plane had already left. Bastards.

Before they let everyone off, they told people that the Pittsburgh flight was still there, but all the other flights left, so we had to all be rebooked. Not cool at all.

Fortunately, someone who does PR for Milwaukee’s airport had emailed me before asking me a fair bit about the blog and wanting to learn more about what type of PR I would like to see from Milwaukee. I mentioned off-hand that I was actually flying through Milwaukee for the first time. When our flight got closer, I found an email from her saying we had been put on the guest list for Midwest’s Best Care Club. That was very nice of her and it really made our lives infinitely better with our long layover.

So even though they said to see an agent to be rebooked, we wandered over to the club and we were the only ones there. The woman working the front desk had a bag of MKE goodies waiting for us with a personalized poem (above left, click to enlarge), and I asked her if we’d be able to get out. She said that we had already been rebooked and she had our boarding passes for the next flight. It was only half full. The LAX agent lied.

So we went into the club, had a traditional cookie, and then passed out for a couple hours. Kirsten was thrilled that the MKE gift bag included a fleece blanket. She stole it and made herself a nice little nap area on the ground. I, however, couldn’t sleep.

The club is actually one of the nicer ones around. It’s very oddly shaped, which is perfect, because it creates a few, smaller private areas. We found the big TV with a fireplace on the other side of the room, and I sat there watching as I checked my email.

A friend of mine was coming into MKE around 11a, so I figured I would go meet him. The club attendant assured me that security lines wouldn’t be long, so I went out to the main area and walked around. There’s a fantastic old bookstore with tall stacks and lots of cool old books for sale. (I found some very old United government documents for sale in a book for $75, but I didn’t buy it.) Then I went over to the aviation museum where I met my friend.

It was a great way to spend the time, but I just wish that central area was inside security. The lines to get back were short, however, and soon I was back in the club. Kirsten was still passed out. You know when you get to the point where you’re so tired, you’ll do anything to sleep? Yeah, I was there. I kept trying to rearrange the furniture to help me sleep better, but alas, I never did.

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December 24, 2009
Midwest #1205 Lv Milwaukee (MKE) 120p Arr Indianapolis (IND) 320p
MKE: Gate D28, Runway 19R, Dept 5m Early
IND: Gate B13, Runway 5L, Arr On Time
Aircraft: N380SK, Embraer ERJ-135KL, Generic Colors, Mostly Full
Seat: 3C
Flight Time: 35m

This flight was at gate D28, which actually boards from underneath the main concourse. We had to walk out into the cold air before boarding on a snow slicked ramp up to the airplane. This plane was an ERJ-135 that used to see service as American Connection out of St Louis. They had given it a new, generic paint job, but not much else changed.

Our flight attendant was surprisingly old for what I’ve come to expect on a regional carrier. Then I remembered that Midwest pilots and flight attendants were now working at the bottom of the seniority list. I asked, and sure enough, she used to work for Midwest. She did a great job.

This flight was like pretty much any other. We sat in the clouds most of the time, and our flight attendant came by handing out cookies. After a very short ride, it was time to land in dreary Indianapolis. We were exhausted.

Tomorrow, I’ll have our return on American in First Class . . .

As a postscript, I thought it worth noting that I’ve already received a personal email apology from the station manager at LAX. That was a very nice gesture.

This past weekend, my wife and I were planning on driving up to wine country to spend the weekend with some friends. As the weekend drew closer, I decided that I really didn’t want to drive, so I went to look for flights. Three days before departure, I saw that Virgin America was, as usual, the cheapest around. Not only were they cheap, but they were absurdly cheap. It was on. (Sorry to steal your slogan, Southwest.)

My flight up on Friday morning was a whopping $49 all-in. The flight back was $99 at prime time on Sunday, but wait, that fare was for Main Cabin Select, the airline’s premium economy product. Cheap, yeah. But I was confused. Take a look at this fare display:

Now, at the time, our flight was available for $99 for Main Cabin Select, $143 for regular coach and $158 for refundable coach. I’ve often seen a tremendous premium for Main Cabin Select on the order of hundreds of dollars, but pricing it below coach? That’s just odd. It was also cheaper than any other airline’s coach, so I bought it.

Let’s get on to the trip. This was a textbook example of why I prefer Long Beach. I had to take the blue line train to LAX (at left) and that meant leaving my house just before 630a to catch an 825a flight. Had I flown out of Long Beach, I could have gotten an extra hour of sleep.

I did get to LAX at about 725a but there was a 20 minute security line. Once through, I headed to the gate and grabbed one of the many open seats. The gate area was strange because it sounded like the gate agent had turned her iPod on to play some trendy music that belonged in a cool club. It was an odd juxtaposition with the bright morning sun streaming in to the terminal.

Our captain, Lloyd, made his way around the gate area before boarding, thanking everyone for flying and saying how nice it was to have us onboard. That was a really nice and heartfelt touch. Lots of smiles around the gate area.

Boarding started and I waited for my group to be called. After groups A and B, they announced that anyone without a carry on could board. I had a carry on so I waited. I saw maybe only two or three people without carry ons, so it didn’t create any chaos. Boarding, however, was very slow. There was only one gate agent, and she seemed a bit overwhelmed as things ground to a halt.

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November 13, 2009
Virgin America #925 Lv Los Angeles (LAX) 825a Arr San Francisco (SFO) 950a
LAX: Gate 37A, Runway 24L, Dept 3m Early
SFO: Gate A1, Runway 28L, Arr 18m Early
Aircraft: N633VA, Airbus A320-214, Standard Colors, Mostly Full
Seat: 6F
Flight Time: 56m

I hopped on the plane and took my seat near the front. Unfortunately, my bag, which has always fit underneath the seat, didn’t make the cut on this plane. Maybe it was the power outlet or it could have been the life vest, I don’t know. All I know is that I was annoyed that I had to put my bag up, but I wanted to keep my computer down so I could use it inflight. This is where it turned into a comedy of errors.

I pulled my bag up hoping to get my laptop out but the zipper snagged on the mesh netting pouch. After struggling for a minute, I liberated my bag. Then I pulled the laptop out and realized it didn’t fit in the hard seat back pocket. Crap. So I put my bag up and came back down to fiddle with the laptop. I noticed the mesh was a separate pocket so I put it there. Not a good plan. Apparently, this particular pouch didn’t have the bottom connected properly, so my laptop went straight through and hit the ground with a loud thud. Completely frustrated, I just put the laptop under the seat in front of me and sat back to relax. The flight attendant came by asking for drink orders for when we were in the air.

It was an absolutely beautiful day to fly, but as soon as we hit 10,000 ft, I turned away from the window, opened up my computer, and plugged in for my first wifi experience on a commercial aircraft. See, this was the first day of the Virgin America/Google/GoGo partnership for free wifi onboard. Unfortunately, my power outlet didn’t work. Damn. But I had about 20 minutes of battery to use.

The internet connected with no trouble but it wasn’t exactly super fast broadband speed. I pulled up YouTube to see how it would work and it kept buffering.

My laptop is apparently too big because I couldn’t open it fully. Actually, I didn’t even get close to getting comfortable with it and had to become a contortionist to use it. No way could I do that for a long time.

I did catch up on email and sent communications regarding a couple flights for Cranky Concierge clients. Meanwhile, a flight attendant brought me a little bottle of water. Then my battery died so I pulled out my BlackBerry.

That was a little more difficult to connect but I did get it to work. Surprisingly, for a minute I had a UMA connection which I believe would have let me make a call. I didn’t try.

Soon enough we were on our way in to a sunny Bay Area. I love it up there. We landed parallel to a little United Express Brasilia, and I got a great video. Unfortunately, it was on my BlackBerry so the quality could have been better.

With that, we taxied to the gate and it was time to head off for a weekend of wine tasting. It was a fantastic weekend up in Guerneville. We headed back down Sunday morning and dropped off our $10 per day rental car (thanks, Priceline). We hadn’t checked in before, so we went to the counter, used a kiosk, and got the itty bitty Virgin America boarding pass. (Makes sense to me – easily fits in your pocket and uses less paper.)

Security wasn’t as easy. It wasn’t a long line, but our line had the millimeter wave scanner. I was excited to try it, but I wasn’t happy with the result. First of all, you have to remove everything from your pockets, not just metallic items. So a piece of paper, boarding pass, ID, etc all have to go. You also have to pull your belt off. Then you line up and it is very slow. The scan itself takes only a couple seconds, but then you have to wait for the person watching the scans in the back to give the ok for you to pass. They have a place for two people to stand at one time, so every else waits on the other side. About every 5 minutes, they backed up so much that they yelled “overflow!” and sent a group of people through the metal detector on the side instead.

I don’t care about going through that process, but I do care how much it slows things down. Not good. But once we were through, we headed to our gate at the end of the concourse and they were boarding. The guy in front of us was turned away after they already took his boarding pass because he had a carry on and the gate agent didn’t see it. So they turned him back and made him wait to the side. This is what I thought might happen with this process. We, however, sailed right through because we were in Main Cabin Select.

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November 15, 2009
Virgin America #928 Lv San Francisco (SFO) 150p Arr Los Angeles (LAX) 315p
SFO: Gate A11, Runway 1L, Dept 1m Late
LAX: Gate 37A, Runway 24R, Arr 2m Early
Aircraft: N633VA, Airbus A320-214, Standard Colors, Mostly Full
Seat: 10A
Flight Time: 54m

We stepped on the exact same plane I took up on Friday and took seats in the exit row. There was a bottle of water and a headset in each seat marking it as Main Cabin Select. We pushed just a minute late and headed to the runway, which we sat just short of for about 10 to 15 minutes without any explanation. Finally, we rocketed into the wild blue yonder and turned around for our trip back to LA.

I flipped on the TV and was sad to see that there was no football on. The best I could do was watch ESPNews (even ESPN had billiards – friggin’ BILLIARDS?!?) until we crossed 10,000 ft and were allowed to use our electronics. I do like the system they have – it, unlike the JetBlue version of LiveTV, has a program guide, though it wasn’t actually populated with information and the channels didn’t match those in the paper guide in the seatback. I know the new LiveTV system on Continental has this feature as well and it really makes a difference. The only problem here was that it was really slow to react to the touch.

I was determined to make the most out of Main Cabin Select, so I went on and started ordering food. No meals were boarded for such a short flight, of course, but they had snacks and snack boxes. I tried to order a Galaxy Munch box, but the system froze. It froze on everyone so they had to restart the thing. They did, however, come by with the drink cart, so I had a scotch and, after finding out the Galaxy Munch had been discontinued (why was it on the system still?), I had a “Food Cube” box and a chocolate bar.

Soon after, I finished my scotch and decided to see if the ordering system would work after the reboot. It did. I ordered myself a ginger ale as I was typing away on my computer, writing this report. The internet was about the same speed as on the way up, so no video watching for me. I caught up on emails and then felt the plane point down. We were already descending, and my ginger ale was nowhere in sight.

There were a few bumps heading into LAX so the captain flipped on the seat belt sign. When the flight attendant came down the aisle as we passed through 10,000 ft, I mentioned I had ordered a ginger ale and asked where it was. She said they never received the order (huh?) but she raced up and got me the drink even though we were descending into the LA basin.

After circling around downtown, we lined up for a nice soft landing right on time. Overall, this was a very good experience on Virgin America, though it does highlight that the more technology you have onboard, the more likely things are to go wrong.

Would I have paid more for all this? No way. Not for an hour flight. In fact, I was annoyed with myself when I saw that American and United later matched Virgin America’s cheap fare on the way up and I could have left a couple hours later. But on a long haul, it would certainly be worth paying a little more over the Uniteds and Americans of the world.