ALB-IAD

Before I start, I should apologize for not posting in a very long time. Other things have kept me distracted.

Today I’m flying ALB-IAD-ORD-IAH. When I checked in this morning, the agent was very nice (she usually is, although she’s a self-admitted non-morning-person). Seeing her at about 5am, she was very curious as to my routing today and suggested a single connection as opposed to my 2-stop itinerary. Double EQM (the current United promotion) was all she needed to hear. Understood.

The flight was totally uneventful. It was quiet, as most 6am departures are. Of note was the gate agent for the Chicago flight (which is on a mainline airbus these days). The Chicago flight leaves at 6am, followed by the GoJet 6:10am to DC. She was very forceful in her gate announcements. Everyone was to check their carry on dimensions prior to boarding. She let everyone know that 5 people yesterday had to gate-check because their bags were too big. She also made sure that everyone knew that if they had to check teir bags on the plane that eeryone qould be staring at them, and would even get mad if they delayed the flight. All of that may be true, but where did professionalism go? C’mon! In fact, she stopped 6 people this morning for trying to board with “illegal” bags. (They were perfectly fine for the airbus!) Overhead bins wouldn’t have been full. The flight certainly wasn’t. She did mention that she’s never seen so many passengers in zone 4 (she likes the PA system a lot!) If you’re curious, United has two gates in Albany on the main concourse level with a counter in between the two gates.

Our FA for this flight was very by-the-book…down to reading (verbatim) her announcements. She was the FA serving First for this particular trip. Blah blah blah. Same stuff different day I guess. I find that these GoJet crews tend to be more rigid and formal (maybe boring) than mainline or TransStates or SkyWest crews. Oh well, by the book service and a smooth touchdown in IAD.

IAD-ORD is next!