So I was completely wrong about the crew probably remaining the same. My guess is that ALB-DCA was a reserve crew given the overnight and short hop prior to being done for the day. That aside, this crew is great.

Same pre-departure beverage service. Anything that’s available. Please UA, for the love of your passengers, give up the water or oj crap. Too much oj destroys my stomach, and water is boring! I had a cup of coffee (US serves disgusting coffee compared to the “starbucks” special blend that UA serves).

Taking off from DCA, as usual, is absolutely terrible. They seem to use 2 runways…one of which is always available for express planes only. That means only 1 runway for departures and arrivals for mainline aircraft. Annoying! After a 25 minute taxi/hold, we took off towards Tampa.

It was noon somewhere, and in true FT tradition, it was time to have a cocktail. I noticed service starts as soon as we reach 10k feet instead of cruise altitude…which is a welcome change from UA. Since it’s so early, I chose my normal early morning beverage, cranberry and vodka. The great part about the first class FA on this flight was that she insisted on providing me a mini whenever I finished the previous. There were only short periods of time between when I crafted my own cocktail and when another cranberry juice or vodka was delivered. These are the time when I wish I could use my GTEMs on US.

The flight was great. Very little turbulence, nice crew, and nice flight pattern for takeoff and landing.

Some random thoughts…

The sodoku in the US magazine (which has to be the worst I’ve seen as far as the articles are concerned) is much more challenging than the UA equivalent. Much appreciated.

The uniform options for both in-flight and ground crews for US employyes are extensive. Some wear what I’d call fleece shirts. Some wear proper uniforms. And others need some help! I would normally say that this promotes laziness (I’m a suit and tie kinda guy)…but the friendliest and most customer-service oriented employees I’ve met are wearing the fleeces.

That’s all for now. We’re on final. Not a bad trip all-in-all!

Typically I’d fly UA through ORD and IAD on a trip like this for some extra miles and an extra segment. Unfortunately, that’s not an option today since this (gasp) 1-stop flight is my only option to arrive around the same time as my dad and the crew. Now, let me briefly touch on the horrors of a 1-stop flight. Most importantly, mileage isn’t computed for each segment. Instead, I’ll get mileage as if this was a non-stop from Albany. Terrible, really. Second, and not so important, is that I’ll probably be stuck with the same crew DCA-TPA. As we found out on the FlyerTalk 1 trip recently, a crew change can be for better or worse!

So onto the first leg ALB-DCA. On the ground, I found US to be on par with UA (at least in Albany). United has the red carpet, but most of the gate agents don’t enforce the rules regarding it…so basically there is no point. US hasn’t picked up on the special boarding. Another interesting difference in boarding is that US boards special needs passengers and families with young children first (no difference here). Next, they board first class and all elite members of their frequent flyer program (dividend miles) at the same time. Even in Albany, on a small 737-400, the number of folks who qualified for this round of boarding (zone 1) had me waiting in line for several minutes. Having a first class passenger “read the boarding zone” off his or her boarding pass seems so boring. Just put “first class” like United does. So much classier!

Upon boarding I was met by two flight attendants. Both extremely friendly given the 5:45am boarding time. One seemed a little too friendly…if you know what I mean

So far, so good. I settle into my seat. Wow! How ugly, dirty, and uncomfortable. I definitely prefer the United first class seat! United has cloth seats with adjustable headrests, whereas US Airways uses hard leather with absolutely no headrest. Plus the US gray seats just make everything so dismal looking. As was the case a few years ago when US was my carrier of choice, there are pen marks all over the seatback in front of me. Also par with the course a few years ago…the seatback pocket is so old that it no longer stays firmly attached to the seat…and almost touches my legs. Pathetic.

Next up is pre-departure beverage service. US has UA beat here. Any beverage is fair game. Coffee is served similar to UA – in styrofoam cups. All other pre-departure beverages are served in plastic cups. The thing is that US has cups that are almost triple the size of the UA 2-sip cups.

Pushback was 10 minutes early and liftoff was right at scheduled departure time. That never happens!

I don’t really have anything to say about the inflight service on this hour flight…except I never did get my coffee!!! We’re about 15 minutes away from DC now, so it’s time to go!

Ciao for now!