After what i felt was an average stay in San Francisco, i was quite happy to leave! Once i’d cycled over the Golden Gate, i was ready to go, and as my mother’s purse had been stolen on Wednesday on the city’s trams, we were all ready to leave on the Thursday!
We awaited the taxi in our hotel, with a few VS holiday passengers who were leaving later. To our astonisment, a streched limo was waiting instead, for th e same price as the taxi! That sofened the blow for my mum!
So after a very comfortable ride to the airport, we checked in for both our UA and bmi flights, with the bags going all the way to MAN, with no recheck needed thank god!
As always i exporled the terminal at SFO, looking at a few heavies leaving, and watching a number of AA 767’s come and go. We then ventured to B90, the furthest UA gate from the terminal, typical!
After a long walk, we were greeted to too many passengers, and infact the flight was overbooked! There where some very generous offered on the table, i offered to stay an extra day, leaving my parents to head along, but UA were not able to get me on a bmi flight the next day, nor they were not interested in me going thru LHR. I wanted to go with bmi back, so that was that!
Boarding was mad, people didnt bother looking at their seat assinment, and it felt like we were boarding Ryanair than United! Luckyly the gate attendants sorted it out, but ain’t it nice that you can speak a language that most people dont exist, and i was able to rant about those prats, without them knowing :p
Our aircraft
Once we had boarded, in an orderly fashion, what delayed the flight, was so many people who brought massive bags as carry-on, some of which were larger than our suitcase! the Overhead bins had filled way before we got on, and we were in Group 2 of 4 for boarding!
All hell broke loose, with people threatning to sue UA if they didn’t recify the problem. I just laughed at that, and one of the passengers complaining heard my, not very loud snigger, shouted at me, and i just replied in Welsh, to his bemusment! 😀 A UA cabin attendant came over to apologize, but i told her its not her who should be apologizing! That man was the only rude person i met in the States, everybody else were superb!
Its a stupid rule, and one that all Airlines should not allow, personally!
Anwyay 40 mins behind our scheduled departure, we left SFO, a city where i’ll never return now! We only had 90 mins to connect to BD706, and infact 6 passengers behind us were on the 706 too.
We departed on 1R, with an Alaskan 738 leaving on 1L
Alaskan leaving
We took off, with an excellent view of downtown, both bridges and Alcatraz!
Inflight, channel 9 was switched on after take off, and once again, due to severe weather after Salt Lake, we constantly had flight plan changes affecting us! It was nice to hear Midland 751, WWBD going to LAS too!
I bought once again a Jumpstart box for $5, well worth it!
Arrival was not exciting, as we didnt have a clear view of Chicago. We landed on 09R, behind a AA767 from FRA, and then taxied the long way round to B7, where we deplaned, and i passed that man who shouted at me, where he dul apologized! 😮 Despite the delay and weather, we were only 10 mins late getting in, so we had plenty of transit time for Terminal 5!
bmi’s BD706 report will be in another thread, later in the day 🙂
Thanks!
After a week of driving, sightseeing, and gambling, it was time to leave Sin City!
I have to say it was quite a shock comparing Vegas to the barren and poor lands of the Indians which we had passed thru days before
After leaving the luxor hotel, and taking the rental car back, we were at McCarran with 2 hours to go before our Ted flight left for SFO.
Checkin was again no probs, TSA smiled and laughed when they saw we had those special locks on our cases which meet their reccomendations, and we found that very funny :p
After spending a few mins before security, we passed thru, to be greeted by a train to take us to the newly extended in-field terminal. It was a plesant building, light, airy, and with excellen views of all action on the 25’s.
I once again explored the facillity, which was quite busy, with 2 767’s and 5 757’s (4 where -300 series) leaving within 60 mins of eachother. Then we went off to out gate, where 30 mins before our 1245 flight, our aircraft arrived, from Chicago.
Boarding took place within 15 mins, and we were all on board by 1245, but puched back not until 1300, due to traffic behind us. Once again, 1 engine was started on the push, with the other started just moments before us leaving. With a queue of 4, and parallell ops on the 25’s we took off at 1320. Sadly we were on the wrong side to see the strip, but we had turned anyway before you could have a good view of it
I caught a glimpse of LAS
Departure was very bumpy this time, with us going everywhere, again, i’m sure due to the heat? Tho i might be wrong. We went up to our cruise quite slowly as i listened in on Channel 9, but we were there within 25 mins of leaving LAS
As the flight was under 3 hours, no boxes where offered for purchase, but we were once again given a free soft drink.
Arrival into SFO was non eventful, just crossing some snow covered mountains, Sierra Nevadas?
We had a straight in approach for 28R, which meant there was a chance of another aircraft landing on 28L, and i would be able to see it!
As we approached the Bridge, the final fix before the visual, i spotted our landing partner, which seemd large! As it came closer, it was apparent this was no 737, but a JAL Cargo 747-200F! With sudden aileron movements, we were away from it, then we went back, and it was with us all the way until we left the runway! An amazing sight for my 1st visit to SFO!
We then taxied to the B stands, next door to a UAL744, and my 3 day stay in SFO had just begun!
On with the LAS action!
Great to see here, just over a week after i flew her!
Last shot before shutter speed died, at approx 1924L!
And two from in the terminal @ LAS!
And the video taster, video link will be in the trip report!
And thats it regarding non trip report photos! Stay tuned for an indepth report later this weekend, or even today, if this jet lag doesnt bite!
Next came LAS, sorry for some of these shots, Camera did not like 107F temps, and fast moving objects! Most were taken from 6pm onwards, once the temps cooled, and the money ran out 😀
No wonder there were so many Far Eastern workers in the Luxor, and the rest of Las Vegas!
Any idea where this MYT came from?
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