Penang to Portland and Austin on United

[calvinoeh]

This trip report isn't going to be as exciting as my previous trip reports. There would be no exotic destinations or front of the plane experiences to share this time round (except for the unexpected bump to First on Continental). Figured I blog about anyway for those who are still interested or might have to suffer the same fate as me to having to travel from Asia to the US in economy on United Airlines.

The full trip report will be available via my blog with the installments below:

Introduction
Penang to Singapore on Silkair
Singapore to Portland on United Airlines
Portland and review of Hilton Portland
Portland to Austin; First Bump ever
Short review of Embassy Suites Austin Townlake
Heading back home - Austin to Penang on United Airlines

[calvinoeh]

Just updated the next installment:

Portland, Oregon is one of my favorite cities to live or visit at least during the summer months. I missed the long days of summer, amazing scenery, great hiking and wonderful restaurants having lived in Portland for a year a couple of years back. It was good to be back. The weather during this visit however was on the chilly side (~15-20 Celsius) even though it was already July – at least the sun was out and it wasn’t raining.


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[calvinoeh]

I got to airport around 9 am to catch my 11 am flight to San Francisco. I got in the Business class/*A Gold line to speak to a check-in agent to get my BMI Diamond Club added to the booking. While waiting in line, I notice there was a long line of economy class passengers waiting to speak to the check-in agents and what was even more shocking was that there was a United Airlines employee serving them drinks while they stood in a line. When did United start having such good service? Was this only at Portland airport? I approached the employee who was handing out drinks on when this perk started and she just smiled and said that the folks in the line have been waiting for about 3-4 hours and there was a United wide computer/networkshutdown earlier in the morning. This was going to be a “fun” day of flying especially for people like me who weren’t in a rush to get to their destination!

I was originally scheduled to fly Portland – San Francisco – Austin but due to the network shutdown, my San Francisco flight was delayed for about an hour and that would make me miss my connection to Austin. The reservation systems had protected me and rebooked me on Portland – San Francisco – Los Angeles – Austin. I asked one of the check-in agents if they needed volunteers but they said this was only done at the gate – kind of figured she just wanted me out of there.

I headed to the Red Carpet Club where I asked the sole agent working the lounge that day to put me on the volunteer list. I figured the chances were good considering the morning flights were cancelled. She originally put me on a later flight to Los Angeles but might be overbooked as well. I could have probably gotten away “double bump” but negotiated instead to leave on the red-eye to Houston connecting to Austin but in first class instead. After a couple of phone calls to what I assume was Continental about releasing the first class seats, she gave me my first class tickets and $400 USD United vouchers for being bumped.

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[calvinoeh]

Finally finishing up the trip report:

Short review of Embassy Suites Austin Townlake
Heading back home - Austin to Penang on United Airlines