Another RTW in F (almost?) but Westward this time.

[SQflyergirl]

Well, it would be sound so vvpita to complain no buggy ride from gate E8 to E3.

No, not pita. SQFG travel and tours prides itself on being at the forefront of buggy rides. This is unacceptable !

[CGK]

a celebratory cake on this flight. I hope the crew is enjoying it as I type and that you will salivate when I post the pictures of it later!!! ...

Where are the pictures? We are waiting!

[DeltaFlyingProf]

Back to the trip report.

On Friday Dec 22nd, the airport announced it would open with two runways out of 6 and would operate a reduced schedule.
Flights restarted at noon and I was happy I had not been re-booked on a flight on Friday. Things did look good that I would be able to leave on Saturday morning.

Saturday morning, I got up at 4 am to get to the airport around 6:30, 2h before my flight, as instructed by UA as being the time I should be in DEN, given all the previous delays.
I am never able to follow my own set schedule, and the snow contributing a bit --but not much --, I made it to the airport by 7AM.

The airport was a ZOO!!! I guess I should have expected it, with the thousands of people whose flights were canceled... I proceeded to the area of the airport where the UA F check in counters are. And even there, there was a line winding around the corner with hundreds of people in it. But it was obvious to me that these people were not flying F and I was getting pissed at UA for not having anyone helping people know where to go and into which line to wait.
I found there was a hidden queue line parallel to the one with the hundreds of people and that seemed to be a lot shorter. I went into it and ask the last guy in it if this was the F line. He said it was the 1k line only. But, asking other people in the line, nobody seemed sure. So, having an int'l F ticket, I figured I could stay in this line. As the line turned around the corner, the first line I had seen with horror had moved a bit away from the counter, revealing now that there was a VERY SHORT F line... Oh well, by now, in the line in which I was, I was closer to the check in desk than I would be if I were to switch lane. So I got to the check in, and had the lady check my bag all the way to BRU and issue me the BP to SFO. She then told me to proceed to security and to use the priority line. I went to the security level... This was the busiest part of the airport. Total zoo again. I had never seen before such long waiting lines, winding all the way to the luggage belt area!
Luckily, the priority line only had 10 people in it or so, and unlike in the UA check-in area, a security agent was policing it, making sure only people with F or J tix or status would be in the line.

All in all, from arrival to the airport to having cleared security, it took me exactly 30 minutes. Not bad at all, and I was pleased.

I proceeded to the RCC, but the RCC was closed and a sign said that the other RCC would open at 10AM! So I had to wait near the gate with all the riff raffs!
I realized I had forgotten to tell the check-in agent that I had lost a F seat and to ask her if she could give me one, or put me on the waitlist for one. So I went to the gate and politely told my story to the lady at the desk. There, she looked at my record and started to give me a sermon that I could not have had a F seat on domestic unless I had used "a lot more miles". Of course she had no clue as to how many miles I used nor from which program... and to be sure, had I told her how few miles I spent, she would have ripped my BP and put me in cargo-hold-class! But don't tell anyone
So I told her: "I had an F seat before. on a 3 class a/c. Can you check the record?" And she went on to say that yes, she could see that, but since there was no indication I had paid additional miles, it was probably a mistake... I guess she is the goddess of award charts! Finally she said there were no F seats available....
Had she started by politely telling me that with a smile, I would have thanked her with a smile on my face. I did thank her, but I must have looked like this: Not because I did not get the seat, but just because she was so aggressive in making me feel like I was trying to steal something...

In any case, I waited for boarding and took my 13D seat. Boarding proceeded, and the J cabin was not filling up... Then a delay was announced. The gate agent reminded the passengers of the long security line and that they would give "10 more minutes" for people stuck in the line to make it to the gate. 10 minutes became 20, then 30, then 40 and then it was announced by the purser that the real reason was now luggage. Putting all the luggage on board and only that which belonged to passengers who had boarded.... A lady with a 4 year old child came into 13E and F.
A UA pilot came in 14F, but 13D,E were still empty and 15DEF was totally empty. Since the gate had closed, I moved to 14D and then UA employees came into 15DEF.
We finally pushed back 2h late! Thank God I had chosen a flight with 4h connection time in SFO! The delay would not compromise my connection.

What was amazing was that despite all the people trying to get out of Denver, J was about 30% empty! I did not check in Y, but would not be surprised if it was similar. I later learned from the news that some people took over 2h to clear security! Again, thank God that FF Freaks like us can get to faster security lines!

We had an event free flight, and the only additional thing to report is that the breakfast was so terrible that it does not deserve a picture. It consisted mostly of a blob that was a botched attempt at a croissant, filled with an imitation omelet (maybe) and an imitation ham on it.

More to come.

PS: really, I should have taken pictures of the DIA Zoo and of the food, but I was more preoccupied with making my flight and recovering from my lack of sleep.

[DeltaFlyingProf]

Where are the pictures? We are waiting!

All in due time! Remember, I have not reached BRU with my description yet! Patience is a virtue! But I guess vvpita have no such virtue!

[AndrewSQ011]

On Friday Dec 22nd, the airport announced it would open with two runways out of 6 and would operate a reduced schedule.
Flights restarted at noon and I was happy I had not been re-booked on a flight on Friday. Things did look good that I would be able to leave on Saturday morning.

Saturday morning, I got up at 4 am to get to the airport around 6:30, 2h before my flight, as instructed by UA as being the time I should be in DEN, given all the previous delays.
I am never able to follow my own set schedule, and the snow contributing a bit --but not much --, I made it to the airport by 7AM.

The airport was a ZOO!!! I guess I should have expected it, with the thousands of people whose flights were canceled... I proceeded to the area of the airport where the UA F check in counters are. And even there, there was a line winding around the corner with hundreds of people in it. But it was obvious to me that these people were not flying F and I was getting pissed at UA for not having anyone helping people know where to go and into which line to wait.
I found there was a hidden queue line parallel to the one with the hundreds of people and that seemed to be a lot shorter. I went into it and ask the last guy in it if this was the F line. He said it was the 1k line only. But, asking other people in the line, nobody seemed sure. So, having an int'l F ticket, I figured I could stay in this line. As the line turned around the corner, the first line I had seen with horror had moved a bit away from the counter, revealing now that there was a VERY SHORT F line... Oh well, by now, in the line in which I was, I was closer to the check in desk than I would be if I were to switch lane. So I got to the check in, and had the lady check my bag all the way to BRU and issue me the BP to SFO. She then told me to proceed to security and to use the priority line. I went to the security level... This was the busiest part of the airport. Total zoo again. I had never seen before such long waiting lines, winding all the way to the luggage belt area!
Luckily, the priority line only had 10 people in it or so, and unlike in the UA check-in area, a security agent was policing it, making sure only people with F or J tix or status would be in the line.

All in all, from arrival to the airport to having cleared security, it took me exactly 30 minutes. Not bad at all, and I was pleased.

I proceeded to the RCC, but the RCC was closed and a sign said that the other RCC would open at 10AM! So I had to wait near the gate with all the riff raffs!
I realized I had forgotten to tell the check-in agent that I had lost a F seat and to ask her if she could give me one, or put me on the waitlist for one. So I went to the gate and politely told my story to the lady at the desk. There, she looked at my record and started to give me a sermon that I could not have had a F seat on domestic unless I had used "a lot more miles". Of course she had no clue as to how many miles I used nor from which program... and to be sure, had I told her how few miles I spent, she would have ripped my BP and put me in cargo-hold-class! But don't tell anyone
So I told her: "I had an F seat before. on a 3 class a/c. Can you check the record?" And she went on to say that yes, she could see that, but since there was no indication I had paid additional miles, it was probably a mistake... I guess she is the goddess of award charts! Finally she said there were no F seats available....
Had she started by politely telling me that with a smile, I would have thanked her with a smile on my face. I did thank her, but I must have looked like this: Not because I did not get the seat, but just because she was so aggressive in making me feel like I was trying to steal something...

In any case, I waited for boarding and took my 13D seat. Boarding proceeded, and the J cabin was not filling up... Then a delay was announced. The gate agent reminded the passengers of the long security line and that they would give "10 more minutes" for people stuck in the line to make it to the gate. 10 minutes became 20, then 30, then 40 and then it was announced by the purser that the real reason was now luggage. Putting all the luggage on board and only that which belonged to passengers who had boarded.... A lady with a 4 year old child came into 13E and F.
A UA pilot came in 14F, but 13D,E were still empty and 15DEF was totally empty. Since the gate had closed, I moved to 14D and then UA employees came into 15DEF.
We finally pushed back 2h late! Thank God I had chosen a flight with 4h connection time in SFO! The delay would not compromise my connection.

What was amazing was that despite all the people trying to get out of Denver, J was about 30% empty! I did not check in Y, but would not be surprised if it was similar. I later learned from the news that some people

Good to hear that your flight took-off without any more problems

[DeltaFlyingProf]

Back to the trip. As it turns out, the whole RTW will be in F. Though some segments are in J, I have a full SFO-FRA-SIN-NRT-LAX-SFO in F!

In SFO, I arrived too late to go to the SKL, so I went to UA's IFL and had a few glasses of white wine and bits of food mostly seafood. Boarding of LH 455 was on time. The LH 744s still have the World Cup noses and mine was painted with Star Alliance instead of the LH usual colors.

I proceeded to the upper desk and took my seat: 84H. F was half full with 8 people.

The amenity kit was Caudalie and the PJs van Laack.

We pushed on time and had a beautiful view of SF and the Golden Gate bridge.



Ooops I have to go board for my next flight. Will get back to this soon

[DeltaFlyingProf]

Dinner was served. First a plate with a some amuse gueules was served and after that, I had both caviar and a plate of a selection of appetizers which was quite good.


I followed it with a fish, but I forgot to take a picture of it and finished the whole thing with two desserts! Very good too.


Connexion was available on this flight and it was to be the last but one flight I would take with CBB available. So sad it is now over

After browsing for a bit, I slept for well over 6h and when I woke up, I had breakfast.


We had some beautiful sunshine coming into the cabin for the landing.

[DeltaFlyingProf]

Lufthansa gave the first class passengers a box of German chocolates for Christmas.

Overall I had a good impression of my first LH F experience. The seats are not the most modern ones, but they are still very comfortable and get into a good bed position.

After deplaning, I was misinformed by the ground personal on how to get to the first class terminal and ended up going three times the length of the concourse instead of a single time. Next time, I will know better. Eventually I was told to go to the F check in at either of terminal A or B and that they would call to have a driver pick me up. I went to the B side and it took quite a few phone calls for the lady there to check that I was indeed entitled to access the FCT. After she got confirmation, she called for a driver to come and five minute later, I was in a Mercedes van taking me to the FCT.
I now know that it is quicker and easier to simply walk to it, going to the A side and next time I will do that.

[StarG]

Seems like a very enjoyable flight. Nice amenity kit bag!

[globetrekker84]

Love that radome picture.

[KeithMEL]

Nice pics!

Wow your rose survived the flight intact. I have a feeling roses and Keith do not go well together. Both times my rose did not survive the flight, although the 2nd time it was the skirt of one of the FAs that strangled it...

[AndrewSQ011]

I guess you got very good service for a Christmas present from LH; nice

[AndrewSQ011]

I have a feeling roses and Keith do not go well together. Both times my rose did not survive the flight, although the 2nd time it was the skirt of one of the FAs that strangled it...

Sad to hear that

[CGK]

..., although the 2nd time it was the skirt of one of the FAs that strangled it...

What did the FA do by the window? I could not imagine how the skirt could be near the rose holder!

[KeithMEL]

I sat in an aisle seat, so holder was right by the aisle. It was 84C. She was trying to get around the food cart operated by another FA which was in the way, and so squeezed herself between the cart and my seat.

81H for the first flight, but I suspect the rose died a natural death that time.