Los Angeles International Airport

The shuttle driver of the Hilton Garden Inn LAX / El Segundo dropped me off in front of the United Curb Side Check in right aside the entrance of First / Business / Star Gold and Star Silver Check in. But it was closed and so I used the entrance for Economy only to find this area crowded with people. I asked a member of United staff standing there about a separate check in for Star Silver and he pointed to the other door and noticed the closed door. He informed the agent over there and told me and two other passengers, travelling in First, to head over there. As we arrived over there, the agent apologised for closing it, but she was assisting another passenger and did not notice passenger appearing at the entrance. She checked ticket of the other passengers and my LH FTL Card. I used the Self Check-In Counters assisted by an agent. The printer does not work and so we had to use another counter. But finally we got the boarding pass and my luggage was checked.
Security was fast, as I was the only person. Belt and shoes put off, laptop in the box – I become faster with every time I went through security.
I had some time and decided to use my Priority Pass again and therefore headed to Terminal 6. Thank Flyertalk.com I have learnt one could easy walk from Terminal 6 via Terminal 7 to Terminal 8. Priority Pass uses Continentals President Club in Terminal 6 as the only available option on this flight for me.

I was greeted in the lounge and the agent informed me about the offerings (newspapers, bar, complimentary WiFi) and I took a seat. The Continentals President Club is like the Red Carpet Club or the US Airways Club, perhaps the selection of available snacks is a bit bigger than at US Airways Clubs, but still nothing really special if you know the lounges in Asia. I read a bit in the Board Magazines of Northwest and Continental, because I have not flown them yet.

As boarding was announced to start at 13:49 for our 14:09 departure, I left the lounge a 13:35 and noticed on the screens at Terminal 7 the flight was delayed till 15:00. I thought about heading back to the lounge, but decided against it, perhaps this delay was as in Chicago the day before much shorter than expected. Unfortunately, this was not the case and so I sat there and waited for the plane to arrive. The Canadair Jet finally arrived at 14:45 and we were allowed to board at 14:55

19 August 2006
LAX – PHX
[Los Angeles - Phoenix]
UA 6451 (Sky West); Canadair CRJ 200 (N924SW)
Gate 82
14:09 – 15:33 [effective 15.:5 – 16:20]
Economy Class
Seat 04 D

Boarding was fast, bigger hand luggage was collected before entering the plane and I settled down on my seat and stored my hand luggage under the seat in front of me, as the overhead bin was a bit small.
The plane looked okay, some stains on the seat and scratches at the cabin interior. Cabin filled with people and I would say the load was 80 %. There were some seats free, but the most seats including 4C were taken.

We pushed back at 15:05 after the flight attendant made the safety announcement and afterwards demonstrated the handling of belt and oxygen mask. While we were taxiing to the runway I saw an Asiana 747-400 heading to ICN; this brought back nice memories at my last trip with them.

Wheels of our CRJ 200 were in the air at 15:15 and on the other runway took of another plane. I find it everytime interesting to see a plane on another runway or in the air. I have experienced this in Philadelphia and Washington earlier this year. After some minutes in the air we made a left turn back to the coast.

As the seat belt sign were switched off, the flight attendant jumped in action and announced starting of beverage service in a few minutes with a start in the back of the plane.

Beverage service was accompanied by a small packet of this nice little cracker in form of a plane. I opted for a Pepsi, this time one got only a glass, not the whole can,

There was a family with a young child on board which screamed several times during flight. It was okay on such a short flight, but I could imagine it would be worse on a longhaul.

I read a bit in a book and watched the landscape. The captain came over the microphone and told us the ride would be a bit bumpy for the last 20 minutes as he expected some turbulence. And it really was a bit bumpy, but the flight attendant could collect the empty glasses during this time.

We passed Sky Harbour in the air and mad a 180° turn and began our final descend into PHX, where we touched down at 16:10 and arrived our gate at 16:20. We had to wait until the ground crew had unloaded the hand luggage and then we could deboard the plane and head to the main terminal and the luggage belt. Again my trolley was among the first to arrive.

I took the shuttle bus to the Rental Center. I had booked a rental car at Avis, as they offered the best rate on the LH FTL Visa Card rate. As expected the agent of Avis tried to sell several additional products which I did not need or were included in my credit card.

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