The E175 Is A Great Looking Jet

Embraer is making some sweet looking jets. Just sayin'.

US Airways Express E175

All Messed Up - Airline Terms

Sometimes you overhear things when at airports and I learned a new term, "all messed up." I thought the technical term was irregular operations or IROPS. The United employees at O'Hare seem to prefer saying "all messed up." I was expecting the slang to be worse and have bad words, but this was happily G rated.

All Messed Up - ORD Example

Best Airport Food - BBQ Edition

Airport food isn't always terrible; there are actually places good enough to visit if they weren't in an airport.  My favorite airport BBQ place is Carolina Pit BBQ in Charlotte airport.  It's between the B and C concourses and worth the walk from whatever gate you are at.  The pulled pork and brisket are outstanding! Hush puppies and fried pickle spears are also great.  The one downside is they are closed for breakfast. 

Best Airport BBQ

Yes, I know DFW has six BBQ places in the airport, but it's all Texas style (grill the meat and then add sauce). I enjoyed the sauce bottle I purchased from the one by the United gates, but the food served was flavorless. If you have the time to get to A gates, go to Pappadeaux's, it's outstanding Cajun grub.

Book It While You Can

I was playing around with fares to get to LAX in April (I'm shooting the Grand Prix of Long Beach) and found DEN-IAD-RDU-IAD-LAX for $215, about 4.5c per elite mile. It was an outstanding deal, but I was hesitant to book a 12:30AM arrival.

It Won't Be There Forever

United solved my conundrum today because the fare is gone. I'm kicking myself now for passing on a great deal (only $116 more than the direct).

More Pictures I Like

I took my new camera (Nikon D7000 with my not as new Nikkor 70-200mm 2.8 lens) on my Christmas trip to see the family and kept it handy on the flight back.  I grabbed some fun (mostly US Airways) pictures along the way.

US Airways A320

US Airways A321 Take Off

US Airways 767-200

Blue1 - Best Looking Birds in the Air

Blue1, a regional carrier owned by SAS, has the best looking airplanes.  The 717 isn't a sexy shape, but the Blue1 paint on it looks outstanding. Too bad it's part of SAS and in a bad financial state. Pluna used to have the best looking planes until they folded last year; I'd hate to see the new best looking airline fold too.

Blue1 Jet in Helsinki

United Airlines 777 Rear Facing Business Class Seats

I always wondered what the rear facing business class seats on United were like, so I grabbed one (with an upgrade) last month on a flight from Denver to Chicago to find out; I didn't want a longer test in case I didn't like the feeling. I really didn't notice a difference in flight.  The bigger issue with seat 9A was a missing window and claustrophobic feeling.  The forces experienced at take off and landing are reversed too; it wasn't uncomfortable, but just felt a little off.  

United Airlines 777 Seat 9A Rear Facing Business Class Seat