Flying in Row 1 with My Mom

I recently went on a trip to Ohio with my mom for my cousin's wedding. Thanks to my sister's crazy status with United and some regional premier upgrades (RPUs) we were able to fly in the front round trip.

Airline mileage programs are really complicated. It actually takes some time to sit down and read the rules to understand what's going on. After all, it is bad for business to make redeeming free flights too easy. I think my sister and I know enough for us to get by and we do bounce questions off of each other. Please be aware that I am just talking about United MileagePlus. Each loyalty program has its own nuances.

Mom looking out the window in Seat 1A

I think we do forget that what we do know isn't actually common knowledge and there are a lot of people that don't actually know that much. One of these people is my Mom. Coupled with her personality it leads to some hilarious times at the airport and on the plane.

Flight 1:

UA442

Boeing 757-200 (N545UA)

LAX-ORD

This was an early morning flight and my mom and I arrived at LAX around 6am. I had barely slept the night before because of all the excitement going on. Security was a breeze to get through. We got to the gate and sat down. 

Mom: So what is going on with breakfast?

Me: We get fed on the plane. They will serve us breakfast.

Mom: Really? Your sister said that it can't be more than just a piece of bread. That is not enough food. 

Me: Are you sure? It's usually only the shorter morning flights like LAX-SFO that get the breakfast scone. We are on a flight to Chicago so it should be a full breakfast.

Mom: Well your sister told me that it is just a piece of bread so let's get some food in the terminal. 

You do not argue with a mom trying to feed her kid. 

I messaged my sister and asked her what's up with breakfast as it should be a full meal. 

Response: "Oops hehe! I forgot you're on a longer flight!" 

Since we only had time for some grab and go the food wasn't that great but I love melted cheese so I didn't mind.

Mmmm cheese paper

After we finished eating boarding was just about to start. Once on board we saw how old the plane was. We were in Row 1 on a very very old United 757 that didn't have Wifi nor any entertainment other than the overhead TV. Yes, it was that old. But old in the United fleet has its merits such as Channel 9. If you aren't familiar with "O.G. United" Channel 9 is the audio channel that lets you listen in on the air traffic control. At the Captain's discretion, you can hear what the pilots say on the radio to various control centers and airports. It really gives you perspective on how many people have a hand in making sure your flight arrives safely at its destination. Once United and Continental merged and planes started getting phased out or refreshed, Channel 9 has become a bit of a rarity. I have heard that there are also well-meaning people who listen to Channel 9 but misinterpret something and end up complaining about it. Hence some pilots just shut it off.

Remember me?

YES CHANNEL 9 WAS ON FOR THE ENTIRE FLIGHT. MADE MY DAY

We had an on time departure and took a turn eastward as we got the 10,000 ft double chime. Let the scone breakfast begin!

I couldn't hear all the options clearly as Tomorrowland had started playing on the overhead TV. I only managed to remove my headphones in time to hear the word "quiche" so that is what I ordered. My mom ordered some morning crepe thing. 

Breakfast quiche with chicken sausage

Ch 9 and some orange juice with fizzy water

Mom: Hey this breakfast is pretty serious!

Me: That's what I was trying to tell you.

Mom: But this isn't what your sister said would happen. 

Me: ....

Mom: Anyways this is pretty nice. It is more than what I expected. It is good that your sister could upgrade us. 

United has recently improved their food. I think how they did it was to reduce quantity for better quality. I am not complaining because I have had some really bad food before. Everything in the breakfast was good but the yogurt was still too damn sweet. I had one small taste and had to put it back down. 

Without much further adieu we landed in ORD.

Flight 2

UA865

Airbus A319 (N817UA)

ORD-DTW

Due to some partial mystery my mom for some reason was relegated to Row 7 for this leg. I had a lengthy discussion with my sister about this and we still aren't fully sure what happened. It was only 1.5 hours long so it was ok. I ended up in Seat 1A this time next to a guy who not so casually dropped that he was a 4 million miler with United. That's an ungodly amount of miles and I imagine there are only a handful of people with that status. For each million mile milestone you are granted a lifetime status starting with United Gold and on up to Global Services. Global Services itself is an invite only status with United that grants you some really nice customer service perks. I have only heard of these perks and the only one that I can confirm is the private check in at SFO and I think ORD. 

Mr. 4 Million was a nice guy though and we chatted about various airport approaches and the great shots you can get. His favorite was SAN (San Diego, CA) for his shots. 

We saw a really big storm on our way to DTW so the captain decided to keep the seatbelt sign on. 

Big storm!

For this short segment. We had a snack basket. I inhaled a bag of popcorn and saved an apple for later. Later on I also asked and was given another bag of popcorn to take (thinking my mom would want something to eat later on).

Without any incident we landed in DTW. I knew we were at a small airport when I saw that our A319 was one of the largest aircraft on the ground aside from a few Southwest 737s in the distance. 

Arriving at DTW

Once off the plane I reunited with my mom.

Mom: I had to help a very large lady buckle her seatbelt.

Me: Oh no. I know one of my friends had a similar incident and he complained to the airline about it. 

Mom: And she smelled funny and I could only order one drink for this flight. *sad face*

Me: Sorry you had that experience....

Mom: They need bigger seats in economy.

Me: Everyone would agree...

OHIO!

We actually had to grab our rental car and drive another hour to Ohio. Since we were arriving around 5pm I was envisioning terrible traffic jams everywhere and the trip taking at least 90 minutes. Silly me. There's no rush hour in Ohio!

If you asked a foreigner what they envision America to look like I think Ohio would be it. It's flat and really green and just darn cute. There are actual red barns! Acres and acres of lush green land!! The pace of life is a lot slower in these parts. One of my close friends said it is cute until it starts snowing. 

The wedding was great fun. It was really good to see some relatives that I seriously do not get to see enough. I got a few bug bites as souvenirs too.

Here are a few of my snaps from my time in Ohio. 

MacQueen's Apple Barn

Tree ripened peaches

Yum yumm

MacQueen apple pie. A true country taste

Leaves

Country gift shop

Baking tool store

This reminded me of Harry Potter

All towns must have tall statue

Flight 3

UA311

Airbus A319 (N854UA)

DTW-DEN

Since we had somewhat early departure and an hour drive back to DTW we again woke up in the middle of the night. I drive with the morning Ohio fog and see the sunrise as I drove. It was quite the treat considering my work has me mostly indoors. 

Mom: Let's get some breakfast. How about McDonald's? Egg McMuffin?

I can't argue with that. I don't know when was the last time I had one since I usually make my own breakfast. Egg McMuffins are so damn good though. I love eggs. I love the combination of ham saltiness with the melted and absolutely processed cheese. All of this wrapped in an "innocent" toasted english muffin. 

Egg McMuffin. YUM

I asked my mom to have Seat 1A this time because I was pretty excited to be flying in to DEN. I had heard many things about the design of this airport including a really cool bridge that airplanes can taxi under. 

On this flight we had Wifi and personal device entertainment. It is a sort of new thing for United in that people can use their own tablets or laptops and connect to the plane's central entertainment system via the United app. Marketing called it a "Bring your Own Device" campaign. I remember last year's ads reminding you to fully charge your device prior to boarding. While there may be personal device entertainment there isn't necessarily a plug at your seat to keep your device charged. I think the idea of this is to keep maintenance cost and weight down. A pretty smart move if this was consistently applied across the entire fleet....

Movie time? I forgot my headphones though.

I chose a light oatmeal and fruit breakfast. It was exactly what I needed. Even my mom approved. 

Fruits so good.

Arriving in to DEN we flew over a field of sunflowers. Sunflowers are gigantic on the ground. From the air the field looks like whimsical real giant pixels. It is like seeing Minecraft in real life. 

DEN final approach

Flight 4

UA1464

Boeing 737-900 (N78524)

DEN-LAX

Denver, CO has a pretty cool airport simply because there is so much land and it is at a high altitude. Planes need a longer runway to takeoff at these heights so DEN has some of the longest runways in the US. The airport itself is also the largest in terms of land in the US.

Mom: We have a few hours. What should we do?
Me: We could explore the airport.
Mom: Oh you know I like to walk! But what if we get hungry?

My mom always has to make sure I'm well fed.

Anyways, off we went!

Check in for all airlines is at a central terminal. It was designed by the same people who did LAX's international terminal. The designers like to draw inspiration from the land around them. In this case it is the Rockies.

Check in at DEN

From the really cool passenger bridge that is high enough for small planes to taxi under (I'm talking A319, A320, and B737s) I was able to get a nice line up shot of the Frontier planes. 

Frontier lineup at DEN

Somewhere in one of the terminals we found a McDonald's and decided it was time to eat a snack. My mom had mentioned the illustrious $5 20-piece chicken nuggets box. At the airport it was actually $8 but whatever. I really would have preferred to eat something healthier but it was better than eating a box of Panda Express which I witnessed a family eat four boxes of. 

Unfortunately on our walk back to our plane we found a bistro that served paninis which I really really would have preferred to eat. Dammit! 

Waiting to go to LAX

At the gate people had started to line up in their respective boarding group zones. There was a girl that decided to sit in the Group 1 boading line next to a column. People, including us, started lining up behind her thinking that she was Group 1. Only she wasn't. It caused quite a few grumbles from other people in Group 1. Not only that a lady and her kids knowingly cut the Group 1 line to board. The cherry on top for me was another lady with kid in tow totally not paying attention and deciding to stand right in front of me to figure out where she needed to be as I was walking towards the gate to board. GRR!!

Mom: That stupid lady!! What was that girl doing there?! She's interrupting the rotation of the earth!! If you aren't in the first class line why are you just sitting there? Stupid girl! 

Anyways the rest of boarding was fine and we were happily on our way to LAX. 

787 waiting to go to NRT

Cleared for Takeoff Runway 24L

We had a really lovely flight because of the scenery. It was nice that we were in seats 1E and 1F because the bulkhead seat let us both look out the windows without disturbing anyone. On this flight we were served lunch. Lunch starts with takeoff drink and some warmed nuts.

Start of service

For lunch I chose to have the chicken curry which was actually really darn good. The chicken wasn't too dry either. The salad was also of good quality. The meal was Mom approved. I didn't eat the rice but I did partake in the freshly baked cookie dessert that I had with a glass of wine. 

Tandoori chicken lunch

Mmm cookie

But in reality the main event was the scenery. It's not often you get to see the Rocky Mountains and the Grand Canyon from the air. 

Somewhere over the Rocky Mountain range

I kept on asking my mom to come over to the window to take a look. It was nice that she was able to enjoy the sights too. This easily has to be one of the most scenic flights I've ever been on.

The Grand Canyon

I knew we were coming close to LAX based on how brown it was getting. Sad, I know.

I still had a bit of excitement on our approach though!

Air to air with an Emirates A380

US Airways A320. Soon to be gone

And just like that we were back to the hustle and bustle of Los Angeles.

Mom: Too bad I don't get food on my next flight.