My flight was delayed 25 minutes due to a late incoming flight. Unfortunately, it was an old plane without all the modern facilities, as they had to use a replacement plane at short notice. I had already received an apology from United about the plane, before getting to the airport:
As a substantive expression of appreciation for your patience and understanding, please visit the website http://www.united.com/appreciation to select a gesture of goodwill most meaningful to you.
I shall claim my goodwill later.
There was no queue to check-in or for security in the fast track lane so I was able to sit in the lounge for a couple of hours drinking coffee. Once on board, it did push back at the newly appointed time and after 30 minutes of taxiing and queueing, we finally got a take-off slot - maybe our
pilot did not have enough bottles of whisky.
There were only a handful of people in business class - I had a whole row all to myself, and nobody in the row in front, either.
The salad starter was nice, with croutons, balsamic vinaigrette with bread rolls and garlic bread, followed by a substantial piece of beef in a marsala sauce with carrots, potatoes and sugar snap peas (which were all very well done!)
I passed on the cheese course, but did have the ice cream with caramel and chocolate sauce for pudding. It was very nice.
The flight was very smooth apart from a 5 minute patch just off the Irish coast and I was able to sleep for half a hour a couple of times too. We arrived slightly earlier than scheduled and only 10 minutes later than our original scheduled arrival time, and after taking 30 minutes to be transported to the main terminal, went straight through immigration, got my bag, straight through customs too.
Fortunately, I was just in time for the next half-hourly Washington Flyer to take me to the metro. I now have a smart card for travelling here and also in Baltimore as they are both run by the same agency, which is handy. The hotel is very close to the Navy Yard metro station, which is convenient. The temperature here is 32C/90F now, which is quite a change from home.
I passed on the cheese course, but did have the ice cream with caramel and chocolate sauce for pudding. It was very nice.
The flight was very smooth apart from a 5 minute patch just off the Irish coast and I was able to sleep for half a hour a couple of times too. We arrived slightly earlier than scheduled and only 10 minutes later than our original scheduled arrival time, and after taking 30 minutes to be transported to the main terminal, went straight through immigration, got my bag, straight through customs too.
Fortunately, I was just in time for the next half-hourly Washington Flyer to take me to the metro. I now have a smart card for travelling here and also in Baltimore as they are both run by the same agency, which is handy. The hotel is very close to the Navy Yard metro station, which is convenient. The temperature here is 32C/90F now, which is quite a change from home.
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