Salt Lake Swiftly

Of course, life doesn't work out that way. Life dealt me a bad hand of cards in January of 1999 when my beloved Grandmother passed away. Obviously, a bad hand of cards was coming around to us, but I was out of Grandparents. This meant it was Christopher who was to suffer the loss of his paternal Grandmother. We saw her just in December, during an unscheduled long layover at SLC (she lives in SLC, previously she lived in Provo and worked at BYU). Neither of us had any idea that it would be the last time.

We knew the week before she died that it wasn't likely that she'd make it. Luckily, while she knew the end was near, she was cheerful and lucid throughout. The end came for her on Saturday February 19. Earlier that day I had called Delta and reserved SkyMiles award tickets BOS-SLC-BOS. Funny story on that one: we picked our travel dates (to minimize the amount of time we'd be away from work), and picked our flights. The *only* flights on the dates in question that were available for SkyMiles award travel were the exact flights I wanted. I had previously priced out the ticket, but it would have run us $2K each standard fare or $1K each for a family emergency fare. With 250K miles each in our SkyMiles account, we could afford to burn the 25K miles for the trip.

Helen & Chris (planned):

21Feb
DL1099 dep BOS 1750 arr SLC 2120  757-200
24Feb
DL1776 dep SLC 1000 arr BOS 1625  757-200

Christopher's parents were also going to be flying to SLC, with an itinerary of:

22Feb 
DL328 dep SEA 1215 arr SLC 1505   757-200
24Feb
DL633 dep SLC 1900 arr SEA 2006   767-300

My parents had been in Boston for the long weekend (they actually tried to fly CLE-BOS on Friday 18 Feb, only to be stymied by the nasty weather in the northeast. They actually got diverted to BGR and sat there on the runway for 2 hours), and they were due to fly back BOS-CLE at 1450. While I like Logan, I really didn't relish the chance of sitting there for an extra 3 hours. We put them in a taxi at 1300 and finished packing, getting in our own taxi at about 1615.

We were at Logan for 1630 and checked in. Due to being on SkyMiles reward tickets, we were actually on separate PNRs. However, the ticket agent was very helpful. He got us a box for our garment bag and taped and labelled it well. Terminal C was not terribly busy, even though SR was due out at 1800, and AF and SN were checking in for 2000 departures. I wonder when SN & SR will be moving out of Terminal C and into Terminal B with American. Probably when the code-share ends later in the spring.

We did our usual trip through Press Relay and Waldenbooks, and scoped out the new Staples Express which went in where used to be a nice lounge with a ramp view. Well, they did keep one small window which had a view of the ramp. I think the Staples employee was rather put out that we were standing in front of the window. To pacify him, I bought a pack of mechanical pencils (I *always* need pencils).

We cleared through security at 1710, and headed to the traditional gate C30. Just like last time, the air circulation in this part of the terminal was particularly bad - it was stuffy and hot. We weren't at the gate long before boarding was called, however. Lots of kids boarded into first class (much to the dismay of some of the other F passengers).

DL1099 sch dep BOS 1750, actual 1748. sch arr SLC 2120, actual 2107 757-200, N661DL, 6 FA's (2 F, 4Y), seats 27D&F. Dinner.

We were seated in 27D&F (with angelic intervention, nobody was in 27E). In 26C was a moron who continued to use his cellphone after pushback and after taxi. Likewise, he didn't wear his seatbelt. Oh well, he can kill himself, won't bother me.

We took off on runway 22R and took a left turn, then came back around over the city. After climb out the FAs did a drinks service (with snack mix), even though I would have preferred that they start dinner service immediately. The captain came on the PA and said we were due into SLC early, 2105.

There were two choices of dinner: lemon flavoured steak with veg, and pasta with cheese. The salad came with balsalmic viniagrette dressing. In addition, there was the obligatory roll (sunflower) and dessert (lemon-type cake, which was strange). The meals were served by hand (not cart) even though this 757 had been reconfigured with row 19 (and thus had the cart capacity).

Since I'd somehow managed to misplace our free movie vouchers that we received for becoming gold medallion (they're also good for free drinks, but that's pretty useless for people like us). The movie offering was Anywhere But Here with Susan Sarandon and Queen Amidala, er, Natalie Portman. If I'd brought a free voucher I would have likely watched it, but I wasn't about to shell out $5 for a movie I was apathetic about. Instead, I watched _Prime Suspect 2_ on my DVD Player/laptop for a while, then turned the laptop over to Christopher while I tackled my new "Games World of Puzzles" magazine.

After the movie ended, the FAs did a drinks service, but not in the way I would have expected. Normally they roll the cart down the aisle. This time they poured out water, orange juice, and coke into cups and put them on a tray. I don't know if they were low on water, didn't want to get the cart out (as I mentioned, there had been no cart for meal service, even though there was for the first drinks service), or what.

The flight was quite rough, with the seatbelt sign left on for the second half of the flight. Not unsurprisingly, it came as quite a surprise to some people when the captain rang final at 2051. We touched down at 2101 on 16L, and were at the gate (D10) six minutes later (2107).

Since we were not in a hurry (for once), we chose to not hurry and push our way out of the plane. We slowly ambled out and up to the moving walkway, and finally down to baggage claim. We'd forgotten to note the number of the baggage claim belt (since we never claim bags in SLC), but we managed to find it, and by the time we did, our two bags (well, one bag and one garment box) were spinning around waiting for us. We collected our bags and went off to the Avis counter.

23 Feb

Our original flight was scheduled to be at 10am on Thursday 24 February, but througout our whole trip, Christopher was receiving calls from work. The calls indicated that several things which required his attention were going on. As a result, after the funeral service finished and we changed, I rang up Delta who said that yes, seats were available on 1898. I made the decision right then and there to go with it, and the Special Member Services Agent (nice fella, but no Guardian Angel) gave us seats 16C&E (leaving 16D open) on the 767-300.

There was one last hitch. We made the telephone call from Provo (let me first note that Provo now has a *Williams-Sonoma*, and an *Eddie Bauer*. It's not quite as benighted as it used to be!), and Provo was an hour's drive to SLC Int'l. Of course, it was only 1415, and DL1898 is a 1635 departure. We did have one thing going for us: my father-in-law was driving. I may have a lead foot, but he has a lead foot and is an aggressive driver to boot. As a result, we pulled into SLC at 1520. We unloaded our bags from the car and did a quick repack on the pavement.

Christopher's parents left, and we walked inside. The coach line was VERY long, and there was only one agent at the Medallion desk. On no... But it wasn't a disaster, since one of the coach agents was pulling people from the Medallion line (much to the disgust of the people in the coach line). It seemed that the SLC ticket desk was understaffed (as I said, just one agent in the Medallion line, and just three in the coach line). A red coat actually came out and told people that if they were checking bags, but didn't need seats, or didn't need to change anything, they should check their bags at the curb with the Skycap (!).

We checked in (using the aforementioned coach agent), and were off on our way to gate D3. SLC was busy, much moreso than when we had collected my in-laws the day before (which was 1500). At 1530, SLC is a different place! The moving walkway was not mobbed, however. We arrived at D3 in good time.

DL1898 sch dep SLC 1635, actual 1628. sch arr BOS 2259, actual 2258
767-300, N138DL, 8 FA's (2 F, 6Y), seats 16C&E. Dinner.

Boarding was called at 1605, first class. A few minutes later they called "Medallion members and passengers who originated in Las Vegas". Interesting way of putting it. The cabin filled up - not completely, but the loads seemed to be comfortably over 75%. There weren't too many bin hogs, so we actually had the door closed for 1628 (7 min early!), and the safety video actually played before pushback! The video screen was actually mispointed in our cabin, so they had to play the demo video a second time after pushback (to ensure everybody saw it. Not that most people watch it, though...).

We pushed at 1633, and were airborne (via 16R - *not* our traditional takeoff runway from SLC) at 1648. The captain came on the PA to prattle on about the route of travel (I swear he mentioned every flat stop in the road between Salt Lake City and Boston), and mentioned that we were due into Boston "on time" at 2255 (technically four minutes early, but who's counting? Anyways, it's only an estimate).

After takeoff, the FAs did the obligatory drinks service. As noted elsewhere on rec.travel.air, although the 767 has two aisles, the aisles were blocked at the same time. I didn't need to get up (thank goodness), but I did ask for (and receive) two bottles of water. Summer Harvest mix was passed out on the aisle Christopher was on, but not on my aisle (I didn't mind, I was still very full from lunch).

After the drinks service, the FAs came around and picked up trash. They then rolled the drinks cart back out along with the meal cart. Dinner choices were: beef with mashed potatoes and carrots, or chicken and rice and some veg. Salad had honey french dressing, On the side was a wheat roll, and there was chocolate cake for dessert. Another drinks service followed after dinner. During both drinks service, they were giving out the whole can (or in my case, not arguing when I asked for two bottles of water).

The SLC-BOS flight was MUCH faster than the BOS-SLC flight - almost a full hour of block time. We spent the time playing with our new "learn French" CDROM, and then Christopher played Heroes of Might & Magic III while I did puzzles. The movie came on, along with the seatbelt sign (and the sign stayed on just for the movie, it went off as soon as the movie was over).

I took a stroll to the lav and walked through the first class cabin on the way back (an aisle stander had been standing in the way). I noted that there were open seats in first class (when we originally booked DL1776 on Thu morning, there were SkyMiles seats in coach but not first class).

After the movie was finished (and seatbelt sign off), there was the traditional run to the lav. Shortly after, the seatbelt sign came back on (2227), followed just ten minutes later by final ring. Touchdown was fourteen minutes later (2251), and there was quite a long taxi to the gate due to the difficulty getting into the gate (33). To get into 33 the plane had to go practically past the United gates and turn all the way back to point the proper direction.

We were off relatively quickly (playing the usual game of "which aisle will move faster?" that works so well on the 767), and en route to baggage claim. Unfortunately, a flight from Orlando had just gotten in, and a flight from Atlanta had come in just before that. I knew what that meant: contention for the few baggage handlers at that time of night. The nice part of the 767, however is that baggage is palletized. It doesn't take as many baggage handlers to unload the luggage, as it just gets moved off in pallets and then unpacked before being put on the belt in baggage claim. It's a much more efficient system than bags being put into the hold loose (like on a 757).

It took almost half an hour for our two bags to come through, even with the 767's efficient unloading. Three planes at once were too many for the handlers. While waiting, Christopher went and scoped out the new taxi layout for Terminal C. He learned (pay attention now!) that the most efficient door to exit is the one by Baggage Claim 5 in Terminal C (where the TWA baggage claim is). That puts you out on the curb right next to the taxi line. We got in a taxi quickly and were off home.

A good solid job on a long-distance coach flight. Of course, I really really wish that we didn't have to make the trip.

Next trip (and report) - BOS-JFK-CDG-JFK-BOS, within two weeks!!

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