One Flew South: My Favorite Airport Restaurant/Bar

The Concourse E Burger at One Flew South

Since I am an elite flyer, I usually frequent airline pubs, er, clubs, for free libations. However, I make an exception in Atlanta. I don’t even mind being delayed in Atlanta because of this place. My favorite airport bar/pub/restaurant hands-down is One Flew South, even if I only want a drink and not food. They have by far the best cocktail and wine list of any airport bar, and if you do wish to eat, they also have an amazing menu of made-to-order appetizers and meals, as well as a sushi bar. What is even more surprising is that although it is described as an “upscale dining experience,” you are served very quickly. My last two visits have been about 45 minutes, from arrival to departure. If you inquire about how long it will take to receive your food and drink, the servers can answer with a preparation time for each item on the menu. If you do decide to eat, my personal favorites are the Chicken Noodle Soup, Concourse E Burger 1/2 pound Kobe, and Breast of Duck. Since I am a wino, I always go for a selection from their extensive wine list.

2009 Marc Brédif Chinon at One Flew South

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Trains, planes, TSA, and exit row seating compliance

Yesterday could only be described as a comedy of errors of sorts.

I arrived at Tri-Cities Regional Airport (TN/VA), checked my Wine Check without incident, passed through security, checked e-mail, etc. Boarding was announced for the plane, which was a few minutes late arriving. Pre-boards and people needing extra time boarded first. I saw one lady board. Zone 1 was next, so I boarded and discovered the pre-board seated to me in the exit row, which I thought was probably not appropriate if she needed extra time to board. I wondered why the flight attendant didn’t notice and switch her with somone else. During the exit row spiel, she even said, “I didn’t even know I was in the exit row, but I will do whatever I need to do.” The flight attendant’s eyes lit up, but she still didn’t move the passenger. I tweeted, “‎@Delta Why is a special assist pre-board in the exit row?” and one of the @DeltaAssist team send me a private message asking for the flight information, so they could follow up.

We departed and it was the longest 45 minutes of my life, as this 65-year-old woman (yes, she told me her age) with some sort of nerve battery implant (why she was a pre-board) told me about her entire life, family, and how she ended up on the flight. She had missed her delayed US Airways flight because despite having medical documentation of the implant, was subjected to not just a secondary search, but one behind the curtain, a full-on, comprehensive body search. She appeared frazzled and shaken from it all, and told me she hadn’t flown in years. I felt sorry for her and at the same time thought, “This passenger should not be sitting here.” Once we landed, I told her to see a gate agent and to check the monitors in Atlanta to obtain to her connecting flight gate. Incidentally, she had shown me her other boarding pass and she was also seated in the exit row on that flight.

I wished her safe travels and visited the Delta Sky Club before heading to my departure gate. Unfortunately, when I boarded the train to my next concourse, it was declared inoperable, so we had to disembark and walk to our concourses.

Once at the gate, we boarded and were ready to depart at 5:40 p.m. when two mechanics boarded. The pilot announced that the forward lavatory was broken, but would be repaired quickly. The mechanics exited and the gate agent tried to shut the door, but it appeared jammed.  It took about three people to finally get it shut and we backed away from the gate. This was a 757-200 with individual in-flight entertainment at all seats, so one of the flight attendants turned on the safety video. It froze, so the flight attendants scrambled to find seatbelts and face masks and gave the fastest pre-departure safety presentation I’ve ever seen. We departed about 25 minutes past the originally scheduled departure time.

After all of this, my trip settled down. I used coupons to purchase a snack box and beer and enjoyed Gogo Inflight Internet on my iPad until we landed 31 minutes early at LaGuardia. My Wine Check, priority tagged and marked fragile, was the third bag to arrive on the carousel.

UA: GSO-ORD-(LAX)-PHX 2 Dec 2011 by Bruce

When I booked the ticket, I needed 2517 miles* to reach and maintain my Gold status. A search through the Matrix for flights to places where I wanted to go (LAX, SEA, FLL) suggested that the cheapest itinerary would be to go to PHX with two outbound and two inbound stops from GSO. VanMetrics at the bottom of the post.

For the 06:00 departure, I let my alarm clock wake me at 02:15. There was very little traffic on the highways at that crazy time of the night, so I arrived at the airport and parked at 04:45. It was still dark and I ended up in the $6 a day long-term uncovered lot. I’ve never been to GSO before, so I was impressed with the size and modernity of the place when the two mega-hubs CLT and RDU are nearby. It sort of reminded me of PBI (though I haven’t been to that airport since 2001). I did not need to check-in, but the departure boards did not show my flight. The ticket agent pointed me in the right direction, since the two halves of the terminal are not joined up.

Security was a breeze and my transportation security officer was friendly. I did not alert the magnetometer, I was not randomly selected and my bags did not need any additional attention. With a short bathroom detour, I was at my gate by 05:00. Or at least I thought it was my gate – there was still a lot of confusion with the departure boards. Even the crew was wondering if they were at the right place.

Boarding was called about ten minutes late (at 05:45) with military in uniform and special assists. No takers. 1K, Platinum and Gold were called together and I was second onto the plane. An ERJ-145, I was in 12C (the first guy was 1K and was in 12A). Operated by Trans States under United Express, it’s the same configuration as the ExpressJet flights I’ve taken that were Continental Express livery.

At 06:10 (about ten minutes past scheduled departure), the captain announced that there was an issue with the floor panel where the handle hides that allows manual deployment of the landing gear. He updated us constantly on progress and said that if it looked like it was going to be an extended delay, he would allow us to leave or anyone who wanted to get off now was welcome to do so. The flight attendant came down the aisle to help passengers understand if they had connection problems. 12A called the 1K service line from his phone and I overheard him decide to stay on the plane rather than head to the other gate where an IAD flight would allow him to connect to SEA about four hours late. At 06:30, seeing that I would now only have a half hour instead of a full hour to connect at ORD, I called and learned that I was protected onto a direct ORD-PHX flight (instead of my scheduled ORD-LAX-PHX) that would actually get me to Phoenix 90 minutes earlier. Bonus!

More announcements about the missing handle and such, before we were informed that it was resolved and we were just waiting on signoff. Doors closed about ten minutes later and we pushed back at 07:10 and immediate clearance to take off. As soon as we reached altitude, I put on my sunglasses and my noise cancelling headphones and slept the rest of the flight, only waking for descent into O’Hare.

A very short taxi to the last gate of terminal B, we used the aircraft’s stairs to disembark. Nearly ten minutes of standing in the freezing cold waiting for our gate-checked bags. Ugh.

Inside the terminal, the first kiosk I found said to pick up the phone and in turn that told me that I needed to see someone at special services in order to be rebooked. So now I got to walk all the way to the main concourse where the special services guy helped me with my new boarding passes. (He insisted on having my original ones, which made zero sense. Maybe someone can explain this one?) Sadly, the only Economy Plus seats available were middle ones, so I kept the seat he gave me and crossed my fingers to get the middle seat open.

Over to the C terminal and with 45 minutes until boarding, I headed into the United Club for coffee and a bagel and also topping up the charge on my phone. This is a really nice club with a lot of seating in “noisy” and in “quiet” areas, as well as a TV that seemed to capture the attention of several. After stocking up on a banana and some other snacks, I headed to the gate.

Flight 661 is an A319 operated by United with only six seats in F. I was number 23 for the 2 available seats, so I didn’t have my hopes up (I hadn’t been upgraded on my original ORD-LAX either). I was well back into the crowd when 1K, then Platinum and finally Star Gold were called. Waaaaaay to the back of the plane, seat 37F is the last seat before the lav and rear galley. There is a space behind the seat and it did offer some recline. The middle seat remained open and we pushed back on time. Smisek did his thing to introduce the video and it’s just as “fake” as ever. I don’t know why, but I don’t feel any connection with him like I did with Larry.

Channel 9 was awesome as usual. It was very bumpy for the first hour and I listened to our Captain searching for weather reports from other altitudes. We eventually got up to 36000 before it smoothed out some.

By that time, the in-flight entertainment started. Flip-down monitors revealed an episode of “Big Bang Theory” I hadn’t seen, followed by “Our Idiot Brother” (Paul Rudd with a beard) and then Suits. Frustratingly, the in-flight entertainment system does not pause when there is a PA announcement so I missed a good amount of the movie and the show.

Buy on board was offered which I declined (I had my stuff from the club) and then a full can beverage. A few water services and before I knew it, we were descending into Phoenix for a good landing and then taxi to the gate.

Summary: Our crew in GSO did a great job of handling the potential mechanical. I was pleased with the communication that was at least every ten minutes. UA did a good job of rebooking me onto another flight that saved me a bunch of time, but I would have preferred to get the job done at the kiosk instead of having to find special services. I didn’t need those 500 miles for the LAX-PHX segment. My ORD-PHX seat was bad but would have been unbearable if I had to share the armrest and floor space with a middle-seat. It was nice to have in-flight entertainment, it could have operated better. Grade: B-.

Original itinerary:
Total Trip Cost: $ 288.20
Actual Airfare: $ 221.40
Actual Miles Flown: 5601
Yield: $ 0.040 per mile
Taxes & Fees: $ 66.80, 23.18% of ticket price

Updated:
Total Trip Cost: $ 288.20
Actual Airfare: $ 221.40
Actual Miles Flown: 4296
EQM’s earned: 5318
Yield: $ 0.042 per mile
Taxes & Fees: $ 66.80, 23.18% of ticket price

*I’ve since earned 2000 Flex EQM’s, so would only need 517!

Dear Delta Customer Care

Delta Sky Priority Luggage Tag

I am writing to express my disappointment in the Sky Priority handling of my checked bag on Nov 4, 2011. My bag was checked with me on DL 2399 RIC-ATL on Nov 4. My bag and I both misconnected in ATL and we missed DL 5400. I was re-accommodated on the next available flight at 7:15 p.m., DL 5341. My bag was not as lucky. It did NOT make DL 5341 (7:15 p.m.), DL 5409 (8:35 p.m.), or DL 5350 (10:22 p.m.). When I arrived at TRI, the agent who filed my claim told me the bag would arrive Nov 4 evening and be delivered Nov 5 morning. Instead, it spent the evening, night, and morning in ATL’s “Sortation System” and “Sort Area.”  In fact, it was scanned eight (8) times in ATL between 5:29 p.m. Nov 4 and 10:13 a.m. Nov 5. Thankfully it was finally “expedited” at 6:01 a.m. Nov 5 to DL 5250 and departed ATL at 10:28 a.m. It was finally delivered to me at 1:50 p.m. Nov 5, almost 24 hours after it was checked in RIC at 2:06 p.m. Nov 4. I hope that this sort of Sky Priority treatment does not become a habit.

UPDATE:   On November 7, I received an apology e-mail from Delta and 7500 miles as a “gesture of apology.”

CLT-XNA-CLT Oct 28 and Nov 2 by Bruce

This ticket was the outbound half of a Continental award redemption, for which I paid $30 plus 25,000 miles on Continental.com. As an award, I opted to take the shortest routing rather than a connection at the same price.

I checked in on usairways.com at just past the 24-hour mark and had already been assigned seat 3F. While the exit rows were available as “Choice” seats, US wanted a further $49 so I kept what I had.

I parked in the daily lot ($6/day) at 09:40 for the 10:56 departure. Rather than wait for a shuttle, I walked past the statue of Queen Charlotte and up the escalator to the check-in lines. Light pedestrian load walking the area and a short line at the counter where the kiosk directed me to an agent to check a suitcase (it’s empty – it will come back full). No charge thanks to Star Gold status. The agent got that taken care of and I walked down to security at B. No line for elite passengers, there were 8 waiting the regular line.

After the ID check, the lines were split with the elites to one line (no backscatter) and the economy to the other line (with backscatter). I opted not to volunteer to be irradiated. I did not alert on the magnetometer and I did not have any static from the TSO for not removing my netbook (7 inch screen) from my backpack. I stopped at the top of the escalator for *$ and then down to the E terminal that now goes up to E50. I was spared that exercise and stopped at E6.

Boarding was called at 10:35 for specials; there were no takers. Zone 1 was called and I was second to board because a dude walked briskly in front of me. 3F on this CRJ is tight but I was fortunate to have no seatmate. Doors closed early at 10:50, we taxied to 36C and immediate take-off under overcast skies but it hadn’t yet started raining.

Beverage cart with free soda (half can), $7 liquor and snacks for sale. Cash only. This is compared to the regional jets for CO which do not sell snacks but they are cashless for liquor. And I do not recall anything for sale on United’s regional jets. I had my headphones on so if there was an attempt to push the credit card, I didn’t hear it.

When the seat belt light came off about a half hour into the flight, I was first into the lav. The tiniest closet, there wasn’t enough room for a cat, forget about swinging it. But it was clear from the stink that the cat’s litter tray was in here and hadn’t been emptied.

Smooth flight, good landing that was on time. The Captain came out to greet passengers for disembarking and I complimented him on the landing. At the carousel, my suitcase was the first to appear and had a “Priority” tag.

Summary: Other than being a CRJ-200 (“Satan’s Chariot”), this was a good flight with a pleasant and efficient FA. The departure time worked for my schedule. The lav was awful. Grade B-.

The return was more of the same, but this time I made sure to use the lav in the airport before departure. I checked two bags which were free thanks to my Star Gold status. I had to shift a few things from one to the other as the heavier one was 53 pounds before and then 46 pounds after. Star Gold also gave me boarding zone 1.

Security took longer than usual – about ten minutes. I did not set off the magnetometer, but I was randomly selected for a palm swab, which of course I passed. Again, no issue with leaving my 7″ netbook in my backpack.

XNA is a super regional airport and they’ve just completed a new terminal wing with jetbridges for the larger planes. AA and MQ have has most of them, while the other carriers still use the “warehouse” style departure area with permanent stands for boarding aircraft. (None of that using the aircraft’s own stairs stuff here!) The new terminal has 12 gates and a moving sidewalk that runs about 100 feet with a sign noting it as the first such moving slidewalk in the state of Arkansas.

Shortly after reaching altitude on this two hour flight, there was a single pass of the beverage cart by the flight attendant who was warm and pleasant. I had the same seat as before, 3F, and again I did not have a seat mate. The seat belt light was never turned off, despite it being a smooth flight the whole way. Departure had been a few minutes late due to the late inbound, but we arrived CLT on time on runway 18R with a long taxi and arrival at the same gate as before, E6. I had to wait at the carousel about 15 minutes (typical for CLT, if I remember right) but my bags were the first to appear. There is a lot of construction going on in the “B” baggage claim area with much of it roped off. I managed to find an abandoned luggage trolley rather than pay $3.

Delta Air Lines and The Perfect Misconnect

My flights on Delta have become so consistently good that these trip reports have probably become boring. This weekend’s roundtrip to New York LaGuardia was the same except for one incident. There was a mechanical delay that affected the inbound flight that was to be my flight from TRI to ATL. Once the aircraft arrived, everything went find except that we were terribly behind. We arrived at the gate in Atlanta 17 minutes prior to the departure of my connecting flight, but by the time I deplaned, I only had 10 minutes. I hurried as much as one can from the D concourse to the B concourse, including running up the escalator. I think I arrived a few minutes prior to scheduled departure, but the door was already shut. I said, “I’ve missed this flight?” and the agent said yes and pointed me to one of the rebooking machines. I scanned my boarding pass and my new itinerary printed, but was jammed in the machine. An agent nearby came over and helped me properly print my new itinerary. I saw I was rebooked on the next flight, the 6:35 p.m. departure, so I headed to the Sky Club to check in. I know I must have appeared out of breath and a bit disheveled when I arrived, but the club agent was so kind. He checked me in, assigned me my favorite exit row aisle seat, and said, “It looks good for the upgrade. In fact, I bet it will clear before you get to the gate.” I sat down for a drink and a snack, then went to my gate. When I arrived, the upgrade standby list had at least 20 people on it. As I quickly scanned it, my name was not on it. The monitor showed all seats checked in and the cabin full, so I went ahead and boarded. As the gate agent scanned my boarding pass, out popped my upgraded seat assignment, seat 6D. I could not figure out how I skipped ahead of all of those on the waitlist, then it dawned on me that my club angel must have taken care of me. The consistently good service in the air and on the ground, as well as random acts of kindness like this, are why I continue to fly Delta Air Lines.

IN THEORY: Travel Should Be Seamless

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When people book travel, they often make the assumption that all will go as planned.  However, nothing could be further from the truth, especially when it relates to air travel.

Captain Coy’s Cajun Deli and Seafood Market

Captain Coy's Cajun Deli and Seafood Market

I am in Wytheville, Virginia at least once per month, usually on Thursdays, because my stylist is there. Luckily she is married to the owner of Captain Coy’s Cajun Deli and Seafood Market, Chris Francis, a New Orleans native, and introduced me to their wonderful Thursday special, Jambalaya with andouille and smoked sausage. Truly amazing. I now order it every Thursday I am in Wytheville.

Captain Coy’s also has other daily specials as follows:

Tuesday – Red Beans and Rice
Wednesday – Chicken Stew
Thursday – Jambalaya
Friday – Shrimp Stew
Saturday – Seafood Gumbo

The deli also serves Po’ Boys and other deli sandwiches, and sells boiled shrimp and fresh seafood to go at market price. Francis also hopes to start offering dinner in the near future. As the menu states,

This is a place to come and take a trip to the Big Easy with the sounds and flavors of New Orleans! Real, authentic, made-from-scratch Cajun cuisine!

The next time you’re traveling north or south on Interstate 81 in Virginia about 70 miles north of the Virginia-Tennessee state line, make sure to save some room for lunch or takeout from Captain Coy’s.

Captain Coy’s Cajun Deli and Seafood Market
Open Tuesday through Saturday 9:30 a.m. until 6:00 p.m.
276-227-0311
610 W. Lee Highway
Wytheville VA 24382

Turn and Burn CLT-EWR-CLT on Continental and US Airways by Bruce

7-Oct
CO4624 dep CLT 09:25 arr EWR 11:10 (operated by Express Jet) on ERJ-145
US497 dep EWR 17:30 arr CLT 19:29 on Airbus 320

Total Trip Cost: $ 1,163.19
Actual Airfare: $ 1,063.53
Actual Miles Flown: 1057
Yield: $ 1.006 per mile
Taxes & Fees: $ 99.66, 8.57% of ticket price
Generated by the VanMetric Airfare Info Generator, version 0.11.

Tickets were booked for me late last week by a travel agency, so I did not have an opportunity to switch. It was also booked with less than 7 days notice, hence the very high yield. This was the most convenient schedule, so other than contacting each of the carriers to add my OnePass number, I kept it as it was. For the CO leg, I was able to change my seat to the exit row. For the US leg, I was unable to move from the aisle seat towards the back that I was assigned as the non-Choice seats were all booked.

This was my first time back in CLT in over two years. The only difference that I noticed is that there is now a Wendy’s with the Cinnabon in Terminal A. The security lines are still as long and there was an elite line at the B concourse that allowed me to skip about 40 people in the queue. There was no millimeter wave scanner that I noticed. Security was quick (I nearly forgot about my shoes) and I did not set off the magnetometer despite the forgotten four coins in my pocket.

Coffee at Starbucks and the walk down the A concourse to the CO gates. Boarding was called on time, I had 12C with a seatmate in 12B on this ERJ-145 operated by ExpressJet. Beverage cart (which I skipped so I could work on my laptop) and a 10-minute early landing in Newark. I made a brief stop in the A terminal United Club, did my foursquare check-ins and synced email (since I’m still roaming with my UK-based iPhone).

Rental car from National meant a one-stop ride on the AirTrain. I’m still Emerald Club so I got to choose from about 30 SUVs. The first one I selected, a Nissan Rogue was nice but I was snapping way too many pictures of pre-existing damage to make it worthwhile. The Jeep Cherokee only had one scratch on the bumper, so I went with that and had it noted when I checked out. Returning it was similarly easy and without hassle. After reading so many of Chris Elliott’s columns about rental car damage, I snapped a handful of pictures of the car with my iPhone before heading into the terminal.

On the return, this was my first US mainline in over three years. I was two hours early to the airport. Security was again long, but I skipped the first line (which had a millimeter wave scanner) and went to one of the others down the hallway. Very loud TSO shouting at pax to remove laptops and liquids. I again did not set off the magnetometer.

Once inside security, I realized that there was no Star Alliance club here, just an Admiral’s Club and a muffin and coffee shop. No free wi-fi in Newark, so rather than exit security to have to do it again, I simply waited out my time. There are a few power outlets, but not nearly enough of them.

Inbound was 20 minutes late, but they managed a quick turn and boarding was called 20 minutes late. Boarding was done by zone, which is always helpful. I had zone 2 thanks to Star Alliance Gold. I did see at least one person turned away for jumping their zone.

As one of the first on board and in row 20 aisle, I had an opportunity to watch pax boarding. Clearly, the gate agent did not turn back oversized carry-ons. At least five people had to turn their rollaboards sideways to fit in the overhead compartments.

A non-exit row seat, there was a good amount of legroom and I was fortunate to not have a middle-seat companion. Departure was 21 minutes past the scheduled time and we were only third in line for the runway, which is a miracle for a Friday afternoon “rush hour” departure. A single pass of the beverage cart (there was a small lemon wedge in my sparkling water!) and the usual long speech flogging the Mastercard. I didn’t see anyone take an application.

Other than three obnoxious loud 20-somethings sitting behind me that did not shut up with the f-bombs and a-bombs that I could still hear even with my iPhone cranked all the way up, it was an uneventful flight. Good landing and we pulled up to the B gate 34 minutes late.

Summary: These were nothing more than buses in the sky with few features but nothing against them. It’s just getting from point A to point B and back. Gate agents and flight attendants I interacted with were fine. For this trip, CO Express and US get a B+. As for the airports, CLT’s free wi-fi and $6.50 for parking in the daily deck earn an A. EWR with no free wi-fi, $19 daily parking (I drove past a sign when returning my rental car) and the inability to transfer terminals in the secure zone earn a C-. National gets a B- because I’d prefer they offered some choice to save the environment by offering smaller cars instead of all SUVs.

My latest trip on US Airways

As some of my friends and followers know, I have a sordid relationship with US Airways. It was my carrier of choice until after a disastrous year of air travel in 2007, where I earned around $1200 in vouchers due to countless incidences of mishandled irregular operations and poor customer service. I went from Chairman’s Preferred to Platinum Preferred to Silver Preferred to non-elite from 2007-2009. I still find it hard to give US Airways my money.

Recently I flew a four-segment, roundtrip award ticket to Providence, RI on US Airways by redeeming Continental OnePass miles. Overall, the travel was just OK. It was very basic transportation. The two longer, mainline segments between Charlotte and Providence were honestly quite boring. There is no in-flight entertainment, no power outlets for one’s own portable electronic devices, no Gogo inflight Internet, and no food at all (free or for sale). There is one pass of the beverage cart.

One incident I found bothersome is that US Airways, like other carriers, sells “Choice” and exit row seats. Before departing Charlotte, a flight attendant invited anyone to come sit in the exit row. There was a lady seated there who had paid an extra $27 for her exit row seat and she was upset that people were invited to sit there for free. In this case, I think the flight attendant was just trying to help people have more room, but what she did was contrary to company policy. The woman who purchased the seat had a right to be angry and she told the flight attendant she would be writing to complain. I don’t blame her. Either sell the seats or don’t sell the seats, but don’t give away paid seats in front of paying customers.

My trip ended with a delayed US Airways Express flight. First we had no aircraft, then no crew, and then we sat on the runway for at least 30 minutes waiting in line to take off. When I arrived at my home airport, my bag didn’t make it, and I had to stop and file a baggage claim. The end result was that I arrived late for an appointment and my bag was delivered five hours later.

My recommendation regarding US Airways is that if you want a no-frills, bare-bones method of air travel, then this is the airline for you. However, if you want more, select another carrier.