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.
