Flight #1 from New Mexico back to Liverpool!

I’m back in the UK now after the trip to New Mexico to collect some rocks!  Annique and I brought back over 200 lbs of rocks in 5 checked bags between the two of us (all free!).  Amazingly, at the premier access check-in at El Paso airport, they didn’t even bat an eye.  The TSA did, however, open 4 of the 5 bags to look inside, as evidenced by the little pieces of paper I found in most of them.  I too would be confused if someone’s checked bags were mostly just volcanic rocks. 

El Paso airport is not a huge airport (being the 7^th largest in Texas), since US carriers don’t provide lounge access to their first-class/elite members only on domestic flights, and since there are no international flights from the airport currently, there are no lounges.  For the purpose of this review, I won’t hold that against the flight because I wouldn’t expect a lounge here anyway.

We had a nice view of a Super Guppy and an old 727, which was really cool!

The incoming flight was delayed, and according to the United app, this was the result of it needing some rebalance before it could leave Chicago.  Annique and I had a 4-hour layover in Chicago, so this didn’t really bother us one bit.  We just hung out in the terminal area and had some coffee from Starbucks.  I also briefly wondered if we’d have a similar problem given that they’d need to balance all those rocks we had…

Since I have United Premier Gold status, I was eligible for a complimentary upgrade to first class.  The airplane only had 6 first class seats on it (unlike the Embraer 175’s that have 12), but at T-48, there were 5 seats still available and I was first on the upgrade list!  So, I got my favorite seat, 1A.  It must’ve seemed strange to everyone that I had both my duffel bag and my backpack with me, but I’d run out of checked bags…

The seat for this flight definitely looked newer than the seat I’d had on the flight to El Paso and was very comfortable.  As many know, I’m generally very partial to regional first class, given that for a few years (when I was in high school and an undergraduate), 50-seat, single-class ERJ-145s were the aircraft I flew on most commonly. 

Boarding took a bit longer than usual, but I think that was due to some of the passengers being infrequent or nervous fliers.  Once airborne, we were treated to some very nice views of the desert (through a bit of a dirty window), which is always one of my favorite landscapes.  I generally prefer easy access to the aisle, so I don’t often get a window seat, so this type of seat is always a treat.

There was some turbulence over Texas, but once we had neared Oklahoma, the in-flight service began.  Since this flight was booked off as (exactly) 3 hours long, a full in-flight meal was served to first class.  I went for a gin & tonic as my drink, as I knew I still had a long way to go.  The only option was a roast beef wrap, which I can’t eat (without getting sick), so the flight attendant graciously offered me a tapas box from the economy pay-for-food menu.  Looking around at the wraps and the salads on offer, I think I actually got the better meal.  The United CRJs don’t have an oven on-board, so all the food is served chilled.  I added the olives in the tapas menu to the salad and grapes side dishes from the first-class menu, and it made the salad way better in my opinion.

After the meal service, I worked on my laptop for a bit.  United offers WiFi on the planes, with streaming entertainment, but I’ve never actually used it.  (If anyone has, could they let me know how it is?). 

As we were coming in for a landing, we got some more nice views of Chicago, where we would be spending the following 4 hours before our Lufthansa flight in Premium Economy to Munich.

For this 3-hour regional flight, there wasn’t a lounge at El Paso (n/a).  The tapas box was fun and pretty good overall, despite the lack of an entree (3/5).  The service was solid (4/5), and I always enjoy the single seat on regional aircraft (4/5).  In-flight WiFi and video streaming was available, which gets a 3/5.  Overall, the flight gets a 14/20.