Flight Report – UA 281/UA 2420 – AUS – IAH – YYZ

Even though I didn’t get to see much of it, I really enjoyed the craziness that is Austin.  Just the food, drink, and nightlife alone make this city a worthwhile visit.  But, I just scratched the surface here.  The museums, parks, and other attractions that I didn’t get around to on this trip provide a lot more substantial context to Austin’s story.  I have no idea when I will return, but it will definitely be for a longer visit combined with a few days in San Antonio.  This part of Texas is just incredibly beautiful and laid back making it a really relaxing place to vacation.

Austin-Bergstrom International Airport

Right then, so onto to my flight home.  I grabbed the first taxi I could find at the Hyatt Regency since a lot of conference attendees were also making their way home around the same time as me.  With a late afternoon flight, I left shortly after 2pm CST.  I thought this would leave me plenty of time to check in until we hit some traffic on IH-35.  Fortunately, it only lasted for a couple of minutes.  The ride itself only took about 20 minutes, so I still had more than enough time to check in for my flight.  It was a chilly 6°C despite the sunny skies appearing above Austin-Bergstrom International Airport.  I’m just thankful that I got to experience a few good days while I was here as it could have been much worse.

Austin-Bergstrom International Airport

Check in took only 5 minutes, which gave me plenty of time to explore the airport if I wanted to.  However, since lunch was provided at the end of our conference, I was both full and exhausted at this point.  There definitely were a few interesting dining options here, but I decided to wait until I got to Houston to eat as I had a 2 ½ hour layover there.  I did take advantage of the more liberal liquor laws of Texas, though.  You can drink alcohol anywhere you want within Austin-Bergstrom provided you are at least 21 years of age or older.  With that being said, I grabbed one more local Austin beer for the road – an IPA from Infamous Brewing Company – and just waited at my gate until boarding.  This IPA was very malty and hoppy with flavours of candied yams, lemon custard, and pepper.

Austin-Bergstrom International Airport

United Airlines Flight #281 had a formation of 2x2 in Business class with three rows in total.  Economy was in a 3x2 formation with 35 rows in total.  I sat in the very back in Seat 38F.  Upon takeoff, I was a bit unnerved by the amount of turbulence we encountered.  It seemed much bumpier than usual and I felt as if the tail end of the plane was going to snap off for some reason.  Yes, I know that sounds silly.  But, I have been noticing lately how much more sensitive I am to the regular nuances of flight when I am in these smaller planes now.  It gives you a greater appreciation of what these flight crews have to deal with on a regular basis.

A beautiful sunny sky en route to Houston

With a scheduled flight time of 33 minutes, there wasn’t much time to enjoy this first segment of the trip home.  I ended up drifting in and out of sleep instead, but woke up around the peak of the flight to this gorgeous sunny sky.  It was a nice sendoff for me from Texas.  We had time for one complimentary drink and a snack, so I grabbed my usual Mott’s Tomato juice with pretzels.  Upon descent on George Bush Intercontinental Airport, we experienced a dip in the weather as it was cloudy and 3°C leaving me unable to see the downtown area of Houston.  Despite the inclement weather, we had a very soft landing.  Surprisingly, no one clapped for this great landing like tradition dictates.  In any case, I was here in Houston with more than a couple of hours to spare before the second segment of my trip home began.

George Bush Intercontinental Airport

UA 281 – AUS to IAH

Operated by: United Airlines

Aircraft:  Airbus A320 (twin-jet)

Depart: 04:11PM CST – Austin-Bergstrom International Airport (AUS) – Gate 27

Arrive:  05:21PM CST – Houston Bush International Airport (IAH) – Gate C4

Flight Time: 1:10; Non Stop Flight – 245 Miles/394 Kilometers; Date:  November 13, 2018

Ember - One of the best Airport Restaurants in North America

Due to the near fatal mistake I made arriving to Houston a few days earlier, I decided to find my gate first for the flight home to Toronto before looking for a place to eat.  Fortunately, my gate was still in Terminal C.  So, I didn’t have too far to go to.  This time around, I decided to eat at Ember.  It seemed like a fancier place than Bam Bam and had way better service.  I’ll write a separate review on this restaurant, but it is one of my favourite North American airport restaurants to date.

George Bush Intercontinental Airport

After finishing my dinner, I still had quite a bit of time to kill before boarding.  Rather than continue to wait it out at Ember, I decided to make my way near the gate to see if there was a place to charge my phone before boarding.  In fact, there was a whole section of tables with charging stations where people could also order food and drinks while they are at it.  This also included alcohol, so I decided to have one more Texan beer as a final send off to this great State.  This time I ordered a Pilsner from B-52 Brewing Company – a local craft brewery just outside of Houston.  It was very light, hoppy, and crisp.  Not bad for this style of beer!

Departure information for United Airlines Flight #2420

United Airlines Flight #2420 had a 2x2 formation with 4 rows in Business Class with a 3x2 formation in Economy.  The Captain announced that the expected flight time would be a total of 2 hours, 24 minutes with tailwind.  This time around I was willing to pay for the inflight entertainment system.  However, I couldn’t reach down to plug in my ear buds to watch movies.  And I couldn’t ask the elderly Indian man beside me to move so I could plug them in because there was a severe language barrier here.  So, I ended up sleeping for most of the flight against my better judgment.  Not much else to discuss about this flight aside from the rough turbulence we experienced just before landing in Toronto.  Everyone was getting tossed around like we are all riding bumper cars.  It was just a terrible experience.  Aside from that, I was happy to be home, but a little sad as this would be my last flight for 2018.

Descending upon Toronto

UA 2420 – IAH to YYZ

Operated by: United Airlines

Aircraft: Boeing 737-800 (twin-jet); Seat: 24A

Cabin:  First Class – Dinner; Business – Dinner; Economy – Food for Sale

Depart: 07:48PM CST – George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH), Gate C3

Arrive:  11:56PM EST – Toronto Pearson International Airport (YYZ), Gate 193

Flight Time: 3:08; Non Stop Flight – 1380 Miles/2221 Kilometers; Date: November 13, 2018

Flight Report – UA 2424/UA 6372 – YYZ – IAH – AUS

Austin has been a city that I have always wanted to visit since I was a child.  My childhood best friend was born there.  One of my favourite movies – Dazed & Confused – was filmed there.  And Austin is notorious for its nightlife and music scene.  Finally, the time had come for me to finally visit the “Live Music Capitol of the World.”  This was going to be my last work trip for the year, and even my Manager suggested that I take some extra time off to explore this quirky little city.  So I did.  I took an extra day off work so I can have an extra-long weekend before my event was to start the following Monday.  It has been a long time since I was this stoked for a work trip.

United Airlines Flight # 2424

As usual, I opted for the earliest flight option possible so I could maximize my time in Austin.  It was an early start to the day as I left my condo just past 5am.  With virtually no traffic on Highway 401, I arrived at Toronto Pearson International Airport within 30 minutes.  This time around, I would be flying with United Airlines.  For some reason, their self-service kiosks were not working.  However, it wasn’t particularly busy, either.  So, I managed to check into my flight within 10 minutes.  As an added bonus, security took less than five minutes.  But that is where my luck ended as U.S. Customs was packed and took me about 15 minutes to go through.  This left me with less than an hour prior to boarding, but enough time for me to grab breakfast.

Storm's a brewing over Toronto Pearson International Airport

I decided to give Wahlburgers another chance despite the slow service I received the last time I was there.  Once again, I opted for the Dorchester breakfast.  Service was very quick this time as I received my breakfast about 10 minutes after ordering.  However, the restaurant was about 50% full this time.  So, I guess that could explain the why it was much better this time around.  The morning also started off on a sad note as my friend and former co-worker passed away the night before.  My thoughts were with her family rather than on my plans for Austin.  Thus, I was now adopting a “go with the flow” plan once I arrived in Austin as my heart and mind were just not into pre-planning some activities with the spare time I had left prior to boarding.

A brief break in the inclement weather en route to Houston

United Airlines Flight #2424 had a formation of 2x2 with four rows up in Business class and a 3x2 formation in Economy.  While I was excited to see we had leather seats, the drawback was the lack of legroom.  I was also excited to see “Tag” was available for one of the movie options.  However, United Airlines has a partnership with DirectTV for their inflight entertainment system.  For flights over 2+ hours, such as this one, you have a package option to watch unlimited movies and television shows for $8 US.  This is a complete ripoff given the extra fees we already pay in North America for such “privileges” as checked baggage and food.  Plus, the cost of flying out of Toronto to anywhere in North America is pretty expensive to begin with.  And if that weren’t enough, even access to the UAL Flight Map requires you purchase a package!  Seriously?  You are charging passengers money to have real time access to see how far along are we on the flight itinerary.  No wonder they get slammed for their Customer Service now.  Never again will I fly United unless I have no other choices.  Such a complete and utter disappointment!

George Bush Intercontinental Airport

With no inflight entertainment system to keep me occupied, I ended up sleeping away the first half of the flight.  It was pretty smooth with the exception of heavy turbulence occurring about 15 – 20 minutes after takeoff.  I was pretty refreshed by this nap, but extremely bored sitting here through the second half of my flight to Houston.  We encountered some more turbulence about 30 minutes from landing.  Ultimately, we ended up landing about five minutes earlier than expected into some cloudy conditions.  But the 13°C weather was much better than the cloudy 5°C weather I left back home only a few hours earlier.

George Bush Intercontinental Airport

UA 2424 – YYZ to IAH

Operated by: United Airlines

Aircraft:  Boeing 737-800 (twin-jet)

Depart: 07:35AM EST – Toronto Pearson International Airport (YYZ) – Terminal 1, Gate F67

Arrive:  10:29AM EST – Houston Bush International Airport (IAH) – Gate C4

Flight Time: 3:54; Non Stop Flight – 1,342 Miles/2160 Kilometers; Date:  November 9, 2018

George Bush Intercontinental Airport

After landing at George Bush Intercontinental Airport, I decided to look for somewhere to eat as I had a two hour layover before my flight to Austin.  Ultimately, I settled for BamBam as it served as both a Vietnamese restaurant and a beer garden.  While it was a beautifully designed restaurant, it really lacked in customer service.  So, I didn’t bother to spend too much time here once I finished my meal.  I decided to grab a beer at Ember before double checking the Arrivals/Departures board to make sure I had time for one more.  Good thing I did as I completely misread it upon arrival thinking that I was departing from Gate C14.  However, United Airlines Flight #6372 was actually scheduled to depart out of Gate E12 – a completely different Terminal that required the use of a tram!  The confusion was caused by the fact that United Airlines had three different flights to Austin this afternoon – not two like I initially thought.  I’m not how I misread that so badly, but I will chalk it up to severe exhaustion from lack of sleep.

Never found out what "Oecke" referred to!

After settling up my tab, I ran like a bat out of Hell trying to get to Gate E12 as quickly as I could.  I had zero idea what I would have done next had I missed my flight.  Fortunately, my flight was delayed as the plane we were to take was arriving late itself.  It was kind of similar to the situation I had in Philadelphia a few months earlier, except Texas had been hit with severe rainstorms all week.  It was now time for Austin and Houston to receive this inclement weather.  Boy, was I really lucky!  Since we were now looking at another 45 minutes or so before boarding, I walked around Terminal E for a bit before I grabbed another drink at the Beer Hive – a really cool bar that numerous Houston craft beers available both on draft and in cans or bottles.  I highly recommend this bar if you ever find yourself with time to kill at Terminal E within George Bush Intercontinental Airport.

The Colorado River cuts through Texas

The time had come to board my flight to Austin.  This plane was significantly smaller than United Airlines Flight #2424 with four rows of a 2-1 formation in Business class with 2-2 formation in Economy.  My window seat was at the very back, which made it very sensitive to any extreme movements during the flight.  For example, the takeoff was noticeably wobbly where I was sitting.  It wasn’t nearly as bad as that Orlando takeoff I experienced, but it was slightly unnerving.  It was still extremely cloudy, so I was unable to catch any glimpses of Houston.  It is located about 20 minutes away from the airport, so I can only imagine what it would look like either arriving or departing on a perfectly clear day.

Austin-Bergstrom International Airport

Once we reached cruising altitude, the clouds dissipated as we experienced clear sunny skies for the rest of the flight.  This gave me hope that the inclement weather had passed Austin by now.  (Editor’s Note: It was actually 14°C and sunny by the time we landed.)  Because it was only a 30 minute flight to Austin, I decided to stare out the window and enjoy the scenery below me as there was no inflight entertainment available.  Despite the short flight, we still received complimentary drinks and free WiFi.  I was also amused by all this beautiful farmland surrounding Austin upon our descent.  It gave me this first impression that Austin was really just a small American town than a world class city.  In a matter of hours, I would be proven wrong.

Austin-Bergstrom International Airport

UA 6372 – IAH to AUS

Operated by: United Airlines

Aircraft: Airbus A320 (twin-jet); Seat: 24A

Cabin:  Snacks & Complimentary Drinks

Depart: 01:03PM CST – George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH), Gate E12

Arrive:  01:35PM CST – Austin-Bergstrom International Airport (AUS)

Flight Time: 0:32; Non Stop Flight – 140 Miles/225 Kilometers; Date: November 9, 2018