Round The World and other travels
A frequent flyer's collection of trip diaries
This is: USA Road Trip 2011
Flight Log 7: UA390
San Diego (SAN) - San Francisco (SFO)
As the departure time had been revised first to 1110 and then to 1141, it was reassuring to see that we appeared to be proceeding on the basis of no further changes. Legroom was excellent in the front row of Economy Plus. Unlike most bulkhead seats, these had usable stowage space through the bottom of the partition and under the back row of First Class. I was nicely positioned just forward of the port engine. An announcement imparted the information that while the flight number was continuing to Chicago - a curious-sounding concept, I thought, although I knew exactly what they meant - the actual aircraft was not. So in UK terminology, it would be 'All change, please' at San Francisco.
As we pushed back, the expected flight time was given as a very precise-sounding 1hr 6mins and, for the first time, the reason for the air traffic control delays was explained: low cloud at San Francisco, which had now dissipated. We took off at 1141 and started to make our way up the Californian coastline. There was a beverage service in Economy; I asked for a diet coke and was pleased to receive a full, proper-size can. We seemed to have a nice crowd in the Economy Plus section and it made all the difference: this was easily the most pleasant scheduled flight I had taken since arriving in the US just over two weeks previously.
We started our descent fairly early at 1225 and touched down in SFO over half an hour later, at 1257. As we taxied to our stand, I noticed that Emirates and Lufty were both in town, the former with a 777 and the latter with a giant A380 double-decker.
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| Date: Mon 12 Sep 2011 |
| Aircraft: Airbus A320 |
| Scheduled dep: 1053 |
| Actual departure: 1138 |
| Scheduled arrival: 1223 |
| Actual arrival: 1303 |
| Cabin: Economy Plus |
| Seat: 7A |
