MR to Greenville

I woke up at 4 am to catch my 6:30am flight out of Colorado Springs Airport. COS is about a one hour and 20 minute drive from my house. I parked in the long term lot ($6/day) and a friendly shuttle driver followed me to my spot. I got on the shuttle which was kind of unnecessary seeing as the entrance to the airport was only 200 yards away.

I boarded my extremely short flight from Colorado Springs to Denver. When we got up in the air, the flight attendant announced, "You may now turn on electronic devices, but there's no point really as I am going to have you turn them off in about 30 seconds when we begin our descent."

Legroom

When I arrived in Denver, I started heading over to the United Lounge and suddenly I realized I'd forgotten my Aegean Star Alliance Gold card. I've forgotten it before, and it always makes getting into lounges a hassle. But this time, it went fairly smoothly.

I approached the lounge agent and the conversation went something like this:
Me: Here's my boarding pass, but I forgot my Star Gold card.
Agent: That's okay, I can look it up. Which airline is it?
Me: Aegean and the code is A3.
Agent: I don't see Aegean here on my computer. It's not part of Star Alliance.
Me: Yes it is. (They had a little sign on the counter showing all the airlines in Star Alliance and I pointed out Aegean for her)
Agent: Oh ok. Go on in.
It's usually not that easy. The agents usually argue with me for a long time about how I need to bring my card and that Aegean isn't a real airline.

Lounge breakfast

View from the lounge

I headed to my gate at 7:45 am to board my 8:15 flight. Boarding time was at 7:45. When I arrived at my gate at 7:46, the gate agent said "Are you Ben? Hurry you're the last one." I got on the plane to see that every person was already in their seats. Impressive, already boarded 20 minutes before departure. I had a bulkhead seat up front.

Legroom

One of the best indicators of a good flight: when they give you the whole can.

During the flight, I watched the movie Real Steel. Pretty entertaining, but hard to see from where I was sitting. The flight passed by real quickly and we landed at Dulles about 30 minutes early. I headed to the United Club in Terminal D where I went through the same rigmarole with the lounge agents until they finally agreed to let me in. This is one of the nicest United Lounges I've been to. Plenty of seating and fridges with drinks.

Lounge

After about 5 minutes in the United Lounge, I got bored and decided it was time to head over to the Lufthansa Senator Lounge. I had purposely scheduled a four hour layover at Dulles to relax in the Senator Lounge. I hopped on one of the moon buggies to the main terminal and then took the new train system to Terminal B.

I was afraid they weren't going to let me into the lounge without my gold card, but the Lufthansa lounge agent was very nice. She said, "They will yell at me if I let you in without your elite card, but I will let you in anyway." Once in the lounge, I grabbed some lunch.

IAD Senator Lounge

View from the lounge

Saudi Arabian Airlines

Then I decided to take a shower. The showers are in the downstairs part of the lounge and you just go up to the attendant and she'll open one of the shower rooms for you. The shower rooms are extremely nice with good water pressure. The only issue was the temperature which seemed to fluctuate a lot between extremely hot and extremely cold.

Entrance to showers

Shower room

Bath amenities

After the shower, it was time for more food.

Lower level food

Lower level seating

Lufthansa flight boarding from the lounge

After some quality time in the lounge, it was time to board my last flight of the day. I really didn't want to leave the lounge. I would definitely live in a Senator Lounge if I could. After boarding my flight to Greenville in an almost empty CRJ-200, the flight attendant announced that we could expect an on time arrival in Greensboro, North Carolina. For a second there I thought I'd gotten on the wrong plane, but she later corrected herself saying we would in fact be going to Greenville, not Greensboro.

Approaching Greenville

Greenville Airport

I called up the Hilton and asked them to send the shuttle. The shuttle came about 10 minutes later. The lady at check-in informed me that I'd been upgraded to the club level and that I could take breakfast in the lounge anytime from 6am to 10am. She also gave me the internet password which is Greenville (real creative). The internet is pretty slow, but decent enough.

Greenville Hilton

Entrance

Lobby

Conference Rooms

Overall, the room was nice. The biggest issue was a weird looking bug that had gotten into the room that I spent like two hours trying to kill.

View from the room

That's how you know you're in a a nice hotel, when there's a phone next to the toilet.

For dinner, I ordered room service.

This hotel is just a standard Hilton, but what really set it apart was the service. Every employee I spoke with couldn't have been nicer. I'd never met such happy, friendly hotel employees.

I like to try and see each city I visit beyond just the hotel, but unfortunately the Hilton's location isn't very ideal if you don't have a car.  There was a strip mall across the street, so I figured that would have to do.  There was an Asian supermarket there which was quite entertaining.

Hilton from the strip mall

Asian supermarket

Fresh fish

Preserved Duck Eggs - Lead Free!

Superior Pickle Sauce

Around 2 pm, I headed back to Greenville Airport.  There was literally no one at the airport.  It was cool to be the only person in line at security.

Empty Terminal

While I was boarding my flight, an Indian woman who didn't speak a word of English was trying to board.  She handed the agent her ticket, but when the agent looked at the ticket she pulled her aside and told her she needed to leave the airport.  Apparently, the woman had just come off the arriving flight.  The agent pointed the woman towards baggage claim, but she still didn't seem to understand.  She kept insisting that she board the flight. Eventually, the agent called someone over to escort her to baggage claim.  It makes me wonder what she was doing in Greenville of all places.

I boarded my flight to Chicago, and was seated next to an interesting, albeit somewhat strange girl who was studying to be a mortician.  We landed in Chicago, and I headed for a lounge.  The lounge agent denied me access and told me there was no way she could let me in without my elite card.  I didn't really care that much though, as it was a short layover.  Before I knew it, it was time for my final flight back to Colorado Springs.  We landed at COS where there was a big snowstorm.  It took me about four hours to get home with all the traffic and ice.  Overall though,  it was one of my best mileage runs to date.

Thanksgiving Travel

Outbound
Delta's been running some great fares between DCA and DEN recently.  I snagged one for $75 o/w right around Thanksgiving time.  Unfortunately, it was a 6:30 am flight.  I left my apartment a little before 5 am and hailed a taxi, as the metro was not yet open.  I arrived at the airport in no time and soon boarded my flight.  The plane was a CRJ-700, which I prefer to a larger plane because you only have to sit next to one other person instead of two.

I had a short connection in Memphis and decided to check out the SkyClub there.  I had recently signed up for a program that would reimburse me (up to $50) for any airport lounge day pass I purchased.  I walked into the SkyClub and inquired about a day pass, but while the agent was about to ring me up, I looked at the time and realized my flight was well into boarding.  I guess I had kind of lost track of time while I was shoving delicious Popeye's into my face.  I raced back to my gate, and boarded the second leg of my flight which was also operated by a CRJ-700.

Memphis Airport

On my flight to Denver, I was sitting next to a rather interesting guy.  He said he'd just gotten back from living in Africa for the last two years on a mission trip, and was headed to Bangladesh after the holidays.

One thing to note is the flight attendants on both my flights were all some of the best I've ever experienced.  They were constantly cracking jokes (yet, they were still very professional) and made the flights fly by quickly.  Delta, for the most part, has way better customer service than United in my opinion.  Every time I fly them, I'm pleasantly surprised.  Plus, Delta gives you cookies.

In the end, my flight arrived in Denver early and I enjoyed a nice week visiting my family.

Return
I wanted to return on the Sunday after Thanksgiving like normal people do, but the flights were extremely overpriced.   I ended up taking a relatively cheap fare on United on Saturday morning at 6 am.  Getting up at 4 am to head to the airport is a pain.  I could barely pull myself out of bed.  I made it to DIA just in time.  There weren't many people on my flight to Houston and I got a bit of rest.

Sunrise from the plane

After arriving in Houston, I headed for the lounge where I helped myself to a delicious breakfast of stale bagels and lukewarm OJ.

Lounge food at its finest

My flight to DCA was packed and it was delayed by about 40 minutes due to a storm.  After I boarded and took my aisle seat, one of the FAs approached me and asked if I'd be willing to switch to a middle seat so some woman could sit with her kid.  I gave the FA kind of a blank stare (thinking oh god, why me??).  Luckily, the guy sitting in front of me volunteered to give up his seat.  Despite keeping my aisle seat, the flight went by extremely slowly.  It just wouldn't end.  I'd look at the time and it would be 12:30 pm, and then I'd look it at again after what seemed to be three hours later, and it would say 12:32 pm.  When we finally did land, I had a giant headache (from the two dozen crying babies on the flight) and a backache (from the kid behind me who kept kicking my seat).  Travel will really wear you down.  I need me some first class upgrade.  Come to think of it, maybe I'll just fly private home for the holidays.