I just got back from a mileage run from DEN-PHX-IAH-RDU-IAH-PHX-DEN. I awoke at around 4 am to leave for the airport for my 6 am flight to Phoenix on US Airways. I arrived at the airport, grudgingly was herded through the security line, got my dose of radiation from the body-scanner, and eventually made it to my gate just in time. As I made the long trek to my aisle seat all the way at the back of the plane, I noticed a very ill looking man sitting in a middle seat and prayed to god that my seat wasn't next to him. Of course, it was, and I got to enjoy a 2 hour long flight with him constantly blowing his nose in my face.
I arrived in Phoenix around 7 am where I had a 6 hour layover. Phoenix Airport is in need of some serious renovations. It's so outdated and ugly. However, they do have a cool parking garage. It's pretty architecturally significant for a parking garage. I considered hanging out in the cool looking parking garage rather than the dingy terminal.
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| Phoenix Sky Harbor Parking Garage |
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As my layover continued, I grew to hate Phoenix Airport. They have free wifi, but it's impossible to use because it's so slow. Without internet, time passes by excruciatingly slow. In addition, PHX has terrible food options. They don't have much variety. There's a Pizza Hut and a TCBY about every 10 feet, but not much else. As much as I love me some Pizza Hut, I decided to try a burrito place. The burrito wasn't very good, but decent enough. Some TSA lady even came up to me to ask where I got the burrito proclaiming that it looked like the most delicious thing she'd ever seen. It wasn't that good, but it did fill me up.
As my flight time approached, I boarded a bus to Terminal 2 and then waited in the longest security line ever. With my Star Alliance Silver status, I was one of the first to board my Continental flight to Houston. I don't even know why I boarded so early as I didn't have any bags and the thought of being trapped in that metal tube in coach class for longer than I have to isn't a pleasant one. Fortunately, our 737 was pretty nice. It had TVs with DirecTV, but you had to pay for it.
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| DirecTV |
Two and a half hours later, our plane landed in Houston where I spent an hour searching for a decent place to eat. I finally settled on Popeye's, which is damn good but I always feel a clenching pain in my arteries each time I eat there. After eating, I headed to my gate where I heard the gate agent announcing that our flight was oversold and was asking for volunteers to be bumped in exchange for a $250 voucher. I quickly sprinted over, almost falling flat on my face, but by the time I got there enough people had already volunteered. :(
After an uneventful flight to Raleigh, we deplaned and I headed for the Hilton Garden Inn shuttle. I road the shuttle with some businessman who told me how much he hated Raleigh and how unhappy he was to be there. I checked into the hotel at about midnight, and was given a nice room on the top floor with a great view of the dumpster. My room was much nicer than I was expecting and the bed was extremely comfortable.
After some quality time with the TV, I awoke 2 hours later to the sound of my alarm. It was time to head back to the airport after only 3 hours in the hotel. I left my room to find a USA Today sitting at my doorstep. Now that's service (I'm very easily impressed)!
The hotel also had a pretty nice lobby.
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| HGI Lobby |
I arrived at Raleigh Airport with plenty of time to spare. The airport is really nice and new. I think it was recently renovated.
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| RDU |
One thing that's crazy is how long the line at Starbucks was. It was basically just 50 people standing there twitching as they daydreamed about their next caffeine fix.
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| Starbucks |
At 6 am, I boarded my flight to Houston where I got the entire row to myself. After arriving in Houston, I wandered aimlessly around the airport for a bit. One thing I realized after spending basically the last 24 hours in airports was how much I wanted a new wardrobe from Brooks Brothers. One day I will do all my shopping at airport Brooks Brothers. The most expensive shirt I currently own is a $10 polo from Ross, so I could use an upgrade.
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| Brooks Brothers - IAH |
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| Brooks Brothers - RDU |
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| George H.W. Bush statue - IAH (Ammmmurrrica!!) |
I grabbed some food at the most disgusting taco restaurant on earth. Seriously, I thought my food had been seasoned with ebola. After trying unsuccessfully to digest my food, I boarded my flight to Phoenix. I was saddened to see that I would be sitting next to quite possibly the fattest woman on earth. Like she was Guinness World Record fat! She had the armrest up so her fat could spill into my seat. Not to mention, this flight must of had at least 10 crying babies. I never understand why people bring babies on planes. Is it federally mandated that there be a baby on every flight? I don't think I've ever been on a flight where there wasn't a crying baby. This flight was worsened by the fact that there was some giant family of hicks on the plane. They were extremely noisy and rowdy. Is it really necessary to yell to your daughter (who's probably also your sister) sitting three rows behind you that the baby needs to be burped?
One thing I hate about Continental is how their first class curtain is see-through. Not only is there a pretentious curtain separating me from the luxury of first class, but I have to look in on the lucky people enjoying their food and plush seats while I sit there in the hellscape known as economy class.
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| Evil see-through curtain |
Our plane finally landed in Phoenix and I was happy to be off. Just one last flight and I was home free! My last flight went by fairly quickly thanks to Tetris and the fact that my seatmate wasn't a gorilla. When I arrived in Denver, I kissed the ground thankful to be done with flying. Because of these flights, I am now on track to secure Star Alliance Gold status with Aegean which should come in handy for future mileage runs due to the lounge access. Thanks for reading.
