Panama Mileage Run 2013 | Jason Around the World

Flight 2: Chicago (ORD) to Houston (IAH)

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Jul 042013

Flight 2

United Airlines flight 32
From Chicago (ORD) to Houston (IAH)

Depart 11:31 Arrive 14;08, Scheduled Flight Time 2:37

Boeing 787-8, Registration N27901, Manufactured 2012, Seat 4A

Miles: 925
Total Miles Flown this trip: 1,737

Flight Time in Air: 2:05
Flight Level: 40,000 feet
Departure Runway: 14L
Arrival Runway: 26L

Time Elapsed since trip start at 07:00 Thursday July 4: 8 hours 22 minutes

Actual Departure Time: 11:35 – 4 minutes late
Actual Arrival Time: 14:22 – 14 minutes late

Departure Gate: B17
Arrival Gate: C14

DirectTV: no
Channel 9: no
WiFi: no

Pre-Departure Beverage: offered anything, chose Bloody Mary

Meal: “Shrimp salad or chicken sandwich with soup” – went with the chicken sandwich and soup…and some relatively drinkable red wine of course! It was more of a calzone/stuffed pizza thing, but it was pretty tasty!

Other Notes: I slept half the flight…I’m already exhausted from the early morning and this is only the 2nd of 15 flights. I’m gonna be dead! I don’t know if it was the turbulence or the plane, but the 787 seemed really bumpy in flight.

Flight 1: DCA-ORD

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Jul 042013

Flight 1

United Airlines flight 202
From Washington, National (DCA) to Chicago (ORD)

Depart 07:45 Arrive 08:41, Flight Time 1:56

Airbus A320, Registration N435UA, Manufactured 1996, Seat 2A

Miles: 612
Total Miles Flown this trip: 612

Flight Time in Air: 1:30
Flight Level: 34,000 feet

Time Elapsed since trip start at 07:00 Thursday July 4: 2 hours 30 minutes

Actual Departure Time: 7:56
Actual Arrival Time:

Departure Gate: 14
Arrival Gate: C29

DirectTV: no
Channel 9: yes
WiFi: yes

Pre-Departure Beverage: offered anything, chose water no ice

Meal: cinnamon scone

Other Notes: departure was delayed about 10 minutes while they sorted the “extra” person on board who hadn’t scanned their boarding pass.

To Panama…with 15 segments in 3.5 days on United including 4 segments on the 787

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Jun 252013

I was dropped on the head as a child, that’s pretty clear. I do things most sane people wouldn’t dream of doing. So, when I found out I had four days free over the upcoming holiday, I started looking for new countries to visit to add to my tally of 136 so far. Problem is, most of them are now too far away to consider for a four day weekend.

Backup plan…let’s see how many miles I can earn towards million miler. As a bonus, let’s see how many 787 segments I can theoretically fly now that it’s back in the air. A few days of planning, and insanity was born.

The final plan is:

Day 1: Washington DC, National (DCA) to Chicago (ORD) to Houston (IAH) to San Francisco (SFO) to Los Angeles (LAX) with ORD-IAH on the 787

Day 2: Redeye flight LAX back to Houston on the 787, continuing on the 787 to Chicago, then to Newark (EWR) and finally Panama (PTY) and sleep in a real bed

Day 3: Morning flight from Panama to Washington, Dulles (IAD) then on to Houston on a 767, back to LAX, and finally ending up in San Francisco for a very short 6 hour night.

Day 4: San Francisco to LAX early morning, then on to Houston on the 787, and finally home to DCA.

Final routing, assuming nothing goes wrong, and it almost certainly will:

DCA-ORD-IAH-SFO-LAX

LAX-IAH-ORD-EWR-PTY

PTY-IAD-IAH-LAX-SFO

SFO-LAX-IAH-DCA

I’m pretty sure I’m not going to survive this. By the numbers:

1 redeye
2 countries
3 showers…hopefully
4 flights on the 787
5 widebodies
7 United Clubs (if I can figure out a way to access on domestic days)
8 airports
8 different aircraft types
15 segments
85 hours
16,624 miles flown

So far 14 of 15 segments confirmed in first/business class, with one pending what will hopefully be an easy 1K upgrade on a 757 on July 4th. Time will tell though.

I’ll definitely make a point to pack my Bro Tank in order to offend as many “properly” dressed FlyerTalkers as possible on this most ‘Merican of all holidays.

Stay tuned…I’m pretty sure this adventure is going to have more twists and turns than gumby at a limbo convention!