This trip begins with the drive from Lincoln to Omaha. Really not much to talk about here, except the fact that having three lanes on I-80 between the two cities is amazing. Take note Northern Colorado.

Once I arrived at Eppley, I proceeded to the security checkpoint where I found the longest line I’ve ever seen there…four people. And, per usual at this particular checkpoint, I was witness to an amusing encounter.

As I detailed in a previous blog post, this checkpoint consists of one line for general access on the left and a Pre-Check line on the right. I was waiting behind a family of three that, based on the excessive amount a luggage they had with them, probably did not fly often. As the son was getting his ID checked at the podium, another TSA agent came through the line announcing that if anyone had ‘Pre-Check’ on their boarding passes, they could move over to the right line.

The mother in the group was lucky enough to have exactly that. And she proclaimed it loudly for everyone in the area to hear. The officer attempted to move her over to the other line, but it was not meant to be. She then attempted to yell at her son and husband to come over as well. Problem: neither of them received Pre-Check access from the airline they were flying. So this, of course, opened up a lengthy, and loud, debate across both security desks. When something like this happens, you can’t even be mad. You just have to marvel at the lack of self awareness and knowledge of social conventions that some people have and enjoy the free entertainment being provided.

Eventually the TSA agent spoke up and attempted to explain the how some flyers get Pre-Check from the airlines. However, this family was still too wrapped up in their own drama to pay her any heed. After a few more moments of this, the parents made some passive aggressive remarks toward each other and went back to their respective lines. Security at Eppley, always a show.

Soon I was able to breeze through security and proceeded to my favorite plane spotting area in the terminal.  For the past several months, this particular section of tarmac has been under construction, meaning there has been a wide open view of the planes coming to land on 14R and L. However, when I arrived this time, I discovered, much to my chagrin that the construction had wrapped up and the jet bridge had been moved back into its normal positions, totally obscuring my view. Would I say I was crushed? Yes. Yes, I would. Oh you think that’s a bit over dramatic? First of all, how dare you. Second, yeah, it probably is. As a result, I wandered around the small terminal looking for an equally good spot but was highly disappointed in the offerings. I eventually settled on a spot that had decent views of both runways at the section at which most of the aircraft began their rotations…I guess I’ll take it…

After a short time spotting (mostly Southwest 737s, but there was a Delta 727, so that was cool), it was time to board for an on-time departure at 1730 hours on an A-320. I was pleasantly surprised with the amount of legroom I found at my seat. I used my free ‘upgrade’ from my regular economy seat to snag a window seat in the first row of Economy Plus, directly behind the last row of first. In almost every plane in which I’ve sat in this particular row, there has been a physical bulkhead from floor to ceiling dividing First from Economy Plus. However, this particular A-320 configuration just had the wall go down until approximately a foot from the floor. This gave me, what felt like, an infinite amount of legroom. I think I could have laid down on the floor and not intruded on the person in the seat in front of me. Would I have done that though? No, I’m a decent human being.

I was honestly shocked how much room I had. I think this particular configuration is great and wish United would adopt it on more of their aircraft. They already charge varying rates for Economy Plus seats, depending on how desirable they are. I think that for longer flights, people would absolutely pay an even higher premium for a seat with this much leg room.

The rest of the flight was relatively uneventful. I’m a Boeing guy through and through, but this Airbus experience was perfectly pleasant. I, once again, refused any beverage or snack service, but the flight attendants seemed nice enough and were quick and efficient during their duties.

As a side note, I feel bad for the flight attendants on these short hop flights. People have no idea the duties they have to attend to these flights, I don’t even know all the things they have to do, and expect so much from them. People seem to think they only exist to serve drinks and how hard can that be? Performing all of their regular duties, serving drinks, snacks, and answering both reasonable and unreasonable requests from people is hard enough when you have hours to dedicate. I can’t imagine having to squeeze all of that into a one hour flight…it must be absolutely insane. Give your flight attendants a break, especially on these quick flights, they are doing the work of several hours in just one.

That about ends this review. I didn’t spend much on the particular flight this time, but that was because there wasn’t really much to talk about. It was another good flight from United.

The best part of this trip was after disembarking. While walking back through the terminal, I was lucky enough to see the Lufthansa 747-400 en-route to FRA on pushback. I got a couple of cool shots of it taxiing next to a United 777-200 preparing for its flight to, I believe, LAX. The 747 never ceases to amaze me. How does that thing get airborne? What a feat of engineering.

That will end this review, I’ll have my next one coming soon, a CRJ-700 that may or may not include an upgrade to United First and another awkward security story…