United airlines

[djd66]

Great Sand Dunes National Park. It's in the San Luis Valley, about 4 hours southwest of Denver. Fascinating place, 30 square miles of dunes deposited in a corner of the valley up against 14,000' mountains. Dunes have a vertical rise of 750'. In May a warm, shallow creek/spring flows beside the base of the dunes. It's like the beach, except 1000 miles from the nearest ocean.

View attachment 63017View attachment 63018

can you ski on them?

 

[jimk]

can you ski on them?

Yes. I had to google it, but yes nordic & alpine skiing, and snowboarding are allowed in winter. As you can see by my first photo, in summer a lot of people take "sandboards" up to use on the dunes.
Here's a photo I grabbed off the internet of snowboarding in winter.

 

[machski]

Hey!! I'm sitting in that fossil right now. Still beats flying commercial

JK, but I'm too lazy not to fly a fully integrated avionics suite these days.

 

[abc]

Yes. I had to google it, but yes nordic & alpine skiing, and snowboarding are allowed in winter. As you can see by my first photo, in summer a lot of people take "sandboards" up to use on the dunes.
Here's a photo I grabbed off the internet of snowboarding in winter.
View attachment 63020

“Allowed”, if you’re really lucky.

As you can see, the snow cover was spotty. And that’s when it got snow at all.

I was there in one winter, after skiing Taos, heading back to Denver. (Part of my trip report on the year I went ski bumming) I was hiking in shorts. Though towards the top, I had to put the zipped off pants legs back on and add a thin jacket. Skiing? Maybe for 10 yards.

There may have been nordic skiing back in the 50’s. Or 70’s? But I doubt there’s much snow accumulation on the flat land below the summit nowadays.

 

[2planks2coasts]

JK, but I'm too lazy not to fly a fully integrated avionics suite these days.

Lol... No glass cockpit here. We have a few 45's as well. They're still 20+ years old, but the difference is night & day. More room for ski gear too.

To the thread topic. My wife has the absolute worst luck when flying United. I've tried to explain that weather events and such affect all carriers. She's not buying it. I talked her into letting me book her on EWR-MHT (express ops by GoJet) today. Of course it was delayed two hours. I've now been informed that should I wish to remain happily married, I will never suggest she fly United again.

 

[machski]

Lol... No glass cockpit here. We have a few 45's as well. They're still 20+ years old, but the difference is night & day. More room for ski gear too.

To the thread topic. My wife has the absolute worst luck when flying United. I've tried to explain that weather events and such affect all carriers. She's not buying it. I talked her into letting me book her on EWR-MHT (express ops by GoJet) today. Of course it was delayed two hours. I've now been informed that should I wish to remain happily married, I will never suggest she fly United again.

I have the same issues with UAL threw EWR. That airport in and of itself is a disaster. Then United makes it worse trying to shove the schedule they have into that joint. I recall oh about 8 years ago or so, they made a conscious effort to push traffic away from EWR (when MHT lost that, they gave us IAD flights). Honestly thought that ran so much better. Now it's just EWR again from MHT and I avoid them like the plague. Company used them EWR-BOS for me end of last tour, scored me a big payday when UAL melted down Saturday night!!

 

[2Planker]

Pretty sure my best and worst airlines based on quality/professionalism, etc... have all been European.

BEST: Aer Lingus & Virgin
WORST: RyanAir

Flew Air Lingus last fall. Boston -Shannon. It was OK. Better than many but No Swiss Air

 

[2planks2coasts]

I have the same issues with UAL threw EWR. That airport in and of itself is a disaster. Then United makes it worse trying to shove the schedule they have into that joint. I recall oh about 8 years ago or so, they made a conscious effort to push traffic away from EWR (when MHT lost that, they gave us IAD flights). Honestly thought that ran so much better. Now it's just EWR again from MHT and I avoid them like the plague. Company used them EWR-BOS for me end of last tour, scored me a big payday when UAL mel

We finally got my employer to let us book our own commercial flights to/from the aircraft each tour. When dispatch booked them, they were always some awful combination of crappy times and long layovers. Your plane is in DAL, but you're in SFO.....let's book you a connection in ATL!

I only have lowly silver status on UA as a perk of my Marriott Status, but it beats a poke in the eye for boarding group and seat selection. I'm personally loyal to Delta as they have a massive network from BOS. Looks like this tour is going to end in BED anyway though, so I'll just take the coach home to NH.

 

[crystalmountainskier]

I have the same issues with UAL threw EWR. That airport in and of itself is a disaster. Then United makes it worse trying to shove the schedule they have into that joint. I recall oh about 8 years ago or so, they made a conscious effort to push traffic away from EWR (when MHT lost that, they gave us IAD flights). Honestly thought that ran so much better. Now it's just EWR again from MHT and I avoid them like the plague. Company used them EWR-BOS for me end of last tour, scored me a big payday when UAL melted down Saturday night!!

This. It's not back luck. UA's hubs are terribly congested and over-scheduled. Newark, O'Hare, SFO, Denver, LAX are all awful. Their only hub that's not a junk show airport is Houston. One of the main reasons Delta is so much better at being on time is their uncongested hubs in secondary cities. SLC, MSP, DTW and ATL all run much better.

 

[4aprice]

This. It's not back luck. UA's hubs are terribly congested and over-scheduled. Newark, O'Hare, SFO, Denver, LAX are all awful. Their only hub that's not a junk show airport is Houston. One of the main reasons Delta is so much better at being on time is their uncongested hubs in secondary cities. SLC, MSP, DTW and ATL all run much better.

While I'm sure plenty of people have had their troubles with United, I still fly them almost exclusively. They go where I want to. Because they are hubs Newark to Denver non stop flights are plentiful including a "red eye" flight back to the east coast daily that allows me to spend as much time in CO as possible. We also can usually get decent flights down to West Palm Beach to visit the family place in Fla. That's where I fly so United fits the bill.

Just want to add that Newark can be a problem due to weather. The runways are too close together and it really slows things down in bad weather.

 

[machski]

While I'm sure plenty of people have had their troubles with United, I still fly them almost exclusively. They go where I want to. Because they are hubs Newark to Denver non stop flights are plentiful including a "red eye" flight back to the east coast daily that allows me to spend as much time in CO as possible. We also can usually get decent flights down to West Palm Beach to visit the family place in Fla. That's where I fly so United fits the bill.

Just want to add that Newark can be a problem due to weather. The runways are too close together and it really slows things down in bad weather.

Newark is doomed by two major factors. One is the airport configuration itself. The second and what no airport in the NYC area can avoid is the fact that NYC airspace is the most congested in the world. Any weather event drastically affects all airports and flow rates into and out of NYC. The FAA is suppose to be redoing the high altitude feeds into NYC but this airspace restructure is no longer overdue and continues to be delayed. This won't completely solve problem 2 once implemented but should help cut down on delays due to airspace feed but a good margin.

I don't know who says Denver is a terrible airport. It is one of the better airports in the country as designed but being just off the front range, it does experience so e unique weather issues due to that proximity. Much better than Stapleton that it replaced that's for sure. And just wait on SLC, the growth there will eventually make that Delta hub much more ugly for delays/cancellations. Not much room to add a runway there.

 

[Smellytele]

Newark is doomed by two major factors. One is the airport configuration itself. The second and what no airport in the NYC area can avoid is the fact that NYC airspace is the most congested in the world. Any weather event drastically affects all airports and flow rates into and out of NYC. The FAA is suppose to be redoing the high altitude feeds into NYC but this airspace restructure is no longer overdue and continues to be delayed. This won't completely solve problem 2 once implemented but should help cut down on delays due to airspace feed but a good margin.

I don't know who says Denver is a terrible airport. It is one of the better airports in the country as designed but being just off the front range, it does experience so e unique weather issues due to that proximity. Much better than Stapleton that it replaced that's for sure. And just wait on SLC, the growth there will eventually make that Delta hub much more ugly for delays/cancellations. Not much room to add a runway there.

Speaking of SLC this year had 2 friends flying in and both were rerouted to Denver to sit on the plane and wait. Finally landed in SLC 5 hours later.

 

[machski]

Speaking of SLC this year had 2 friends flying in and both were rerouted to Denver to sit on the plane and wait. Finally landed in SLC 5 hours later.

Honestly, SLC's setup is not great given it is still a mountain (albeit low elevation as the west goes) airport. As traffic increases there with the new terminals opening up, things like this will only get worse as the actual flight infrastructure is not changing there.

 

[2planks2coasts]

This. It's not back luck. UA's hubs are terribly congested and over-scheduled. Newark, O'Hare, SFO, Denver, LAX are all awful. Their only hub that's not a junk show airport is Houston. One of the main reasons Delta is so much better at being on time is their uncongested hubs in secondary cities. SLC, MSP, DTW and ATL all run much better.

But DL also hubs at highly congested JFK/LGA/BOS/SEA. While they frequently rank high in on time performance, their 2023 OTP of 83.21% (#1 in the US) wasn't extremely far ahead of American's 79.11% or United's 78.67% (OAG data).

Newark is doomed by two major factors. One is the airport configuration itself. The second and what no airport in the NYC area can avoid is the fact that NYC airspace is the most congested in the world. Any weather event drastically affects all airports and flow rates into and out of NYC. The FAA is suppose to be redoing the high altitude feeds into NYC but this airspace restructure is no longer overdue and continues to be delayed. This won't completely solve problem 2 once implemented but should help cut down on delays due to airspace feed but a good margin.

I don't know who says Denver is a terrible airport. It is one of the better airports in the country as designed but being just off the front range, it does experience so e unique weather issues due to that proximity. Much better than Stapleton that it replaced that's for sure. And just wait on SLC, the growth there will eventually make that Delta hub much more ugly for delays/cancellations. Not much room to add a runway there.

We use KAPA (sometimes KBJC) for the Denver area typically. The layout of DEN is great for aviators. It's an awful airport for commercial pax though. It's too far from the city and the terminal is poorly designed. May the fleas of a thousand camels infest the crotch of the person that allowed that airport to be built without a walkway parallel to the train between terminal and concourses.

 

[crystalmountainskier]

Speaking of SLC this year had 2 friends flying in and both were rerouted to Denver to sit on the plane and wait. Finally landed in SLC 5 hours later.

SLC is the most on time airport in America. Weather there is usually very mild.

 

[BodeMiller1]

Good idea, Delta has nice suites or so I'm told. I like United, Any one ever fly out of Lebanon, NH?

 

[machski]

But DL also hubs at highly congested JFK/LGA/BOS/SEA. While they frequently rank high in on time performance, their 2023 OTP of 83.21% (#1 in the US) wasn't extremely far ahead of American's 79.11% or United's 78.67% (OAG data).


We use KAPA (sometimes KBJC) for the Denver area typically. The layout of DEN is great for aviators. It's an awful airport for commercial pax though. It's too far from the city and the terminal is poorly designed. May the fleas of a thousand camels infest the crotch of the person that allowed that airport to be built without a walkway parallel to the train between terminal and concourses.

You can walk from the main terminal to terminal A via the sky bridge. Also an alternate screening checkpoint up there. But yeah most of our Clients use APA and BJC and APA is a MX base for us.

 

[2planks2coasts]

You can walk from the main terminal to terminal A via the sky bridge. Also an alternate screening checkpoint up there. But yeah most of our Clients use APA and BJC and APA is a MX base for us.

Twice I've landed there and had to get to APA where my plane was and the train wasn't running. Had to wait for them to arrange to escort a few dozen people across the tarmac at a time.

Unfortunately that Bridge checkpoint doesn't have PreCheck and we don't have KCM.

 

[4aprice]

Once again United does us well. Son was able to come home for the 4th on short notice and for reasonable money. Said they were flying "big" planes back forth between Denver and Newark this weekend and he was able to get a window and be on time even with the flight scheduled before them being delayed by weather in the southeastern part of the country.

 

[kingslug]

Took 4 days to drive..wasnt too bad.. except for the rain we hit for a bit...
Lots of wind farms in the middle of the country...