Colombia
Between the road noise and the lack of a proper blackout curtain over the window in my hotel room, had a bit of a rough night. Still, made the best of it, and found that the Hotel Santiago de Arma was an oddly-charming mishmash of odd construction choices and in-progress renovations that explained some of the strange routes through the hotel the couple of hours before. Breakfast wasn't bad either, with a tasty chicken and potato soup, scrambled eggs and ham, and a modest selection of bread, cheese, and fresh fruit. The views were not much, the parking lot/road on one side, what was odd areas of covered parking behind (maybe long-term airport parking?), but still, for the price and the location, it was doable.
Got back to Jose Maria Cordova International Airport (MDE) slightly early for the return inaugural that morning back to Houston (IAH). United had quite a large ground staff checking people in, with the usual contingent of trainers from headquarters as well as Houston helping out. Some of them actually recognized me from the flight last night, and they advised me to go through security early to join the festivities at the gate-- which I did after snapping a few more photos of the terminal and its upper levels.
Celebrations were not quite as large as day before this morning, but they were still well-attended and enthusiastic, with United's Latin America and Caribbean staff well-represented. Seemed like everyone from United's managing director for Latin America/Caribbean on down was present. Gilda Velez, United Airlines country sales manager for Colombia, and some of her colleagues gave nice speeches before the ribbon cutting, while some others, such as Aaron Reyes (out of headquarters) had a bit lower of a profile at the gate.
Boarding was a bit of a mess, as is common with new outstations. Preboarding for the flight (United 1676) was half-okay, half-skipped (ugh), but they managed to hand out inaugural flight neck pillows and more flyers/cards to passengers who were boarding, plus a cookie. Upgrade magic (thank you PlusPoints) worked again, and Captain Paul and his crew did a great job on the MDE-IAH inaugural.
The bistec was a bit tougher today, and the flight time a few minutes longer, but overall it was another fun inaugural flight.