Mongolia
United Airlines has been expanding their route map like crazy under Senior Vice President of Global Network and Alliances. Not sure how much Mongolia was on anyone's bingo card, but being uniquely positioned with not just one Asia Pacific focus cities (Narita) but also one hub (Guam), they can pull of some lower-volume routes like Ulaanbaatar that don't have enough passengers for a 767, 777, or 787.
Opted to do both the inaugural flight on 1 May as well as the return inaugural on 2 May as my schedule was filling up and I had stuff to do back at home, but turns out both flights were a ton of fun!
Day 1: pretty smooth flight from Los Angeles to Tokyo, and always good to catch up with fellow frequent fliers Sue and Alice.
Day 2: arrival in Tokyo and a temporary farewell to my fellow inaugural flight chasers as I positioned myself for some food exploration in Tokyo.
Day 3: ramen at Tokyo Station before United Airline's inaugural flight from NRT-UBN. Caught up not only with Sue and Alice, but Fazal, Warren, and a bunch of others, including influencers Patrick Shea, Eric Rubens, and Lindsay Stevens. Quite a party as always, and a great flight on a tired old 737-800.
Day 4: the UBN-NRT return inaugural this morning was almost as big a deal as the flight over, complete with the US Ambassador to Mongolia, Richard L. Buangan.