Mongolia
Celebrating too long on arrival last night, plus the long wait for a cab and the equally long ride to the hotel, meant barely 5 hours of sleep before heading back to the airport. The Kempinski Hotel had a solid view of the modest (and quite chilly) sunrise, along with very spacious rooms and an elegant, if slightly dated feel. The four of us coming back on the return inaugural were at least able to cram into a single taxi and see a bit of the countryside on the nearly hour-long ride back to the airport.
We arrived at Chinggis Khaan International Airport just as the ticket counter was setting up, starting off the day with a ceremonial bow, then first in line, beating the massive crowd that formed moments later. United's team in Mongolia were all very excited, highlighted with Chief Pilot Errol Lee (Guam base) on-hand to fly us back to Narita. United States Ambassador to Mongolia Richard Lee Buangan was present as well, and actually flew with us on the return inaugural (super cool!).
Speeches, ribbon cutting, cake, and live music all marked the morning. Did not get everyone's name but Walter Dias (regional director, sales), Samuel Shinohara (managing director, airport operations), Ken Kiriyama (director of sales), and several others from United's Asia Pacific team were all present, and if memory serves we also flew back with Peter Van Dyke from corporate real estate (was nifty to hear about airport design) and at least one other senior person from United.
About the only hitch was security screening directing all of the passengers on the return inaugural (United flight 6) through a single lane, which caused a massive delay that left us running for the gate-- although maybe we need not have worried, as Captain Lee let us take plenty of photos in the cockpit, even joined by Ambassador Buangan (way cool!). The flight was quite full as well, which bodes well for the future of this route. And the food up front wasn't bad (salmon, nom). Spent plenty of time chatting with another frequent flier (Will?) who did NRT-CEB a few months back, too.
Arrived to a grey and rainy Narita, said farewell Will, Fazal, Sue, Alice, Peter, and dashed through the airport to my connecting flight back to Los Angeles. Ambassador Buangan was courteous enough to say farewell as well as I passed him coming out of the connecting flight security (he had a much more reasonable connection than I did!), and I made it to my connecting flight in good time.
Turns out UA 33 was parked exactly one gate over from UA 6, so got a great view of N35260 from my seat on United 33 as I waited to pull back from the gate. After the quick 2,242 mile (actual)/4 hour 20 minute flight onboard UA 6, surprisingly the slightly over 9 hour flight back to Los Angeles felt almost as quick, probably due to the great crew working NRT-LAX today. About the only hiccup (yes, more of those) was a chiller failure that spoiled breakfast, but fortunately the crew (thanks Kerry!) were able to scrape up some cup noodle and a banana for me.
In the end, was a fun (if exhausting) trip that was one of the most fun narrowbody inaugural flights I'd been on. And Captain Lee, hope United brings some shiny new 737 MAX 8's to your base in Guam soon!