The lovely United staff made up for a stressful (and bemusing) check-in and a twenty-five minute wait for take-off.

Flight Details
CO230 operated by United
A320
Seat 36F
Economy

Check in
Mid-merger of Continetal and United, I was redirected from the Continental Airlines website to United’s and checked in online relatively successfully…or so I thought. I was unable to change my seat, despite the seat’s apparent availability and printed not my boarding pass but an international card. An airport queue loomed.

The line was not the problem. At the United counter I was redirected to the Continental counter or rather, the do-it-yourself kiosk. From this I could neither print my boarding pass nor change my seat.

I approached the poor lass at the counter (it was her first day). After some long fumbling we were checked in for our second sector and then redirected back to United to get checked in for our first sector. No problems here – and even scored three seats for the two of us.

Luggage Allowance
United charges extra for bags over 50 pounds (23 kilograms), but I took my 15 pounds (6.8 kilograms) bag on board as it complied with the carry-on bag dimensions.

Cabin conditions
The A320 was an older plane, relatively clean considering the quick turnaround.

Customer service
The friendliness of the flight attendants made up for the pain of check in and dealing with the rigmarole of TSA.

Entertainment
It’s been a while since I’ve seen a drop down screen. This one showed episodes of The Big Bang Theory, Suburgatory, Suits and the feature, Larry Crowne: Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts and Mr Sulu (you’ll know who I mean if you’re as nerdy as my travel companion). It would be nice if the entertainment were paused during announcements.

Meal Service
Complimentary water, juice and soda were on offer, although cart service was slow getting to the back of the plane (where I was sitting). Food was available for purchase.

On time performance
Due to weather conditions we were threatened with the long way round to Houston. However, mid-flight we were advised we would land on time. Surprising after a twenty-five delay taking off (that’s 105 pages of United’s inflight magazine, Hemispheres).

My favourite thing
Making my connecting flight.