San Jose, CA: Houston-Intercontinental. Houston TX (IAH) to San Jose, CA (SJC)

CO421 25JAN08 Houston-Intercontinental, Houston TX (IAH) to San Jose, CA (SJC) 6:30p 8:55p 733 N??310

Flying Time: 3:57

As I boarded, I noticed a few meals on the counter in front of me, I think I spotted pizza in one of the trays and also a metallic tray with a cardboard cover, which I think was the First Class meal. I said hello to the flight attendant as I made a right turn and walked through First class, stopping as we waited for a passenger to get settler.

On board this twelve leather seat First Class cabin in a 2-2 configuration and 112 cloth Economy seats in a 3-3 configuration aircraft, I made my way to the back to my seat; it was full and only a few overheads were open which were all full or just had room for a small bag. My roller board would not make it; this is one of the reasons I hate to travel with this bag, but I did not feel like stuffing my stuff in my back pack on this trip. I put my computer and magazines down on my middle seat as did another passenger and started making my way back to the front so I could check my bag. The flight attendant intercepted me and opened the First class overhead bin. I placed my bag in it and there was also room for the other passenger’s bag. This was a nice touch and I was very impressed and thanked him profusely as he just saved me quite a bit of time having to wait for my bag in San Jose.

I went back to my seat and settled. There were a few seat changes to make a passenger more comfortable and then the doors were closed and the safety demonstration began. It was hard to tell if we were moving as the guy next to me had the windows closed, but I could see out the ones on the right and determined that we were indeed moving. I also noticed that it was still raining.

This airplane has no video monitors so the demo was done the old fashion way, live and in person. This is a rare treat these days. This meant no movies or any kind of entertainment; a little tough on a 3:57 minutes flight, but I had my computer and lots of magazines to keep me occupied. Besides, I was tired having gone to bed at 2:15a and gotten up at 8:00a this morning. The lady behind me was playing “Go Spiderman,” a knock off of the popular card game “Go Fish.” I found it odd that she would not have him listen to the safety announcement instead…

We had quite a long taxi out and the flight attendant did mention that they had to remain seated after takeoff as it would be bumpy. I think I fell asleep before we took off after talking to the guy next to me a bit. He too was up early and had flown from Dallas that morning and was heading back home to San Jose. We yapped a bit about technology and travel. As we talked, I realized that it’s been two years since I’ve been out to San Jose.

After takeoff, I awoke as I was served the in-flight meal. For dinner today, we were served a hot pizza, with a KiKat, baby carrots and Ranch dressing. I did not really have the appetite for the pizza as I would spend too much time trying to get the cheese and the dough out of my teeth and braces :-). I had some crackers and cheese with me, so I ate that with the baby carrots and had some Ginger Ale (they were out of Apple juice) and water. As it was, my mouth ached from eating the crackers. The flight attendant actually gave me a can which was cool.

Later as they were picking up the trash, another flight attendant asks me if I fly a lot and I said yes as he recognized me. I did not recognize him though, oh well.

At 9:04p local Houston time, the flight attendants came around with water. They had done the same about 30 minutes or so earlier after the meal service. I thought they were going to do a second drink service, but that never occurred. It was strange as I had heard one of the flight attendants say that he was out of Diet Coke for the second service, oh well…

The lady in front of the guy next to me was getting comfortable and her sweater’s sleeve showed to the left of her seat; the guy did not know what it was and moved his hand really quickly and almost dumped his water in his lap. For some strange reason he was able to avoid disaster.

I was awoken so that I could get ready for landing. The landing was interesting as there was a lot of turbulence.

We landed without incident and taxied to the gate.