Orange County September 2008: Houtston-Intercontinental, Houston, TX (IAH) to John Wayne International, Orange County CA (SNA)

CO1821 8SEP08 Houston-Intercontinental, Houston TX (IAH) to John Wayne International, Orange County CA (SNA) 3:05p 4:41p 73G N??775

Flight Time: 3:01
Seat Map

It was slow going as we all got onboard. All the 12 First class leather seats were already occupied on this single aisle Boeing 737-700 with winglets.

I continued to my aisle seat in the 3-3 configured Economy class. I did not have any issues finding a place for my bag, but it was filling up fast. I opened the window shades as the cabin was quite dark and dreary and also a bit warm. Soon, the other two passengers in the window and aisle arrived so I made way for them to get settled in.

An announcement was made that we should close the shades and open our air vents so the cabin could cool down. Almost everyone complied, so the cabin got even darker.

At about 3:42p, the Captain came on the pa and announced our flying time of 3:01 and advised that it would be bumpy on the takeoff.

At 3:48p, an announcement was made that those without seats should take any open seat to avoid any further delay of the flight. Those standing quickly took their seats. At 3:50p, the door closed and four minutes later the safety video started as we pushed back and then headed out to the runway.

I had no idea which one we took as all the windows were still closed. It was not until 4:12p, that we were finally airborne. I actually took a cat nap just as we started down the runway.

When I awoke, the movie had already started and there was a drink cart next to me. We were served two packs of peanuts followed by beverages of choice. Beer, wine, alcoholic drinks or margaritas were 5 USD or a continental currency worth the same.

I did not recognize the movie, so I looked up the move and it was “Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day” with Amy Adams and Frances McDormand. There were also 12 music channels, but I had no headset to listen to any of them and did not feel like paying $1 for one. The music channels were:

1. Movie Sound Track
2. Now & Then
3. Ambient Groove
4. Latin Fiesta
5. Continental Lounge
6. The Classics
7. The Hit Factory
8. Jazz Beat
9. Movie Sound Track
10. 
    
11. Country Roads
12. Live Broadway

The handset actually went to channel 22.

A second drink service passed me heading forward at about 5:59p local time in Houston. By now the movie was over and a Behind the Scenes program was on about the making of “Horton hears a who!. By this time at 6:17p, the drink cart arrived.

At 6:31p local (4:31p West coast time), the Captain said that there was some weather ahead and we would get to it in about 10 minutes, as it will be bumpy, he advised us to use the restroom if we needed to at this point. We would land at 5:18p he said.

By now there were music videos being shown on the overhead monitors. Soon the promised turbulence started and by now there was some CNN Sports on the monitor. We still had about 34 minutes to go before we made it to John Wayne.

At 4:49p we started our descent and the captain came on the PA and said that in about 27 minutes at 5:17p, we would be on the ground at SNA. The winds were 17knots with clouds at 1,600’ and a temperature of 76F. it was his pleasure to have us on board hope we have a great day come back and fly with us again. The flight attendant then said that this concludes our beverage service.

Some CNN video played on about a place called La Haine and then one continued called Global Trends about Berlin. This was followed by the sitcom, “My Wife and Kids” with Damian Wayans and Tisha Campbell-Martin.

We then cleared 10,000' and prepared for our descent.