[BI] Flight Report United Chicago O'hare - Denver

So we're flying this morning from Chicago O'Hare to Denver International Airport on United Airlines Domestic First Class. ORD is United's second largest hub and DEN is pre-merger United's second largest hub. When I booked the flight from United's website it said it would be operating by a B757-300 and I was able to get the seat 1A, but unfortunately they changed the equipment the morning of the flight to a B757-200, and swapped all the seats... But at least, it's a 757-200 with full flat seats.

呢日朝早，我就乘達聯合航空的國內線頭等艙由芝加哥奧黑爾國際機場前往丹佛國際機場。芝加哥是現時聯合航空第二大樞紐而丹佛則是合併前聯合航空的第二大樞紐。當我預定機票時，聯合航空的系統顯示執行這班飛機的是波音757-300，而我也預定了1A座位。沒想到當天早上因為機件問題而臨時改成757-200，座位也重新被系統排列。但無論如何，757-200畢竟使用的是平躺式的國際商務艙座位。

 Boarding Pass

登機證

We have to get to the airport really early (by 6:30) due to the excessive waiting time for security check, according to USA Today the waiting time at O'Hare was 107 minutes back in may.

必須要一大早來到機場（六點半！）因為芝加哥機場的安檢是出了名的慢。根據今日美國報道，5月份的平均等候時間是107分鐘！

 Checking in

辦理登記手續

 Apparently the waiting time isn't long today, but the airport is already very crowded

然而今天的安檢很順利，不過一大早機場就已經熙熙攘攘

 Being the second largest hub after Houston, United has its monopoly at Terminal 1

作為聯合航空第二大樞紐（第一大是休斯頓洲際機場），1號客運大樓已經完全被聯合航空壟斷

 Lots of action today on the tarmac...

第一次親眼感受空中浩劫中的鏡頭

Because of the equipment change, they asked for a volunteer to take the next flight for a compensation of 500$. Noted the screen on the right, agents noticed repeatedly about the Samsung Galaxy Note 7

由於機型更換的原因，職員通過廣播召喚一名願意乘坐下一班飛機以換取500$聯合航空現金代用券的志願者。注意右邊屏幕，職員也多次通過廣播提醒乘客禁止在飛機上使用三星Note7.

Gate of my flight today, A/C is really cold at O'Hare...

登記閘口，冷氣好凍！

 N17122

Rolls-Royce RB211 engines

First flight: 12/08/1997, Age: 19 years

 N17122 is a pre-merger Continental aircraft with United 757 International configuration (there are 3 configurations of 757: International, Domestic and Premium Service), flies primarily Trans-Atlantic flights, Transcontinental flights and Hawaiian flights. Captain told me this aircraft just went to Edinburgh and came back.

N17122在聯合航空與大陸航空合併前是一架大陸航空的飛機。現在在飛機上使用的是聯合航757的國際線排列（三種757的排列分別是：國際線、國內線和高級服務），主要飛行跨大西洋航線、跨大陸航線和夏威夷航線。機長告訴我這架飛機剛剛執行了愛丁堡航線回來。

 Cabin of First Class

頭等艙客艙

 My seat

我的座位2A

It must be really rare that I'm flying on a pre-merger Continental aircraft with the whole crew of pre-merger United. After the merger between United Airlines and Continental Airlines in 2010, crews weren't integrated because of the union issues, so PMUA crews stay on PMUA aicrafts and PMCO crews stay on PMCO aircrafts. It's same story with American Airlines and US Airways.

飛行這架前大陸航空的機組人員全部都是前聯合航空的機組人員。然而，在2010年兩大公司合併后一直因為工會的原因而讓前聯合的機組繼續飛行前聯合的飛機，而前大陸的機組則繼續飛行前大陸的飛機。今天的情況絕對不是每天都可以見到的。
順帶一提：剛合併的美國航空（和全美航空）也是一樣各飛各的喔

 Legroom and IFE

將腳伸得長長的

 180° flat!

 Me and United: I flew my first flight in 2005 at the age of 6, It was a grey-color United (3 generations of livery ago) B747-400 from Hongkong to Singapore. I was really interested at the 2nd floor of the aircraft at the time! Over the years, I flew United's B757-200 to Honolulu from Denver and back on B777-200 to San Francisco which features the funny 2-5-2 configurations, you can read my flight report here.

我第一次坐飛機的時候是2005年，當年6歲。好清楚記得那是一架灰色的聯合大傢夥（已經過了三代塗裝）由香港飛往新加坡。當時我對那747的二樓非常感興趣！多年來，我每次去美國都是選擇聯合航空。曾經坐過帥帥的757去夏威夷，酷酷的777去三藩市，小小的E145去芝加哥...

 The cabin, however, looks much newer than the last time I flew to Hawaii

機艙，比我上次去夏威夷時的新好多啦

 Illy Coffee

Illy咖啡

 Standard flight breakfast: omelette+potatoes+sausages+fruits, catering by LSG SkyChef 

標準飛機早餐，由漢莎空廚獻上

 The iconic Denver International Airport

落基山脈中的丹佛機場

 Icelandair!

冰島航空！

 The warmest welcome I received ever from cockpit! Captain is so nice he explained me every part of the complex cockpit and talked about his life! He flew his first solo at the age of 16, then went to the military for almost 20 years being the pilot of C-17 Globemaster. He is now based at San Francisco and has been flying for over 40 years!

He also talked about the aircrafts, he likes the B757 particularly because of its powerful performance. He also talked about the engines: Pratt & Whitney has a terrible efficacy at reverse thrust and Rolls Royce are powerless but with a better fuel efficiency.

We chatted in the cockpit for about 10 minutes! I blocked both captain and first officer's faces because I didn't have their authorization of posting the photo.

受到機長最熱情的迎接！機長人超好而且教我每一個機身部件、駕駛室的作用，更告訴我他多年的飛行經驗！機長在16歲就第一次solo，之後再部隊開了近20年C-17環球霸王。現時身為聯合航空三藩市based的機長已經有超過40年的飛行經驗！機長又話我知，他非常喜歡757因為其性能好好。而PW的引擎雖然大力不過反推就幾乎沒效果，而勞斯萊斯的引擎則好沒力，不過燃油效果就好多。

 Arrived at Denver International Airport Concourse B

到達丹佛國際機場B航廈

 And take the ATM to the Jeppesen terminal

乘坐捷運前往主航廈

Jeppesen Teminal is the main terminal of DIA

50% of flights at DIA are operated by United, that's a lot of employees!

丹佛超過一半的航班都是聯合航空運營。

 From the Jeppesen Terminal I take the newly ingurated RTA A line to Union Station in Downtown Denver, ticket is 9$ and valid all day long

從機場乘坐丹佛地區交通管理局新開通的A線前往市中心的聯合車站。車票為9$并可以全天使用

 Denver Commuter Rail trains are pretty comfortable, manufactured by Hyundai Rotem. The ride is about 45 minutes long

丹佛的通勤列車很新，算比較舒服，是由韓國現代Rotem製造
車程大約45分鐘

 Arrived at Union Station

到達聯合車站

Downtown Denver

From the Windy city Chicago to the Mile High city Denver, United offers a below-standard premium service between two important hubs - no lounge access (even United Club isn't attractive at all) but I really like the flat seats on B757. Actually I love B757: You can feel the power of this narrow body jet when taking off and it offers a quality of flying of wide body jet!
丹佛市中心
從風城芝加哥到一里高城丹佛，聯合航空在兩大樞紐提供的的是一個 ...不咋樣... 的服務：貴賓室不適用（儘管United Club也 ...不咋樣...）。不過757的全平座位真得不錯啊。

If you're interested on more United Airlines flight report, I was lucky to fly the Continental retro livery 737-900 from Las Vegas to Newark! Click here to read a short flight report
如果閣下對小弟的Flight Report仲感興趣，可以摁這裡看下一篇小弟由拉斯維加斯誠達大陸航空復古塗裝的B737-900前往紐華克的簡短Flight Report!