I Love Turbulence!
Written: Aug 13 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Price, direct flights out of Ohio
Cons: Food...
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| obnox's Full Review: America West |
Am I crazy or just a bit odd? I found turbulence to be one of the coolest experiences in my young life. My non-stop flight from Ohio to Las Vegas was filled with it. I started to freak out at first, of course, but I realized that I could either freak or enjoy the ride. I decided to do the later, and really enjoyed my trip.
Until a couple of weeks ago, I hadn't set foot on an airplane for over 15 years. I was a bit timid about getting on a plane again, especially with all those horror stories and the Concorde crash that happened a few days before. In that decade and a half, I established a very strong fear of heights, and figured it would get to me. But as I sat there, all I could think about is how they put a whole bunch of people in this big tin can and hurled it through the sky at high speeds, and how absolutely cool the entire concept of that is.
The plane that we rode on both ways was an Airbus, a smaller jet liner with 3 seats per row on each side. The seats were spacious and comfortable but didn't lean back very far. While this made it hard to doze off, it did prove a blessing as I still had plenty of leg room despite the person in front of me being fully reclined.
They did show in flight movies, a commodity that was almost non-existent the last time I flew. The films were, as would be expected, romancy human spirit type films like Erin Brockovich. They also had some shorts like music videos thrown in. It cost 5 dollars to rent head phones, but you could see the screen for free, so I guess it's a bargain if you lip read. I preferred looking out the window and watching the land change with the different climates and environments, the farms and mountains, the desert winding roads. I saw the different shapes of farm fields due to different types of irrigation, from the rectangular corn fields of my native Ohio to the circular fields of the plains states. I cuddled up with my husband as we pointed Hoover Dam, the south end of the Grand Canyon, cities, cloud formations out to each other. It was amazing. Everyone else on the plane seemed to like the movie just fine.
The food was, well, everything you ever heard about airplane food. It was about cafeteria level. I do have additional gripes however, because I'm a vegetarian. (Don't I usually?) When I ordered the tickets, I was a bit worried. The vegetarian meal was listed as "True Vegetarian" which I took to mean vegan. No offense to vegans, but I fear anything that an airline would concoct that would be vegan. I chose "True Vegetarian", but made a pact with my lactose intolerant husband that we'd just divvy up what we could eat between us.
Well, we were served breakfast on the flight out. The regular meal was cereal with milk and these nasty egg and cheese rolls. That was okay with me, and I told my husband to take the vegetarian meal, still figuring it would be vegan. No, it wasn't vegan. It was french toast and sausage. Let's think about this for a moment. I read The Jungle at a pretty young age. I've smelled scents coming out of the Kahn's meat packing plant that you don't want to know about. Even before I became a vegetarian, I didn't eat sausage. I'm a very laid back vegetarian, but I will be the first to tell you, loudly, that sausage doesn't count. However, my husband ate it, and even mentioned that although a little over cooked, it was pretty good.
On the flight back, the vegetarian meal was closer. It was actually a pretty delicious serving of cheese lasagna which caused me to get envious stares from the other passengers as they tolerantly ate their overcooked cheese burgers. The package of Oreos that came with it, however, was not vegetarian (There's lard in the filling. Check the label.) They gave this to me, despite the fact that the small bars of Toblerone given to the meat eaters are vegetarian. Sigh.
There's a reason why I'm telling you this. If you eat meat and are going to fly America West, by all means get the vegetarian meal. The food quality was far superior to that of the regular meals, and it didn't come out of plastic bags. If you are a vegetarian, be prepared for a partial meal. If you are vegan, pack a lunch.
The staff was professional but not astounding. Despite the heavy turbulence on the flight out, I was very impressed by the first pilot. He changed routes because of weather and took off and landed seamlessly.
I really enjoyed my flights, though I can't tell you how much of it was because of the airline itself as opposed to the shear wonder of flying. Despite the food issues, I was overall impressed with America West. It was a direct flight with some amenities for a good price.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
obnox
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Member: Julie Lynn Eberhart
Location: Columbus, Ohio
Reviews written: 98
Trusted by: 101 members
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