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canyonwalkerCanada travelog #30
Seat 1E aboard UA 2462 · Fri, 29 Aug 2025. 7pm.
Once we decamped from the Maple Leaf lounge, where we'd spent 4 hours at YYZ airport in relative comfort, it was a surprisingly long walk to our gate. We left the terminal main area a walked through a long series of corridors that looked like they were built out of shipping containers. Then we went down an escalator— where I loudly asked no one in particular, "WTF? Are we going to the subway?" Yes, it was definitely the Blacksmith, the Manhattan, a 3 G+Ts talking. And we landed in a bargain basement concourse, on ground level, with exposed wiring and ventilation in the ceiling and limited, obviously slapped-together services.
I'd never seen this concourse before at YYZ, yet apparently it's where all US bound flights depart now. I promptly dubbed it the "F Trump" concourse.
While Hawk and I waited at in the makeshift boarding area— because, of course, our flight was delayed— I checked my boarding pass. I was lined up in the Group 2 boarding, and Hawk told me we're now in Group 1. (Group 2 has been the standard for my elite status level for years.) I looked at my boarding pass, and sure enough it showed Group 1. But it also showed my seat in first class. I figured it was my boarding pass from the flight out here a week earlier so I deleted it and loaded a new one from the United app. But the new one showed a first class seat, too. That could only mean... I'd been upgraded!
My new seat is 1E. That's a bit of good news/bad news. Good news, because when is a seat upgrade ever really a bad thing? But also bad news because it's not much of an upgrade. A) I already had a primo seat in economy plus, an exit row aisle seat. B) First class on this flight is domestic first class, which means it's basically just a slightly wider seat with free booze. And C) seat 1E means leg room is cramped because I'm up against the bulkhead— as you can see in the photo above. But hey, a slightly wider seat and free booze— I'll take it! 🥂
And yes, as the photo shows, I'm sitting here with a toy bald eagle on my lap. "Baldy" has drawn a lot of interest. Several passengers and all of the cabin crew have made comments and/or asked questions.
...What kind of questions? Oh, things like, "Where's that eagle from?" To which I've explained just a small part of Baldy's elaborate backstory. (All of our birds have backstories.) OMG, people have been thrilled to hear this toy's origin story! 😂 Among other tidbits, "he" used to live at the base of the Grand Tetons in Wyoming, got lost migrating south one year, got stuck in Las Vegas and survived on an all-you-can-eat seafood buffet, has been with us for over 20 years, and only recently we learned "he" is really a she!
Seat 1E aboard UA 2462 · Fri, 29 Aug 2025. 7pm.
Once we decamped from the Maple Leaf lounge, where we'd spent 4 hours at YYZ airport in relative comfort, it was a surprisingly long walk to our gate. We left the terminal main area a walked through a long series of corridors that looked like they were built out of shipping containers. Then we went down an escalator— where I loudly asked no one in particular, "WTF? Are we going to the subway?" Yes, it was definitely the Blacksmith, the Manhattan, a 3 G+Ts talking. And we landed in a bargain basement concourse, on ground level, with exposed wiring and ventilation in the ceiling and limited, obviously slapped-together services.
I'd never seen this concourse before at YYZ, yet apparently it's where all US bound flights depart now. I promptly dubbed it the "F Trump" concourse.
While Hawk and I waited at in the makeshift boarding area— because, of course, our flight was delayed— I checked my boarding pass. I was lined up in the Group 2 boarding, and Hawk told me we're now in Group 1. (Group 2 has been the standard for my elite status level for years.) I looked at my boarding pass, and sure enough it showed Group 1. But it also showed my seat in first class. I figured it was my boarding pass from the flight out here a week earlier so I deleted it and loaded a new one from the United app. But the new one showed a first class seat, too. That could only mean... I'd been upgraded!
My new seat is 1E. That's a bit of good news/bad news. Good news, because when is a seat upgrade ever really a bad thing? But also bad news because it's not much of an upgrade. A) I already had a primo seat in economy plus, an exit row aisle seat. B) First class on this flight is domestic first class, which means it's basically just a slightly wider seat with free booze. And C) seat 1E means leg room is cramped because I'm up against the bulkhead— as you can see in the photo above. But hey, a slightly wider seat and free booze— I'll take it! 🥂
And yes, as the photo shows, I'm sitting here with a toy bald eagle on my lap. "Baldy" has drawn a lot of interest. Several passengers and all of the cabin crew have made comments and/or asked questions.
...What kind of questions? Oh, things like, "Where's that eagle from?" To which I've explained just a small part of Baldy's elaborate backstory. (All of our birds have backstories.) OMG, people have been thrilled to hear this toy's origin story! 😂 Among other tidbits, "he" used to live at the base of the Grand Tetons in Wyoming, got lost migrating south one year, got stuck in Las Vegas and survived on an all-you-can-eat seafood buffet, has been with us for over 20 years, and only recently we learned "he" is really a she!
