Home Again!

Welcome to....The Mile High City of Denver!! Well, maybe not exactly home again - but I did live here for 9 years in the 80s and 90s and very much feel as if it’s ‘home’ in the US. It’s where I started my career with United way back in 1985. We did fly the London-Denver route about 10 years ago for 2-3 years, but it only recently came back to us via the merge with Continental. It’s all because of the 787 Dreamliner aircraft, which is super fuel-efficient and makes various routes profitable when they wouldn’t be on other aircraft. The particular challenge with Denver is the altitude - a mile above sea level - which means more fuel is needed for takeoff, especially in the summer months. That makes longer routes not profitable unless with a fuel efficient plane like the 787.

So - this is the ‘new’ destination I referred to a few days ago. The flight itself was ‘interesting’ and mostly positive and I learned lots. It’s always very challenging being on a plane for the first time. It will take me a few weeks to get used to it - and various other aircraft which are new to us because of the merge.

I’m very excited to be back in Denver. We will not be operating this flight over the winter, so I have 4 trips here this month and then I’ll look forward to it coming back in March.

After we landed and got to the hotel downtown, I went out for dinner with the very nice Flight Attendant that I worked with in First Class. She is from the Continental side of the merge and knew the aircraft well so she taught me lots of tricks. We had quite a bit in common as she’s English living in the US and I’m American living in England. It was nice to enjoy a friendly social evening with one of our new colleagues!

I was tired by that point (it now being middle of the night in the UK), and I should have gone to bed after we said goodbye, but I decided I just HAD to go for a walk and say ‘hello’ properly to the city! I walked down the main pedestrian street - and ended up at Larimer Square which is an historic part of the city. The Market is a deli where I used to go many times when I lived here. They were serving espresso coffees well before any of us outside of Seattle had ever heard of Starbucks. I love that it has stayed constant throughout the years even as the city has changed dramatically all around it. Even my favourite items in the deli are still there and in the same exact corner of the glass chilled cabinet.

It was raining all evening in the city which is rare - Colorado is semi-desert and most of the precipitation comes in the form of snow. I remember when I lived here how I would sometimes just long for a rainy day! It’s great to be back! Whatever the weather!