Review of United flight Houston → Mobile in Economy

check in and security

I was arriving in off of a connecting flight from IAD, so I can't review the Check In and Security experience at IAD today.

The Lounge

Ordinarily, I would visit the United Club, but I was short on time today, so I skipped it and headed straight to the gate.

boarding

We were departing from gate C30 today, which is in the south concourse of IAH's terminal C. IAH is a big airport and can be confusing for first timers, so pay attention to signs and maps if it's your first time.

I grew up in Houston, so I know IAH like the back of my hand, so, fortunately, my tight-ish conncection was a breeze for me!

I got to the gate about 3 minutes before boarding began, and was second in line for group 1. I was able to kind of get a picture of the aircraft from the line.

Boarding began right on time at 11:30 a.m., about 25 minutes prior to our scheduled departure time of 11:55 a.m.

Once onboard, I was greeted by a friendly male flight attendant who handed me a Cleanplus wipe.

the seat

The cabin was already pretty full by the time I boarded (there were a lot of preboarders on this flight), so I wasn’t able to get a good cabin or seat overview picture. Sorry!

The economy cabin on the ERJ-175 is arranged in a 2-2 configuration so there’s no middle seats! That being said, luggage storage is tight as the aircraft can only accommodate about 30 normal sized carry ons (and that’s being generous), so if you’re not in need of your bag, you may want to take up the offer to check it in at the gate.

My seat for today was 7A, a window seat in the first row of economy. The seat features a “soft bulkhead” meaning that the First class seat is in front of you so you can put a small personal item underneath.

It has 2 windows. One towards the front, and one closer to your head. The one closer to your head has a great view of the wing and engine.

Additionally, because this is a bulkhead seat, there is a tray table located in the left armrest.

pre-departure

At 11:38, the captain came on to announce our flight time of 1 hour 10 minutes and a cruising altitude of 35,000 feet. He said we would be experiencing quite a bit of rough air so there may not be a service on today’s flight, but that we shall see how it goes.

My seatmate decided that for some reason, my seatback pocket was where he should store his trash… I mean, what if I wanted to use the safety card or magazine? -sigh-

the flight

At 11:44, the boarding door closed and the flight attendants began their safety demonstration.

We pushed back at 1148, 7 minutes ahead of our scheduled departure time!

I got a decent view of the 787-8 that brought me to IAH from IAD earlier today during our taxi out.

We had a relatively quick taxi to Runway 27.

This is my first departure from Runway 27 at IAH. I’ve taken off on 9 before and even 26L but not 27!

At 12:01, we were taking off on Runway 27.

We got some great views of the IAH airfield below as we climbed out.

At 12:06, we reached 10,000 feet.

At 12:10, the flight attendants came on to announce that there would be no in flight service today.

The captain was right, the turbulence was pretty bad throughout the flight. I'm one of those people that falls asleep when its turbulent because I feel like it kinda rocks me back and forth, so I fell asleep pretty quickly!

I woke up at 12:42, when the captain came on to announce our descent I to Mobile and that we’d be in the ground in about 20 minutes!

arrival

At 1:10, we touched down on Runway 33. We then began our taxi into the gate.

We parked at gate 7 at 1:14 pm, for an early arrival into Mobile!