EWR-IAH in 8 Hours

Trip Date: Friday, March 28

Flight: United 1695 (EWR-IAH)

Aircraft: 767-400ER (N59053)

Flight Time: 3 hours 23 min

Before heading to airport, I had lunch with a friend at Umami Burger in NYC. Though I've heard of the restaurant before, it was my first visit there. I tried the "5 Spice Duck Burger," which turned out pretty good:

After lunch, I took the next train out and arrived at Newark Airport at 2:05pm (boarding was scheduled to start at 2:30pm, 50 minutes before the 3:20pm departure time). Because I didn't have any bags to check, I went straight through security and arrived at the gate 15 minutes later. At 2:30pm, the gate agent announced a 20-minute boarding delay, as they were rushing to clean the aircraft that just came in from FCO. No worries - we finished boarding right around the scheduled departure time.

The final seat map (I was in 17A):

Just as I began to wonder why the aircraft door was still open, the captain announced a maintenance issue with the right engine and that we'd be sitting for about 15 minutes while it got checked out. After a few minutes, the captain came back on the PA to announce that the maintenance procedure would take about 90 minutes and told passengers to deplane back into the terminal. Accompanied by the usual groaning, we filed back into the boarding area as the GA announced a gate change announcement for the next flight scheduled to depart from that gate.

Looking out the window, we could see several technicians working on the right engine:

Over the next two hours, the estimated departure time was pushed back a couple of times (30 minutes each time). Meanwhlie, the next gate over was boarding a 772 for Tel Aviv. That gate area was cordoned off, and each entering passenger underwent additional documentation checks and security screening.

UA's consistent branding at its best:

At 5:00pm, we started the boarding process for the second time. Thanks to the 767's aisle-to-seat ratio, there was no line in the jetway, at least when I boarded at the end of a very large group 2 (lots of elites on this hub-to-hub flight!). The weather looked more ominous this time around:

After boarding, we sat at the gate for another 20 minutes or so while the maintenance crew and pilots finished up paperwork. At last, we pushed back and headed to the runway for takeoff.

From this angle you can see the 764's raked wingtip:

This 764 has a relatively new touchscreen AVOD IFE system, loaded with 256 movies and many other short programs. We also had both AC and USB power outlets at every seat.

Unfortunately, the "flight map" feature did not feature any maps and only rotated extremely slowly between different pages of flight information, in English and Spanish.

When the beverage/snack cart rolled by, I decided to try UA's buy-on-board option. I picked the Asian-style Noodle Salad ($8.49) and was pleasantly surprised by the tastiness. The chicken was pre-cut into 3 large pieces and was quite edible.

After about three hours, we began our descent into Houston. The flight crew anticipated a turbulent descent and told the FAs to get the cabin ready and take their seats early. We flew through some thick patches of rain, and the 764 took on the turbulence quite smoothly.

Closer to Houston, we were treated to a lightning show to the left - good thing I picked the correct side of the aircraft to sit on.

Because of our delay, our arrival gate was changed from C-16 to D-7. Because D-7 was occupied by another late departure, we sat on a taxiway for about 20 minutes before pulling into the gate at 9:23pm (original scheduled arrival was 6:12pm).

We were parked at D-7, a couple of spots away from a BA 747 and a Turkish Airlines 777.

While my journey ended here, the folks making onward connections from IAH made their way to connecting gates (most likely in terminal C) and customer service counters for rebooking. All in all it was a pretty good flight, apart from the mechanical delay. I guess that's the price I pay for avoiding the usual 737s on EWR-IAH to pick the one widebody flight on the route!