UA5991 SAN LAX 1605 1700 CR7 1CD was 18AB

American wouldn't sell us tickets to Miami from
San Diego via LAX, so we cobbled together a
mixture of United award and American revenue
tickets to get us on the appropriate routing;
we carefully chose our flights to get on this
fancy new equipment, but we ended up failing.

So as a high elite on United, I get exit row on
booking and zone 1 boarding (fairly useful at
times), but no upgrades on award tickets. Lilli
is a low elite but has the Mileage Plus credit
card, which gives her zone 3 boarding but, big
but, puts her on the upgrade list even on free
rides. Upshot: she got upgraded, and I said
goodbye and skulked (the frequent flyers call
this the walk of shame) to the back, putting my
bag up and falling asleep, only to be jostled
awake by a smiling flight attendant who led me
to the row 1 window next to Lilli. And fetched
by bag and strapped it into seat 1A. Very nice.
Lilli had apprently kicked up a stink to the
staff, and I reaped the reward of her importunity.
It was a short flight, so I had a soft drink
instead of the proffered booze.

We had, as I've said, picked our flights to
include 4 legs on great equipment with big
premium cabins, and the only appropriate itinerary
saddled us with almost a 7-hour layover in Los
Angeles. Lilli promised that she could get us
into the British lounge, with its supposedly
fabulous food and suites with showers, plenty of
entertainment. The catch is that this facility
is in the Tom Bradley terminal, a major hike from
where we had been let off, but the reward being
as it was, we took this hike, only to find that
... they might have let her in, if she had only
brought her credentials, but there was no way I
could enter, as we were not on an international
itinerary. I went across the way to consult with
the Star people, who were sympathetic but would
not bend the rules. I asked about the steakhouse
in the terminal, and the concierge sighed and said
that it had recently gone out of business. So our
choices were the United, Alaska, or American lounges.
As American was closest, that's where we went.

The food is not great - soup, salad, cheese bites,
lots of sweets. I had a couple brownies and then
went off for a shower and a nap.

And found that we still had several hours to wait,
so off to Campanile, the only remaining vestige of
what was once a highly-regarded LA restaurant. Our
waitress, a Chinese lady of close to my age, was
friendly but on the absent side. It took me quite
a while to get my Sam Adams, for example, and the
second time I flagged her down, she said, oh, a
Blue Moon, right; when I sighed heavily, she got
it right, though. The flatiron steak was rare as
ordered and quite nice; a burger likewise, though
I don't understand the California habit of piling
mounds of greens and cheese and slices of dubious
tomato on a perfectly innocent piece of meat.
Various potatoes were served in massive abundance.
On the whole a decent experience, though we spent
maybe $70 on what should have been free at the
British lounge.

And back to the American club, where we sprang
for another glass of wine each (free, but you tip
the bartender a buck per, which makes it just
about a fair deal).
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