United Airlines open house: Family Day 2011

Earlier this month, I mentioned that I would attend the 6th annual United Family Day Open House in San Francisco. It turns out to be a great event! 

United and Continental parked four planes, one A320 in new United livery, another United A320 retro-jet, a Continental Boeing 737-900ER retro-jet and a Boeing 777-200 in the tulip livery. They also had a Boeing 747-400 in new livery making a low pass fly-by during the open house.

Here are some pictures:

The plane pull took place at about 1:30 p.m. and a group of Flyertalkers pulled this A320.

ANA departing for Narita

Retro-jets were the stars!

United 747 fly-by! Wooooooosh! And there it goes! Too fast and I wasn't able to zoom in!

Beautiful day!

In 2012, United and Continental will become one company!

Retro-jets!

The military also flew some of their front-line fighter jets to the show. There was the Blue Angels' F/A-18s, Fat Albert, and a couple of F-15s. 

These are the killers!

So damn cool.

And the Blue Angels!

Ready for the Fleet Week!

And the Army brought their work horse, UH-60 Black Hawk.

Beautiful baby

And the tulip color. Not much days left for this design.

A beauty

Later in the after noon, I checked out their engine testing facility.

Amazing!

For those who weren't able to make it this year, let me tell you, it's a plane freak's "wet dream" comes true. So, look sharp, when registration on Flyertalk.com opens up again next September! 

Again, I was able to make it, thanks to the generosity from United Airlines to the frequent flyer community. I hope this event gets better each year.

Read More

This weekend: United Family Day Open House 2011 and San Francisco Fleet Week

This weekend I'll be attending the 6th annual United Family Day Open House at United Airlines Maintenance Center in San Francisco International Airport (SFO).

The event will be held on Sunday, October 9th from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. I was very fortunate to be able to snatch a ticket when registration opened up on September 21. I am so excited, as it is the first time I am going to attend such a cool event!

According to an announcement made by the organizer earlier on Flyertalk.com, there will be lots of activities and exhibits, including a display of United aircraft, classic airplanes and smaller civil aircraft. Employees will be offering guided tours of one of United’s wide body aircraft, the maintenance facility and a close up look at many aircraft engines.

From what was reported from last year's United Family Day, there will be food, music and plane pull. The event will probably also feature the Blue Angels, who is participating in this year's Fleet Week in San Francisco.

Apart from that, frequent flyers from all over the nation has voluntarily organized a pre-United Family Day Gathering at United Airlines' Red Carpet Club in the International Terminal.

But, for me, I will not join the pre-party at SFO this year because I am here in the Bay Area already and getting in by purchasing a fully refundable ticket adds a lot of hassle. To make the day even better, I plan to visit San Francisco's Fleet Week for a ship tour in the morning. Some of the Navy's state-of-the-art warships, such as USS Antietam and USS Milius, are open to public for free. Aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson will not be open to visitors.

It was rainy these days. Let's just hope Sunday will be a good day with sun, a fun crowd and many beautiful planes and ships!

Read More