(we arrived so ahead of schedule, around 9:16pm when the planned arrival time was 9:50, that we had to wait a few minutes for the ground crew before we could actually arrive at the gate)

anyway, first trip of 2026 complete

noticed that there was little urgency to stop and exit the runway sooner since United's gates are towards the second half if not the end of the runway

also a bin was open, no idea if someone opened it or it fell open 🛬

BLUE MOODLIGHTING ✈️

🐴🥤

flights out of either LAX or ONT at this hour haven't given me a view of all these lights like BUR does 🛫

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🐴✈️💺

with an interior like this the price can be justified just a bit

but it does not make up for their baggage restrictions on basic economy with the price, which is usually why I might opt for economy award/mileage fares flying them

I've had many an open-air boarding experience at burbank, but this is the first time it happened after sundown

when it was time for my return flight on united my first impression was being pleasantly surprised at the new livery A320

I later looked up N485UA in a "United NEXT" interior refurb spreadsheet on progress, and it was refurbed

my excitement spiked because my previous experience had impressed me

after I got home I found out frontier loaded SFO-SNA/ONT flights in march

in that they will no longer end on jan 19

they were definitely not loaded when i last checked 2-3+ days ago

so I could feasibly experience flying to SNA for chumpchange (but probably not in row 4 without paying extra) 🛬

when i have the freedom to select seats in row 4 and bring a bag as part of a $17 all-in fare you bet your behind i will hear that CFM LEAP-1A's takeoff concerto 🛫

(also yes I need to catch up on frontier from SFO to SNA so you get this instead of united)

it's perfect

(to add to this, they had already given me an assigned seat a couple hours before check-in had even opened, for free, despite all their text to the contrary 🙂‍↕️)