After our long layover in Denver it was time for us to catch our connecting flight in United Express E175 First class over to Montrose. My elite upgrade cleared a few days in advance so we’d be riding up front on this short trip.
Booking
This flight was a continuation of our AUS-DEN flight earlier in the day. The pricing to Montrose was expensive at over $800 per person round trip in Economy but thankfully I had some expiring United credits to soften the blow.
Pre-Flight
We arrived in Denver just before 10:00a and headed straight for the American Express Centurion Lounge. While United doesn’t offer lounge access on domestic first class tickets, we had access to the Centurion lounge thanks to my AmEx Platinum card.
After a few hours in the lounge, we headed over to the B Concourse to board our connecting flight.
Boarding
Our flight was departing from Gate B54 and preboarding was already underway when we arrived at the gate. We hopped at the end of the long Group 1 line and waited for our turn to board, after customers with disabilities, Global Services, Active Military, Families with Children, Premier 1Ks, Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and the entire cast of the Marvel movies.
SkyWest DBA United Express
UA 4804
DEN-MTJ (Denver International – Montrose Regional)
Seat 2C (First)
EMB-175 (N142SY)
Scheduled: 1:28p-2:39p
Actual: 1:23p-2:21p
Once on board, we took our assigned 2C and 2D. The E175 is great to fly for both couples and individual passengers as the aircraft features 1-2 seating in First Class. The seats were comfortable and well padded, and the legroom was decent.
No IFE as is the norm on regional jets but it was a short flight anyway. As boarding was wrapping up, the flight attendant came through the cabin and took beverage orders for once we were up in the air. No pre-departure beverages were offered on this flight.
Departure
We pushed back from the gate five minutes ahead of schedule and taxied over to Runway 25. After waiting in the queue for a couple of departing jets we started our long takeoff roll towards the west.
In Flight
Once we were in the air I could see weather starting to build out over the Rockies. The captain came over the PA and announced that, due to the expected turbulence and the short flight, he asked the flight attendants to remain seated for the duration of the flight. Since we had just spent 3 hours in the lounge this wasn’t a big deal as we had already filled up on food and drinks.
With no IFE and no cabin service, I passed the time looking out the window at the mountains below.
Arrival
As soon as we reached our cruising altitude we immediately started our descent. We had a windy descent as we were going around mountains and eventually landed on Runway 17.
Montrose Regional has no jet bridges and all planes here use ramps. We parked on the stand at “Gate” 6 which was at the far end of the ramp. While some people may not like this, as an AvGeek I love it since you get to see the aircraft up close.
We walked past another United Express E175 that had just arrived from Houston as well as an American Airlines flight from Dallas/Ft. Worth. The airport is currently working on a new, modern terminal building but it still looked to be a few months or more away from completion.
We entered the old terminal and found ourselves in the arrivals hall which had a bar/restaurant and a few rental car counters with extremely long lines. We didn’t have any checked bags but, for those that do, the bags come out via a hole in the fence on the north side of the terminal (Who doesn’t love outdoor baggage claim at a ski resort).
Summary
I can’t really say much about this flight since it was so short and the flight attendants had to remain seated. They were well intentioned by proactively asking for beverage choices but ultimately weren’t able to perform a service in the cabin. The Montrose airport on the other hand is a madhouse and while this is out of United’s control, it’s best to have your ground transportation booked well in advance as there were no available cars for rent on arrival.
In This Trip Report
