Croatia
A completely full morning 787-10 to Newark would be a precursor to a completely full evening flight to Dubrovnik on a smaller 767-300ER. Didn't even try to enter the one United club currently open at EWR-- it too looked packed. At least while waiting for the pre-flight party to start at the gate, I ran into one of the new generation of aviation photographers working the event, @diecastryan. Superb photographer and he reminded me just how old I am!
The inaugural flight festivities kicked off with some tourist swag, the usual balloons, ribbon cutting, and speech from VP of international alliances and network planning, Patrick Quayle, who smartly rode up front for the flight as opposed to in steerage like the majority of us. Lots of assistants working the event, and as I found out only after I'd boarded, the return flight crew was also going out on the inaugural-- so it was packed with United employees.
Had some solid conversation with Robert Chan, the international purser for the return flight, who was seated right next to me, as well as a former travel editor for a major travel-and-triathlon magazine who lives every summer in Croatia. The hand-picked crew for the inaugural took great care of everyone, and the purser hand-wrote cards to all of the top-tier frequent fliers, which was something even the 40+ year veteran next to me hadn't seen before! Massive legroom in the center exit row seats as well (row 21DEF), but unfortunately the rest of the flight was sub-par as a fat, tall American who neglected to purchase an Economy Plus seat was crammed into the seat behind me; I literally couldn't recline my seat an inch, and consequently got zero sleep on the flight over.