It has been a long four months since I last stepped on an airplane. Crazy, I know. But I locked it down before my son was born and then obviously for a little while after as well. This was my first opportunity to get back in the air, and it came courtesy of US Airways, which is always happy to fly people out without charge for the airline’s annual media day.

This was my first chance to see the newly-refurbished US Airways Express aircraft operated by Mesa. It was also the first chance I had to fly a US Airways mainline aircraft into Long Beach in quite some time. Overall, everything was fine but the ground experience in both places left something to be desired.

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March 20, 2012
US Airways 2829 Lv Long Beach 430p Arr Phoenix 553p
Long Beach (LGB): Gate 8, Runway 30, Depart 1m Late
Phoenix (PHX): Gate B18, Runway 25L, Arrive 5m Late
N902FJ, Bombardier CRJ-900, US Airways colors, ~95% Full
Seat 10A
Flight Time 59m

As usual, I left home an hour before the flight and found myself in a short but barely-moving security line. It was apparently amateur-hour at LGB with every other person forgetting to empty pockets, take liquids out, remove shoes etc. Once through, I tried to find a seat in the packed trailer terminal.

It was packed because US Airways, Delta, and Alaska were all pushing out airplanes at the same time, and the little trailer isn’t meant to handle that much at once. I can’t wait until the new concourse opens up.

Even though everything was running on time, it was a tense situation just because of the packed house. When they called boarding for our flight, people rushed up to get on board quickly just to escape the terminal.

The agent who was boarding was aggressive and forced almost everyone to tag their bags for planeside checking for this CRJ-900. The guy in front of me balked and said he had brought his (relatively small) bag on board this exact same aircraft type on the way out, but she wanted to hear nothing of it. She barked back at him that he had to check his bag.

He looked like he wanted to fight, but instead, he just shoved his boarding pass in front of the agent and said “fine, just check me in.” That did it. She made him stand to the side, scolding him publicly for his behavior. Soon after, she let him board after his tone softened. I was just happy to be out of there.

The construction is coming along nicely but that means the walk to the airplane is long and confusing. With several aircraft boarding at once, we all merged into one lane for walking and then there was a split to different aircraft at the end. Needless to say, they were pretty loudly announcing where our airplane was going once we boarded, just in case.

This was my first chance to see the new Mesa interiors and they looked good. First Class seats were a nice touch, and even the recovered leather coach seats looked significantly better. Our mostly full flight pushed back just about on time and we took off on a relatively uneventful flight.

I say “relatively” uneventful, because there were some strange characters onboard. The woman next to me stared at a copy of her itinerary for most of the flight. She just held it up in front of her face . . . for maybe 30 minutes. Very weird.

I had my customary ginger ale and that’s when I started to notice that these seats didn’t look as good as I first thought. The seatback looked like stucco that had been painted over one too many times. There were chips in the paint and it just didn’t look great.

More annoyingly, these seats would not stay upright. The flight attendant had asked several of us to push the button to bring our seats up before departure. I had figured that came from the last person in the seat, but I was wrong because when we descended into Phoenix, the same thing happened. Apparently, these seats do their own thing.

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March 23, 2012
US Airways 123 Lv Phoenix 806p Arr Long Beach 927p
Phoenix (PHX): Gate A4, Runway 7L, Depart 5m Early
Long Beach (LGB): Gate 8, Runway 30, Arrive 6m Early
N819AW, Airbus A319-131, US Airways colors, ~75% Full
Seat 12A
Flight Time 59m

Normally after a hard week of work, I like to stay overnight and have a beer with friends. But I couldn’t leave my wife alone with the little guy any longer, so I came back Friday night, taking advantage of a nice mainline flight home.

I got to the airport about an hour in advance and it was surprisingly busy. The A350 model I had won at the conference was suspicious enough that the TSA pulled me aside and searched my bag. Funny.

I went to my gate and found a fair number of people waiting around with our airplane there already. I had thought that tickets provided by US Airways were upgradeable if seats were open so I went to the gate agent to ask. She looked at me funny and asked if this was a mileage ticket. I explained to her what it was and she said I could buy an upgrade like anyone else for $50. Ok. I didn’t take it and just went to wander and remember the good old days when I use to roam these halls.

I’m always surprised when I find someone who I knew from my America West days, but sure enough I ran into a guy who was there back then and we caught up on life. He took at a look at my ticket and said it really did look like it was a travel voucher used to purchase it. Interesting. I should ask the US Airways folks about that one.

I went to board the flight and asked the gate agent if it was full. Without looking up, she said it was very full and hurried me along. It wasn’t full at all. I took my window seat and had an empty middle and aisle next to me. I’m guessing we were three quarters full at most for the short ride home.

The captain was in a good mood. He came on and thanked “junior travelers” James and Bella for stopping by the cockpit on their way on to the airplane. I loved that because I knew the kids probably went nuts hearing their names over the PA. It’s a little thing, but it’s a great way to make kids feel special when they fly.

The airport had gone and uncharacteristically switched the runways on us, so we had a long taxi to the west end of the airport only to take off to the east and then turn right around. It was a mostly clear night so the view was beautiful. I had a ginger ale and soon we were on our way into Long Beach and I was on my way home.

I know I’ve already given you most of the info from the US Airways media day and the Phoenix Symposium, but I never got around to posting the trip report. Unlike in previous years, I opted to fly instead of drive, and US Airways offered the ticket for free to anyone who was attending. I accepted.

I could have flown out of Long Beach, but I made the rare decision to go LAX instead. Why? I’d rather not fly Mesa, and that’s who US Airways uses from Long Beach.

Unfortunately, I was unable to get a ride on the way out. Not wanting to leave my car at LAX for a few days, I just took public transit. Track closures had rail running slow, but I still arrived at the terminal about 1:15 before the flight.

I always like to leave a little buffer when I fly out of LAX Terminal 1 (Southwest and US Airways) but it was completely unnecessary today. There was no security line and I tested the new option to leave your netbook in the bag. Didn’t work. They said it had to be the only thing in the bag, so they made me take it out. Oh well.

After, I went to the gate. This was my first time flying US Airways in a long time, but it brought back memories. My days at America West were spent flying between Phoenix and LA, always taking one of the two midday flights home on Sunday. Here I was, taking the same flight (there’s only one these days) back to Phoenix.

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April 27, 2010
US Airways #574 Lv Los Angeles (LAX) 1240p Arr Phoenix (PHX) 200p
LAX: Gate 6, Runway 24L, Dept 3m Early
PHX: Gate A28, Runway 25L, Arr On Time
Aircraft: N521UW, Airbus A321-231, Post Merger Colors, ~75% Full
Seat: 6F
Flight Time: 1h4m

I boarded to find a very nice, new A321 (about a year old). US Airways has done a nice job with leather seats and a bright interior design. The legroom, at 32 inch pitch, actually felt quite roomy for me. I took my seat and waited as we boarded early and pushed a couple minute before schedule.

We taxied out and sat off the runway for about 5 minutes before heading off into the marine layer. It was my favorite kind of departure – a short hop into the marine layer and then out into sparkling sunshine just a minute later. Only this time, the sunshine didn’t last long because we had high clouds that kept us bouncing much of the way to Phoenix.

This is one of the planes equipped with wifi from GoGo, but it was never mentioned by the crew and there weren’t any pamphlets in the seat back. How did I even know? There was a sticker on the door. But I wasn’t about to use it, not for an hour flight. I just did some reading and drank my ginger ale. (If you haven’t seen it, read this great piece from Mark at Upgrade:Travel Better on drinking ginger ale on airplanes.)

Soon enough we were passing over the Colorado River and beginning our descent. It may not be summer, but the temperature was heading toward the high 90s. If you’ve flown into Phoenix in the summer, you know that it can be a rockin’ ride with the thermals. This trip was no exception and the captain actually had the flight attendants sit down early so nobody would get hurt. We bounced our way into Phoenix and had a long taxi back to the gate.

After the door opened, I stood up and crossed my seat belt, another America West flashback. Seatbelts had to be crossed before boarding back in the day, and as an employee I always crossed it to help out. That’s stuck with me, and I cross it every time I fly.

I was supposed to come home on Saturday at midday, but I decided I just wanted to get home early so I switched to good old flight 24. For as long as I can remember, flight 24 (or previously 2024) has been the morning flight to LAX. I used to take this often, so once again, it was a nice flashback.

I got to the airport an hour early and found a very slow line with a single ID checker. Our line kept backing up as employee after employee kept coming through and cutting in front of us. It took 15 minutes to get through a line that should have taken 5.

Once through, I headed to the gate to find the latest Arizona plane. This is the third one I’ve been on. The first was 757 N916AW. That was returned to the lessor in the 1990s and N901AW was painted in Arizona colors. Then when the merger happened, the 757s all received regular US Airways paint and the theme planes moved to A319s.

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May 1, 2010
US Airways #24 Lv Phoenix (PHX) 740a Arr Los Angeles (LAX) 905a
PHX: Gate B6, Runway 25R, Dept On Time
LAX: Gate 8, Runway 24L, Arr ~10m Early
Aircraft: N826AW, Airbus A319-132, Arizona Plane, ~95% Full
Seat: 1D, First Class
Flight Time: 53m

I had forgotten I was on a US Airways-provided ticket, so when they called me up to the podium, it threw me off guard. Fortunately, they had called me up to give me a First Class ticket for the ride home.

I boarded after most, but I did find a place to put my carry on just a couple rows behind me. The flight attendants were having a rough start to their day. One was running back and forth trying to help everyone. At one point, the gate agent was on the plane when the flight attendant realized there was a child in the exit row. She asked the gate agent for help and he simply shrugged and said, “What do you want me to do?” If I could only describe the look on her face . . . . She just did it.

We pushed back on time and were told to expect a bumpy ride. Once we got airborne, it turned out to be pretty smooth, and I had a bloody mary to make the ride a little better.

It was a beautifully clear day and the service was excellent onboard. We did end up hitting some turbulence as we descended into LA, but that only prompted the flight attendant to ask me if I wanted another bloody mary. I had no intention of doing so, but hey, why not? I wasn’t driving home.

We came into LAX on a beautiful day and landed nice and early. The captain opened the door at the gate and exclaimed “Welcome to Burbank! Oops.” Those at the front laughed and then we all headed out to find our rides.

It was a great trip on US Airways. It’s been awhile since I last flew them, but I wouldn’t hesitate to do it again.

Yesterday, the East Valley (that’d be Mesa/Chandler/Gilbert/Tempe – east of Phoenix) was jumping with joy after learning that their long-suffering airport, STBPMGA (that’s Soon-To-Be Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport), would become Allegiant’s fourth base after Las Vegas, Orlando/Sanford, and St Petersburg/Tampa. Today, Ft Lauderdale received word that they’ll be base #5.

Phoenix-Mesa Gateway (as I believe Williams Gateway will be renamed soon, probably thanks to the urging of Allegiant) is a former Air Force Base that has been trying to attract flights for a long time with spotty success. Yesterday’s announcement that Allegiant will start flights on October 25 was a big win for the airport. I’m guessing Allegiant is getting a very sweet deal here.

Ft Lauderdale is a different kind of thing. The airline’s last 3 bases have been at secondary airports, so this is a return to a main airport, unless you count Ft Lauderdale as secondary to Miami. Flights here begin November 14, and while I’m sure Allegiant got a good deal (they won’t fly anywhere unless they do), it would surprise me if they could squeeze much out of FLL. The airport already has ample low cost service from JetBlue, Southwest, AirTran, and hometown airline Spirit. They also have somewhat of a crowding problem, but Allegiant’s low frequency service – a couple times a week per destination – likely won’t hurt that much. Besides, Allegiant almost never competes with existing airline service since they fly to much smaller cities.

So where are they going from these new bases? Well they’re turning this into a big guessing game. We do know that Phoenix-Mesa will get flights to 13 cities already in the Allegiant network, none of which have nonstop service from the Phoenix area currently. Ft Lauderdale will see service to 12 cities, one of which will be new to the Allegiant network, and I’m guessing that none of these will have nonstop service currently either.

The airline will slowly start trickling announcements out over the next month, and they’ve got a countdown clock on their website to show you when the next one will be announced.

If I had to take a guess, I’d expect to see a bunch of Snowbird Specials launched here just in time for the peak winter season. For Phoenix, maybe we’ll see places like Duluth and Rochester (Minnesota), Cedar Rapids (Iowa), Rockford and Peoria (Illinois) and Lansing (Michigan). Ft Lauderdale? Maybe a little further east with some overlap. Youngstown or Toledo (Ohio)? Maybe Ft Wayne and South Bend (Indiana)?

My best guess is that they don’t even fully know the list. While they have a pool of cities in the running, those could change depending upon who gives the airline the best deal. Allegiant is known for being a hard bargainer, and if Rockford can outdo Cedar Rapids, that might make the difference.

Having the countdown clock just feeds into that. It’s like watching the lottery balls come up every week, hoping you have a match. Come down on your costs and tick, tick, tick, tick, you could have your name in lights and an old MD80 landing on your runway.

Either way, it’s good news for people in small towns all over the US. They continue to get service, though infrequent and with no frills, to places they’d never have been able to fly nonstop before. I’m just waiting to see how long it takes before another airline stops finding this amusing and starts trying to compete.