As my wedding quickly approaches, the trips up north to do wedding stuff seem to get more frequent. This time, we crammed a million different things into two days, and really, I’m exhausted. But, I have to commend JetBlue for an almost flawless performance. The flights were on time, the legroom was great, the flight attendants were excellent, and we had an welcome surprise on the return. For $139 roundtrip per person, I have no complaints. (And I wouldn’t have had any complaints at a higher fare either.) If this is why they say they no longer “fly” but rather “jet,” then I guess I much prefer “jetting.”

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June 7, 2008
JetBlue #246 Lv Long Beach (LGB) 11a Arr Oakland (OAK) 1218p
LGB: Gate 3, Runway 30, Dept ~On Time
OAK: Gate 9, Runway 29, Arr ~On Time
Aircraft: N520JB, Airbus A320-232, “Blue Velvet”, ~90% Full
Seat: 13A
Flight Time: 55m

How often can you leave your house 1 hour before departure time and still have 10 minutes to sit at the gate and wait? That’s the beauty of Long Beach Airport for us. We left one hour prior to departure with our boarding passes already in hand. Security took 10 minutes (longest I’ve ever seen at LGB), and we were at the gate with plenty of time to spare. The terminal was a madhouse. I really can’t wait for them to build the new one.

We boarded early and took our seats just behind the exit row. Unfortunately, only 10 of the 37 channels actually worked on the TV on this flight, but hey, 10 channels is still plenty to keep me entertained for an hour. That being said, the map is NOT one of those channels. Even with the upgrade to the new Google Map, it’s really pretty weak. You don’t get much info, there’s a ton of advertising on the channel, and the airplane is so big that it takes up half the state. See the picture at right to see the most useless map - the one that was zoomed way out. Fortunately, some were better than this but they still were lacking.

Our flight was a perfect example of how crowded LA airspace is. They held us at the end of the runway for a couple minutes so they could space us properly with LAX flights. Then we departed and headed slightly northwest, holding at 9,000 ft in what felt like slow motion until we turned north over Malibu. Once around Simi Valley, we finally throttled up and climbed on our way to Oakland.

The flight attendants came through with a choice of blue chips or chocolate chip cookies (which were proudly 70% organic - huh?). Then, it was time to descend. We touched down, made it to the gate, and got off the plane in less time than it took to take the bus to the new rental car center, which I believe is located in Berkeley. (Translation: It’s friggin’ far away.)

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June 9, 2008
JetBlue #251 Lv Oakland (OAK) 320p Arr Long Beach (LGB) 443p
OAK: Gate 9A, Runway 29, Dept ~On Time
LGB: Gate 4A, Runway 30, Arr ~On Time
Aircraft: N646JB, Airbus A320-232, “Bravo Lima Uniform Echo”, ~99% Full
Seat: 20F
Flight Time: 1h5m

After a morning up in the Napa area, we headed back down to Oakland for our flight home. We dropped our car off at the rental car center and went to the terminal. (Note: Fox Rent a Car tells us that a PT Cruiser is anywhere from an Economy to a Mid Size, so don’t bother renting a Mid Size from these guys - you’ll pay more for the same car.)

The terminal was empty, and we walked all the way down to the JetBlue counters to print out our boarding passes from the kiosks. Then we walked all the way back to the entrance for security screening. (This is why I love common-use kiosks - they’re much more conveniently located.) Security was empty, and I sailed through. My fiancee, however, got stopped for some reason. They looked through her bag, found nothing, and she was on her way. Then we just waited in the terminal which seems to have every single eatery and shop under renovation right now.

I’m not sure why, but our flight didn’t board until 15 minutes before departure. It had been sitting there for awhile, so that wasn’t the reason. The nearly full flight (the seat next to us was the only empty seat I saw) boarded very quickly, and the flight attendants thanked us for helping them get back on schedule. We pushed just about on time, maybe a couple minutes late.

It was a beautifully clear weekend in the Bay Area, and we shot up into the sky for one of my favorite departure views. Just a few seconds after getting airborne, the pilot came on and said while he usually didn’t speak this early in the flight, we had received a gift. The controllers had granted our request for an aerial tour of the Bay Area before we headed on our way. I had done this once on an America West flight out of SFO but never out of Oakland.

So, he leveled off at 3,000 ft and stayed around 220 kts (according to FlightAware) as we looped around the City. Unfortunately, I was on the right side so my views were primarily of the East Bay, Angel Island, and Marin. Up above you can see the view of the new Bay Bridge under construction. And below you can see Treasure Island. The old Pan Am flying boats used to come and go in the area at the bottom of the picture.

Once our tour was through, we were on our way. I watched tv and enjoyed watching the vast Pacific out the window as we headed south. After the drinks had been served, a flight attendant came on and asked that everyone who had a soda can take the pull tab off and hand it to her. She personally collects the pull tabs to donate to her local Ronald McDonald House, and they apparently get a penny for each one they turn in. That was a really nice gesture, and apparently she does this all on her own. Another flight attendant said JetBlue had given her an award for it.

We soon started descending. On my side, I could see glimpses of the Channel Islands and Catalina through the holes in the thin marine layer. We swung around and landed in LGB right on time, but only after touching down closer to the middle of the runway than the beginning. Glad they built that thing for long haul Douglas jets - there was plenty of room. Since we were in the back, we got off on the rear stairs and walked on the tarmac into the terminal and then straight to the curb.

It was a great trip, highlighted by the ease of flying out of LGB. As much as I like trying other airlines when I can, it’s hard to justify doing that when JetBlue can fly me up to the Bay Area out of LGB. I’ll be back again soon.

As promised, I spent the weekend putting together my photos and this trip report from our excellent Peru trip. If you’d like to see photos, I’ve posted them here. My fiancee is involved with Adventures by Disney, so they invited us to join them on a dress rehearsal of one of the guided trips. Needless to say, we jumped at the chance and we were lucky enough to get the Peru trip, our first choice. (And please go easy on me for the title of this post. That piece of cheesiness was the Disney theme for one of the days of the trip.)

I asked you guys to recommend how you would go about getting there, and the LAN nonstop won out. I’m certainly glad we went that way because it was really convenient. Service was ok at best, but we were on-time and it was easy. Disney put us on Star Peru for the flight from Lima to Cusco, and that was an interesting experience. Let’s get into the details.

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April 27, 2008
LAN (Peru) #605 Lv Los Angeles (LAX) 150p Arr Lima (LIM) 1225a
LAX: Gate 108, Runway 24L, Dept ~On Time
LIM: Gate 14, Runway 15, Arr ~:15m Early
Aircraft: CC-CEB, Boeing 767-316ER, White Star, ~75% Full
Seat: 20A
Flight Time: 7h50m

It was a hot day in LA, but instead of going to the beach, we spent the morning packing. We arrived at LAX at noon for a 150p flight, and there was no line at the LAN counter at the Bradley terminal, despite the fact that there were two flights leaving within a half hour of each other. I haven’t flown out of the Bradley terminal in a few years, but I still get that same excitement I used to get as a kid. Flying out of Bradley always meant we were going somewhere exciting.

An agent took our names and entered them into her portable device when we entered the line, because, we were told, the airline wanted to make sure everyone was in the right place and they wanted to see how long it took to get to the front. It took us just a couple minutes, and we found an agent who was able to help us with everything we needed. Well, ok, we couldn’t get an upgrade to business, but the agent confirmed the flight wasn’t very full, and she gave us an exit row.

After wandering the shops for a few minutes, something that was to be a theme of this trip, we headed toward security. The line minders from the TSA were barking orders at people despite that fact that it was painfully obvious most people didn’t speak English very well if at all. At one point, a TSO yelled at an Asian couple for not keeping their boarding passes with them through security, and they had no idea what he was saying. He angrily held up the line until he could get a supervisor. It’s this kind of offensive behavior that gives tourists a bad impression of the US.

We got to the gate an hour before departure to find boarding beginning. We had to get on a bus for a remote gate at the west end of the airport, so they really started early. Upon finding our seats, we noticed the plane had been outfitted with the new AVOD system, and that made our day. We pushed back on time and slowly made the long trek to the runway for departure.

Once airborne, the captain said we’d have a nice ride, so he turned off the seatbelt sign. With the exception of a 15 minute period, it stayed that way most of the flight. The flight attendants came around and served drinks as well as lunch. I had the chicken and potatoes and the chicken wasn’t bad but the potatoes were dry and not good at all. (That’s saying something, because I LOVE potatoes.) Once finished, I sat back and started watching movies. The system was a good one, but I actually couldn’t find too many movies that interested me. So I watched TV, played games, etc. I think my favorite feature of the system was that you could pull up the map in the corner showing where you were while you were in any movie or TV show.

After lunch, we didn’t see the flight attendants again until a couple hours before arrival when they served a midnight snack. Around that time, we were tracking along the dark coast of South America and we began our descent an hour later. There were no lights around until we were fairly close to the ground. We landed after midnight and had the unpleasant task of waiting in a 45 minute immigration line before grabbing our bags and heading into town.

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April 30, 2008
Star Peru #1117 Lv Lima (LIM) 930a Arr Cusco (CUZ) 1035a
LIM: Gate 5, Runway 15, Dept ~On Time
CUZ: Gate 3, Runway 28, Arr ~On Time
Aircraft: OB-1823, Boeing 737-2T2, Peruvian People, ~95% Full
Seat: 3A
Flight Time: ~1h

After a couple days in Lima, it was time to join the tour group. I had thought we were taking LAN over to Cusco, but when the coach pulled up at the airport, I was surprised to be handed a Star Peru boarding pass. Who?! I had never heard of them, so I started asking around.

Apparently, we were put on Star Peru because they make things much easier for tour groups. Disney was able to just give all our luggage to them, and they loaded it on the plane. Then they gave our group leaders a boarding pass for everyone and we didn’t have to wait in line once.

The Lima airport is very small and very easy to navigate. We went through domestic security and passed to a small holding room from where many domestic flights leave. That’s when I got my first glimpse of our nicely painted 737-200. According to Airfleets.net, this aircraft was delivered to Western Airlines at the end of 1982. Delta had the plane until 1995 when it was sent to Lithuanian Airlines. Star Peru picked it up in early 2006. Notice that Varig never had this plane. That’ll mean something in a second . . . .

We left the crowded waiting area to board our plane via air stairs. That’s always something that I love. Though the plane looked clean on the outside, it was a little scratched up on the inside. The interior didn’t look very old, but the old 737 moniker on the window shade didn’t exactly look new. Now that I know the airplane never flew with Varig, it seems very strange that each belt buckle had the Varig logo on it. They must have picked them up at a fire sale when that airline went down.

We took off to the South and turned toward the East for our flight to Cusco. The Andes start very close to the coast in Peru, so we were soon skimming the tops of tremendous mountains with an incredible view as far as the eye could see. The crew came through with drinks and a sandwich for everyone, and then soon enough it was time to descend.

Flying into Cusco is a bit tricky. The airport lies in a valley 11,000 feet above sea level. The mountains on the West are too high for a straight in approach, so you fly over the airport and do a quick descent as you spiral around from the East. Then you land on the runway right as you straighten out. This is all done by hand flying as there are no instrument systems. All flights land to the west and depart back toward the east. Flights also mostly operate in the morning because of the hot, high, and windy conditions. LAN now has an afternoon flight, but that’s a relatively new addition. During the rainy season, low clouds mean flights get scrubbed until it clears up. Fortunately we didn’t have any of those issues when we landed, and soon we were on our way.

Our time in Peru was fantastic. The scenery is something you must see in person, and the people were all extremely friendly. As I mentioned, if you’d like to see pictures from our trip, click here.

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May 6, 2008
Star Peru #1118 Lv Cusco (CUZ) 1105a Arr Lima (LIM) 1210p
CUZ: Gate 3, Runway 10, Dept ~:30m Late
LIM: Gate 13, Runway 15, Arr ~:30m Late
Aircraft: OB-1823, Boeing 737-2T2, Peruvian People, ~67% Full
Seat: 4B
Flight Time: ~1h

Soon enough, it was time to head back home. We had a morning flight on May 6 to go back to Lima and then we had a redeye back to LAX. We were originally told our departure time was at 1055a, but when we received our boarding passes when we arrived at the airport around 10a, they said 1105a. Once again, we never saw our luggage, so we went straight through security. The Cusco airport is small but modern and functional with just a little holdroom for a handful of gates and a couple shops.

Our flight wasn’t even on the board yet when we got to the gate, and that made me a little nervous. There also were no Star Peru personnel around. LAN and Aerocondor flights came and went, but we were creeping closer to our departure time with no info. Finally, our flight popped up on the board saying 1135a. I’m assuming that was delayed from the original time and not just a new schedule about which we didn’t know.

The plane landed, and they turned it around pretty quickly. We had the same plane that we had on the way out, so I’m assuming they just run this one back and forth a couple times every morning.

It was getting toward noon, and it was heating up outside. We had a relatively light load for a short flight, so I figured there wouldn’t be any problems, but it was still going to take a while to get airborne. Sure enough, our takeoff roll lasted for a loooong time. It seemed like we used all 11,000 ft of that runway, and once we were airborne, we were slow to climb.

What made things worse was the pressurization system that had everyone’s ears popping a little. My fiancee had a head cold, and it didn’t take long for her head to start feeling like it had been stabbed with an ice pick (her words, not mine). Once at cruise, she was fortunately able to get it cleared out in time for the flight attendants to do their food and drink service.

I have a friend who collects safety cards, so I asked one of the flight attendants if I could take one. That’s not an easy thing to do since most rows had one card if that (on the way out we had none). But the flight attendant offered to get me a new one. When she returned, she had two, but asked if I would fill out a comment card about the service the crew had provided. She even gave me the names of the entire crew. Pretty smart, if you ask me. To be honest, the service was quite good, so I had no qualms about filling it out.

Shortly after, we were over the foothills of the Andes and we started our fighter pilot descent into Lima. You could tell this guy was having fun, because he was coming down at a pretty good clip. We also came in fast, and he ended up dropping the gear about 15 minutes before landing so he could slow us down rapidly. It was actually pretty fun.

Once on the ground, we taxied back to the gate and went into town for our afternoon farewell lunch. We had a hotel that night, but we only used it for a few hours until we had to return to the airport for our flight home.

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May 7, 2008
LAN (Chile) #600 Lv Lima (LIM) 105a Arr Los Angeles (LAX) 740a
LIM: Gate 15, Runway 33, Dept ~On Time
LAX: Gate 105, Runway 25L, Arr ~:10m Early
Aircraft: CC-CQA, Airbus A340-313X, White Star, ~75% Full
Seat: 12A
Flight Time: 8h20m

Disney arranged for everyone to be picked up three hours prior to the departure of their flights. Ours left at 1240a, so we left at around 930p for the long and slow drive to the airport. We arrived at about 1015p and went to check in.

It took about 20 minutes in line before we reached the front. There are separate lines for the US flights because those require talking to an agent. All the other LAN flights can use the kiosks to check-in.

The agent gave us our boarding passes and I noticed that it was for a flight departing at 105a. Huh? That was the other flight; the LAN Chile flight (instead of LAN Peru). Well, the agent said that the second flight wasn’t operating that day. I think this was canceled long ago, but we didn’t quite get the message until I looked at the boarding pass.

The bad news? The flight left 25 minutes later than we expected, so that meant we had longer to wait. The good news? We would be on an A340-300 instead of a 767. I had only been on one A340 in my life before, and that was an A340-600 on South African from Cape Town to Jo’burg. So, this was not only my first A340-300, but it was also my first Airbus long haul trip. Cool. On top of that, the agent gave us the very first row of coach on the left side. The middle was occupied by another family on our trip, and the right was blocked off for crew rest, so it was a nice set up for us.

We waited in the restaurant and said bye to people on other flights until it was time for us to board. Once onboard, I noticed out the window that the runways were turned around and we would be able to depart to the north sending us directly home.

We took off and climbed at what seemed to be a very slow rate. It was slow enough that someone else asked me if it seemed we had been climbing very slowly. I pulled out the AVOD system (which isn’t as good as the new one on the 767, but it was adequate), and noticed that yes, we were taking our own sweet time getting up to altitude. Apparently it wasn’t an issue, because we continued on our merry way.

The flight attendants came by and dropped off some drinks before disappearing into the back for the next several hours. I was able to get about 4 to 5 hours of fitful sleep before waking up with the dawn as we passed over Mexico. The flight attendants came by with breakfast, but I wasn’t hungry at that point, so I passed.

As we passed over Mexicali, you could see the marine layer was pretty thick. We followed up the coast until we got near LA, made a few turns, plunged down into the clouds and landed. Fortunately, we were the only plane landing at Bradley at that time, so even after they made everyone wait on board for them to get a sick passenger off, we still made it through customs and immigration in less than 30 minutes.

I know I’ve already said it, but this was a spectacular trip. If you ever get the chance to go down to Peru, do not hesitate.

Back in early March, I decided it was time to fly Virgin America. Now you know that I’ve been critical of the airline, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t want to give them a try. So when I saw that fares up to San Francisco were running less than the price of a barrel of oil ($109 roundtrip each) for a planned trip up north, my fiancee and I decided to give them a shot. So what did I think? It was good. Regardless of whether I think there’s a place for them in the world or not, there’s no denying that it was a nice experience for the most part, but not entirely.

Unfortunately, the whole thing started off very poorly. On Thursday evening, I received this email:

Due to delays in the modification of our new planes, the inflight entertainment and select other in-seat services will not be available on your upcoming Virgin America flight. This includes the Red Inflight Entertainment system, which normally features satellite TV, movies, games, Google Maps and a food ordering system. In addition, the plugs at every seat for electronic gear will not be operational for the flight. Why are we sending you this message? We want you to be prepared to have your laptop or iPod fully charged, and ensure you have the latest magazines or newspapers to read while onboard your flight. We’ll do our best to provide some reading material onboard in case you forget.

Are you friggin’ kidding me?!? Not only are you telling me that it won’t be available, but you’re trying to show off exactly what I’ll be missing by describing it in detail. So not cool.

Even worse, the email didn’t say which flight was affected. It just referred to our confirmation number, and that’s annoying. Of course, I don’t care about all these bells and whistles on a one hour flight, but the point was to check out what they offered. If I didn’t get it on either flight, I was going to be really pissed.

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April 19, 2008
Virgin America #848 Lv Los Angeles (LAX) 840a Arr San Francisco (SFO) 1000a
LAX: Gate 67B, Runway 24L, Dept :12L
SFO: Gate A1B, Runway 28R, Arr :31L
Aircraft: N628VA, Airbus A320-214, White/Red, ~67% Full
Seat: 11A
Flight Time: 1h15m

The drive to the airport was aggravating. No, there wasn’t any traffic on the 405. There were just three separate Virgin America billboards taunting me with the messages like “Everybody needs an outlet.” That is, unless you’re flying one of their dark planes that hasn’t been outfitted yet, I suppose. These guys spend so much on branding, you’d think that they’d at least try to deliver consistently.

Anyway, parking was easy, and the TSA only gave us a small hassle for having our boarding passes on the same sheet of paper. (Kudos to VX for not wasting a ton of paper printing a little boarding pass.) Soon enough we were at our gate.

The gate areas look really nice, and there was a smiling gate agent waiting to greet us. I asked if the flight was full. She looked and excitedly said, “wow, it’s really full today - booked 113 out of 149.” Um, that’s not really full for any other airline but this one.

They called for boarding, and maybe 20 people fell into the first four groups. Then they called our group and most other people got up. Strange. We made our way down the jet bridge and were greeted by the warm purplish glow of a strip club new airplane with mood lighting.

We grabbed our seats right behind the exit rows and found that this flight did, in fact, have everything working as it should. The seats are a nice looking black leather with a hard shell back in white. The white is not a good idea, because though this airplane wasn’t that old, there was a fair number of visible dirt and scratches on each seat back.

Each seat has a little cup holder that comes down from the back of the seat. I love that feature, but this one was flimsy, and one of the ones in our row was already broken off (as you can see in the picture).

After a short catering delay (catering? really?), we taxied around LAX (had to go all the way from Terminal 6 to the north runways), and then we headed up into the marine layer for a nice flight to SFO. The inflight entertainment system seems like it will be pretty nice when it’s built out, but there are a lot of options that are unavailable for now. My biggest complaint about it? It’s very slow to respond to commands. At least, mine was. Then again, everything was slow. The Google Maps display seemed to be a few minutes behind when showing our position, so it was somewhat frustrating. The system also crashed on me twice during the flight. I just had to wait it out until it reset itself and brought up the home screen again.

The flight attendants were all friendly and came through the cabin handing out drinks but nothing else. When I asked for water, they gave me a little bottle. Score! I know it’s not a big thing, but I really like the little water bottle because I can throw it into the seatback pocket and keep it with me through landing.

Speaking of the seat pocket . . . it’s weird. There’s a hard shell of a pocket meant for magazines and papers, etc. Then there’s a mesh pocket that sits outside of that where you can put anything bulkier. Unfortunately, that just takes away some of your legroom, because I didn’t need the hard pocket for anything, so my water bottle stuck out further than it needed to.

The legroom itself was fine for me. It wasn’t anything amazing, but it was better than Economy Minus on United by a good amount. For me, it was a non-issue, but I’m only 5′ 8″ tall.

Soon enough we were descending, but I wasn’t done playing with everything. Fortunately, the captain knew I needed more time and decided to circle around Monterey Bay for awhile. Ok, so maybe ATC made him circle since the winds were starting to back things up, but it was welcome. If you look at the flight path for this trip, you’d think the pilot was drunk. (I’m kidding, I’m kidding.) After circling, for those who know the Bay Area, we came up over Woodside before turning southeast to follow the Bay down toward San Jose. Then we turned around again and lined up for a landing over the Bay on the 28s. It was very strange.

After a fantastic 24 hours in the Bay Area full of lunch at the Elephant Bar in Burlingame, wine tasting, and then a Passover seder with friends (see the picture from their balcony), we turned around to come back home. We didn’t have a chance to print out a boarding pass beforehand, so we got to the airport and went straight to the kiosks.

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April 20, 2008
Virgin America #847 Lv San Francisco (SFO) 125p Arr Los Angeles (LAX) 250p
SFO: Gate A1B, Runway 1L, Dept :03E
LAX: Gate 67A, Runway 24R, Arr :10E
Aircraft: N524VA, Airbus A319-112, White/Red, ~95% Full
Seat: 11F
Flight Time: 1h0m

The check-in area is one place that I think Virgin has done a really nice job. There are tables with flowers and screens on top of them that allow you to check in in a comfortable setting. We swiped a credit card to check in and it worked quickly. The boarding passes printed out one at a time through a small slot in the table. I’ve never seen a boarding pass this size before. It looks kind of like the size of the boarding pass that the gate agent keeps after giving you the stub. Since they just scan the pass, there’s no need for anything bigger. Again, nice way to save paper.

Virgin America flies out of the international terminal at SFO, so I was worried that the midday Asian flights would make for a long line at security. Fortunately, I was wrong, and we were through security quickly. Then we just waited.

It turns out that THIS was the dark plane we had been warned about. The gate agent said that this was the only aircraft that didn’t have the system outfitted and that it would be finished in July. I have to say, for an airline that focuses so much on its image, this is a really stupid move. They just started service to Seattle in the last month. Maybe they should have delayed that for a week so they could fix this plane up.

We boarded the plane and the first thing I noticed is that not only does it lack inflight entertainment, but it also has no bulkheads. What a strange sight to see an open galley with the row 1 passengers looking right at them. I asked a flight attendant about the plane, and he said that they isolate this to flying short haul routes along the west coast. If that’s true, it makes it better, but it’s still really inexcusable for these guys.

Before we pushed back, the pilot came out and grabbed the mike for a short chat on the PA system. He apologized for the inflight entertainment system being out and then proceeded to tell us about the flight. It was a very nice touch. I just wish I could have heard him better over the screaming college kids behind me.

We took off and turned southeast for the short trip back home. It was a very hazy day all over California, so I couldn’t see much. Without inflight entertainment, I had no idea what to do. Oh wait, yes I did. I read a magazine.

After the flight attendants handed out a granola bar and drinks, I decided to check out the lav. There was nothing special to see there except for a sticker advertising Method soap onboard.

It was only a few minutes before we started descending. Once we dropped down into the haze layer, we bounced, dipped, dropped, and porpoised our way into LAX. It was actually bouncy enough that I found myself getting nauseous and that’s a rare event on a plane.

Once on the ground, we taxied back to the terminal, and I asked the captain if we had been behind a heavy jet creating some wake. He said with a friendly smile that no, it was just rough air and he was kind of surprised himself. Oh well, no big deal. We grabbed our car and went home.

As I mentioned above, it was a very nice experience. The flight attendants were all very good, friendly, and attentive. I wouldn’t hesitate to fly them again, but I’m not sure I’d go out of my way either.

Let’s see, where did I leave off. Ah yes, we had a really nice time in Indy. The weather was clear and sunny for the last couple of days, but as you can see at left, we did have some snow over the weekend as well. (This is a pic of the backyard of my soon-to-be inlaws.)

In order to save a vacation day and save some money, we once again decided to fly back on Christmas Day. This meant we could use a Southwest Rapid Rewards freebie for a mere $5 in taxes per person. Unfortunately, Southwest’s Christmas schedule is pared back greatly, and while we could have found an easy one stop flight leaving at 230p, that was too early. So, we ended up flying old-school Southwest with 2 stops along the way.

I hadn’t done a run like that since my college days when flying between PHX and BWI actually required 2 stops on Southwest if you were lucky. This one was an ugly one. Yes, we could leave at 420p in the afternoon (from the Eastern Time Zone), but then we had to stop in Kansas City for 2 hours (Central Time Zone) and Phoenix for 30 minutes (Mountain Time Zone) before finally arriving back home in LA (Pacific Time Zone) near 10p. Normally that 420p flight is a one stop with no plane change that arrives LAX just after 7p.

As you can imagine, it was a long day, but the crews were cheerful and the legroom was good. That being said, I’m still tired.

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December 25, 2007
Southwest #712 Lv Indianapolis (IND) 420p Arr Kansas City (MCI) 455p
IND: Gate C9, Runway 23R, Dept OT
MCI: Gate 37, Runway 19L, Arr :14E
Aircraft: N698SW, Boeing 737-300, Canyon Blue, 121/137Y
Seat: 11A
Flight Time: 1h8m

Thinking Christmas wouldn’t be very crowded at the airport, we arrived only about an hour before our flight. We were right. Very few security gates were open, but it took no time at all. Well, it took a little longer because they were a little suspicious about the tea kettle I had packed into my bag. Yes, it was a Christmas present that required some clever packing.

There weren’t very many flights going, but the ones that did seemed to be full. Our plane arrived with plenty of time to turn around, and they got us ready to board 30 minutes prior. Indy has the temporary setup for the new boarding process and it was a tight squeeze. We had checked in very early and ended up with A18/A19. A1-15 is reserved for those who buy the Business Select fare, and there appeared to be only two people who had spent the extra dough. So, we were some of the first onboard.

Instinctively, we went straight to seats 11A and B. The exit row on the left side of the plane has the most unbelievable legroom. I can barely kick the seat in front of me if I’m stretched out fully. Take a look at the picture at right and you’ll see what I mean. This plane has a colorful history starting out with CP Air in Canada over 20 years ago, flying for VASP in Brazil soon after, and finally making its way to Southwest via the Morris Air acquisition. It may have a long history, but the interior was in good shape, and it didn’t show its age.

As you might expect, the crew was in a pretty festive mood, and the lead flight attendant was joking the entire way. He kept involving the kids onboard by asking if they’d had a good Christmas, asking what they got, etc. You could tell he was enjoying his day. That flight went on from Kansas City to San Diego, San Jose, and finally Reno, so I’m curious to hear how he sounded by the time he finished that grueling trip.

It was a beautiful day to fly and we had a smooth trip. Tasty honey roasted peanuts and water kept me happy, and soon enough we were on our way in to sunny Kansas City.

I always forget how far that airport is from . . . everything. It’s clear when you arrive that there’s nothing around, but at least it’s a nice airport. We deplaned and went to the only open restaurant - the Cuervo Tequileria - to eat a little and wait out the 2 hour layover. As I said, I like the airport, but there is one fatal flaw. Everything is outside security and each checkpoint is good for only a handful of gates. So, it’s a great airport for locals but a terrible one for connections.

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December 25, 2007
Southwest #1501 Lv Kansas City (MCI) 650p Arr Phoenix (PHX) 845p
MCI: Gate 38, Runway 19R, Dept :18L
PHX: Gate C1, Runway 7L, Arr :04L
Aircraft: N706SW, Boeing 737-700, Canyon Blue (winglets), ~95%Y
Seat: 11A
Flight Time: 2h26m

Soon enough, it was time to head over the gate, so we went through security again and found a seat. This is the first time I’ve seen Southwest’s new gate design fully implemented, and I liked it a lot. They had some sitting areas with tables and little chairs for kids. They have several bars with 110V and USB power ports. Combined with Kansas City’s wi-fi, you can get a lot of work done. But the best part was the big flat screen TVs showing the Suns - Lakers game. There were mostly Suns fans around, so I tried not to gloat too much when the Lakers finished them off.

Once again, we had early boarding numbers, so we hopped into place for boarding. Once the inbound plane was emptied, they let us on, and again we snagged 11A/B. Jackpot! We were staying on the plane in Phoenix, so this would be our home for a long time. This is one of the older -700s in Southwest’s fleet. In fact, it’s pushing 10 years now, but it had a nice clean interior and you wouldn’t have known from the inside.

This time, while the flight attendants were friendly, it was the captain and first officer who were joking around the most. They kept firing off joke after joke and got on the horn a lot during the flight. They also liked to mess with the flight attendants from up front. During the safety briefing, right when the flight attendant said to put on the oxygen masks and “breathe normally,” you heard heavy breathing sounds coming over the PA. Then the flight attendant started laughing. Only when it happened again on the next flight (with different flight attendants) did I realize that it was the captain waiting for the right time before interrupting their briefing.

We blasted out of Kansas City and had a straight shot to Phoenix. Though it was clear, they said we might have a few bumps, and the captain ended up settling at 34,000 ft because it reportedly had the best ride. It was smooth at first, but then the bumps started and the captain put the seatbelt sign on. He was very conservative, because even when it let up, he never turned the sign off again.

Just after we passed Albuquerque, we hit some pretty rough air. One of the pilots had come back to chat with another pilot sitting in the back when we started to bounce. (Should he be doing that?) Then the plane started descending and we saw the pilot hurriedly head back up front. We came down to 30,000 ft where we found a smoother ride on into PHX.

We did a strange approach that I can’t remember ever doing in Phoenix before. We came from the Northeast heading just east of the airport. Then we turned left between South Mountain and the airport and headed out west before hooking a U-turn and landing to the east. I can’t remember doing that approach before. (Sorry for those who have no idea what I’m talking about.)

We taxied quickly and pulled up to the gate only a couple minutes late. Everyone hopped off except for the few of us who were to continue on to LA.

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December 25, 2007
Southwest #1501 Lv Phoenix (PHX) 910p Arr Los Angeles (LAX) 930p
PHX: Gate C1, Runway 7L, Dept :14L
LAX: Gate 9, Runway 24L, Arr :18L
Aircraft: N706SW, Boeing 737-700, Canyon Blue (winglets), 100%Y
Seat: 11A
Flight Time: 1h2m

On the ground, our flight attendants left and another group came onboard to take us on our final leg to LAX. The pilots remained the same, but all of a sudden they became mute. We only heard from them once during the entire flight (in addition to the heavy breathing, of course).

Unfortunately, the same couldn’t be said for the flight attendants. I’m sure some people were in good spirits if they had just started their journey, but for those of us who had already taken two flights, the last thing we wanted was a perky crew. So when the flight attendant came on and exclaimed, “Merry Christmas Everybody!!!!!!!” I would have paid anything for a set of noise-canceling headphones . . . or a baseball bat.

Once again, Southwest struggled to meet their tightly scheduled turn time and it took us 35 minutes to get back off the gate. Remember the days of 10 minute turns? I highly doubt they’d be able to pull that off these days. I suppose it is harder when everyone is lugging Christmas gifts down the aisle, but people were just really pokey in general. I have to credit one of the flight attendants who was from New England. Her sharp accent was put to good use telling people that the flight was completely full so they should take the first seat they see. I don’t know if anyone listened, but it was a good attempt.

We had a long taxi to the far west end of the field before departing into the moonlight. This flight was similar to the first flight of the day in that I had peanuts and water, and it was a smooth ride. The pilots still played it conservative, however, and left the seatbelt sign on the entire time.

We slowly descended into the sprawling lights of the LA Basin and the view was spectacular (at left, you’ll see my hometown - Long Beach). Apparently, we were coming in a little too quickly, because about 30 miles out, he dropped the gear with a thud. It was pretty startling to hear it go down so early, but we slowed down quickly and came in for a bouncy landing (that’s two in a row for these guys).

Needless to say, we were happy to be home and wanted off the airplane. When the flight attendant started singing on our taxi back, it made me ponder pulling the emergency exit. Fortunately for me, I didn’t and instead waited for us to get to the gate. It was a ghost town in the terminal with only people waiting for US Airways’ redeye flights around. We headed out, grabbed a cab, and headed home to get some sleep.

I’m baaaaaaack. Miss me?

If it’s the end of December, it’s time for Christmas in Indiana. This is my third year having traveled back to spend the long weekend with my fiancee’s family and once again, we decided to split the flying on one airline on the way out and another on the way back.

On the eastbound trip, I was cautiously excited to give Frontier a shot. It was $250.99 all-in per person, and though that was a little more than we could have found on other airlines, I liked flying Frontier back in July and wanted to fly them again. I say I was “cautiously” excited, because you may remember the nightmares of travelers stuck in Denver last year after the major snowstorm. Fortunately, we had none of those issues and the flights were excellent.

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December 21, 2007
Frontier #144 Lv Los Angeles (LAX) 625a Arr Denver (DEN) 944a
LAX: Gate 39, Runway 24L, Dept :17L
DEN: Gate A38, Runway 35L, Arr :09L
Aircraft: N947FR, Airbus A319-111, Maya the Jaguar, 100% Full
Seat: 11A
Flight Time: 1h47m

Since it was the Friday before Christmas, we figured we’d need to get to the airport really early to navigate around the inexperienced travelers that come out of the woodwork at this time of year. With a 625a flight that meant a very early wake up call. We pulled up to the curb at 5a and saw no lines in our terminal. It took 10 minutes to get through security thanks to a couple of pokey people in front of us, but then we sat at the gate for awhile. They boarded the plane early, and that was good because the terminal was really cold for some reason. It seemed like everyone was onboard early, but we just sat there for awhile. The captain came on and said there were a couple planes pushing in the alley behind us so we couldn’t go. When we did push out, we ended up sitting short of the taxiway for some time. I got a little restless since I knew we didn’t have the longest connection time in DEN.

The captain finally came on and said that there was a traffic jam at LAX and we would have to wait. He said something about “the lovely air traffic control system you’ve heard so much about lately.” I found out later that LAX was experiencing 30 minute air traffic control delays. Strange.

Once airborne, we climbed into a beautiful smog-less morning in the LA Basin, washed clean by several days of rain. At left, you can see a 757 climbing off the south runways in front of Palos Verdes and Catalina in the distance. The captain said that we wouldn’t need to worry about connections because we had an excellent tailwind that would get us in almost on time. After watching the view for a few minutes, I turned back to the TV.

Frontier has LiveTV like JetBlue, but they only have 24 channels instead of JetBlue’s 36. They also charge you $5 for the pleasure unlike JetBlue, but I had no problem paying for it. I watched Sportscenter for awhile and then flipped around for a few minutes before it was already time to come in for a landing. They had come by with a drink and granola bar service, so they passed through to clean things up early thanks to the captain’s warning that it would be a rough ride on the way in.

It turned out that the ride wasn’t very rough at all, and we had a beautiful view of the front range of the Rockies as we landed from the south. Snow was due later on in the day, but it was nothing but brilliant blue sky when we arrived.We made our way off the plane into the airport that took several hours of our time last July. Fortunately, it was a much quicker visit this time. A short walk to the east end of the terminal led us to our gate, and our flight had yet to start boarding.

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December 21, 2007
Frontier #618 Lv Denver (DEN) 1025a Arr Indianapolis (IND) 250p
DEN: Gate A51, Runway 34R, Dept :27L
IND: Gate C3, Runway 5R, Arr :15L
Aircraft: N917FR, Airbus A319-111, Doc the Snowy Owl, 100% Full
Seat: 11B
Flight Time: 1h56m

The plane was apparently late getting to the gate because the flight before it was delayed. So it took some time to get it cleaned and really nobody seemed to be in any sort of hurry. When we did start boarding, it was slow and leisurely, and we sat on the gate for a long time. No announcement was made, but as I saw breathless passengers stumble on to the plane over the next several minutes, I realized we must have been waiting for late connections. That was no big deal for us, and I sat and watched tv.

Once we were in the air, I flipped through the channels and landed on a guilty pleasure, the Game Show Network. As I sat there watching Rayetta (you can see her name tag at left proving that I couldn’t make up a name like that) win at Card Sharks, I realized that I don’t want wireless internet.

If I have internet access in front of me, I’ll end up blogging, checking work email, and doing all the other things that monopolize my day (and night) more often than not. I know you can say that I can turn it off and ignore it, but I’m not like that. If it’s there, I’ll use it and regret it later on. So as I flew Frontier watching a game show I probably haven’t seen since my youth (though this was the pre-Bob Eubanks version with which I grew up), I discovered how incredibly relaxing it could be. If I had internet access, it would be just like I was anywhere else. In an increasingly connected life, I like being forced to unplug.

They gave us a choice of Doritos or SunChips (I took the latter) as we made our way over the foggy Plains below. The less common east wind in IND meant we got to land to the east, a great treat indeed. That meant we didn’t have to circle around Indy, and more importantly, it left us even closer to the distant terminal on the east side when we landed.

When it came time land, we found ourselves in a low fog in IND from about 5,000 ft up. We couldn’t see anything until just a few seconds before we landed, but it was a smooth return to the earth as we slowly drifted toward the end of the runway.

I could see the new terminal on the left, and it looks like it’s coming along nicely. Hopefully by this time next year we’ll be landing there instead. After getting off the plane, we headed out for a nice long weekend in the Circle City.

Tomorrow, I’ll have the story of our insanely long return journey involving 2 planes, 3 flights, and four states.

On most of my posts, I spend a lot of time picking apart numbers, doing research, and gathering my thoughts before putting together what hopefully ends up being something you enjoy reading. Today, you won’t see any of that. My post today is one of pure airline dork bliss. Yesterday, I took a ride on the A380, and here’s how it went.

Airbus brought their A380 back to LAX this week, but instead of just a static display, they, together with Qantas, decided to have a 2 hour flightseeing trip for about 150 people. When the offer came into my inbox, I obviously jumped at the chance.

The weather has been far from perfect in LA recently. We’ve had a lot of smoke from the fires, gray days thanks to the marine layer, and some hot dry Santa Ana winds to keep things interesting. This morning we’re even seeing rain. But when I woke up yesterday, there was none of that. It was a picture perfect Chamber of Commerce day that’s usually reserved for the Rose Parade every year. Perfect.

Our flight was to depart at 730a, so I arrived early to make sure I didn’t miss anything. The event began at the Flight Path Learning Center museum which resides in the Imperial Terminal building. (If you haven’t been there, go.) I checked in and despite my best efforts to show some skin, ended up with a coach boarding pass. It was blank, so they said just take any coach seat once onboard. Though they said photo ID would be required, they never checked it. But don’t worry. They did make me take my shoes off as I went through security screening.

I milled about the museum eating a continental breakfast and filling up on LAX history until about 645a when they called us for boarding (I think that’s when it was, I was a bit groggy). I jumped to the front and ended up being the second one to head out to the plane. We were guided on to a long red carpet (at left) which led us to the towering stairs up to the beast. The flight attendants at the door took my boarding pass and then I headed onboard eager to look around.

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November 29, 2007
Qantas #380 Lv Los Angeles (LAX) 730a Arr Los Angeles (LAX) 930a
LAX: Gate Imperial Terminal, Runway 25L, Dept :11E
LAX: Gate Imperial Terminal, Runway 25L, Arr :33E
Aircraft: F-WWJB, Airbus A380-841, Airbus House Colors, ~150/519
Seat: 7A
Flight Time: 1h17m

You won’t hear me bothering to review the interior of this plane. This the Airbus demo, so the seats aren’t actually seats that any airline has decided to use. This is just what Airbus set up too woo potential buyers (and apparently this trip is the last one before they rip it out and prep it for delivery). What I will talk about is the plane itself.

My first impression was that it would be an awesome place to play hide-and-go-seek. It is just a massive aircraft.That could partially be because there wasn’t anyone else on board, but more likely it’s just because . . . it’s a massive aircraft. On the lower deck, coach seating will be in a 3-4-3 setup, just like on the 747 main deck, but it did seem somewhat bigger. Part of that may be the illusion of big windows. See, the outer glass window doesn’t appear to be too much larger than normal, but the inner plastic window is very large and it funnels down to the outside. It really opened the cabin up.

I started walking back and, assuming we’d takeoff and loop around to the south, took the first non-bulkhead window in coach. That put me just in front of the wing, as you can see by my pictures. After sitting down, the first thing I noticed was the curvature of the cabin walls (at right). When you’re on a 747, the walls seem to go almost straight up and down on the main deck. On this plane, it appears to curve out from the bottom before straightening out. That made it uncomfortable to actually rest my head on the wall. So, if you’re in coach and you’re going to sleep, don’t plan on using the walls.

I walked backwards while everyone else was boarding and went up the spiral stairs. Unfortunately, they wouldn’t let anyone sit in coach up there for the flight, but I did have a look around. The upstairs cabin is a more humane 2-4-2 in coach. The slope in the walls is noticeable, and like on the 747’s upper deck, there is a nice little compartment between the window seat and the window (at left). That’s a great feature, and I think it’s clear that unless you’re traveling in a group of three, upper deck seating if the way to go, if you have the choice.

I came back down when we were told to buckle up and get ready for the VIPs. VIPs? Well it was just LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. He came on with a gaggle of television cameras, and made his way through the plane. When he got to coach, he exclaimed, “This is where the people sit!” and then proceeded to shake everyone’s hands and ask their names. That took awhile, but when he was done, he left. Weird, right? Well apparently there’s an old California law that prohibits government officials from accepting transportation. I hear this dates back to railroad times to help prevent corruption. So, even though this was a flight that came right back to where it started, he still couldn’t accept the trip.

Once he was off, it was time to go. We pushed back and taxied slowly down to Runway 25L. Right before we took the runway, a Qantas 747 conveniently landed right ahead of us. Cool.

We turned on to the runway and I had my seatback video tuned to the camera in the tail pointing forward. The engines spooled up and we were soon barreling down the runway. (Video of initial takeoff roll) Soon enough we were leaping off the runway. Below is a 16 second video I took as we become airborne. Notice all the helicopters swarming as we go by.

I’ve also uploaded videos of us climbing over the Pacific, encountering a few bumps, and turning.

As we continued to climb, I just kept focusing on the massive, heaving wing. It is a truly incredible structure, and probably the thing about the A380 that impresses me the most. Just an amazing work of art.

Anyway, as I said, we got up quickly, and that’s no surprise. With only 150 people on board and a short flight, they didn’t have much weight at all. I found out later that we took off at around 360 (369?) tonnes when the max takeoff weight is actually 560 tonnes. Think about that. That’s 1.2m pounds. Holy crap! I believe the 747-400ER can tip the scales at no more than 910,000 pounds if it wants to get airborne.

The seatbelt sign came off very quickly as we continued heading west along the coast toward Santa Barbara (and eventually Hawai’i - I kept my fingers crossed the pilot would keep going). At that point, it became cocktail hour as everyone got up and started mingling. The champagne came out in glass flutes while flight attendants circulated with appetizers, or as one attendant called them, savories. I just went for a walk.

The first thing I wanted to do was check out the noise. The thing I hear most about this plane is how quiet it is. Maybe it was just over hyped, because from where I was sitting, it certainly seemed quiet, but it wasn’t anything shocking. I mean, you still know you’re on an airplane. I went upstairs and discovered that it was a bit quieter up there. Yet another reason to sit on the upper deck.

On this trip upstairs, I pushed past the coach seats and headed into business class. Everyone was doting on the seats, but I went straight to the front where they had two Airbus engineers set up in their stations. Basically, they had a large area of the bulkhead cut out and outfitted with instruments showing exactly what the pilots were seeing on their gauges (at right). The two men at the station were taking copious notes when they weren’t talking to the growing crowd around them. That’s where I learned what our takeoff weight was along with other interesting technical facts. (Ok, they’re probably only interesting to me, so I’ll leave them out.)

I then walked toward the front and made my way down the main staircase to the lower deck. There was a sitting area and a side bar, but it was very crowded, so I just kept going through. That’s when I decided to visit my office, er, the lav. There are a bunch of lavs on this plane, but the one I picked seemed to be the nicest one. It’s the first time I’ve seen a commercial aircraft with a window (at left), and it’s the largest lav I’ve seen since the 777 handicapped lav. There’s PLENTY of room in there for, oh, say, having a lengthy political discourse with an acquaintance, and you get a view.

At that point, we had made our way up the coast toward Monterey and already started our return. Though I had expected a two hour flight, the flight attendants told us that we would shortly be beginning our descent and we would need to be seated. This time, I decided to park myself in a coach seat on the right side behind the wing so I could get a different view. I had been told that the ailerons really move around during turbulence to offset the flexing wing, so I hoped to see some of that. There were a couple of bumps, but I didn’t really see the ailerons move much.

I’m glad I picked this seat, because I had a nice view of Anacapa and Santa Cruz Islands before we passed right over LAX (at right). Then we turned east just north of Long Beach (I tried to pick out my house), and looped around for final approach to runway 25L. The graceful glide toward the runway was shattered when the gear made a very loud noise as it deployed. I hoped we hadn’t dropped something, and apparently we didn’t. We landed with a thud and taxied back to where we started.

As I walked off, I noticed there was a spot where a seat should have been but it wasn’t there. I remembered seeing this on the Singapore seat map and thought it looked strange, so I asked about it. It turns out that is the emergency escape hatch from the underfloor crew rest area. So all A380s will have that missing seat. Of course, that led me to ask to see the crew rest area. They were kind enough to let us go down below to find 12 rather small bunks (at left). Compared to other crew rest areas I’ve seen, it did look pretty nice though. After that, it was time to leave the plane and get to work.

We can talk about economics of the plane, whether it will succeed in various markets, blah, blah, blah, but this isn’t the time for that. Something about flying a brand new airplane just makes me act like a little kid again. I simply, truly, enjoyed the ride and forgot about everything else. I think the smile on my face says it all.

If you’d like to see all my pictures in their original sizes, visit http://images.crankyflier.com/A380_Flight/.

BlogWorld was a success for me. I’m going to be making some changes on the site over the next few weeks that I think will benefit all of you, my readers. But first I need to sift through all the different things I learned. As they say, watch this space.

Since I flew Southwest out to the conference, I thought I would fly the other blog-loving airline home - Delta. They’ve been developing their LAX hub with a bunch of RJs, but I was surprised to see they had a 737 flying from Vegas to LAX at just the right time. Giddyup.

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November 9, 2007
Delta #741 Lv Las Vegas (LAS) 625p Arr Los Angeles (LAX) 739p
LAS: Gate D40, Runway 25R, Dept :01E
LAX: Gate 50B, Runway 25L, Arr :02L
Aircraft: N3763D, Boeing 737-800, Wavy Gravy Colors, ~95% full
Flight Time: 48m

After my last bad experience flying Delta out of Las Vegas (it’s a long story), I wanted to make sure I was checked in on-time and ready to go. I went on my phone to check-in and had no trouble at all, though I couldn’t see an option to change my seat. When I arrived at the convention center that morning, I was happy to see they had a check-in kiosk that I could use to actually print my boarding pass. Unfortunately, it didn’t work. Every time I started, it would just tell me to go see an agent. Riiiiight. Lots of agents at the convention center.

I darted out of the last session at the conference and walked in to the airport at 530p. As you might expect on a Friday, there weren’t too many people in line to leave Vegas. I checked in easily. Security, however, was a different story. The D gates had one line open for the masses and one for the elites. It wasn’t moving. So they started pulling people out into the secondary screening line that had the “puffer” equipment. I jumped at the chance to get out of the main line and made it through in 12 minutes.

I arrived at the gate a few minutes before boarding and everything was on time. When I boarded, I did a quick flip of my head to see if I could catch the registration number over the door (yes, I’m a dork who keeps track of that), but it wasn’t there. The flight attendant saw me and asked if he could help me find something. I told him I was looking for the registration, and he offered to let me go up to the cockpit to find out. Very cool.

Once finished with that, I headed back to my seat. Unfortunately (but not surprisingly), this wasn’t the one 737 that has been refitted with in seat video. I took my window seat in the back and looked around to see a nearly full plane. I was surprised how full it was, but I heard a handful of people talking about how they were connecting to New York through LAX. This must have been the cheap option.

We pushed back on time and during the taxi out, someone’s text message alert went off. Two seconds later, the flight attendant gets on the horn and says with her friendly yet stern southern drawl, “Whoever just received a text message on your Nokia phone, you’ll need to turn that off.” Needless to say, we didn’t hear another text message come in after that.

We took off, and headed toward LAX. I was very happy to see that they had airshow on for the entire flight so I could watch our quick progress. The seat belt sign stayed on the whole time since it was a little bumpy, but the flight attendants did a quick service with peanuts and a mini bottle of water. I love the mini bottle because you can stick it in the seatback pocket, and the flight attendants won’t force you to give it to them when they clean up.

Soon, it was time to land and we taxied in to our gate. Overall, Delta did a great job on this short hop. The flight attendants were great, very friendly, and surprisingly attentive. It was the end of their day, so I wouldn’t have expected to see such enthusiasm. Nice work, Delta.

As I mentioned briefly, I flew to Vegas yesterday morning on one of the first five flights out of LAX using the new Bingo Seating boarding process. Since I’m actually attending the BlogWorld Expo conference, I figured, hey, why not actually BLOG while I’m here. (And by the way, if anyone else is here, send me a note and I’d be happy to meet up before I head home today.)

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November 8, 2007
Southwest #1669 Lv Los Angeles (LAX) 625a Arr Las Vegas (LAS) 730a
LAX: Gate 14, Runway 24L, Dept :01L
LAS: Gate C18, Runway 25L, Arr :04E
Aircraft: N425LV, Boeing 737-700, Canyon Blue Colors, ~70% full
Flight Time: 48m

I was out my door by 5a and at the terminal by 530a. Unfortunately, the lines were long, and I headed outside to wait. It ended up taking 20 minutes, less than I would have guessed. That may be partially because they’ve opened another few lines of security. To get there, you walk up some stairs to the mezzanine level and it pops you out right near gate 1. It may not be ideal, but it’s better than not having the lines.

I was at gate 14 at the end of the concourse, and I walked by a huge balloon ad (at left) for the new SFO service (which they’ve already decided to increase in size by 50% to 12 daily flights). Further down the concourse, I found that they are FINALLY renovating the restrooms at the end of the concourse. Those disgusting, awkwardly shaped bathrooms have had it coming for a long time.

Finally at my gate, I looked around and saw a handful of lettered and numbered poles sticking up and one very confused looking guy trying to figure out where to stand in line (at right).Nothing else was different except that they had moved the chairs around to accommodate the new lineup. That didn’t seem right, so I went up to the empty podium and asked the supervisor at the gate how things were going. She said they were just getting underway but so far so good. I asked about the shabby appearance and she said that it all had to do with airport approvals. The approval for the permanent boarding markers came Monday and they’re still waiting for the new seats with powerports and kids play area to be approved. I don’t have anything else to back up that claim, but it certainly wouldn’t surprise me to see LAWA acting so slowly.

By the time we were done talking, I turned around to see people milling about. Part of that was because there were no seats left now that everyone wants to sit down (big problem). But the other part is that there were still some people wandering around aimlessly looking for their usual A, B, and C lines. The gate agents weren’t doing a great job of informing people either. There were no announcements about what was happening before boarding.

So at that point, I took a seat. When they decided to board, they did so with no waring. All of a sudden, I hear, “Ok, A 1-30 can now board.” Uh, what? I was A26 and I had been sitting down, just like half the other people. So people jumped up and came at the door from all different areas. As we walked on, I asked, “Did you call for A people to line up?” She said, “No, we don’t need to line up anymore.” If this is how it’s going to be, it’s actually worse. I think that she just needs to be taught that she needs to call the A people to line up a minute before she actually boards them.

Once onboard, there wasn’t much to say. It was my favorite kind of day to fly. There was a low marine layer that made it gloomy on the ground. But a couple minutes after we blasted off, we were through it and into the morning sun. The picture below was the view out my window as we came back over the coast on the way toward Vegas.

They handed out oj and water, but I had my own so I passed. I tried to sleep a little, but the guy next to me was pretty talkative for it being so early in the morning. Fortunately, it was a short flight, and we had a nice tour of Vegas before looping back around to land toward the west.

The conference itself has been fun so far. You get a great mix of people from the fertility doctor I met who just started blogging to the big corporate blogs of the world. Is there an airline tie here? Well, yes. Southwest has signed up as the official airline sponsor, and I think that’s a very smart move. They’re reaching out to a demographic that is being ignored by many others. I stopped by their booth to munch on some honey roasted peanuts and get airline-dorky with them. At left you’ll see SWA bloggers Brian Lusk and Paula Berg waving to the camera.

On Monday, I’ll have the return report.

Here it is, part 2 . . . .

After a great few days in France and our second wedding-filled weekend, we took the Eurostar over to London. Now THAT is a fantastic experience. It’s fast now, but in less than a month the station to station time will be down to about 2 hours with the opening of England’s high speed track. Just incredible. After a couple days in London, it was time to come home on our longest flight of the trip.

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October 16, 2007
Air New Zealand #1 Lv London/Heathrow (LHR) 415p Arr Los Angeles (LAX) 730p
LHR: Gate 16, Runway 27R, Dept :18L
LAX: Gate 21, Runway 25L, Arr :14L
Aircraft: ZK-SUH, Boeing 747-400, Standard, ~95% full
Flight Time: 10h40m

With such a late departure on a rainy, gloomy day, we had plenty of time to spare so we decided to take the Tube out to Heathrow. Unfortunately, all the work they’re doing in Terminal 3 means that to get to some check-in areas, you have to actually walk outside and around in an uncovered area. We were lucky enough to find a break in the rain when we were outside, so it could have been a lot worse. For us, the discomfort really began when we walked in to find a snaking check-in line (at left).

We had two hours until departure as we stepped in line, and I honestly was afraid we wouldn’t make it. At first there were four agents checking in coach passengers and three working on premium cabins. Slowly, the coach agents kept dropping out until there were only two left. It was a long 50 minutes before we found ourselves first in line. I had predicted we would end up with the one very angry-looking agent, and sure enough I was right . . . almost. The agent looked at us, crossed her hands to signify we weren’t welcome, and just walked off. Did I mention these were United employees?

That was probably fortunate for us, however, because the next agent who came available was very nice. We were happy to hear that we were on the upgrade list, but the agent said we’d have to check with the gate to see if we’d clear. She was nice enough to give us a pass to the lounge, but we didn’t think we’d have time. Sure enough, 20 minutes at the security line (including a strange, random, post-security shoe inspection) meant we had to go straight to the gate.

Once we arrived, the agent took our boarding passes and wrote the magical alphanumeric combination of 1A and 1K on them. Oh happy day! This was my first time sitting in the nose of a 747, and I was excited.

We of course boarded right away and found our seats up front (at right). We were immediately offered water, OJ, or sparkling wine from New Zealand. I was parched from schlepping my bags all over London, so I just opted for water to start. The flight attendant offered to take my coat but got distracted and didn’t do it. Another one came by soon after and took it after she offered newspapers to everyone.

Then a third flight attendant came up and asked if I had been in this seat before. When I said no, she gladly walked me through all the functions of the seat. She also told me, as was emphasized throughout the flight via public announcements, that I could be in any reclined position I wanted during takeoff and landing. That was nice. One thing you’ll be surprised to hear was interesting is the seatbelt.

Since the seat is angled, the half of the seatbelt facing forward has a lot of extra padding on it while the other half is normal. It was bulky but not necessarily uncomfortable. When you’re in the flat bed position, you use a different seatbelt that has no padding on it. Anyway, once she was done, I sat back and played with everything as we waited through our short ATC delay. Right before we left, the flight attendant asked for our pre-dinner drink orders and I chose the Oyster Bay Chardonnay.

We took off into the murk and that’s when I realized that retracting nosegear is really loud when you’re right on top of it. At that point, I pulled out the tv for a long afternoon of movie watching. First up was the amazingly awful Evan Almighty. It took me awhile to get things started because the system is very slow to respond to commands (they actually announced this at the beginning of the flight). But once I got it going, my wine showed up along with the first of two hot towels and all was good. Then they started the meal service with a smoked salmon appetizer and warm bread. The fruit with the appetizer was unfortunately still frozen, but that was really my only complaint about the meal. I had a tasty chicken dish for dinner that came complete with real metal knives (at left). Ooooh. After dinner, my fiancée came over to my seat so we could have dessert together.

After three glasses of wine and a glass of port (yes, I got carried away), I was feeling all warm and fuzzy and ready to fall asleep. Despite my best efforts to fight it, I dozed off only to wake up as the flight attendant was leaning over me to close my window shade. You always see those commercials where the flight attendant pulls down the window shade to demonstrate caring service, but this is the first time I’ve ever seen it happen in real life.

At this point, I decided to keep myself awake, so I moved on to a better movie, the really good “Hot Fuzz.” After that, I kept rolling with “License to Wed.” Please, for the love of all that is holy, do NOT see this movie. Not even being trapped on an airplane could make it halfway decent. Don’t even ask me why I watched that one. I feel dumber for having seen it.

With 5 hours left, I couldn’t take another bad flick, so I dove into some of the classics in the AVOD system. That’s when I decided it was the perfect time to finally watch the 3 hour and 45 minute “Gone With the Wind” for the first time. It was a great way to pass the last half of the flight, and I converted the seat into a bed so I could get comfortable.

The Virgin Atlantic-style bed seemed great for sleeping, but I wasn’t trying to sleep on this flight. I really wished there was something in between the slight recline and the fully flat position. That’s the problem with having a bed that flips over. On the other hand, the bed itself was really comfortable. I’m sure it would have been very welcome on an overnight flight.

Most of the way back, there were spectacular views as we flirted with sunset. There was a very light chop most of the way, but nothing that kept the seat belt sign on for more than 10 minutes the whole flight. Does that extremely light chop come with sitting in the nose or was it just the air we were flying through?

As I chugged on through the Civil War, the flight attendants brought another hot towel and then a selection of sandwiches for our pre-arrival snack. The movie finished up, and I then passed the rest of the time by reading a book (at right) and watching the sophisticated airshow map. We passed over Las Vegas before gliding over the lights of LA (at left) and then landing on the south runways.

They held the coach cabin until all premium cabin passengers exited, but they probably didn’t need to do that. I was surprised to see how few people were staying in LAX. I’d say most of them were despondent All Blacks fans heading back home to New Zealand. I was most amazed by the lack of US citizens/residents on the flight. They only had one immigration officer working the US line and there were no more than 15 people there. It still took awhile to get through, but our bags were rolling off just as we passed through and we headed out to the curb for our ride home.

My fiancée and I had back to back wedding weekends with one in Toronto and the next outside Paris. Of course, this got me into flight planning overdrive. With a little help, I was able to put together a Star Alliance itinerary with nonstop flights the whole way around. In the end, it was a great trip, especially after getting an upgrade on the return on Air New Zealand. You’ll have to wait for that one though, because it’ll be in Part 2. Part 1 is all about Air Canada.

The AC flights were a mixed bag. We had the new audio/video on-demand (AVOD) system on our flight to Toronto and it’s a really nice system. I found myself missing it a lot on our flight over the ocean since that hadn’t been upgraded yet from the overhead screens. I knew what I was getting into though, so I can’t complain, and I’d certainly fly them again. Read below for more details.

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October 5, 2007
Air Canada #790 Lv Los Angeles (LAX) 10a Arr Toronto (YYZ) 540p
LAX: Gate 21, Runway 24L, Dept ~OT
YYZ: Gate 155, Runway 24L, Arr ~OT
Aircraft: C-GITP, Airbus A319, New Tail/Old Body, ~80% full
Flight Time: 4h4m

We had checked in online the night before, but we had some pretty heavy packing requirements with three countries, temps ranging from the 50s to the 80s, and two weddings. That meant we had to check our bags at the counter when we arrived two hours prior to departure. The agents were very friendly and it took no time at all. There was no line at security at that time of day either, so we found ourselves sitting at the gate with plenty of time to spare.

We boarded to find very comfortable seats with leather antimacassars and a purty-lookin’ screen at each seat. You can see at left that not only was there a screen, there was also a regular power outlet and a USB port. Nice. We taxied quickly and headed up into the blue sky via the LOOP4 departure. Once we hit 10,000 ft, the seatbelt sign came off, and I started to play with the AVOD system.

Like United, they offer all pre-programmed XM audio onboard. I didn’t spend any time with that and went straight to the movies and tv. Unfortunately, there weren’t very many options on there. The games were unavailable, and there were only 2 “Hollywood” movies, 1 “Classic” movie, 2 “Family” movies, and 1 “Avant Garde” movie. I understand that on the widebodies, they have at least 20 movies loaded, so it’s really a function of the type of plane. I ended up scrolling through tv shows instead and found myself riveted by Planet Earth. Overall, the system was great, especially for a flight within North America.

While I was watching the wonders of the world, this odd lady from a few rows forward stopped in front of our empty aisle seat. She tells us she “has to sit” in that seat. So my fiancée gathers her stuff and the woman sits down, explaining that her seat was broken. Then she went straight to sleep. I just went back to watching tv.

Long after the first and only service had been done, I got hungry. With two sleeping people between me and the aisle, I decided to ring the call button but nobody came. A few minutes later, someone walked by with water but didn’t acknowledge me. Finally, I flagged down a different flight attendant to get some food. I ended up with a really tasty roast beef sandwich (at right) for $6 (US or Canadian, sadly) which I washed down with some Schweppes ginger ale. (How do they not stock CANADA Dry?) After that, the flight attendants disappeared right back behind the curtain in the back and stayed there for the rest of the flight.

About an hour outside of Toronto, the odd woman next to us wakes up, gets up, and goes back to her original seat for the rest of the flight. What the heck? Apparently her seat wasn’t very broken. Not sure what that was all about.

Soon enough, we were on our final approach into a hot and humid Toronto. I found it a bit unnerving when they reminded everyone where the emergency exits were, but it sounds like they do that on all flights over 4 hours block time. Fortunately, we didn’t need to use them and we landed, taxied, and made it through immigration quickly.

After a fun wedding weekend in Toronto, it was time to take the trip to Paris.

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October 7, 2007
Air Canada #880 Lv Toronto (YYZ) 835p Arr Paris/Charles de Gaulle (CDG) 10a
YYZ: Gate 174, Runway 23, Dept :01E
CDG: Gate ??, Runway 27L, Arr :26L
Aircraft: C-GHLM, Airbus A330-300, New Tail/Old Body, ~80% full
Flight Time: 7h33m

I was excited to use the mobile check-in option that would let me flash a barcode on my cell phone to board the plane, but it wasn’t to be. I knew I wasn’t allowed to use mobile check-in for US flights, but this flight to France was eligible. I went on my phone and had no trouble navigating through the process. The last step was to put in my mobile number so they could text me the link. Unfortunately, it said my phone number wasn’t valid. Booooooo! It turns out that they don’t have any arrangements with US mobile providers yet. We headed to the airport.

It was cloudy and misty as we pulled up to the gleaming new airport terminal about 2 1/2 hours early. The check-in area was very large, spacious, and functional (at left). That helps at least partly explain those high landing fees over there.

Security lines were short, and it was nice to be able to keep my shoes on. We had a long walk on top of all the domestic gates before reaching the very nice international area at the end of the concourse (at right). It was a lively terminal with a lot of dining and shopping options. Most importantly, there was plenty of seating but a scarce supply of power outlets.

They called the flight for boarding and a couple of agents scanned everyone’s boarding passes. I was surprised to see the flight attendants take our boarding passes as we boarded the plane. I’m not sure what they did with them.

Being the big dork I am, I was excited for my first A330 ride. It’s just too bad that those planes have