After a week at home, it was time to hit the road again for a couple of trips to Phoenix, all courtesy of US Airways. First up was the (I assume) last annual US Airways media day to be held in Arizona followed by the annual Phoenix Aviation Symposium where I moderated a panel. Then the following week, I did a day trip to attend the US Airways annual leadership conference that had previously been closed to media. All flights were provided by US Airways.

The first trip was a trip of firsts. I ended up being upgraded on all my flights into First Class, giving me a great opportunity to compare three distinct products. It was my first time flying out of the new concourse in Long Beach, my first time in First Class on a US Airways regional jet, and then my first flight in Envoy on a US Airways (East) 757.

For the first trip, I left my home an hour before departure out of Long Beach as usual. The new security area is big and spacious but the TSA was completely mismanaging it. They had a regular line and an elite line leading to the same one ID checker. With a constant stream of elite/First Class travelers the other line never moved. People in that line started getting angry and finally someone came to help. (On my second trip, they had fixed this problem.) Once through, I still had time to kill before the flight.

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April 23, 2013
US Airways Express 2766 Lv Long Beach 1005a Arr Phoenix 1122a (operated by Mesa)
Long Beach (LGB): Gate 2, Runway 30, Depart 3m Early
Phoenix (PHX): Gate B7, Runway 25L, Arrive 2m Late
N934FJ, Bombardier CRJ-900, Standard livery, ~85% Full
Seat 3A
Flight Time 1h00m

I got on when they called for First Class boarding and took my seat in the last row of the cabin, on the left side where it’s just a single seat. There’s nothing special about the seat itself other than it being a bit wider and having decent legroom. The tray table comes out of the armrest, and there is a little place to put a cup so you don’t have to pull the entire table out. A flight attendant quickly came through offering pre-departure drinks and I had a water.

It turned out I had a friend who was also booked on this flight for business. She pulled up just past the deadline and they wouldn’t let her on. A rule is a rule, but with 25 minutes until departure, she easily would have made it in a place like Long Beach. It’s really too bad they can’t be more flexible when reality dictates.

We pushed back on time and then waited for a couple minutes at the end of the runway before departing into the marine layer, my favorite way to start a flight. Soon, the gloom was under us and we were in the bright (though hazy) morning sun. The flight attendant had taken orders for drinks before we departed, so he brought me a ginger ale as requested.

Then he came through and brought a basket of snacks for people to choose from. He did a great job, and in fact, provided better service than I received on the 3 US Airways-operated flights. When my glass was empty, he saw it and gave me a refill. In the meantime, he was just trying to help the other flight attendant with the drink service for the coach cabin. Soon we were on our way into Phoenix.

After a very busy week in Phoenix, I was on my way back to the airport. Instead of going back to Long Beach, I had weekend plans in San Diego, so I ducked out a little early from the symposium to catch the 510p flight.

This flight operates 5 days a week with an A319, but on Friday and Sunday, a 757 that usually spends the night in Phoenix does a little turn to San Diego because of the higher demand. This is an East 757 with the old school Envoy cradle seats, so I was excited to try it out.

The security line was really long, but my First Class boarding pass helped speed up the process. I was with another person who had PreCheck and he sailed through about 10 minutes before I did. I really need to get that. Our 757 had come in from Philly and was parked at the far end of the concourse. Soon we were boarding.

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April 26, 2013
US Airways 1197 Lv Phoenix 510p Arr San Diego 618p
Phoenix (PHX): Gate A28, Runway 25R, Depart 4m Early
San Diego (SAN): Gate 34, Runway 27, Arrive 6m Early
N940UW, Boeing 757-2B7, Standard livery, 100% Full in biz
Seat 3A
Flight Time 51m

It’s always a treat when you get to turn left after entering an airplane. US Airways has a mini-coach cabin and then three rows of Envoy in front of the boarding door.

While coach looked like you would expect on any US Airways aircraft, Envoy was old school. The bins were smaller, the window shades were old and yellowed, the seats were scuffed up. This was an old cradle-style business class seat at its finest. And you know what, I’d take it any day over an angled flat bed.

A flight attendant came through with pre-departure drinks. (I soon found out she was a 35-year Piedmont veteran.) I just had water, but the guy in front of me asked for a gin and tonic. Then he stopped her and asked what kind of gin she had. The reply? “I don’t know. It’s just gin.” Oy.

We pushed back and had no delay getting into the air. There’s nothing quite like the whine of those Rolls Royce engines pushing the airplane effortlessly into the sky. We climbed through the usual afternoon chop in Phoenix and then headed south before going west toward San Diego.

It was a quick flight, but I had time for a drink. The flight attendant asked before departure what everyone wanted, and I asked for a scotch. She came back and said, “Here’s your scotch. It’s a double.” And smiled. Excellent.

In the meantime, I went to play with the seat. It was scuffed up but it worked just fine. Other than the lack of underseat storage (my laptop bag barely fit), there wasn’t much to complain about for such a short flight. Oh, there is an arm that comes out of the seat to hold the inflight entertainment, but we weren’t handed the units. That was weird that it wasn’t built-in, but then again, these seats were old.

It was pretty easy to get the cradle seat into a position that was comfortable to me. I can’t really sleep on airplanes, but I got drowsy pretty quickly once I found that comfort spot. Others were passed out already, including the guy in front of me who appeared to be dead he was so soundly sleeping. I was actually surprised how comfortable it ended up being. Do I want to take it over the Atlantic? Not overnight if I can have a flat bed. But it would be great for a daylight trip, and like I said, I’d take it over an angled lie flat seat in a second.

I didn’t have much time to rest because we descended into San Diego all too quickly. It was a beautiful late afternoon with stellar views of Coronado and downtown on the way in. We landed and taxied to the gate in just a couple minutes. Soon I was on my way to a weekend with friends.

I had a great time in San Diego, but then I went back home for a couple days. On Wednesday, it was time to head back to Phoenix once more for the US Airways annual leadership conference. This was the first time they extended a broad invitation to the media, and I was eager to go. But this time, I just did a day trip.

Have I mentioned I love Long Beach Airport? I woke up at 530a, was out the door at 545a, parked in the long term lot, went through security, and was at my gate by 610a. That gave me a little time to check emails and then it was time to board. My only complaint? The parking is absurdly expensive. There is no cheap long term option. If it’s more than a day trip, it’s cheaper for me to take a cab.

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May 1, 2013
US Airways 149 Lv Long Beach 645a Arr Phoenix 809a
Long Beach (LGB): Gate 2, Runway 30, Depart 1m Early
Phoenix (PHX): Gate A5, Runway 8, Arrive 10m Early
N806AW, Airbus A319-132, Standard livery, 11/12 in First
Seat 3A
Flight Time 54m

US Airways is still running one mainline flight a day into Long Beach. It’s the late night flight in and the morning return. I was again in First Class, and this gave me the chance to compare mainline to Express. The seat was wider and certainly more comfortable. But it felt like there was less legroom. There was still plenty for me, since I’m short. The flight attendant came by with a cup of water before departure.

We didn’t seem to be in a hurry to push back, and that’s not a surprise. Flights can’t depart Long Beach until 7a, so we took our time getting down to the end of the runway. Once there, we waited a couple minutes and then launched into the marine layer. A minute later, we were in the brilliant bright sunshine, such a great contrast to the gray beneath the deck.

As soon as I heard the ding, I pulled out my laptop and worked on a post. There was wifi on this A319, but I wasn’t about to pay Gogo’s rate just to use it for 30 minutes.

The flight attendant came through with another round of drinks but no snacks. It seemed strange that my Express flight offered more than mainline. But soon we had crossed into Arizona and we were on our way into Phoenix.

It was a good day, but I was downright exhausted as I headed back to Sky Harbor for my flight home. Security lines were non-existent and I was at my gate with time to spare. I was glad when it was time to board, because I just wanted to go home.

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May 1, 2013
US Airways 131 Lv Phoenix 805p Arr Long Beach 926p
Phoenix (PHX): Gate B6, Runway 25R, Depart 5m Early
Long Beach (LGB): Gate 2, Runway 30, Arrive 1m Late
N835AW, Airbus A319-132, Standard livery, ~85% Full
Seat 2A
Flight Time 55m

This flight attendant was in a great mood, and the First Class cabin enjoyed it. One woman lost her phone, so he called it and found it for her. Then he said that as a New Yorker, he couldn’t just give it to her but instead offered to sell it back to her. Then he went through the cabin bringing drinks to all. I told him I’d just have water but I’d have a scotch in the air, and he just brought me the mini bottle before departure so I’d have it ready.

We pushed back on time and taxied to the runway only to pull off of it and sit for another 10 minutes. Not sure what the delay was, but the captain never told us. After letting maybe a dozen other planes go, it was our turn and we headed west.

Once airborne, drinks came quickly and this time we got, as a friend calls it, “salty death mix” with nuts and about 10 times the recommended daily salt intake. But it was tasty. With Santa Ana winds kicking up around the LA Basin, we were told that it was going to be bumpy. So they buttoned up the cabin very early and took their seats for the ride in. After only a couple of minor bumps, we were on the ground and I was ready to hit the pillow.

With my previous Irish experience being a mere hour connecting in Shannon, I was doubly excited to be invited to the CAPA Airlines in Transition conference in Dublin courtesy of Travelport (they paid for the flights and hotel). Not only was this a new place for me, but it came with the added bonus of an interesting conference. I flew American both ways via Chicago and the overall experience was pretty mediocre. In fact, the last flight home was one of the worst I’ve had in a long time.

I was ticketed to fly on American both ways, but it was one confusing ticket. The domestic flights were booked in coach as American flights. The overwater flights were booked as an Iberia codeshare and I ended up in business on those so that made for some real confusion. The American reservation I was given had my American domestic flights in there but it only showed the international flights as being Iberia and AA.com did not allow seat assignments. So I called American and ended up on hold while an agent spoke with a supervisor to find that because of the codeshare, it had created a separate American record for my long haul flights. Once we found that, I grabbed seats and we were in business…

… until I went to check in. It would only let me check in for the domestic flights, so I couldn’t get my international boarding passes. I figured I’d just sort it out at the airport. As usual on American, my flight was delayed. This made for 4 delays in a row on my last 4 American flights. At least this time it wasn’t American’s fault. There was weather in Chicago and we were delayed an hour due to air traffic control.

I took my time going to the airport and then went to the premium check-in area to get some help when I arrived around 930a or so. The agent was able to get my connecting boarding passes, but then she pointed me over to the regular security line. Since the flight to Chicago was in coach, they wouldn’t let me use the premium security line in LA. Fortunately, it was only about 10 minutes to get through and then I was at the gate. When it came time to board, the PA wasn’t working, so they trotted out a bullhorn to announce who was boarding and when. Nice. Soon, I was on the airplane.

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April 9, 2013
American 1372 Lv Los Angeles 1020a Arr Chicago/O’Hare 425p
Los Angeles (LAX): Gate 40, Runway 25R, Depart 1h13m Late
Chicago/O’Hare (ORD): Gate K6, Runway 4R, Arrive 1h9m Late
N882NN, Boeing 737-823, Silver livery, ~99% Full
Seat 20A
Flight Time 3h37m

This was my first time on an airplane with the Boeing Sky Interior. The look and feel was certainly more modern than previous versions. The overhead screens dropping down from the ceiling were much better than the old bulky ones in the aisle. And the airplane just looked cleaner, probably because it was only a year old. But the new seat that reclines into itself didn’t seem very comfortable. It was kind of strange because it felt like it angled too far down when it wasn’t reclined.

We took off into the clear blue sky and then bounced our way to Chicago. A late winter storm was rolling through the plains, so the seatbelt sign was on most of the time until we hit Missouri. Before then, the only time it was off, oddly enough, was when we were over the Rockies. Go figure.

There was one service early followed by another that didn’t get to my row until we had already started descending. But I didn’t care, because I was just plugging away on the internet (which was working pretty fast) and juicing up my computer with the power port.

Soon, we were on our way into Chicago. The frontal boundary remained a bit north so the expected thunderstorms in Chicago never materialized. In fact, the clouds opened up nicely for us the entire way in. As soon as we landed, the boarding music went on. Maybe I was just loopy but it sounded like American had turned pop music into a soundtrack for an old school Nintendo game. Anyone else notice that?

People were slow getting off, but I had just under an hour to walk a few gates over so I had no complaints. It was perfect. Boarding actually started pretty early, so I was only there for 5 minutes or so before getting onboard.

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April 9, 2013
American 92 Lv Chicago/O’Hare 635p Arr Dublin 8a (next day)
Chicago/O’Hare (ORD): Gate K15, Runway 32R, Depart 15m Late
Dublin (DUB): Gate 402, Runway 10, Arrive 2m Early
N347AN, Boeing 767-323, Silver livery, ~60% Full in Business Class
Seat 4J
Flight Time 6h50m

The crew was very friendly welcoming me onboard, and I went straight to my seat. The seats looked just about the same as on the 777 with one big difference. There is no in-seat video. Instead, they hand out Samsung tablets after departure. I know I’ve waffled on whether in-seat video matters or not, but after this experience, I’d say it really does make for a much better experience.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. We appeared to be heading toward an on time departure, but plans were foiled when they held the airplane for a last minute passenger who I assume was connecting from somewhere else. It was so last minute that they had already played the safety video before he got on. Then they apologized that they were going to have to play it again. That passenger was right in front of me, so he apologized. Everyone else gave him some playful jabs.

We taxied out and surprisingly took off to the west. We got up quickly and then went north to cut through a hole in the storms that were ahead. It provided some spectacular scenery as the sun set. Service was delayed a little because of expected turbulence, but soon enough the flight attendants were coming through busily.

They handed out the tablets with Bose noise canceling headphones. I love the headphones, but the tablets just aren’t great. There isn’t a place to mount them, so you just rest it on the tray table. And you have to use the one power port (which is a cigarette lighter port, bleh) to charge the unit. Wires are everywhere. On top of that, you can’t hear if any announcements are made, so you have to pause and take the headphones off if you care. Most annoying to me, there is no moving map.

Sure they had the moving map on the overhead screens in the cabin, but the 767s in American’s fleet have only overhead movies in coach. So the moving map disappeared less than an hour into the flight to show the movies. We didn’t see it again until about an hour before landing and even that was a brief appearance.

My hope was to get some kind of sleep on the flight even though that’s nearly impossible for me to do. I asked for the Lemon Grass Chicken with achiote citrus sauce to be served in the “Dine Upon Request” method. Sure enough, they brought out a single tray so I could eat what I wanted and then be done.

I didn’t eat much, because even though it’s dinner time in the US, it was late night in Ireland and I wanted to adjust to the time. It always bugs me that they serve such big dinners on flights out. It’s the breakfast I want to be big.

While everyone else was still on their salad course, I tried to sleep. I couldn’t, of course. And then I had to use the restroom. Holy crap, what a pain. The underseat storage is great except when you’re in the bed position. I hadn’t planned well, so to get the slippers I put there (handed out with the amenity kits), I had to bring my seat up to the sitting position and then slide under the tray table holding my tablet to get the slipper. The seat is pretty temperamental so it’s very hard to get it into various positions. Then I had to get the guy next to me to do the same so I could climb out. He didn’t seem to mind, but it took probably 5 minutes to get out.

After that, I came back and decided to pop a sleeping pill. I still didn’t sleep for awhile even though it was a very smooth ride. The angled bed is just so uncomfortable that I found myself tossing and turning. Then, it happened. I finally nodded off for about an hour. It felt so good to even get that. I was hoping to keep sleeping, but then people started to wake for breakfast. I told them not to wake me up, but when everyone else did, I was up too. I asked the flight attendant if instead of the later express breakfast I had requested, I could switch and have a full breakfast. She said yes.

So I had an omelette with potatoes, sausage, and fruit to fill me up along with some orange juice. It was delicious. We still had over an hour until landing, but I was up for good. The sun started to rise, so I pulled out the tablet and watched a TV show. And that’s when I realized another reason for hating the tablet. An hour before landing, they collected them along with the headphones. You just lose so much time where you could be watching something.

Once we got closer, the purser came by, offered some sparkling water, and thanked each person by name for coming onboard the flight. The flight attendants did a great job. We landed to the east and I was on my way for a fun few days in Dublin. After a lot of Guinness, it was time to come home.

We were staying at the Ritz Carlton far south of town. The airport is on the north side about 45 minutes away so my car was scheduled at 730a for a 10a flight.

Once at the airport, I began jumping through the many, many hoops required to get to the airplane. First I checked in at a kiosk and got my boarding pass. (Naturally I couldn’t check in online beforehand.) Then I had to go through a couple of security questions at the American ticketing area. Once they decided I was ok, they gave me a customs form.

I went upstairs and passed through the boarding pass check and then went through Irish security. The terminal is fairly new and was pretty big so it was easy to get through quickly. On the other side, I had to go through the duty free area before going downstairs to the gates. I made a quick stop at the lounge (American uses Aer Lingus’s lounge) until about an hour before departure when they suggested everyone go through preclearance.

Ireland is like Canada in the sense that you can go through customs and immigration before departure to the US, so when you arrive it’s like a domestic flight. I headed down to immigration and was told “welcome home.” Not quite, but ok. Then I had to go through another security checkpoint where they x-ray your bags and make you take your shoes off but you don’t have to go through a metal detector.

Finally, I was on my way to the gate. I was looking forward to hopping on board and heading home. But not so fast. I got to the gate at the far end of the concourse only to get a curt announcement.

Ladies and gentlemen, we are sorry but the flight is delayed. We will have more information at 1030.

Rats. I took my seat and logged on to see if I could find what was going on. I couldn’t. American showed no delay in its system, so I took to Twitter. As someone said to me, the American Twitter team has to be the nicest but most unhelpful Twitter operation around. This was no different. Here’s how the conversation went.

Me: Hey @AmericanAir – just told us flt 93 is delayed but gave no further info – what do you know?

American: We’re currently showing AA93 is scheduled to depart on-time, Brett. Please see a gate agent for additional info.

Me: well, the gate agents just told us we’re on delay – next update at 1030a, so …

American: Our apologies for the delay. We’ll have you on your way as quickly as possible.

As I said, incredibly friendly and responsive but not really helpful. Eventually Sabre was updated to show that it was, in fact, a maintenance delay. I started looking for other options just in case.

Fortunately, right around 1030a we got the announcement that they would be able to fix it and we would board at 1120a for a 12p departure. Only later during the flight did I find out that there was an engine fuel leak and they were lucky enough to find the part they needed in Dublin.

We did indeed board right as expected at 1120a, but first, there was yet another last security check (#4). After they took our boarding passes, we walked halfway down the jet bridge where three people were there to again ask the same questions we were asked at the ticket counter. Once we passed that, I was finally onboard.

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April 13, 2013
American 93 Lv Dublin 10a Arr Chicago/O’Hare 1225p
Dublin (DUB): Gate 426, Runway 10, Depart 1h50m Late
Chicago/O’Hare (ORD): Gate K15, Runway 28, Arrive 1h30m Late
N353AA, Boeing 767-323ER, Silver livery, ~95% Full in Business
Seat 4J
Flight Time 7h44m

I took the exact same seat I had on the flight out, though this one looked just a bit worse for wear. The early morning sun (first I had on the trip) have given way to low clouds, so we were in the thick of them almost immediately after getting airborne. We stayed in the clouds for probably the first hour as we headed out to sea.

The service pattern on this one was similar to the one on the way out, but I opted for the full meal service instead of the quick one. The salad and bread were decent, but the appetizer and the chicken were pretty bland and I didn’t eat much. At least the ice cream sundae was delicious. I settled in to watch movies for the rest of the flight.

Once again, I had trouble getting in and out of my seat. One time, even though the seats weren’t reclined, I clipped the tray table and smashed a glass on the floor. Oops.

The service on this flight wasn’t quite as good on the way out. They did all the steps as they should, but they weren’t very friendly or interactive. It was much more matter-of-fact. As an example, instead of saying before departure, “Would you be interested in orange juice, champagne, or water before we depart, Mr Snyder?” as happened on the way out, this crew said, “Orange juice, champagne, water?” It certainly wasn’t a huge deal, but it was noticeable.

We had a nice smooth flight and the captain made good time in the air. Chicago had gusty winds, so we bounced the last few thousand feet to the ground, but we taxied quickly and docked 20 minutes before the 215p flight to LA. I was still booked on the 315p, but I hoped I’d be able to squeeze on to the earlier one.

I was one of the first three off the airplane, and since Ireland has customs and immigration pre-clearance, I just had to get to my gate as if I was coming off a domestic flight. Fortunately, it was just a couple gates down.

I got to the counter as the last people were boarding and told the agent I had just come off a 2 hour delayed Dublin flight and hoped they might have room for me. She looked up and frowned saying that it didn’t look like they had any seats. But she put me on the standby list, and I saw my name up at the top.

Apparently there were quite a few seats, because at least two or three other people ended up getting their boarding passes soon after (a couple crewmembers and one other paying passenger). At last, they called me up and gave me a surprise. I was in coach on the 315p, but I had a First Class seat on this one. Sweet. I went right onboard thinking this would be a great way to get home. I was wrong.

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April 13, 2013
American 1305 Lv Chicago/O’Hare 215p Arr Los Angeles 440p
Chicago/O’Hare (ORD): Gate K5, Runway 32L, Depart 6m Late
Los Angeles (LAX): Gate 42A, Runway 24R, Arrive On Time
N933AN, Boeing 737-823, Silver livery, ~99% Full
Seat 3E
Flight Time 3h50m

We were ready to go on time, but they waited a few extra minutes to pick up some connections. Even with the short delay, I was on the ground in Chicago for less than an hour. Nice. The captain was pretty chatty and told us that it should be a nice four hour flight to LA. I was ready to be home.

This was a very long four hours. Soon after we got into the air, it turned out to be bouncier than predicted. In fact, the entire flight was turbulent. The seatbelt sign may have been off for a total of 15 to 30 minutes out of the entire flight. And the flight attendants were told to stay seated for the last couple hours, from before we crossed the front range of the Rockies.

Before then, the flight attendant was able to do the meal service which was just a chicken salad, but that was the last service of the flight. It’s too bad, because this flight attendant was really friendly and attentive until she was forced to sit down.

So, I figured I would just hop online and catch up on email, but that wasn’t to be. Gogo didn’t work. How about a movie? Nope. That didn’t work either. I could have played game on my computer, right? Nope, the power ports weren’t working either and my juice had been draining from the long delay in Dublin. I also had no magazines or anything offline to read, and I had been through all the inflight mags on previous flights.

No problem. I’d just watch out the window. Bzzt. Try again. You would think that sitting next to a former Playboy playmate would make for a very good flight, right? Well, she had a real problem with light sensitivity. Even with her massive eye mask covering her face, she refused to open the window because it would let the light in. The people across the aisle were passed out with the windows down as well. At this point, I had nothing to do but stare at the bulkhead as we bounced our way to LA.

But wait, there’s more. Finally, my seatmate woke up and felt bad that I had nothing to do. So she broke out her camera and proceeded to show me videos of her rabbit and 8 cats for the last 30 to 45 minutes of the flight. She must have had quite the memory card, because there were a lot of videos and pictures waiting for me.

Anyone else think this sounds terrible? It was one of the longest 4 hour flights I’ve ever been on. But there was one bright spot. It made me even more glad to be home.

[Click for the rest of my photos]

I had been planning to attend Farelogix media day in Miami for quite some time, but when news broke that the American/US Airways merger might happen that day, I wondered if this event would happen or if it did, whether I should go. Fortunately, it did happen and I decided to make the very worthwhile trip despite lengthy maintenance delays (or shall I say, delAAys?) on both ends. (And as we know, the merger announcement slipped a couple days anyway.)

Farelogix paid for flights and hotels, but I got to pick the flights I wanted. Since it was in a hotel right near Miami Airport, I was definitely going into Miami and not Ft Lauderdale. And to do that nonstop, it means you’re pretty much stuck with American. There actually is one daily Delta flight from LAX, but it’s a redeye out so I wasn’t interested. I would have preferred the Delta return, but it was $150 more to mix AA out with Delta back and I didn’t want them to have to pay for it. I stuck with American.

The good news is that my return was on a 777, and I had about 16,000 miles in my AAdvantage account. I figured for a flight over 5 hours with an international business class offering, there was no better use of 15,000 miles and $75 out there than to do an upgrade. The seat may not be great for international travel, but for domestic, it’s good.

But let’s start with the flight out first. I went to check-in on my mobile and had the link to the boarding pass sent to me (much better than how Virgin America does it). I was on a 757 and found that only 20 percent of that fleet has wifi. I checked and sure enough, my plane was one of the other 80 percent. Shoot.

I got to the airport a little early and went up to security. The line looked short but it was deceiving. They just had 4 different lines set up to spread things around. After about 15 minutes, I was through and off to my gate. I was expecting some of the new American branding around, but I didn’t see it anywhere in the airport or on the airplane.

I figured while I was waiting to board, I’d ask the gate agent if there were any windows with empty middles since the seat map looked pretty open previously. She didn’t even look up and said no, it’s full. Only when I said, “Couldn’t hurt to try, right?” did she look up and squeezed out a little smile. Still, no. After that, I just got onboard.

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February 11, 2013
American 200 Lv Los Angeles 8a Arr Miami 350p
Los Angeles (LAX): Gate 46A, Runway 25R, Depart 1h31m Late
Miami (MIA): Gate D45, Runway 12, Arrive 57m Late
N602AN, Boeing 757-223, Silver livery, ~95% Full
Seat 34A
Flight Time 3h57m

The interior was in decent shape, though it was clearly old. At least the overhead monitors had been retrofitted with flat screens to make for a better picture, even if it was a partially-obscured view from the window seat. The only surprise was the wifi sticker on the door. My lucky day! They switched airplanes on us since last check. That was great for wifi, but there was some bad news with this airplane as well. (And no, fortunately, it didn’t involve seats coming loose.)

American had robotic announcements every few minutes telling people that as soon as bags were stored and everyone was seated, we’d be on our way. That wasn’t to be the case. I got an alert a couple minutes after departure time saying we’d been delayed 15 minutes. The pilots came on and said the same thing.

Another 15 minutes passed and I got an alert saying it was delayed another 15 minutes. The pilots came on and gave a little more color, saying that maintenance was looking at something outside the airplane. Another 15 minutes later I had an alert saying we’d been pushed another 30 minutes to make it a full hour. The pilots came on a few minutes later to explain that this was about a 15 year old airplane (actually, 18) and it has been bumped around a lot over the years by carts, etc. When they were doing the walkaround, the noticed a ding that didn’t have a “sticker” saying it was ok. So, they had to call maintenance to make sure it was fine.

Interesting way to put it, but it did the trick. At a little more than an hour after original schedule, we were told we were good to go and we’d leave soon. This was good because I had burned through the American Way magazine, SkyMall, and even Nexos, American’s Spanish-language magazine. The pilot mentioned that we had a lot of extra fuel onboard because of some fuel shortage in Miami, so he was going to use that to put the pedal to the metal and get us there as quickly as possible.

Then 10 minutes later, another announcement came. We were now waiting for the ground crew to show up to push us back. Fun. He said it would just be a couple minutes, but about 15 minutes later, we could finally see the ground crew slowly ambling over, in no hurry.

They started up the left engine at the gate (guessing our APU was out), and finally we were on our way. The pilots reported that we would fly low for an hour to stay below the turbulence. Then we’d climb higher and head to Miami. Sure enough, there were some bumps on the way out, but it didn’t keep the flight attendants from peddling drinks and flipping on the movie, Here Comes the Boom. (Did I mention how glad I was to have wifi?)

Since I was in the back, it took well over an hour to get the drink cart to me. The flight attendants had drinks and food but the food wasn’t appetizing. They had some pre-packaged snack pack along with a couple other things. So I passed. The only other service was a water and OJ tray that came through about an hour before arrival.

I was worried about wifi giving out over the Gulf since it’s a land-based system, but it was my “buy 2 hours, get 1 free” deal that ran out first. Soon enough I could see the west coast of Florida and it was time to descend.

I haven’t been to Miami Airport in awhile, and sure enough, it’s pretty nice. It really better be considering how expensive this place is. After I landed, I had the chance to meet a client who was waiting two gates down for his flight. Then I headed out to the hotel. (In Miami, there is no hotel shuttle stop. You just stand at the curb and wave.)

After a good trip, I was ready to get back home. I took the shuttle from the hotel to the airport and then got in line for security. Security was pretty brutal. The elite line (which I could use because I was in business class) was longer than the regular line. And then some traveler just decided to lift up a rope and create a second priority line just for the heck of it. So it split people up only to have everyone merge back again. One of the two millimeter wave machines wasn’t operating, so they funneled us all into one place. It took about 20 minutes with people cutting in line and all kinds of shenanigans.

Once through, I walked over to the gate. We boarded on time and I took my business class seat. So far, so good.

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February 13, 2013
American 299 Lv Miami 825a Arr LAX 1110a
Miami (MIA): Gate D10, Runway 8R, Depart 1h31m Late
Los Angeles (LAX): Gate 41, Runway 25L, Arrive 1h25m Late
N783AN, Boeing 777-223ER, Silver livery, Full in biz, coach unknown
Seat 10A
Flight Time 5h15m

I was checking out my seat when I realized it was time to depart… but we weren’t moving. Then the captain came on. It was a maintenance issue. Oh boy.

On this one, we apparently had some water leaking from the ceiling back in coach. Now, it was over 80 and humid in Miami, so it sounds a lot like the condensation you normally see on an airplane, right? Apparently they wanted to be safe, so they called maintenance and had them come out. And maintenance had to bring some “machine” onboard, so to do that, they had to get everyone off in business and coach. Great. So off we shuffled back into the terminal.

We finally got back on at 930a or so after all was cleared. While I waited to board, the guy next to me said, “I guess they fixed it.” I jokingly said “that, or they decided it was good enough.” The woman in front of me turned around with fear in her eyes saying that wasn’t funny. It was, however, true. We later found out that it was just condensation, so there wasn’t anything to fix. When we got onboard, we saw the mechanics carrying their “machine” out. It was a ladder.

Finally on our way, we launched to the east and then looped around to head back toward LA. It was a mostly smooth flight except for some bumps at the end. Meanwhile, this was my first opportunity to try out the old angled flat business class seats. The verdict? For a domestic flight, it was great. But I would hate it on an overnight. The bed simply isn’t comfortable because of the angle. I tried to lie down and gave up on it pretty quickly. Instead, I watched a couple of movies and ate some food.

We had great service from our flight attendant Crystal onboard the flight. I had used the online ordering system to pick a breakfast quesadilla. She brought it right to me, though she said that she’s been on flights where the orders don’t show up. On this one, she said 4 or 5 people ordered. The food was pretty good. A couple hours later, we had a fruit and cheese plate with some sparkling water. Then at the end we had a warm cookie with a glass of milk. I definitely couldn’t complain about the food at all.

We got toward LA and it was time to descend. We landed and while we were taxiing, a woman took her bag and just walked up to the front of the airplane. I swear, are there no rules in the world of Miami? They made her sit back down, but soon enough, we were at the gate and I was heading home.

We had to head to Dallas for a wedding, and it ended up being a super cool trip. Why do I say that? We flew Virgin America, rented from Silvercar, and stayed at an aloft hotel. That’s WAY too cool for me, but it was a fun one.

We flew Virgin America for one reason – it was cheap. In fact, I almost paid more to fly American because the first return on Sunday on Virgin America wasn’t until 240p and I wanted to get home earlier. But Virgin America had a little one day sale that had a discount plus a free wifi code. It was only $268.30 a person, way better than we could have done any other way.

The flight looked empty in First Class, so I went to check in the night before to see about an upgrade. Apparently you can’t upgrade until 6 hours in advance unless you’re an elite, and there was no way I was waking up at 3a to do it. By the time I woke up, First was full. But considering they were charging $138 to upgrade to Main Cabin Select, I can only imagine that the price for first would have been too high for me to bother anyway.

With little traffic along the way, we got to the airport early. Terminal 3 still looks the same at LAX except there’s a lot more red paint. Oh, and the other half where Alaska used to be is pretty empty. Here’s a panaroma shot I took while waiting for our flight on the other side.

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January 18, 2013
Virgin America 874 Lv Los Angeles 9a Arr Dallas/Ft Worth 155p
Los Angeles (LAX): Gate 35, Runway 24L, Depart 8m Early
Dallas/Ft Worth (DFW): Gate E33, Runway 18R, Arrive 14m Early
N638VA, Airbus A320-214, “San Francisco Pride”, ~65% Full
Seat 12F
Flight Time 2h33m

We headed over to the gate to board and I handed over my mobile boarding pass. It worked flawlessly at TSA, but here the agent was having trouble getting it to register. She hit the screen of my phone and that did it. It showed that the session had timed out so we had to step outside to log back on and check in again. These mobile passes are still a pain in the butt.

Once onboard we found that the flight was not that full. Most middle seats behind the wing were empty, but we were in a full row. No big deal. The captain came on to tell us that he wouldn’t be talking to us during the flight because he didn’t want to interrupt our movie-watching. He said if we wanted to know where we were, we could look at Google Maps. (The same announcement was made on the return.)

We pushed back a little early and were in the air right about the time we were supposed to be pushing back. Nice. I watched TV the entire time and used my free wifi code to get some work done. I was determined to try out the ordering system for food since I hadn’t done it before. (The only other time I’ve flown the airline was from LA to SF and back.)

They came around with drinks and I got a ginger ale. They also were handing out bottles of water for those who wanted it. Later, I ordered a tasty roast beef sandwich that was delivered to me in just a couple minutes. The system was definitely easy to use, although the touchscreen seems to require a little harder of a touch than I would like. I kept thinking I was bugging the person in the seat in front of me.

The rest of the flight passed very quickly since it was just like another work day for me. I think I must be shrinking because the legroom seemed much better than the last time I flew the airline. (Nothing has changed, so I really must be shrinking.) Overall it was a great flight. My only complaint was that the power outlet didn’t work.

Soon enough, we were descending into DFW and it was time to try out Silvercar. That post will be live on CNTraveler.com later this week. This was also my first stay at an aloft hotel. For $89 a night, it was great. But it’s kind of funny to see a loft-style efficient use of space in the wide open plains of Plano where it’s more novelty than necessity.

Thank you to everyone who came out to do a little Crankyspotting that Saturday morning. We had a good couple dozen folks come out, I’d say. Lots and lots of silver birds at DFW, but no sign of the new livery.

After a busy weekend, we were ready to come home, and I was determined to try for an upgrade this time. Sure enough, six hours before departure, I went to check in. It was $278 to upgrade. That’s way too rich for me for a 3 hour flight, so I passed.

When we dropped the car off, we hopped on the rental car bus to the terminal. I tried to check in on my phone to pull up the boarding pass and it just said “online check in not available for this flight” or something like that. Great. The Virgin America ticket counter is far from the gate, and we had planned on going straight to the gate. It was a slight annoyance that was alleviated when we found a kiosk right out front that worked.

This time, they offered us an upgrade for $139 each, half price. We decided to take it. It said ok and told us to pick a seat. There was only one on the seat map. We couldn’t move on without choosing seats for both of us, so we had to cancel and check in as normal. When we got to the gate, the agent said that First was now full. Bummer. We were ready to go.

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January 20, 2013
Virgin America 879 Lv Dallas/Ft Worth 240p Arr Los Angeles 405p
Dallas/Ft Worth (DFW): Gate E34, Runway 18L, Depart 5m Early
Los Angeles (LAX): Gate 35, Runway 24R, Arrive 24m Early
N624VA, Airbus A320-214, Virgin America standard, ~65% Full
Seat 13F
Flight Time 2h48m

The gate agent was in a very good and extremely corny mood. She started by boarding the “Amazing A” boarding group. Then it was the “Beautiful B,” “Charming C,” “Dazzling D,” and “Excellent E.” We headed into the very long jet bridge at A34 and found it backed all the way up. Once down to the aircraft a few minutes later, we hopped on to find it looking about as empty as our original flight out.

We were buttoned up early and headed out to the runway complex on the west side of the airport. Soon enough we were airborne and winging our way west.

I had a nice brunch with friends beforehand so I wasn’t hungry on this flight. And I may have had a beer or two too many the night before, so I just stuck to water for this flight home. Really, all I needed was this:

The NFL playoffs were plenty, but I also had wifi and the air was smooth as glass. My only complaint? The noxious odor coming from someone in our general vicinity. Whew, it was bad.

Ok, I lied, I had one more complaint. My power outlet didn’t work again. But this time, the other one in our row did work and nobody was using it. So I stretched the cord out and we were good to go. My lithium ion battery didn’t even explode.

Soon enough, we were back home.

It’s the holiday season and that means it’s time to travel. While I never liked flying during the holidays anyway, our first attempt with a baby had me even more afraid. Though things went well, it was still an exhausting experience.

On the way out, we chose Southwest because of the good flight time, cheaper price (when factoring in checked bags), and the ability to buy an infant fare for our son to have a seat. We paid $294.60 each with him paying $300.60 for the refundable fare.

We started the morning way too early and headed to LAX. (Oh how I wish there were better flight options to Indy from Long Beach.) We got to Terminal 1 at 545a and saw a long line out the door. I assumed that was security, but it’s a different world these days. That was the crazy long line to check a bag. It moved quickly, but to show you how long it was, it still took us 30 minutes to get through. This was about halfway through.

After shuffling 2 pounds to get under weight on one bag, we had to drag them over to the CTX machine for scanning. Then we headed up through security and went in the short but slow-moving family line.

Security took longer than we would have hoped because there was a backup to hand search the car seat since it wouldn’t fit in the x-ray machine. But we finally got out and went to our gate. It took us an hour from the time we arrived to get this far.

Our airplane was coming in from Phoenix on an early morning flight, and it was a couple minutes late. It was then time to board as the sun rose to create the nice fiery backdrop above.

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December 22, 2012
Southwest 480 Lv Los Angeles 715a Arr Phoenix 930a
Los Angeles (LAX): Gate 9, Runway 24L, Depart 10m Late
Phoenix (PHX): Gate D5, Runway 7R, Arrive 6m Early
N237WN, Boeing 737-7H4, Canyon Blue, 100% Full
Seat 14E
Flight Time 52m

We hadn’t purchased EarlyBird check-in on purpose. I wanted to see how well the family boarding process worked. When Southwest changed its boarding process, they moved family boarding to between the A and B groups. People were angry that they couldn’t get on first at the time, so I wanted to see for myself.

When I checked in at exactly 24 hours, I got A58 but my wife and son were in the B group. I just decided we would all board together after the A group got on. Sure enough, when our time came, the front rows were full, but there were plenty of open rows behind. It made perfect sense to me. If you want something better, pay for it. But if not, you’ll still be able to sit together on most flights.

We taxied for just a couple minutes and soon launched into the morning air. It was a really short and uneventful flight to Phoenix. We landed and taxied for about 30 seconds into our D gate. The little guy had fallen asleep on the way down, so we hung out until others got off. Then we hopped off and found our connecting flight a couple gates down in the fancy D concourse.

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December 22, 2012
Southwest 839 Lv Phoenix 1050a Arr Indianapolis 410p
Phoenix (PHX): Gate D1, Runway 7L, Depart 5m Late
Indianapolis (IND): Gate B4, Runway 23R, Arrive 4m Late
N497WN, Boeing 737-7H4, Bags Fly Free Sticker, 100% Full
Seat 15E
Flight Time 2h47m

We again looked to board with the families on this flight and there were a lot. I later found out there were 6 lap children alone plus a few paid infants (including ours). One flight attendant quipped, “for a second I thought we were coming out of Salt Lake!”

Once I got my boy’s car seat installed, we could finally relax a little. Our captain came on and said it would be a very quick 2h45m flight with great tailwinds. We were thrilled to hear it.

We took off and I had the chance to log on to the internet on Southwest for $5. The Row 44 system worked great. It’s not high speed internet like you get at home, but it was certainly fast enough for me. I tried streaming TV as well for $6, but I had no interest in fiscal cliff talk so that eliminated half the channels. The only sports on was skiing and that left an infomercial on the local NYC Fox station. Pass. But it did work flawlessly.

My favorite part of all this was the flight tracker. Southwest puts a little header on every page that shows the time to destination along with the weather. The captain was quick to announce that the weather in Indy was the same as Phoenix, just subtract 40 degrees.

Our little one was in no mood to sit still, so we had our hands full the entire flight. He wasn’t crying or screaming… unless we weren’t playing with him.

As we got toward the end of the flight, I finally had enough time to evaluate the new Evolve seating. This is Southwest’s plan to use thinner seats and add a row to each airplane. For me, the legroom was just fine. But after a couple hours, my hamstrings were feeling sore. I’m not sure if the cushion was too hard or just shaped oddly, but it wasn’t too comfy.

Soon enough, we were descending. My son fell asleep again on descent (apparently we need to find a flight that will descend shortly after takeoff to get him to sleep) but he woke up screaming half way. Clearly his ears were hurting. Once on the ground, he was better. Unfortunately, there was a delayed airplane at our gate which meant we had to sit around for awhile. That’s why we ended up arriving late. Overall, Southwest did a great job and we were happy.

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For our return, we were originally flying Southwest back from Indy, but then my brother-in-law got engaged. The wedding was in Chicago, so we had to change course. Fortunately, American had failed to put any blackout dates on a Southwest sale so we picked a prime flight home for only $129.60 a ticket for my wife and kid. Mine was $148.80. Wow. And even better, we could just pocket the Southwest credit for a future flight with no change fee.

So we left downtown Chicago early on Sunday since having worked here, we knew that there’s always a chance of traffic on the Kennedy. This time, there was none and we got there with plenty of time to spare.

We used the kiosks to check our bags and then sat in a fairly short security line before heading toward our gate. It feels weird flying American out of Chicago having worked for United, and American’s terminal is definitely inferior. The corridors are long and narrow so it takes a long time to walk to your gate.

Once at our gate, we grabbed a seat and waited. It was a beautiful sunny day – the first time we’d seen the sun in nearly a week.

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December 30, 2012
American 1063 Lv Chicago/O’Hare 9a Arr Los Angeles 1130a
Chicago/O’Hare (ORD): Gate K13, Runway 32L, Depart 14m Late
Los Angeles (LAX): Gate 42A, Runway 24R, Arrive 19m Late
N963AN, Boeing 737-823, Silver, 100% Full
Seat 27E
Flight Time 4h10m

Boarding was something of a mess. We waited to hear a pre-boarding call, but there wasn’t one. First they called up elites and that was probably half the airplane right there. Then when they called group 1, I went up to the gate agent to ask if there was any pre-boarding for families. She looked annoyed and said that there was no family boarding. Then she went back to checking people in. It was just her and she was making everyone test their carry-on to see if it fit in the size-wise container. Those that didn’t, she tagged and had to hold up the line while she did. The whole thing seemed to frustrate people and looked really inefficient.

By the time we boarded, there were a ton of people on board. So we tried to get down the aisle toward our seat in the next to last row without knocking too many people with the car seat. Clearly people were annoyed with us despite our best efforts. We set up the car seat to face backwards as you’re supposed to do at this age and the flight attendant came and told us we had to face forward because we couldn’t block the recline of the person in front. That is not American’s policy, but fortunately we didn’t have to argue. The person in front of us was our friend and said there were no issues with her reclining so the flight attendant walked away.

I was hoping for an airplane with the new Boeing Sky Interior but it wasn’t to be. Our airplane was over 10 years old and had the old interior with bulky monitors in the aisle. One of the monitors had a flicker to it and too much red tint. They came by with free headsets. I took one but I never used it.

We were ready to go when the captain came on and told us that our nose gear strut needed more nitrogen. He said it would take 30 minutes, but they worked faster and we were less than 15 minutes late. After taxiing around the airport to get to our runway, we were in the air and on our way home.

There was one flight attendant on our flight who was strange, to say the least. He brought the cart down the aisle and when he got to us, simply barked “beverage” – I assumed it was a question.

I asked for a ginger ale and he just repeated four or five times “ale of ginger, ale of ginger….” Weird. Then it was time to focus on the task of entertaining the munchkin. About halfway through, we had gone through some light chop but the seatbelt sign stayed off. Then around Denver the sign went on and it immediately smoothed out. Go figure. The captain left the sign on for the duration of the flight.

During the second beverage pass, when the same flight attendant got to our row, he threw down napkins. My wife didn’t have her tray down so he threw one on her leg. I had my computer open and he just threw it on the keyboard. We didn’t even want any more drinks, so he moved on. When he went to pick up trash, he came through saying “CO” over and over. That, apparently, stands for “cans only.” Then he came by again with “ABC” which is “anything but cans.” So weird.

The only other thing of note on this trip was that I was able to put Gogo wifi to great use. The family behind us had a scheduled 35 minute connection from American to American Eagle. That alone should be illegal since you have to take a shuttle bus to the Eagle gates, but with us arriving nearly 20 minutes late, there was no chance. I whipped out my computer and started doing a little concierge work. I found them a good option in case they couldn’t make their original flight. Once we landed, however, they were paged by the agent on the ground to come to the front. American held the airplane.

Overall, it was a good trip. Southwest did a great job except for the long bag check line and the somewhat uncomfortable Evolve seat. American was just tired and not impressive. I know some airplanes at least look better on the inside. Some day I’ll see it.