Viva Las Vegas

I'm here for two weeks, then on to San Juan. Not much to report since this blog is primarily concerned with air transportation.

I will say that in an attempt to avoid ATL last Sunday, I booked NW metal through MEM again.

All I can say is, that the A320 was the first flight to Vegas I have ever flown on where first class had a lot of empty seats. And this is not due to a lousy economy (this town is full!), but because all the Delta high mileage guys are still battling it out for precious upgrades through ATL.

I remember, despite being Platinum, my upgrade success rate from ATL to LAS was only about 70 per cent.

So, my gamble paid off. And I hope the core of Delta fliers who live down south continue to battle through ATL! Want peace, quiet and space? Ride the NWA A320 out of MEM.

More Delta-Northwest Insight

The work in Memphis ended early, so I hustled out in an attempt to get an earlier flight to ATL.

The fun started at the kiosk; although the metal was NW, and I had changed my seat on the NW web site, the kiosk said I had a Delta reservation. Ok, so I start it over. I had been waitlisted for first class up to Knoxville out of ATL and it had not cleared, so I acknowledged all of that. I attempted to list for the upgrade out of MEM and was told I could not get on the list. OK.

I go to the gate of an earlier flight and it is so oversold that I don't even attempt to get on the standby list.

I hang out in the MEM Sky Club for a while. And for the first time, I was in an NW club that did NOT have all the food choices that NW was famous for. In fact, the only food were those same old tired Biscoff cookies that we are all sick of. I don't know if Virginia Avenue has started to cut back on the food or what, but this is a change that I hope does not take hold. The NW clubs were always nicer.

So, back to the gate for my flight to ATL. And I get paged and upgraded to first, even though I was never able to join the list. Wonderful!

It's an MD88 down to the World Port, then a Pinnacle CR9 up to TYS. All on time.

I would suggest that anyone flying on NW metal prepare for the unexpected; this merger still has its rough spots.

And I'll do it again tomorrow, NW metal from TYS to MEM out to Vegas. Two weeks in the southwest heat coming up.

The Old Delta Lives Again

I flew back to MEM late this afternoon from BWI. Another one of those Delta-Northwest blends, but what made this one different, was, for the first time since the early 1990's, I flew on a DC9 with Delta colors! I don't expect that remark to resonate with too many folks, but getting on this kind of equipment is like getting in a time machine. I plainly remember that one of the Delta print ads that ran in the papers in the mid 90's concerned how young their equipment was. And at that time, that was a very true statement. They had dumped all the DC9's and purchased a bunch of MD88's, 752's and 762's.

Well, a merger makes for stange bedfellows I suppose.

But I have to admit, that first class in this aging piece of metal is still better than first in an MD88.

Just another weird observation.

Another Crash - How Many this Year?

I got up today to the news that another hull crashed, this time in Iran. The metal belonged to Caspian Airlines, and was a Tupolev 154M.

I've already read a lot of comments from the experts extolling the safety of commercial air transport. And I agree, but there is no way that I would ever fly on Russian hardware (or Chinese for that matter). I know I might sound ignorant to the purists, but a combination of Russian metal and economic sanctions (Caspian Air is a partially owned Iranian operation) would make me extremely uncomfortable.

I'm staying off the Russian metal. A pic of a Tu154M is attached.

Delta-Northwest - A Lot to Iron Out

I flew Knoxville-Baltimore yesterday, but the connection was through Memphis and the metal was all Northwest.

This arrangement is interesting; you buy the ticket on the Delta web site, but to control your seating you have to visit the NW site. The metal is all NW. The flight crews are wearing DL colors. The beverages are NW standard. And, complicating the issues, to get SkyMiles credit you have to be patient; I've already received credit for the TYS/MEM segment, but no mention of the MEM/BWI segment on the account yet.

I've been considering MEM as an alternative to the zoo that is ATL; and I'll give the folks at MEM credit; they turned the A320 in just 30 mins after its arrival from LAX.

On another note, a Southwest flight made an emergency landing in Charleston, WVa last night. The flight was Nashville/BWI and a hole appeared in the fuselage. The masks deployed as well.

One of these days for me . . . .

Checking In

It's mid summer, and typically my work slows a bit around July 4. This year was no exception; I did a quick one day job in Milwaukee. Regarding the flying, I flew one segment of four on real Delta metal, the rest on third party commuters.

Both connections were through Atlanta, and every flight was delayed. I'm not going to complain too much, as ATL has been getting pounded by storms almost every day for the last three weeks.

Regrettably, my daughter took a punishing five hour delay out of ATL last night due to storms. Here flight back to San Diego departed ATL at the ungodly hour of 2:45 AM.

She is more understanding than I am. I suppose that is one of the values of youth.

I'm going to Baltimore this week. I bought the ticket on Delta, yet again, it's all Northwest metal. Interestingly, Delta's web page shows different seating than the Northwest site. I checked in on the NWA site. Let's see how it all plays out. But I'm starting to like the NWA/DL arrangement as it puts me into Memphis, and MEM is not nearly as chaotic as ATL.

Back to the grind with a short trip to MEM itself from BWI and then two weeks in a row in Las Vegas. Then San Juan and Hermasillo, Mexico.

The beat goes on

From the World Club

OK, I think I've finally gotten the lingo down, it's now called a Delta World Club.

I have noticed that free WiFi is here, and so are cookies, which were all found in the NW clubs. So some good things are happening. Maybe Virginia Avenue decided not to agitate the NW elites by "enhancing" their club benefits. I'm sure the free WiFi is buggin' them over here across the street.

No air travel for 6 days! I plan on relaxing and doing all the things that normal people get to do over the summer. And that includes going to bed whenever I want to and getting up whenever I want to.

The DL 752 was a bit early into ATL today, but it is Wednesday and nobody flies on Wednesday. And although I've really ranted about the chaos at MCO, today I walked up to the TSA checkpoint and went through with no wait. I even had a chance to joke to the agent about how all those CLEAR customers got screwed there! He laughed; TSA thought it was stupid too.

No posts for a while. Milwaukee is next.