O'Hare to Tampa via ATL

After 6 days if putting up with a polar vortex and all the mayhem that goes with it, time to go home to my island for just 20 hours.

But

Ahh, yes, the 717 loads on time at ORD.  This is the first Delta B717 I've flown on.  They came from Air Tran and they have cleaned up quite nicely.  First is nice as well.

But

So we close the door and sit.  And we sit.  Cockpit comes over the PA and states that they are waiting on "performance numbers".  Now while I know what this means, the reality is that we arrive 20 minutes late into ATL.  That's just enough of a delay to cause chaos once we get to the gate.  The usual number of passengers running over each other to make the connection.

**sigh** "Performance number delay.

My connection to TPA was late.  "We are waiting on our flight attendants to arrive".  You know the drill.  Nothing is automatic with a hub and spoke carrier.

And my time at home on Pass A Grille got cut by an hour over this.  Amarillo is next.

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/DAL393/history/20140111/2000Z/KORD/KATL

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/DAL2376/history/20140111/2251Z/KATL/KTPA

Minneapolis to Chicago - Will it Ever Get above 0?

Well, yes, it will.  Like when I get home to Pass a Grille on Saturday night.

Flew the Delta MD90 out of MSP.  I bought first so didn't have to mess with a battleground upgrade. 

I'm not going to complain about delayed and cancelled flights too much when we are all in the grip of a "polar vortex". 

But I noticed that DL ran all their flights into ORD today, whereas AA cancelled a couple.  Maybe their fuel is still frozen here in Chicago.

We were 20 minutes late.  Not a problem.

We pull into the gate and the jetway is frozen and takes 10 minutes to attach to the plane.  Still I can't gripe about that.

As a guy who worked for a couple of years on the ramp for DL, I feel so sorry for these folks outside having to load the bags. 

God bless 'em.

Here for four days.  Then home to Tampa.  But just for one day.  Uggh.

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/DAL729/history/20140108/0135Z/KMSP/KORD

Tampa to Minneapolis - It's a Polar Vortex

Or something like that.

If you've been staying in touch with the world, you know it's cold.

It's 26 below zero as I write this.  I think this is the coldest temperature I've ever personally experienced.

Less than 24 hours ago I was sitting at a poolside bar in Pass A Grille and it was 78.  All I can tell you is that when this air hits your skin, it feels like your skin is burning.

The flight was 90 minutes late, not bad considering how messed up commercial aviation is this week.  I bought first class, so didn't have to fret over the upgrade.  Thank goodness for the many direct flights out of TPA.

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/DAL2559/history/20140105/2305Z/KTPA/KMSP

Happy New Year!

Here's the map for 2013 from www.flightmemory.com.

I flew 131,232 miles in 2013.

That's  13000 miles fewer than 2013.  Good for the home life, bad for business.  If you measure economic recovery in terms of the number of days I spend with customers, a recovery is nowhere in sight.

OK, A New Year's Resolution

Due to some unfortunate circumstances, I stopped posting in early August 2013 but now all is well again.

In general I would say that the last four months have been pretty good to me in terms of flight hassles and hotel problems.

I did not go out much after early November and the travel tapered to practically nothing as the end of 2013 approached.  But January 2014 gets rolling with a trip to MSP and Chicago.  The first three months of any year are my busiest.

I just finished reading a great book, written by the author of www.askthepilot.com.  The book, "Cockpit Confidential" is certainly up to date in terms of the issues it addresses.  It's probably not the kind of book that would entertain an infrequent traveler.

But since I stopped posting, I'll simply list the destinations that I flew to since the last post:

Aruba (AirTran, lousy experience)
Hermosillo, MX (learned the hard way about the ways of getting between Terminal 1 and 2 in MEX)
St. Louis
Dallas
Houston
Baltimore
Lexington KY
Knoxville TN
Elmira NY
Philadelphia
Detroit
Wilmington NC
Baltimore
Dallas
Atlanta
Boston
Baltimore
Kansas City
Nashville
Seattle
Las Vegas
Knoxville TN

One final note.  I'll heavily paraphrase what a Delta attorney said in a recent court case concerning the fact that the old Northwest cancelled a frequent flyer account because the account holder "complained" too much.  The lawyer stated that Delta was under no obligation to provide service or customer satisfaction.

LOL.

Or something to that effect.

Sixth Trip in and out of Hartford in 7 Months

Which isn't so tough because Southwest flies to BDL nonstop out of TPA every night, departing at 6:30 pm.  It's easy, and almost always on time, as it was this time.

Coming home is Delta.  SWA does not do a nightly trip to TPA from Hartford.

I had bought first on DL, so did not have to go through the first class upgrade lottery, but I have to laugh.  Both segments were MD88s, holding 148 pax.  Both flights had nearly 50 people waitlisted for first.  That means 30 percent of the pax are elite!

DELTA, PLEASE YOU MAKE IT TOO EASY TO OBTAIN ELITE STATUS, PANDERING TO LOW MILEAGE FLYERS WITH THE BAIT AND SWITCH APPROACH.  THESE GUYS WILL NEVER GET UP FRONT BUT THEY KEEP TRYING!

But we were ontime with both segments.

Aruba (vacation) is next.

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/SWA711/history/20130728/2230Z/KTPA/KBDL

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/DAL1724/history/20130801/2218Z/KBDL/KATL

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/DAL2304/history/20130802/0155Z/KATL/KTPA

Atlanta-Phildelphia-Atlanta-Tampa

Trying to catch up here:

The ATL/PHL segment ran like a charm.  Nice B752 and the upgrade cleared.  But I was a bit distressed to hear the flight attendant tell the pax over the PA to "hurry to your seat because we are under some pressures to back out of the gate on time".  Don't blame it on the pax, ok when the FAs showed up 20 minutes before the departure time.

I've always known that eventually the carriers would blame flight delays on their own customers.

But there's a lot of padding on this one, as we arrived at the gate in PHL right on time.

The return was vintage Delta/Atlanta hub/tstorm stuff.  Sat in PHL while ATL went into a ground stop.  Rotated out of PHL 90 minutes late.  Landed in ATL 10 minutes before my connection to TPA. Pulled up into the gate at ATL and took another 10 minute delay as the cockpit explained that "we're trying to get a ramp crew together" (See earlier post about lack of ramp employees in ORD).

Jumped on the DL phone app and noticed that my flight to TPA had just received a 20 minute delay.  I'm going to make it now!

Got on the 752 for TPA and sat for another 45 minutes.  LOL!

But I got home.

Holyoke MA (Hartford) is next



http://flightaware.com/live/flight/DAL1661/history/20130724/1910Z/KATL/KPHL

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/DAL1661/history/20130726/2215Z/KPHL/KATL

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/DAL2304/history/20130727/0155Z/KATL/KTPA