Tampa - Manchester - Let's Hear it for New Equipment

I learned a long time ago that if you can possibly avoid Logan airport at Boston, well, avoid it.  I do the alternative Manchester NH airport if I'm working on the north side of the city.  In this case, the job was in Nashua NH, a nice town.

I flew on Delta's new 737-900 out of TPA.  This is a nice piece of equipment, particularly in first.  Nice blue overhead lighting.  Big IFE screen right in front of you with all the ports and amenities.

Right on time to ATL then on to MHT on an Airbus A320.  Every time I fly Airbus equipment I notice how much more passenger friendly it is.  In first, it's spread out!

Again, on time.

Did Southwest back to TPA through their hub in BWI.  I rarely fly on Tuesdays and it's so different from the chaos of Sunday/Friday flying.  The 737 out of BWI was only half full.  But 20 minutes late into TPA as we held for connections in BWI.  That's ok I guess.

Knoxville, to visit the granddaughters, is next.

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/DAL2372/history/20140421/2005Z/KTPA/KATL

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/DAL1079/history/20140421/2255Z/KATL/KMHT

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/SWA2252/history/20140422/2110Z/KMHT/KBWI

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/SWA2154/history/20140423/0010Z/KBWI/KTPA

Savannah - Chicago

I'm doing a lot of work in SAV now and it has to be Delta for me.  Even though a lot of carriers go there, if I have to make a connection, I'll do it through ATL.

We were an hour late out of SAV, and who knows why.  But this leads to the usual running for a lot of passengers through ATL.  I had two hours so I got to sit down and watch Bubba Watson close out the Masters.

Then on to ORD again via Atlanta.  I was surprised that AA does not to ORD from SAV.  Having lived in Chicago, I know what a mess their delays can be.

And naturally a storm was blowing around Chicago the entire time I was there.  Snow on April 14!  How do you live like this?

But we were on time into and out of Chicago.  ATL back to TPA was another story, delayed an hour as the 757 had been through some mechanical issues earlier in the day.

But I have to hand it to Delta, give them a good weather day and they seem to hum along very well.

Manchester (Nashua) NH is next.

Happy Easter


http://flightaware.com/live/flight/DAL2172/history/20140411/2115Z/KTPA/KATL

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/DAL2530/history/20140412/0046Z/KATL/KSAV

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/DAL896/history/20140413/2228Z/KSAV/KATL

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/DAL2112/history/20140413/2334Z/KATL/KORD

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/DAL1977/history/20140414/2300Z/KORD/KATL

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/DAL1377/history/20140415/0150Z/KATL/KTPA

Tampa - Charlotte - Through ATL

Delta all the way on this one.  I'm always afraid some customer is going to jump me on these fares when I avoid a nonstop like US Air flies from TPA to CLT.

But I was shocked at how expensive US Air was on this.  I am having to accept that if you want nonstop, well, reach for the wallet.

So for $50 less I bought first class on Delta.  Figure that one out.

No segments to show on this one.

Savannah and Chicago are next.

Tampa - Philadelphia - Birmingham (Columbus, MS) - Tampa

Every two years I travel to Columbus, MS for work.  It's not an easy place to get to because it's a small market served by regional third parties who probably aren't all that committed to it.  (Think Delta Connection).  So after many years of frustration trying to get in and out of the Columbus airport (GTR), I started doing Birmingham.

I flew from Philly through ATL to BHM, then back through ATL home to Tampa.

No real issues.  Delta runs as smoothly as all of the legacy carriers nowadays, probably better based on what I'm hearing.


http://flightaware.com/live/flight/DAL2372/history/20140320/2000Z/KTPA/KATL

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/DAL2094/history/20140320/2330Z/KATL/KPHL

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/DAL1761/history/20140323/1949Z/KPHL/KATL

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/DAL1238/history/20140323/2320Z/KATL/KBHM

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/DAL1442/history/20140327/2230Z/KBHM/KATL

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/DAL1797/history/20140328/0040Z/KATL/KTPA

"Moderation"

You've heard the word.  Moderation.

You've heard its application.

Use "moderation" with:

Eating

Drinking

Exercise

Sex (who the hell said this?)

Red meat

Red wine

What's moderate air travel?  I used to fly with a guy out of Knoxville whose email signature read: "He who dies with the most miles, wins".  All I know is that he claims to have lost 6 million Delta miles in a divorce settlement.

Am I a serious, credible traveler?

Take a look at www.flightmemory.com.

It's neat, allowing you to enter your flights, dates, etc.  Once it crunches out the numbers, you can get some surprises.

I've been flying constantly since 1990, but I started using their website in 2008.  So I've got 18 years under my belt before I even started entering data.

Since 2008:

I've flown 878,122 miles

Circumnavigated the earth 35.26 times

Flown to the moon 3.676 times

Covered .0094 percent of the distance from the earth to the sun (gives you some idea of the size of our universe)

My average flight distance is 718 miles.

Since 2008, I've flown out of:

Atlanta 559 times

Tampa 315 times

Knoxville 185 times

Chicago O'Hare 107 times

Detroit 96 times

Baltimore 92 times

Chicago Midway 76 times

Salt Lake City 76 times

Las Vegas 65 times

Since 2008, I've flown:

826 segments on Delta

222 segments on Southwest

47 segments on American

107 segments on assorted other carriers

Since 2008 I've flown on:

Boeing 737s 291 times

Canadair regional jets 255 times

Boeing 757s 236 times

MD-88s 133 times

Embraer regional jets 58 times

Everything else (A319/320/340/B767/747/MD90) 141 times

I've been upgraded to first 629 times.

I've flown coach 575 times

I've flown in and out of 151 US airports.

So is this moderation?

Good night from Columbus, MS.

Savannah-Atlanta-Detroit-Tampa

All Delta on this one.  I fly so often that rarely do I get to sit back and reflect on some of the stuff I dealt with 30 years ago when I first started traveling.

But the one thing that has surely changed, at least at DL, is the concept of a frequent flyer program. You've heard all the complaints.

Making a long story short, Delta (and you can bet the others will follow) now award status and FF tickets now on the amount of $$$ you pour into their wallets.

And honestly, I have no problem with this.  Some folks over at www.flyertalk.com are very outraged.  I knew it would happen.

But please stop calling it "Sky Miles".  It has nothing to do with miles or the length of a journey.  Now I know they can't call it "Sky Dollars" but that's what it is.

I'd be willing to bet that down the road DL will change the name of this program.  It will be interesting to see what they go to.

Maybe something like "Sky Loyalty".  Who knows?

Regarding these segments, they were on time except for DTW/TPA which was 20 minutes late.  The reason?

"Late arrival of our flight attendents".  **sigh**


http://flightaware.com/live/flight/DAL1425/history/20140313/2015Z/KBWI/KATL

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/DAL1320/history/20140313/2305Z/KATL/KSAV

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/DAL1221/history/20140317/2155Z/KDTW/KTPA

Atlanta to Baltimore - Southwest

I do a lot of SWA out of Tampa, but this was the first trip I've ever done on them out of ATL.  Southwest is getting bigger in ATL, ,and I'm not including their AirTran ops in my opinions.  I could have easily done Delta out of ATL, but due to certain work issues, I wanted to burn some SWA mileage and do a freebie up here to BWI.

As is typically the case, not only were they on time but 10 minutes early into BWI.

ATL will always be a messy airport.  Too much metal in and out of there.  But my first SWA experience out of Delta country was a hit.

Savannah (via Delta) is next.

For some reason FlightAware has no track history on this segment.