AirTran Airways B717 MCO-BWI

Flight: FL472
Aircraft: B717-200 N929AT
Scheduled Departure time: 1105
Actual Departure time: 1105
Estimated Flight time: 1hr 46mins
Actual Flight time: 1hr 49mins

Ok, so now for stage two of my magical mystery tour across the USA!

So after having had the pleasure of Monarch into Sanford and having lived through hurricane Frances for 5 days, I’d had enough! So… I’m lucky enough to have a sister up in Washington DC and decided there was only one thing left to try and save my holiday as the hurricane had virtually ruined it. After having surfed places like Expedia for tickets from MCO to any Washington airport, I eventually chose AirTran as they were the cheapest. Bear in mind that due to the hurricane, everyone and his dog were trying to leave Florida from whatever airport was open, so there wasn’t a lot of choice. The bigger airlines like United/Ted, American etc were all charging stupid amounts, selling in full fare basically. The booking process with AirTran was all very simple, no paper tickets, just turn up with your passport and away we go.

This was the first time I’d been to MCO. I was hugely impressed with the the terminal, and the drive up to the terminal itself it pretty good. Its a very clean, modern looking and spacious airport. Check was good, not too bigger queue although they were checking in for other AirTran flights (like Atlanta) all from the same desks. The check-in agent was very nice and smily and commented on how she wished she was leaving Florida herself! She allocated us row 10 DEF which is the first row of Economy. I still can’t understand why these so called low cost carriers have business class too, but hey! After she checked us in and tagged our bags, she drew a red line across each baggage tag and told us to take them over to the large X-Ray machine where two TSA agents were scanning bags. The asked if we had locked them, we said yes (I really don’t agree with leaving your bags unlocked in the USA) so the TSA asked us to wait while they put them through X-Ray. Now having worked on check-in myself many years ago, I kinda got the impression that the check-in agent had decided to give us special treatment by marking the tags with the red pen. In any case, we had nothing to hide and she let us go on after they went though x-ray.

Now, MCO departures really is something else for those of you who love shopping! There is every Disney related store there imaginable, and even the Hyatt Regency hotel smack bang in the middle of departure lounge! Amazing really! Its really a stunning place. There seemed to be lots of Germans in that day, I guess maybe their tour operators were shipping them out. The whole place was extremely busy and the queues for security to get airside were horrific! Eventually, it was time to go through security to head for the gate and boy did we get the special treatment there! I’m now absolutely convinced the check-in agent was having us get the extra special treatment. So… having had my shoes x-rayed and having been questioned to death about my cigarette lighter, they finally let me through. You then have to get a monorail to the other side of the terminal for the AirTran gates which was really cool, gave plenty of opportunity to see all the aircraft at the gates etc, although I didn’t have my digicam with me.

After all the delays at security, I arrived in the AirTran gates to hear my flight being called, so no time for coffee or a second glimpse back. It was straight on board for me. There was pretty much no messing with boarding! The 717 was a new experience for me, and I was a little hesitant about AirTran, especially after there unfortunate crash when they were ValuJet some years ago. The 717 was lovely inside, very clean and modern looking. There were around 4 or 5 business class rows which were actually rather nice looking, wider and loads of leg room. Economy was actually fine, still plenty of legroom and the interior was very fresh looking. There were 3 flight attendants, two lovely girlies and a rather unstable looking male purser who’d obviously been doing the job too long to bother speaking a pace where anyone could actually understand him. I think they were probably Atlanta based crew judging by their accents (I do love playing spot the accent!).

After a quick welcome on board PA and little shuffling around, it was doors closed and push back. We taxied around fairly quickly and got airborne pretty much on the dot! The 717 seemed a lot noisier than the MD83’s I’ve been used to travelling on, although I later realised this was probably due to the aircon in the cabin being on full blast.

Now, if you’ve ever travelled “domestic” in the US, you’ll know that the service consists of “coffee, soft drinks, pretzels or…. coffee” and thats it! Still, it was nice. The crew were pleasant apart from the unstable Purser who just glared at everyone! They served everything complementary apart from alchohol (although this was free in Biz class too). Being 11am, I thought it was a tad early for a White Lightening just yet so I stuck with Pepsi. 😉

The crew offered only one drinks service, but to be honest, the flight time passed quite quickly. After they finished, they sat in the galley drinking and eating their lunch and reading books quite happily, curtain open and not a care in the world. Boy how different it is to be a flight attendant in the US! I would have been sacked for that over here!

Eventually, the captain came on to advise we were on final approach to Baltimore/Washington International and “now would be a good time to take care of those last minute needs!!!”, that bit made me wet myself laughing, why not just say, use the loo now or wait til we land, so politically correct! I was really quite looking forward to seeing the area. This was the first trip to see my sister since she moved out there. We got a pretty good view of the approach and then a nice smooth landing into BWI. It seemed quite a short taxi to the stand, noticing a lot of Southwest 737’s, Northwest DC9’s(?), the odd strange looking airline around. There didn’t seem much international traffic, although it was just before 1pm now.

We pulled onto an airbridge and the crew had the doors open in next to no time and off everyone got. I am amazed how organised and efficient the whole flight was. No messing with boarding or disembarking… all very simple. Maybe this is because US citizens are more used to domestic air travel on a frequent basis, who knows?

Baltimore is a lovely terminal. Again, very modern looking (although there is some renovation work going on). The only thing that concerned me is the baggage reclaim is actually after you’ve left airside, so basically, anyone off the street can walk in and walk off with your bags… like my sister!

All in all, it was a enjoyable flight and nice to see somewhere different like BWI. I’d recommend AirTran, well worth a go for the 717!

😀