Well finally I’m home, after arrival from Chicago. Where? Yep, you heard me right. As some of you have caught on in the other thread, there was a slight problem with the LAX-JFK flight being delayed, meaning we’d miss our JFK-LHR flight. We saw this as soon as we arrived at LAX, and so found an AA supervisor.
Now this is where AA have truly given me full confidence in what a great airline they are. A short explanation to a very friendly supervisor, and she got on the case right away. Numerous phone calls and lots of dashing around tapping into various computers, and she come up with a load of options for us. Obviously the cheapest way that AA could get out of the situation, was to send us to JFK and make us wait there for the next LHR flight (which happened to be 8 hours later). However, as soon as we said that we’d already been travelling for most of the day and that JFK was a horrible (run-down) airport to spend that time in, she came up with another option which we took.
AA would put us up in a posh hotel in LA overnight, then send us home via Chicago in the morning. They paid for all hotel expenses, transfers, and even gave us money vouchers to buy food with. And as far as I’m concerned it couldn’t be any better, because the LAX-ORD flight was a DC-9 82, much better than the 767 I would have flown on from LAX-JFK 😀 Not only that, but the LAX-ORD flight was right through the day, giving me a chance to see the whole of the US. There came only one small sacrifice, and that was I had to give up a window seat on the 777 back to London. Being a spotter, stuck in the middle of a wide body plane is almost like torture, but I wasn’t particularly concerned seeing as I’ve flown into LHR before and have seen most of what there is to see.
So here I am back home, half a day later than I was meant to be. There is some bad news though… One of my memory cards randomly decided to stop working when I took a photo this morning and something has gone wrong with it, although I really haven’t a clue how or why it could have happened. Not only does it contain all my shots that I took on Wednesday at Honolulu (very interesting ones too) but all of my holiday snaps, including Pearl Harbour and my last Hawaiian unset. To say the least, I’m upset 🙁
I’m just getting the rest of the photos onto the computer now, so I’ll get back with them on here shortly.
By: wannabe pilot - 10th April 2005 at 13:15
Thanks Mark.
Erm well it might have been possible with the Fokkers. Either that or I was in a jet lagged/half awoken state of mind that wasn’t on it’s usual spotting form!
By: wannabe pilot - 10th April 2005 at 13:15
Thanks Mark.
Erm well it might have been possible with the Fokkers. Either that or I was in a jet lagged/half awoken state of mind that wasn’t on it’s usual spotting form!
By: Mark L - 10th April 2005 at 12:11
Superb shots Dan, only just had time to read through everything this evening 🙂
Re the Fokkers, I agree with Elgan, they were retired late last year, and yours is the first report of any of them moving, this photo seems to confirm it:
http://www.airliners.net/open.file/738608/L/
Not entirely sure what you saw, maybe some being moved from the airports to the storage facilities?
By: Mark L - 10th April 2005 at 12:11
Superb shots Dan, only just had time to read through everything this evening 🙂
Re the Fokkers, I agree with Elgan, they were retired late last year, and yours is the first report of any of them moving, this photo seems to confirm it:
http://www.airliners.net/open.file/738608/L/
Not entirely sure what you saw, maybe some being moved from the airports to the storage facilities?
By: wannabe pilot - 9th April 2005 at 23:26
Thanks Kaplan, Greekdude had already cleared it up 🙂
By: wannabe pilot - 9th April 2005 at 23:26
Thanks Kaplan, Greekdude had already cleared it up 🙂
By: kaplan dig - 9th April 2005 at 22:20
Now this is where I need your help. I have photos of these 2 airports, and am trying to work out which they are.
Obviously this first one is more important, as it’s one of the aircraft ‘graveyards’ and so I was quite lucky to catch it. It was around 30-40 minutes after departure from LAX, a short while after passing the first batch of mountains. (1st photo).
Photos 2 and 3 are of the same airport, taken on finals for ORD. The runway directions are 11 and 29, so I guess that makes it easier.
Nice pics, the first pic is Victorville in California –
By: kaplan dig - 9th April 2005 at 22:20
Now this is where I need your help. I have photos of these 2 airports, and am trying to work out which they are.
Obviously this first one is more important, as it’s one of the aircraft ‘graveyards’ and so I was quite lucky to catch it. It was around 30-40 minutes after departure from LAX, a short while after passing the first batch of mountains. (1st photo).
Photos 2 and 3 are of the same airport, taken on finals for ORD. The runway directions are 11 and 29, so I guess that makes it easier.
Nice pics, the first pic is Victorville in California –
By: wannabe pilot - 9th April 2005 at 15:51
I’ve taken the card into Boots, they say it’s frozen. A very friendly lady in there said how her husband deals with that kind of thing, and will take it home to him tonight to see if he can do anything. If not, then Boots offer a service for this kinda thing, I didn’t realise it’s actually very common. You can send it away to them via recorded delivery, and their specialists will get the dta off there, re-format the card, and send back the photos they’ve retrieved on a CD. So it looks like I might have them for you at some point! *big sigh of relief*.
The aviation photos on there were mainly photos from HNL, but it’s better than nothing all the same.
By: wannabe pilot - 9th April 2005 at 15:51
I’ve taken the card into Boots, they say it’s frozen. A very friendly lady in there said how her husband deals with that kind of thing, and will take it home to him tonight to see if he can do anything. If not, then Boots offer a service for this kinda thing, I didn’t realise it’s actually very common. You can send it away to them via recorded delivery, and their specialists will get the dta off there, re-format the card, and send back the photos they’ve retrieved on a CD. So it looks like I might have them for you at some point! *big sigh of relief*.
The aviation photos on there were mainly photos from HNL, but it’s better than nothing all the same.
By: wannabe pilot - 9th April 2005 at 15:21
Thanks AO.
I can see what you mean Dusseldwarf. Just the level of customer care, makes you feel much more relaxed and confident to be flying on that airline. As I was with AA. When I saw about the delayed flight, if it was FR I would have been running around the place panicking, at how the hell I’m gonna get home without being charged for this and that. Whereas with AA, I was just as relaxed in the knowledge that they’d do something about it.
By: wannabe pilot - 9th April 2005 at 15:21
Thanks AO.
I can see what you mean Dusseldwarf. Just the level of customer care, makes you feel much more relaxed and confident to be flying on that airline. As I was with AA. When I saw about the delayed flight, if it was FR I would have been running around the place panicking, at how the hell I’m gonna get home without being charged for this and that. Whereas with AA, I was just as relaxed in the knowledge that they’d do something about it.
By: Airline owner - 9th April 2005 at 10:48
Very good photos right up to ‘Captain Dan’.lol.
By: Airline owner - 9th April 2005 at 10:48
Very good photos right up to ‘Captain Dan’.lol.
By: Duesseldwarf - 9th April 2005 at 09:10
Missing out on Rome is no biggee – we’ll probably do it late in the year and I have already been a couple of times. I’m sure we would have found it difficult to have a decent lads weekend away under such circumstances and it’s probably for the best that we stayed at home this weekend. The ache was Ryanair’s heel-dragging. It cost us to lose a hell of a lot of money collectively. Ah well, never mind. I should now better by now. I can only hope that their apathy towards their customers is the cause of their eventual downfall. They are just not worth the risk. Come on easyJet, get that network growing even more from LTN.
By: Duesseldwarf - 9th April 2005 at 09:10
Missing out on Rome is no biggee – we’ll probably do it late in the year and I have already been a couple of times. I’m sure we would have found it difficult to have a decent lads weekend away under such circumstances and it’s probably for the best that we stayed at home this weekend. The ache was Ryanair’s heel-dragging. It cost us to lose a hell of a lot of money collectively. Ah well, never mind. I should now better by now. I can only hope that their apathy towards their customers is the cause of their eventual downfall. They are just not worth the risk. Come on easyJet, get that network growing even more from LTN.
By: wannabe pilot - 8th April 2005 at 22:58
Thanks very much for the comments guys, it’s greatly appreciated especially when I still got the whole lost memory card thing buzzing round my head. I’m gonna take it into Boots tomorrow and see if they can put the photo’s onto a CD. If their machines wont read it, I’ll have to try and get myself to the nearest Jessops. I don’t care how much I have to pay, I just want those pictures.
Yep it was very hot down there. It drizzled for about 5 minutes each hour, but when the sun came through it was scorching. Even with SPF30 sun lotion I was burnt quite badly on my arms.
Sorry to hear about the trip Dusseldwarf. Atleast you got that transatlantic venture to look forward to. I’ll be surprised if you don’t find AA as pleasent as we did. It was also promising to see near 100% loads on all 6 of our flights.
By: wannabe pilot - 8th April 2005 at 22:58
Thanks very much for the comments guys, it’s greatly appreciated especially when I still got the whole lost memory card thing buzzing round my head. I’m gonna take it into Boots tomorrow and see if they can put the photo’s onto a CD. If their machines wont read it, I’ll have to try and get myself to the nearest Jessops. I don’t care how much I have to pay, I just want those pictures.
Yep it was very hot down there. It drizzled for about 5 minutes each hour, but when the sun came through it was scorching. Even with SPF30 sun lotion I was burnt quite badly on my arms.
Sorry to hear about the trip Dusseldwarf. Atleast you got that transatlantic venture to look forward to. I’ll be surprised if you don’t find AA as pleasent as we did. It was also promising to see near 100% loads on all 6 of our flights.
By: A330Crazy - 8th April 2005 at 22:46
Superb report Dan, and some breath taking pictures! The scenery is great… so tranquil.
Did you get a nice tan? Weather looked like it was very nice and warm?
Very jealous of you!
Ace report! 🙂
By: A330Crazy - 8th April 2005 at 22:46
Superb report Dan, and some breath taking pictures! The scenery is great… so tranquil.
Did you get a nice tan? Weather looked like it was very nice and warm?
Very jealous of you!
Ace report! 🙂
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April 8, 2005 at 11:23 am