After a really enjoyable stay in California it was time to head home. Our hotel was only a 2 minute walk from the BART station, which in turn was only 30 minutes away from the airport. We connected to the AA Terminal, and checked in at the desk for our 3 flights that day.
After proceeding effortlessly through security we headed to the gate area, and despite the rain were still able to grab a couple of photographs.
AA1530 SFO-DFW
This flight was slightly overbooked and AA were looking for volunteers to surrender their seats for a $300 travel voucher. We readily volunteered ourselves, but at the last minute there were some no-shows, and we were put back onto the flight. Despite this the flight pushed back on time, and we headed off to Texas. Again the scenery was very interesting passing over New Mexico:
We passed Dallas Fort Worth on our downwind traffic pattern, enabling me to get this overview of the sprawling complex:
AA2356 DFW-ORD
After a 30 minute wait we were back on an identicle MD80 to the one we had just got off, as well as the swarms of them moving about the airport, and we were soon heading off to Chicago, not before I could get this shot of my first ever EMB140 though:
Interestingly on this service we were given a free bag of pretzels, despite our JFK-LAX being nearly 3 times longer and no food distributed at all!
There was lots of snow in the region last night, and as such some interesting patterns were being made on some of the landscapes. Chicago however was unaffected, and we made a standard approach in:
AA were very good at reading out all the gates of the flights that passengers were connected onto, and we were extremely glad to see that we had about a 5 metre walk to our nex gate!
During our taxi in I was able to get one of my last shots of the trip in the USA of the international terminal at O’Hare:
AA54 ORD-MAN
After the short hop across the corridor there was only a very short wait before boarding our final flight of the trip taking us back to Manchester. This flight was about 80% full, meaning that the much valued space at this time of night was at a premium. Neverthless after another lacklustre meal I was able to get a good few hours sleep before being woken over Northern Ireland for breakfast, which was a croissant and yoghurt.
I was able to get one last short before the sun got the better of me, looking out towards Elgan in Bangor, who I am assured was looking right back at me!
After a 10 minute hold we landed on 06R, and rolled back onto the end of the pier at T3, before breezing through passport control, and breathing a sigh of relief as we saw that our bags had made it through all 3 connections!
Overall I was definitly satisfied with AA, and I will certainly have no qualms with flying them again. All the flights were on time, comfortable, and staffed by very good cabin crew. The IFE on the longer services was also perfectly adequete. However despite not even ever having flown long haul before I am quite sure it is far from the best based on reviews of hundreds of other airlines, and so I am definitly looking forward to flying BA to JFK in the summer, as well as trying out other airlines in the future as well.
Now I’m off to bed, as I think I have been up for about 36 hours or something silly and I have a presentation to research tomorrow morning to give in the afternoon. Maybe I shouldnt have missed 10 days of uni…
Nahhh! :diablo:
AA1 JFK-LAX
An early start got us to JFK for just after 7am, and due to both flights today being domestic we were able to use the self service desks to print our boarding cards. We quickly went airside, and wandered around the new AA terminal again, before boarding our 767-200 for flight 1 to Los Angeles.
The 762 was just like the 763 inside, and was very difficult even to tell its shorter length due to the cabin separations. We departed New York to the West, and got stuck into the film, which was Harry Potter. The scenery was really magnificent all the way across the continent, sadly the windows werent that clean, marring some quite spectactular scenery.
I purchased a snack box for breakfast, as even on this near 7 hour flight there was no complimentary food whatsoever. At $4 it wasnt really worth it for what was basically some dried fruit and biscuits.
We were soon descending into LA, and the weather was very much like Miami, however the humidity had actualy turned into full blown rain:
After arriving we had 3 and a half hours to kill, so decided to venture landside and walk around the inner permimter, where we noticed some interesting things including an Air Tahiti Nui A340 and an ANZ 767. Going back airside again, and we observed lots of AAs, Mexicans, and a large amount of intercontinental traffic. Also pulling off was the China Airlines 747 Dreamliner:
AA1942 LAX-SFO
Soon we were on our 4th flight of the trip, and our first ever MD80. We were right at the back, and the noise from the engines was just how people described it previously, rather loud, and in particular rather whiney. However the flight was only 50 minutes long, and we were soon being thrown around in the turbulence over the bay on our approach into SFO. After landing we went straight into town to find our hotel.
On the 2nd day in San Francisco we hired some bikes and cycled across the Golden Gate bridge to Sausalido, where there was a sea plane base with this beauty parked outside:
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