Delta Airbus 319
Seat: 11D
Cabin:
Economy
Date:
01/24/12
Scheduled Departure: 4:35pm
Actual Departure:
4:29pm
Scheduled Arrival:
7:25pm
Actual Arrival:
7:23pm
I had a plan arriving at John Wayne Airport to park
my car in the B parking structure so that I could access it easily on my United
return the following night. The airport
has recently invested a fair amount of money in creating a parking management
system that displays the number of spaces available on each level of the
structures. According to that sign, 15
spaces were left in the structure which would work for me. Unfortunately, no spaces were actually
available in the structure so I had to circle around again and find other
parking. I ultimately found parking in
the A structure which just means a long walk late at night back to my car.
Security was a breeze in the afternoon with only 3
people in front of me in line. The Delta
gate was a short walk past the checkpoint and I was able to sit down, hit up
the free wifi, and get some work done before boarding. I rarely fly Delta as I have never been a fan
of the airline or their destination. For
a while I was flying quite a few of their regional jets in and out of
Cincinnati for work which meant my long legs were always cramped and pushing
into the seat in front. This mainline
flight should be decent though.
The boarding area was relatively empty which
indicated a very light load on the flight.
Boarding was quick and we all were seated before our scheduled departure
time with perhaps a third of seats occupied.
Luckily for me, I was the only one in my three right side seats so I
scooted over to the middle and spread out.
We waited a while after pushback before taxiing to the runway as other
airplanes were heading out as well. One
of the drawbacks of SNA is that airplane traffic builds up quickly. Once on the runway, the engines ramped up to
full speed while the brakes remained on and then we were off and in the air on
the slightly more than normal incline typical of SNA flights.
The first part of the flight was a little bumpy but
once we smoothed out drink service began.
Distribution of beverages was speedy given the light passenger
load. We also received a small packet of
peanuts which I am not used to on my usual United flights. I was able to get a good bit of work on my
presentation before we started our decent about an hour and twenty minutes
after takeoff. The plane was equipped
with GoGo wireless internet, however, I didn’t feel the charge to use it was
worth it given the short duration of the flight.
The pilots performed a smooth landing and we
reached the gate a few minutes early. My
connecting time in SLC was scheduled for 40 minutes which worried me slightly
but Delta.com indicated that my flight to Pasco was going to be out of the next
gate. A quick check of the airport
monitors after deplaning changed my planning.
The gate had been switched from the C concourse to the B concourse and
was showing a half-hour delay.
The delay would give me enough time to grab
something to eat and walk to the other gate.
One of my favored chain food outlets in airport is the Wolfgang Puck
Express where I get some butternut squash soup or a chicken ceasar salad,
pricey as most things in airports. When
I went up to order my salad I was informed that they didn’t have lettuce…. How do you run out of lettuce? I settled for a bagel sandwich place on the B
concourse which may have been a healthier option anyway. The toasted bagel did make the sandwich
enjoyable.
I booted up my computer once settled at gate B13
and was waiting for boarding. About the
time we were supposed to board, the gate agents made an announcement about why
our flight was delayed. The crew
scheduled to be on our plane was stuck in Reno on their delayed flight. Delta operations (rather SkyWest operations
since it is an RJ flight) called in a new crew which was supposed to be at the
gate within another 10 minutes. 10
minutes later, another announcement indicated that we may be delayed by up to
an hour because operations called the cabin crew, but not a pilot until much
later. I would think that would be
something important to do at the same time as the rest of the crew. So now we have to wait for the original pilot
to arrive on the Reno flight and get us to Pasco. We were given the ok to board the plane at
8:45pm before the pilot even landed. I
will give props to Delta for keeping everyone informed even though the news
wasn’t the greatest.
Delta Canadair RJ900
Seat: 10B
Cabin:
Economy
Date:
01/24/12
Scheduled Departure: 8:02pm
Actual Departure:
9:10pm
Scheduled Arrival:
8:48pm
Actual Arrival:
10:09pm
The CRJ filled up fast with passengers as we were
all in a hurry to get to Pasco. The
plane had about 15 open seats and unfortunately, I was not next to one of
them. I usually prefer window seats as I
won’t be disturbed by passengers climbing over me but on regional jets I prefer
the aisle seat. It allows me to stretch
and lean out into the aisle for more room and more workspace – until the drink
cart rolls by. Delta has first class on
this regional jet with 12 seats in a 1-2 configuration. The rest of the economy cabin has decent seat
pitch in the 2-2 configuration which surprised me. My previous commuter flights on Delta had
very little legroom. My seat had nearly
as much space as economy plus on United branded regional jets.
The captain eventually appeared at the cabin door
and completed his safety checks before we pushed back. Departure was delayed even more as we had to
de-ice the wings. It was a cold night,
no snow or rain though. We were number
one for departure and then airborne. The
crew were all nice and cheery even though they were called in from
reserve. They were also sincerely
apologetic for the delay we experience.
Apparently it was a mechanical issue on the inbound Reno aircraft where
they were leaking fuel. Not a good
thing.
The flight time was scheduled for one hour and
twenty three minutes wheels up to wheels down.
Strong headwinds added a bit more to that time and I just hope we can
land by 10pm so I can get to my hotel.
Drink service was quick although the cart and the attendants kept
bumping into my shoulders.
The approach to the airport was bumpy due to some
pretty gusty winds. The plane rolled
around a bit before getting closer to the ground and a good landing by the
pilots. Snow was still on the ground
from the recent “snowmagedon” which hit the Pacific Northwest and it was cold
outside. As we were taxiing to the gate
I called my hotel, the Red Lion Richland to arrange the courtesy shuttle. They actually didn’t have a shuttle but they
hired a taxi for me instead.
The Pasco airport is another small town airport
that has 3 or four gates at most. The waiting
area could maybe seat 60 people. It only
took me a couple minutes to get from the gate to the curb outside where the
taxi was waiting for me. At least the
timing was perfect for my ride. More on
my experience at the Red Lion Hanford House Richland, WA to come.
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