Trip Reports - Florida vacation on US, PWM-PIT-MCO and return

Hello all, I am new to this forum and this is my first post and also first trip report ever so please bear with me!

My partner and I planned this Florida vacation months ago and decided to fly out of Portland, Maine (which is close to where we live) instead of Boston (which is usually cheaper!). Found a good price on US from PWM this time so Portland it was!

Sat. 2/17, US flight# 1433(B737-300) left on time for our flight to PIT, we sat in seats 9E & 9F. It has been a while since I have flown on a 737 and must say that I found it quite quiet and very powerful, however the seat pitch left a lot to be desired, very cramped, but the flight was less than an hour and a half so it was bearable ( however,I am 5'10" and not very big, I don't see how anyone larger than I am could be anywhere close to comfortable!) On this flight we were served a "snack" which consisted of a small ham & cheese sandwich with a small cookie, candy bar and packet of carrots, this was a 6PM flight so wasn't expecting anything more than what we got. The cabin crew were very professional and pleasant but I got the sense that they weren't a happy bunch, not a lot of smiling etc. It was an uneventful flight and we landed at PIT on time. We had 50 minutes to catch our flight to MCO so didn't have much time to get a feel of the airport but the US terminal we were in seemed fairly new, nice and clean!

US flight# 399 (MD-80) to MCO left on time, no snacks on this flight just a bag of pretzels and drinks. We were in seats 15A and 15C. The MD-80 is one of my favorite planes, I like the 2-3 configuration in coach especially if you are on the 2 seat side, which we were(no crawling over some stranger!) they are quiet also, that is if you don't have to sit in the back!! The cabin crew on this flight were excellent! Laughing and smiling and all of them in very good spirits,it was great flying with them, having a happy cabin crew makes the experience just that much better! After a couple of hours flying time we landed at MCO on time. I love the Orlando International Airport, very spacious and bright!

Florida was great, sunny and in the 80's every day, it was a chore having to go to the pool, laying in the sun etc. but someone had to do it!! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif The problem with going to Florida from the northeast in the winter is that you have to come back to the cold!

Well, will post the return trip in a bit, hope I haven't bored anyone to tears!

A bientot!

DEK- although I do not share the same view of the MD80 as you do, welcome aboard to FlyerTalk.

And on a separate note enjoy flying USAirways as much as you can, while you can!

Thanks chexfan! I think that I have changed my mind about the MD-80, as you will see in the continuation of my trip report below...

The return:
Sat. 2/24, US flight# 1154 (B757-200)MCO-PIT. This was my first flight on a B757 and I think it will replace the MD-80 as one of my favorite planes (granted I have only flown on a limited number of aircraft so this view is likely to change..!) After saying goodbye to the beautiful sunny weather of Florida we boarded and left about 15 minutes late, looked like there was a US F/A that was deadheading somewhere and they had to make sure there was a seat available..I don't know if it was my imagination or maybe too much sunshine or what but it seemed as if the seat pitch was a little better in this plane plus the aisle seemed a little wider (we were in seats 11A and 11B) ( I suppose that it's possible that I shrunk and lost weight during the week! NOT!) The cabin crew were again very nice and friendly, no meal or snack though, just pretzels and drinks but I had forseen this and ate before the flight!
I have a question here about both the MD-80 and 757...during both flights I noticed a vibration type noise during the climb and cruise, it got loud and then soft...loud and soft all during those parts of the flight, I didn't notice this in the 737, can anyone tell me what that was? Am I correct in assuming it has something to do with the air passing over the fans in the engines or something like that?
Anyway....I wanted to get up and look around the plane after the service but I had already disturbed the woman next to me once before by getting up to go to the bathroom and didn't have the heart to disturb her again!
We arrived in PIT a little late and had about 40 minutes to get to our flight to PWM. A nice feature that I have noticed on US is that before landing the cabin crew ask you to take out the mag. (Attache) and look on the page with the airport map which shows you the gate numbers etc. and they tell you which gate you'll be arriving at and which gate your next flight will be departing from..it makes it much easier to figure out where to go if you don't know the airport very well...we had quite a long walk to our departure gate and got there just as our flight was boarding...too bad, as we were hungry again and didn't have time to stop and get something to eat on the way to the gate!!

US flight# 416 PIT-PWM (B737-300) We sat in seats 9A and 9B on this short flight back to the arctic wastes of Maine and again the cabin crew were great. It's a shock to the system to deplane in 10 degree weather after having boarded just a few hours earlier in 80 degree weather!! Oh well, such is life!

All in all I enjoyed my experience with USAirways...BTW does anyone know when they are going to stop the exchanging of miles between AA and US? I have quite a few AA miles and would like to possibly combine some with the few from this trip for another trip with US in the future.

A bientot!

Originally posted by DEK:
BTW does anyone know when they are going to stop the exchanging of miles between AA and US? I have quite a few AA miles and would like to possibly combine some with the few from this trip for another trip with US in the future.[/B]


Welcome to FT. Glad you changed your mind about the MD80.

BTW, you have until August of 2001 to combine your AA & US miles for an award.

Thanks for the info. Geo1004!