SK
Mar 14, 02, 1:43 am
In similar format to my previous LAX-ORD (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum81/HTML/002300.html) and ATH-LHR (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum81/HTML/002462.html) trip reports, the picture links are dispersed in the text itself.
This trip, which I took with a friend of mine, was all in coach, as an American Airlines AAdvantage mileage award. The flights were Boston-Miami-San Jose (Costa Rica)-Miami-Boston.
AA1049 BOS-MIA Feb 28
MacDonnel Douglas DC-9 Super 80 (MD-80)
scheduled to depart at 2:39pm
and to arrive at 6:16pm
A friend gave me a ride to Boston's Logan airport, terminal B, where I would be meeting my traveling companion at 1pm. I arrived three minutes late, and found my friend waiting for me at the appointed location. Check in at the First/Platinum/etc. line took about 10 minutes, after which we went past the security point (where my friend was selected for a random check) to grab something to eat. We got some fast food junk and proceeded to the gate area, as no food is allowed in the Admiral's Club. Our plane was already at gate B32 (http://members.aol.com/skbos/trip3/p1.html). That's at the spacious end of the terminal B pier, with good views of runway action, so time passed fast. We departed on time, backing off the gate with our own power, using thrust reversers. I've seen this done often in MD-80s, but that was the first time I experienced this cool procedure while on the plane itself http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif I had reserved seats 9A-B, which afford a quiet ride and nice views, as they are way ahead of the wing and the engines. The plane was completely full in both classes. Take off (http://members.aol.com/skbos/trip3/p2.html) from runway 33L coupled with the extremely clear atmosphere, gave us very nice views. Passing over Chelsea and Somerville, the city of Boston (http://members.aol.com/skbos/trip3/p3.html) was directly at our left. Then a wide left turn over Cambridge, Charles River, Brighton and Brookline brought into view (http://members.aol.com/skbos/trip3/p4.html) the airport itself, just past the city, and the whole north shore of Massachusetts, all the way to Cape Ann and Gloucester, and further into Newburyport and the coast of New Hampshire. Proceeding southwards, we saw Plymouth and Cape Cod (http://members.aol.com/skbos/trip3/p5.html)'s characteristic "hook", with Provincetown at its tip. At this time the captain said we would be following the coast pretty much all the way down to Miami, flying initially at 28,000ft, later climbing to 33,000ft. Indeed, a few minutes later we could see Martha's Vineyard (http://members.aol.com/skbos/trip3/p6.html) and Nantucket island. The beverage service, i.e. the only in-flight service for this flight, began at that point. Everyone got two snack mix (http://members.aol.com/skbos/trip3/p7.html) bags, and I got a club soda. In the meantime we flew directly over Block Island, we hugged the southern coast of Long Island, making landfall again in southern New Jersey. I always find it interesting to follow the landscape we fly over. It usually beats in-flight entertainment, especially in the case of the MD-80, which has no IFE. Soon we crossed into Virginia (http://members.aol.com/skbos/trip3/p8.html), flying near Virginia Beach (http://members.aol.com/skbos/trip3/p9.html) and Oceana NAS, and on to North Carolina's Cape Hatteras and Cape Lookout (http://members.aol.com/skbos/trip3/p10.html). At that point the clouds set in. The rest of the flight was uneventful. The approach to Miami airport was from the east, a little bumpy as we descended into the cloud layer, emerging over Miami Beach (http://members.aol.com/skbos/trip3/p11.html) with nice views of Miami (http://members.aol.com/skbos/trip3/p12.html) itself. We landed after a flight lasting 3:10. Taxiing to our gate, I saw AA's Astrojet 757 (http://members.aol.com/skbos/trip3/p13.html) parked at gate E25. Our own gate was to be E4, a very lucky assignment, as our next flight, MIA-SJO, was departing from E5, just a few feet away. Given that the connection was rather tight, that was very convenient.
AA2171 MIA-SJO Feb 28
Boeing 737-800
scheduled to depart at 7:05pm
and to arrive at 8:56pm
There was a sign at the gate informing us that the flight would be "beverage only". Quite disappointing for an international flight in prime mealtime. We bought a salad and fruit pack from this store that puts meals in a box for onboard consumption. With so many beverage only flights, they must be doing brisk business.... Departure was again on time. After my friend was selected for a random check at the gate, we went to our seats 11A-C. I had hoped that the middle seat, 11B, would have been left open (Platinum block), but although the plane was only about 2/3 full, with whole rows empty, 11B was taken. That would be too uncomfortable, so after asking the flight attendant, we moved to 14D-F, an empty exit row with quite generous leg space. By the way, there was not even one person in the first class section! (baptized "business class" for this kind of flights). Night had fallen by now, so after the takeoff over Miami, there was not much to see outside. The Captain informed us about our flight level (35,000ft) and the route that would take us over Cuba, the Cayman Islands, the eastern coast of Nicaragua, over Costa Rica to San Jose. We both noticed that the Captain's voice sounded like a 16 year old, a sweet, teenager sort of voice, and decided to make a point of looking who it was, and how young he really was. The beverage service started, and I got a ginger ale to go with my salad, plus two more snack mixes, which I chose to pass. The chicken salad I had taken on board was very good, surprisingly so, since it had been sitting in its plastic bowl for a few hours at least. I also watched some TV (the perennial "Everybody loves Raymond" of AA's IFE), and listened to some music, while brushing up my trip plans with the help of a Costa Rica guidebook. We started our descend with a warning from the sweet voiced Captain that passing through the cloud layer over the mountains would be rather turbulent. It was indeed, with strong lateral movements, and sudden dives of the roller coaster type. I quite enjoy such things, they add an interesting twist to otherwise routine flights, but I am not sure my feeling was shared by the other passengers... Anyway, we then flew relatively low over the San Jose plateau for quite a while, before landing on a very bumpy runway. Many passengers clapped. Flight duration was 3:05. We were not able to see the captain while exiting the plane, as both cockpit crew were still seated in their seats. But, we saw them while waiting for our luggage. Ah, that explained the unusual voice: It was the transsexual first officer that I had read about in a PPRUNE (http://www.pprune.org/ubb/NonCGI/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=014138) thread. She had a huge diversity rainbow sticker on her rollaboard and she was not in her teens, of course. As far as I know, she is only one of three in the whole U.S.; and she piloted our flight: isn't that cool, or what http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif
AA988 SJO-MIA Mar 6
Airbus A-300
scheduled to depart at 1:55pm
and to arrive at 5:44pm
We arrived at the airport with the Dollar shuttle at about 12:15, having dropped off our rental car earlier. We paid the $17 per person departure tax just before entering the terminal, and proceeded to the business/elite check in counter. The line at the economy one was quite long, but only one person was ahead of us. My friend had bought a hammock earlier that day, and he wanted to have it wrapped so that it would not be damaged. The "roaming" agent who came to check our tickets as we were waiting in line said that there was nothing available for wrapping, and that we should inquire elsewhere for wrapping material. But when we actually checked in, the very helpful agent got five or six of the AA bags that they had, and wrapped them with tape around the hammock, covering the whole thing very effectively. I gave her a SOS for her help. The dreadful "beverage only" sign was there again. Again for a mealtime, international flight. At that point I thought that I should have booked my award flights with TACA instead. I like trying new airlines, and since there is no mileage gain involved in award flights, there would have been nothing to lose, and a meal service to gain. So we headed where the restaurant was supposed to be, but it was closed, and appeared to have been so for months. We went through security (where my friend was selected for a random check) and into the gate area. We shopped for some last minute gifts and walked around to see what our food options were. Not many unfortunately. An overpriced fast food place (Burger King, with $4.00 priced whoppers) and a small stand with muffins and pre-wrapped, rather sorry looking sandwiches. I reluctantly decided to get a chicken whopper/burger, but I realized Burger King did not have chicken foods at all on offer. Pitty, 'cause that's the only kind of burger I will eat at fast food places. Anyway, we went to our gate, where our plane was waiting (http://members.aol.com/skbos/trip3/p14.html), and sat there till boarding time. The A300 is the airplane I've flown with most often, by far, since my most frequent flight is BOS-LHR, until last month served by AA with A300s. I've come to like it a lot, as it is spacious, has individual video screens with games (the transatlantic version, not this one), and exit row 26, where seats AB and HJ have a really huge amount of legroom. It's like traveling first class, apart from the recline http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif I was not sure about the domestic configuration, so I had asked for advice from other flyertalkers on what seats to chose. In the end I decided to get seats 5AB for the SJO-MIA flight, and the usual 26HJ for the MIA-BOS flight. That would permit me better views for the daylight SJO-MIA flight, plus a quick exit in order to be ahead of the lines for the Miami immigration, where I had a long delay the last time I had used them, a year ago. In the end, 4AB would have been better, as row 5 has only one window, and the view is not as comfortable. Anyway, those two rows are separated by the exit and the lavs from the rest of the economy cabin, creating a "mini cabin" (http://members.aol.com/skbos/trip3/p20.html) with a more quiet and intimate setting. Here is the domestic A300 seat plan (http://www.seatguru.com/american/A300.shtml), from seatguru.com (http://www.seatguru.com). In this map row 5 is mentioned as having "limited pitch". I measured it, and it was 31 inches. That's a pretty standard pitch, limited only in the sense that it is not of the "more room through coach" standards. The flight was almost full in both classes. While taxiing, the captain told us that the runway had been recently repaved in 500ft segments, with noticeably uneven results, which would make for a bumpy run for takeoff. Ah, that explained the bumpy landing on arrival! We took off towards the east, making a wide 270 degree turn over San Jose, enough to clear the surrounding mountains, passing almost directly over the Poas volcano (http://members.aol.com/skbos/trip3/p15.html) that we had visited a few hours before. After reaching the Carribean coast, we flew north along Nicaragua's Mosquito Coast (http://members.aol.com/skbos/trip3/p18.html), west of the Cayman Islands, near Cuba's Isla de la Juventud (http://members.aol.com/skbos/trip3/p19.html) and over Cuba itself, before encountering overcast weather just before the Florida Keys. The beverage service was again accompanied with two snack mixes. The weather at Miami was quite miserable, with rain and low clouds. That resulted in a 10-minute hold pattern and a landing from the west. Total flying time was 2:25 only. We were the first to exit the plane, since even the first class had to wait for us in the "mini cabin" to deplane, as we used exit 2L. Immigration was almost empty, thank God, so we were done with it quickly. This time we had to go to another terminal for our connecting flight, but it didn't really matter, because our connection window was quite comfortable.
AA2140 MIA-BOS Mar 6
Airbus A-300
scheduled to depart at 7:25pm
and to arrive at 10:42pm
Too comfortable, as it turned out to be: When we reached our gate, they were checking in a Newark flight. The agent told me that the Boston flight would follow, as it was delayed till 8pm. It turned out that the flight would be further rescheduled for 9pm. In the end we didn't start boarding until 9:20. While my friend was reading a magazine, I bought a sandwich to eat, since this flight too would be "beverage service" only. I spent the time at the gate reading and playing hide and seek with a little mouse that lurked near a big decorative plant. It would emerge cautiously, dash for a piece of food or something, and then go back to its hiding place. If one pretended not to notice it, it would come quite close. Together with a lady who was sitting near me, we were having fun observing the cute creature. Unfortunately I neglected to take a photo of it. As boarding time finally came, I, this time, was selected for a random check, my friend finally spared! We settled in our regal 26HJ seats and waited for the takeoff. During taxing, the flight attendant who was sitting opposite me for the takeoff, told us that the delay was due to the late arrival of the plane from Santo Domingo. In fact our original plane was at the gate on time, but they gave it to the Newark flight, and assigned to us the late Santo Domingo one. Annoying, but maybe the Newark flight had other priorities (I doubt it, at this late hour there could be no connections to be made, for example). The plane was about half full. We took off towards the east, quickly disappearing into the clouds. Having woken up at 4:30 am that day, I fell asleep just after the beverage service (club soda) and the mandatory two snack mixes, which I declined. I didn't wake up until the initial descend. We landed at Logan at 12:15 am, after a flight of 2:25. We were the only flight arriving at that time, so luggage delivery was fast. Unfortunately there was no way I could make it home with the subway/bus that late at night, so I had to take a taxi. $30 wasted... Anyway. Thus ended a very pleasant short vacation to Costa Rica....
[This message has been edited by SK (edited 12-31-2002).]
This trip, which I took with a friend of mine, was all in coach, as an American Airlines AAdvantage mileage award. The flights were Boston-Miami-San Jose (Costa Rica)-Miami-Boston.
AA1049 BOS-MIA Feb 28
MacDonnel Douglas DC-9 Super 80 (MD-80)
scheduled to depart at 2:39pm
and to arrive at 6:16pm
A friend gave me a ride to Boston's Logan airport, terminal B, where I would be meeting my traveling companion at 1pm. I arrived three minutes late, and found my friend waiting for me at the appointed location. Check in at the First/Platinum/etc. line took about 10 minutes, after which we went past the security point (where my friend was selected for a random check) to grab something to eat. We got some fast food junk and proceeded to the gate area, as no food is allowed in the Admiral's Club. Our plane was already at gate B32 (http://members.aol.com/skbos/trip3/p1.html). That's at the spacious end of the terminal B pier, with good views of runway action, so time passed fast. We departed on time, backing off the gate with our own power, using thrust reversers. I've seen this done often in MD-80s, but that was the first time I experienced this cool procedure while on the plane itself http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif I had reserved seats 9A-B, which afford a quiet ride and nice views, as they are way ahead of the wing and the engines. The plane was completely full in both classes. Take off (http://members.aol.com/skbos/trip3/p2.html) from runway 33L coupled with the extremely clear atmosphere, gave us very nice views. Passing over Chelsea and Somerville, the city of Boston (http://members.aol.com/skbos/trip3/p3.html) was directly at our left. Then a wide left turn over Cambridge, Charles River, Brighton and Brookline brought into view (http://members.aol.com/skbos/trip3/p4.html) the airport itself, just past the city, and the whole north shore of Massachusetts, all the way to Cape Ann and Gloucester, and further into Newburyport and the coast of New Hampshire. Proceeding southwards, we saw Plymouth and Cape Cod (http://members.aol.com/skbos/trip3/p5.html)'s characteristic "hook", with Provincetown at its tip. At this time the captain said we would be following the coast pretty much all the way down to Miami, flying initially at 28,000ft, later climbing to 33,000ft. Indeed, a few minutes later we could see Martha's Vineyard (http://members.aol.com/skbos/trip3/p6.html) and Nantucket island. The beverage service, i.e. the only in-flight service for this flight, began at that point. Everyone got two snack mix (http://members.aol.com/skbos/trip3/p7.html) bags, and I got a club soda. In the meantime we flew directly over Block Island, we hugged the southern coast of Long Island, making landfall again in southern New Jersey. I always find it interesting to follow the landscape we fly over. It usually beats in-flight entertainment, especially in the case of the MD-80, which has no IFE. Soon we crossed into Virginia (http://members.aol.com/skbos/trip3/p8.html), flying near Virginia Beach (http://members.aol.com/skbos/trip3/p9.html) and Oceana NAS, and on to North Carolina's Cape Hatteras and Cape Lookout (http://members.aol.com/skbos/trip3/p10.html). At that point the clouds set in. The rest of the flight was uneventful. The approach to Miami airport was from the east, a little bumpy as we descended into the cloud layer, emerging over Miami Beach (http://members.aol.com/skbos/trip3/p11.html) with nice views of Miami (http://members.aol.com/skbos/trip3/p12.html) itself. We landed after a flight lasting 3:10. Taxiing to our gate, I saw AA's Astrojet 757 (http://members.aol.com/skbos/trip3/p13.html) parked at gate E25. Our own gate was to be E4, a very lucky assignment, as our next flight, MIA-SJO, was departing from E5, just a few feet away. Given that the connection was rather tight, that was very convenient.
AA2171 MIA-SJO Feb 28
Boeing 737-800
scheduled to depart at 7:05pm
and to arrive at 8:56pm
There was a sign at the gate informing us that the flight would be "beverage only". Quite disappointing for an international flight in prime mealtime. We bought a salad and fruit pack from this store that puts meals in a box for onboard consumption. With so many beverage only flights, they must be doing brisk business.... Departure was again on time. After my friend was selected for a random check at the gate, we went to our seats 11A-C. I had hoped that the middle seat, 11B, would have been left open (Platinum block), but although the plane was only about 2/3 full, with whole rows empty, 11B was taken. That would be too uncomfortable, so after asking the flight attendant, we moved to 14D-F, an empty exit row with quite generous leg space. By the way, there was not even one person in the first class section! (baptized "business class" for this kind of flights). Night had fallen by now, so after the takeoff over Miami, there was not much to see outside. The Captain informed us about our flight level (35,000ft) and the route that would take us over Cuba, the Cayman Islands, the eastern coast of Nicaragua, over Costa Rica to San Jose. We both noticed that the Captain's voice sounded like a 16 year old, a sweet, teenager sort of voice, and decided to make a point of looking who it was, and how young he really was. The beverage service started, and I got a ginger ale to go with my salad, plus two more snack mixes, which I chose to pass. The chicken salad I had taken on board was very good, surprisingly so, since it had been sitting in its plastic bowl for a few hours at least. I also watched some TV (the perennial "Everybody loves Raymond" of AA's IFE), and listened to some music, while brushing up my trip plans with the help of a Costa Rica guidebook. We started our descend with a warning from the sweet voiced Captain that passing through the cloud layer over the mountains would be rather turbulent. It was indeed, with strong lateral movements, and sudden dives of the roller coaster type. I quite enjoy such things, they add an interesting twist to otherwise routine flights, but I am not sure my feeling was shared by the other passengers... Anyway, we then flew relatively low over the San Jose plateau for quite a while, before landing on a very bumpy runway. Many passengers clapped. Flight duration was 3:05. We were not able to see the captain while exiting the plane, as both cockpit crew were still seated in their seats. But, we saw them while waiting for our luggage. Ah, that explained the unusual voice: It was the transsexual first officer that I had read about in a PPRUNE (http://www.pprune.org/ubb/NonCGI/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=014138) thread. She had a huge diversity rainbow sticker on her rollaboard and she was not in her teens, of course. As far as I know, she is only one of three in the whole U.S.; and she piloted our flight: isn't that cool, or what http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif
AA988 SJO-MIA Mar 6
Airbus A-300
scheduled to depart at 1:55pm
and to arrive at 5:44pm
We arrived at the airport with the Dollar shuttle at about 12:15, having dropped off our rental car earlier. We paid the $17 per person departure tax just before entering the terminal, and proceeded to the business/elite check in counter. The line at the economy one was quite long, but only one person was ahead of us. My friend had bought a hammock earlier that day, and he wanted to have it wrapped so that it would not be damaged. The "roaming" agent who came to check our tickets as we were waiting in line said that there was nothing available for wrapping, and that we should inquire elsewhere for wrapping material. But when we actually checked in, the very helpful agent got five or six of the AA bags that they had, and wrapped them with tape around the hammock, covering the whole thing very effectively. I gave her a SOS for her help. The dreadful "beverage only" sign was there again. Again for a mealtime, international flight. At that point I thought that I should have booked my award flights with TACA instead. I like trying new airlines, and since there is no mileage gain involved in award flights, there would have been nothing to lose, and a meal service to gain. So we headed where the restaurant was supposed to be, but it was closed, and appeared to have been so for months. We went through security (where my friend was selected for a random check) and into the gate area. We shopped for some last minute gifts and walked around to see what our food options were. Not many unfortunately. An overpriced fast food place (Burger King, with $4.00 priced whoppers) and a small stand with muffins and pre-wrapped, rather sorry looking sandwiches. I reluctantly decided to get a chicken whopper/burger, but I realized Burger King did not have chicken foods at all on offer. Pitty, 'cause that's the only kind of burger I will eat at fast food places. Anyway, we went to our gate, where our plane was waiting (http://members.aol.com/skbos/trip3/p14.html), and sat there till boarding time. The A300 is the airplane I've flown with most often, by far, since my most frequent flight is BOS-LHR, until last month served by AA with A300s. I've come to like it a lot, as it is spacious, has individual video screens with games (the transatlantic version, not this one), and exit row 26, where seats AB and HJ have a really huge amount of legroom. It's like traveling first class, apart from the recline http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif I was not sure about the domestic configuration, so I had asked for advice from other flyertalkers on what seats to chose. In the end I decided to get seats 5AB for the SJO-MIA flight, and the usual 26HJ for the MIA-BOS flight. That would permit me better views for the daylight SJO-MIA flight, plus a quick exit in order to be ahead of the lines for the Miami immigration, where I had a long delay the last time I had used them, a year ago. In the end, 4AB would have been better, as row 5 has only one window, and the view is not as comfortable. Anyway, those two rows are separated by the exit and the lavs from the rest of the economy cabin, creating a "mini cabin" (http://members.aol.com/skbos/trip3/p20.html) with a more quiet and intimate setting. Here is the domestic A300 seat plan (http://www.seatguru.com/american/A300.shtml), from seatguru.com (http://www.seatguru.com). In this map row 5 is mentioned as having "limited pitch". I measured it, and it was 31 inches. That's a pretty standard pitch, limited only in the sense that it is not of the "more room through coach" standards. The flight was almost full in both classes. While taxiing, the captain told us that the runway had been recently repaved in 500ft segments, with noticeably uneven results, which would make for a bumpy run for takeoff. Ah, that explained the bumpy landing on arrival! We took off towards the east, making a wide 270 degree turn over San Jose, enough to clear the surrounding mountains, passing almost directly over the Poas volcano (http://members.aol.com/skbos/trip3/p15.html) that we had visited a few hours before. After reaching the Carribean coast, we flew north along Nicaragua's Mosquito Coast (http://members.aol.com/skbos/trip3/p18.html), west of the Cayman Islands, near Cuba's Isla de la Juventud (http://members.aol.com/skbos/trip3/p19.html) and over Cuba itself, before encountering overcast weather just before the Florida Keys. The beverage service was again accompanied with two snack mixes. The weather at Miami was quite miserable, with rain and low clouds. That resulted in a 10-minute hold pattern and a landing from the west. Total flying time was 2:25 only. We were the first to exit the plane, since even the first class had to wait for us in the "mini cabin" to deplane, as we used exit 2L. Immigration was almost empty, thank God, so we were done with it quickly. This time we had to go to another terminal for our connecting flight, but it didn't really matter, because our connection window was quite comfortable.
AA2140 MIA-BOS Mar 6
Airbus A-300
scheduled to depart at 7:25pm
and to arrive at 10:42pm
Too comfortable, as it turned out to be: When we reached our gate, they were checking in a Newark flight. The agent told me that the Boston flight would follow, as it was delayed till 8pm. It turned out that the flight would be further rescheduled for 9pm. In the end we didn't start boarding until 9:20. While my friend was reading a magazine, I bought a sandwich to eat, since this flight too would be "beverage service" only. I spent the time at the gate reading and playing hide and seek with a little mouse that lurked near a big decorative plant. It would emerge cautiously, dash for a piece of food or something, and then go back to its hiding place. If one pretended not to notice it, it would come quite close. Together with a lady who was sitting near me, we were having fun observing the cute creature. Unfortunately I neglected to take a photo of it. As boarding time finally came, I, this time, was selected for a random check, my friend finally spared! We settled in our regal 26HJ seats and waited for the takeoff. During taxing, the flight attendant who was sitting opposite me for the takeoff, told us that the delay was due to the late arrival of the plane from Santo Domingo. In fact our original plane was at the gate on time, but they gave it to the Newark flight, and assigned to us the late Santo Domingo one. Annoying, but maybe the Newark flight had other priorities (I doubt it, at this late hour there could be no connections to be made, for example). The plane was about half full. We took off towards the east, quickly disappearing into the clouds. Having woken up at 4:30 am that day, I fell asleep just after the beverage service (club soda) and the mandatory two snack mixes, which I declined. I didn't wake up until the initial descend. We landed at Logan at 12:15 am, after a flight of 2:25. We were the only flight arriving at that time, so luggage delivery was fast. Unfortunately there was no way I could make it home with the subway/bus that late at night, so I had to take a taxi. $30 wasted... Anyway. Thus ended a very pleasant short vacation to Costa Rica....
[This message has been edited by SK (edited 12-31-2002).]