My trip to Arizona! w/pics
Sep 6, 2010, 3:34 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Sep 2010
Posts: 2
My trip to Arizona! w/pics
Hi everyone,
My family and I recently took a trip to Arizona. We are from Detroit, and decided to go down to Arizona to see the Grand Canyon, and some other places along the way. Fortunately, i was able to fly on every single day of my trip. I had a great experiance, and I wanted to share it with you guys. Phoenix Sky Harbor airport is really America's friendliest airport. The ground crew, the rental car service, the bus drivers, and the gate agents were all extremely friendly and did everything quick and easy. We were given water everywhere, and I partially think it was because we experianced a 20 degree weather change from Detroit to Phoenix.
The first leg of my journey was from Detroit to Phoenix on US Airways, reading all the reviews, I was expecting bad service, but my experiance was GREAT, the airplane was an ex-american west A319, it was obvious because it had the American West logo on the center seats.
---------------------------------------------------------
US Airways 235
DTW-PHX
09/02/2010
Departure: 9:01PM, North Terminal, gate: d26
Arrival: 10:08PM, Terminal 4, gate: b2
Aircraft: Airbus A319
It was late at night, and i knew the flight attendant would be mad if i used flash, and the flight was full, so i didnt want to disturb the other passengers, so i decided not to take any pictures, and there was no light for me to use my phone to take a picture. The flight taxied less than 1 minute, and was up in the air very early. We cruised at 29,000 ft for 2 hours, then the pilot decided to climb to 34,000 due to thunderstorms. Everyone in the flight was wide awake, and it made it hard for me to sleep with all the reading lights on. The ride was extremely smooth, and landing was quick and easy no turns for final approach, we just landed straight out of the air. Very nice flight, and the baggage was there before i could get to the baggage claim.
We went to the shuttle busses to the rental car center. The bus didnt stop anywhere but the ride took forever, this is when i realized how big PHX was. When we went into the rental car center, i was impressed by the way the rentals companies were. What made me sad was that there were only about 20 people, and they were all at Enterprise. I felt sorry for the Avis, Hertz, Alamo, National, Budget, and Advantage agents who had to stay awake. I personally like Avis for the special cars they offer like the Ford Flex, and Infinity M35, but Enterprise was my destination today. We booked a Full-size car, but the upgrade offer was very cheap to let it pass, extra $7 for a premium, and the customer service at Enterprise was amazing, 2 ladies, and a man were working, and all of them were social, asking about our flight, and smiling even at 11:00 at night. When we went down, I was suprised that one of my car choices was a very new looking Lincoln town car, without a question i picked the town car, it turned out to be a 2011 Town Car with 1000 miles. I really thought the customer service was great, they went out of their way to make us feel comfortable, we were offerd detailed directions. With that, we arrived at our hotel: JW Marriott Camelback inn, Scottsdale, Arizona. Again the customer service there was amazing too.
Lincoln Town Car
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On the next day, we went to Sedona Canyon. Sedona was beautiful, and I had a chance to ride a helicopter. It was my first helicopter ride ever. My dad worked for The Helicopter division of a company, so he knew about the helicopter, but i was new to it. I had no idea how it flew or anything. The ride was great, super views, and an amazing pilot, who went throught rocks that were only about 20 feet apart.
Cockpit
Pictures of Sedona Canyon
The helicopter
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The next day of my journey was conquering the all-mighty Grand Canyon.
We booked a tour, with www.grandcayon.com, it was a float trip with air included.
Grand Canyon Airlines, scenic flight
GCN-PGA
09/04/2010
Deparute: 6:30AM
Arrival: 7:30AM
Aircraft: DHC-6 Twin Otter
Great ride, with nice views and narration. The flight was specially made for Grand Canyon airlines, it was fitted with larger windows for a panaromic view, and had stall capabilities, such that the plane could fly at 100MPH.
Leg room, very little.
Safety card, sorry couldnt get the english with the aircraft
Landing gear, tires were good year.
Taxi
Take-off
bunch of pics of the grand canyon
We later went on a bumpy but fun truck ride to Antelope Canyon, and our guide was a very famous person. He is a Native American named Leonard, and he was very good, he made jokes along the away, and told native american stories. Antelope canyon was great, but pictures werent great, so i decided not to put it up.
Our next leg was a 18 mile float trip on the smoother side of the Colorado river. Our guide was Brad, and he knew lots of information about the canyon, he knew the geological part of the grand canyon, he told us stories of John Wesley Powell, the first man to explore the grand canyon. He was also a great musician, the trip was 3.5 hours, but great. It was worth every penny.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The next day, we were going to return back to Detroit, we did a little bit of sightseeing at Phoenix, and went down to the airport at about 4:15PM for our 6:40PM flight. Broke my heart to return the car, but otherwise we would have to pay $50,000. We waited at the airport, and made our way to the flight, and boarded quickly.
US Airways 239
PHX-DTW
Departure: 6:40 PM, Terminal 4, Gate:A19
Arrival: 12:45AM, North Terminal, Gate: D14
Aircraft: Airbus A319
The aircraft was a US airways, I could tell because the interior was very different from the inbound flight, which was an American West. Very smooth ride, arrived an hour early, and due to that the aircraft was circling for about 15 minutes. Again, smooth ride, excellent service, and the baggage got there in perfect condition. US airways really deserves a hats off!
Some other A319 heading somewhere else.
There is my plane
Up in the air, got to see the beautiful sunset over Phoenix.
This was an amazing trip i will not forget for a long time. If you need ideas on where to go for vacation, add Phoenix to your list, you will enjoy. US airways is faulted alot, but they cant be blamed for weather or anything else. Great airline, great car, great people, Arizona is an amazing state!
Bye,
Akash
My family and I recently took a trip to Arizona. We are from Detroit, and decided to go down to Arizona to see the Grand Canyon, and some other places along the way. Fortunately, i was able to fly on every single day of my trip. I had a great experiance, and I wanted to share it with you guys. Phoenix Sky Harbor airport is really America's friendliest airport. The ground crew, the rental car service, the bus drivers, and the gate agents were all extremely friendly and did everything quick and easy. We were given water everywhere, and I partially think it was because we experianced a 20 degree weather change from Detroit to Phoenix.
The first leg of my journey was from Detroit to Phoenix on US Airways, reading all the reviews, I was expecting bad service, but my experiance was GREAT, the airplane was an ex-american west A319, it was obvious because it had the American West logo on the center seats.
---------------------------------------------------------
US Airways 235
DTW-PHX
09/02/2010
Departure: 9:01PM, North Terminal, gate: d26
Arrival: 10:08PM, Terminal 4, gate: b2
Aircraft: Airbus A319
It was late at night, and i knew the flight attendant would be mad if i used flash, and the flight was full, so i didnt want to disturb the other passengers, so i decided not to take any pictures, and there was no light for me to use my phone to take a picture. The flight taxied less than 1 minute, and was up in the air very early. We cruised at 29,000 ft for 2 hours, then the pilot decided to climb to 34,000 due to thunderstorms. Everyone in the flight was wide awake, and it made it hard for me to sleep with all the reading lights on. The ride was extremely smooth, and landing was quick and easy no turns for final approach, we just landed straight out of the air. Very nice flight, and the baggage was there before i could get to the baggage claim.
We went to the shuttle busses to the rental car center. The bus didnt stop anywhere but the ride took forever, this is when i realized how big PHX was. When we went into the rental car center, i was impressed by the way the rentals companies were. What made me sad was that there were only about 20 people, and they were all at Enterprise. I felt sorry for the Avis, Hertz, Alamo, National, Budget, and Advantage agents who had to stay awake. I personally like Avis for the special cars they offer like the Ford Flex, and Infinity M35, but Enterprise was my destination today. We booked a Full-size car, but the upgrade offer was very cheap to let it pass, extra $7 for a premium, and the customer service at Enterprise was amazing, 2 ladies, and a man were working, and all of them were social, asking about our flight, and smiling even at 11:00 at night. When we went down, I was suprised that one of my car choices was a very new looking Lincoln town car, without a question i picked the town car, it turned out to be a 2011 Town Car with 1000 miles. I really thought the customer service was great, they went out of their way to make us feel comfortable, we were offerd detailed directions. With that, we arrived at our hotel: JW Marriott Camelback inn, Scottsdale, Arizona. Again the customer service there was amazing too.
Lincoln Town Car
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On the next day, we went to Sedona Canyon. Sedona was beautiful, and I had a chance to ride a helicopter. It was my first helicopter ride ever. My dad worked for The Helicopter division of a company, so he knew about the helicopter, but i was new to it. I had no idea how it flew or anything. The ride was great, super views, and an amazing pilot, who went throught rocks that were only about 20 feet apart.
Cockpit
Pictures of Sedona Canyon
The helicopter
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The next day of my journey was conquering the all-mighty Grand Canyon.
We booked a tour, with www.grandcayon.com, it was a float trip with air included.
Grand Canyon Airlines, scenic flight
GCN-PGA
09/04/2010
Deparute: 6:30AM
Arrival: 7:30AM
Aircraft: DHC-6 Twin Otter
Great ride, with nice views and narration. The flight was specially made for Grand Canyon airlines, it was fitted with larger windows for a panaromic view, and had stall capabilities, such that the plane could fly at 100MPH.
Leg room, very little.
Safety card, sorry couldnt get the english with the aircraft
Landing gear, tires were good year.
Taxi
Take-off
bunch of pics of the grand canyon
We later went on a bumpy but fun truck ride to Antelope Canyon, and our guide was a very famous person. He is a Native American named Leonard, and he was very good, he made jokes along the away, and told native american stories. Antelope canyon was great, but pictures werent great, so i decided not to put it up.
Our next leg was a 18 mile float trip on the smoother side of the Colorado river. Our guide was Brad, and he knew lots of information about the canyon, he knew the geological part of the grand canyon, he told us stories of John Wesley Powell, the first man to explore the grand canyon. He was also a great musician, the trip was 3.5 hours, but great. It was worth every penny.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The next day, we were going to return back to Detroit, we did a little bit of sightseeing at Phoenix, and went down to the airport at about 4:15PM for our 6:40PM flight. Broke my heart to return the car, but otherwise we would have to pay $50,000. We waited at the airport, and made our way to the flight, and boarded quickly.
US Airways 239
PHX-DTW
Departure: 6:40 PM, Terminal 4, Gate:A19
Arrival: 12:45AM, North Terminal, Gate: D14
Aircraft: Airbus A319
The aircraft was a US airways, I could tell because the interior was very different from the inbound flight, which was an American West. Very smooth ride, arrived an hour early, and due to that the aircraft was circling for about 15 minutes. Again, smooth ride, excellent service, and the baggage got there in perfect condition. US airways really deserves a hats off!
Some other A319 heading somewhere else.
There is my plane
Up in the air, got to see the beautiful sunset over Phoenix.
This was an amazing trip i will not forget for a long time. If you need ideas on where to go for vacation, add Phoenix to your list, you will enjoy. US airways is faulted alot, but they cant be blamed for weather or anything else. Great airline, great car, great people, Arizona is an amazing state!
Bye,
Akash
Sep 6, 2010, 8:41 pm
#4
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Nov 2005
Location: Phoenix, AZ
Programs: AA Gold AAdvantage Elite, Rapids Reward
Posts: 38,311
Excellent trip reports!!! I'm glad that you are so enjoyable for your tours in northern Arizona. I'm glad that you went to see Grand Canyon and Colorado River, too. I can see the mountains is so beautiful out there. We were drove in the car from Phoenix to Sedona and it was so wonderful trip during same-day. That was last 6 years ago that we drove in the car from Phoenix to Sedona is 2 hours drive in the cars. It wasn't too bad for me at all.
You will always welcome to come in Arizona again in near of the future. I do appreciated it for your entire trip and I would have reconsider you to take ride on light rail for next time. You will enjoyable for your daytrip.
You will always welcome to come in Arizona again in near of the future. I do appreciated it for your entire trip and I would have reconsider you to take ride on light rail for next time. You will enjoyable for your daytrip.
