LPDAL

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Map generated by the Great Circle Mapper - copyright Karl L. Swartz
Routing for this Christmas Miracle Voyage.
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FLORIDA AIRPORT HOPPING ADVENTURES (FAHA) 9 : US Airways A319 IntraFloridian First Class and a Christmas Miracle: US Airways, US Airways Domestic First Class, US Airways Intrafloridian First Class, IntraFloridian Flights, Miami, Florida, Miami Departing Flights, Tampa Departing Flights, Miami International Airport, KMIA, Miami International Airport Police Department, Miami Airport Security, Nikon DSLR Camera, Nikon D5200 Stolen, MIA Gate D30 American Airlines Admirals Club, US Airways MIA-TPA, US Airways TPA-MIA, Tampa International Airport, Tampa International Airport Concourse F Gate F85, Tampa International Airport US Airways Club, Tampa International Airport American Airlines Admirals Club, Tampa International Airport, Tampa Airport Marriott, Tampa Airport Marriott Hotel, Tampa Airport Marriott Hotel and Resort, South Florida Regional Transportation Authority Tri-Rail, and Miami Dade County Metrorail.

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FOREWORD
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Welcome to the ninth installment of my FAHA (Florida Airport Hopping Adventures) series, the series of write-ups I post about my wanderings throughout the state boundaries of the sunshine state!

The first seven episodes, if you're a first time reader or just want to catch up on the reports you've missed:

FlyerTalk.Com †

3. Spirit Airlines Big Front Seat First Class FLL-MCO-FLL | Trip Reports Forum | FlyerTalk.Com

4. American Airlines 757-200 Lie flat Flagship Intrafloridian Business Class MCO-MIA | Trip Reports Forum | FlyerTalk.Com

5. American Airlines First Class (Business Class), 767-300 Florida Flights, MIA-MCO-MIA | Trip Reports Forum | FlyerTalk.Com

6. Silver Airways Saab 340B+, Marriott Residence Inn Penthouse, United Club, FLL-MCO-FLL | Trip Reports Forum | FlyerTalk.Com

7. American Airlines First Class, US Airways First Class, Baptism Ceremony MIATPAMIA | Trip Reports Forum | FlyerTalk.Com

8. American Eagle First Class with the Ritz Carlton Amelia Island Oceanfront Resort

In November 2014, following my Delta 747 daytrip, my parents informed me that my aunt, uncle, their two kids, my grandparents (dad's parents), and a whole other flurry of relatives would be gathering a few days before Christmas in TPA at my aunt and uncle's home. I immediately set out to buy refundable US Airways [domestic] First Class tickets on MIA-TPA-MIA (my relatives are notorious for poor planning and on-the-spot date changing), avoiding AA altogether due to bad experiences on my previous MIA-TPA-MIA trip to Tampa.

Ultimately, my parents and I told the relatives that we just wanted to stay home and enjoy a quiet Christmas. However, my tickets were still active for the days of December 20th-21st. I told my parents that I'd go anyway, just for fun and to catch some more US Airways flights before they become nonexistent, which they had no problem with, considering it was Christmas Break, actually the last ever Christmas Break I'd ever have during my compulsory schooling as I'm a 12th grader with only one month left as of this writing in mid-April-2015.

What happened on this trip, I would have never expected at all...Get ready for a wild ride!

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† - Florida Airport Hopping Adventures (FAHA) Reports Number # 1 and 2 were not posted on FlyerTalk.Com and thus were omitted from that website's writeup list.

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LPDAL

KMIA (Miami International Airport / Wilcox Field / 36th Street / Pan American Field) ✈ KTPA (Tampa International Airport / Greater Tampa Bay International Airport / International Plaza / Bay Street / Drew Field)

FLIGHT DATA SOURCE (S):

1. PlaneSpotters.Net Airframe Data

2. PlaneSpotters.Net Airline Data

3. FlightAware Live Flight Tracking Data

4. Airbus A319 | US Airways

5. US Airways Fleet | US Airways

6. Domestic Premium Class | US Airways

7. First Class Meals | US Airways


Boarding pass for this flight.


FlightAware for this flight. Copyright © FlightAware 2014

Have you ever just randomly woke up in the middle of the night, and are immediately "up", in the sense that you don't even feel like sleeping anymore? On December 20th, 2014, at around 1:45 AM Eastern Standard Time, I randomly just sat up in my bed, and I had a strange feeling of "Colby, you've forgotten to do something." But what is it, myself? I couldn't remember what it was, and I tried to fall back asleep, but my body wouldn't let me. Then my phone vibrated with an email coming across the vibrantly-bright lock screen that declared, "It's time to check in | US Airways Reservations" And I was like, oh...I hadn't forgotten my trip, however, I didn't check in the minute I am able to and obtain my boarding pass enthusiastically, the first minute the 24-hour-before-flight check-in window opened. In the US Airways app (like everything else, Now Becoming a Part of American Airlines), I changed my seat to 1A, as no one was in first class but me, specified that I was checking one piece of luggage, and drifted back off to sleep. Thankfully, I had a 3:35 PM departure time, so I'd be able to catch a ton of ZZZs to satisfy my teenager (I'm 19, barely a "teen") sleep-hunger.



I've flown many, many flights in IntraFloridian first class on all the airlines serving flights within Florida, and only TWO times has someone been in first class with me. I don't understand why upgraders, FlyerTalkers, and status fliers don't utilize these flights more, it's very common for these flights to go out with one-half or more of the first class cabin empty, which is an extreme rarity in our domestic skies today. Only in Florida, I guess...

I did NOT, however, have the same ease arousing from my slumber as my phone's alarm blared one of my favorite Electronic Dance Music (EDM) songs while dancing in vibration on my nightstand, and took almost an hour to fully change my mindset from ZZZ to AirplanesAirplanesAirplanes. Button down buttoned, slacks and wingtips equipped, and baggage in my hands, I set out to the Cypress Creek Tri-Rail Station. Why?

First, Interstate 95 was an absolute mess on December 20th, 2014, due to the Christmas holiday season, there was snowbirds, college kids, and families swarming Florida, to avoid the harsh winter up north. This meant that it would take forever (and ever) to reach MIA from Fort Lauderdale, and traffic was already backed up even when I woke up just a hair past 10:30 AM. Second, cab fares are ridiculous, Yellow Cabs often reek of unknown [disgusting] substances (perhaps from previous users), and half the time, the drivers speak very little English. Tri-Rail avoided all these caveats:

> It's a train, so no need to deal with traffic, and I would actually be there faster if I took the city train.
> Tri-Rail trains are kept clean, the cabins are spacious, the seats are comfortable, and some even have electric outlets (on a city train!!! ).
> As opposed to the $100-$150 cab fares I've paid, riding Tri-Rail FLL-MIA is only a measly five singles on most days.
> All of the train staff speak fluent English, from what I've seen, at least.
> Finally, riding a train will always be more fun than riding in a tatty old Crown Victoria!

On the train, just past Golden Glades, I discovered that it was 1:35 PM EST, and my flight was set to depart at 3:35 PM. While I could have made the flight if I hurried and didn't dawdle in MIA, I actually wanted to dawdle in MIA, as, you know, I'm an AvGeek (Aviation Geek, for those who don't know). Since my tickets were full fare, I wouldn't have any problem changing them, but the US Airways app put a kibosh on that forward method of [modern] thinking and just kept returning an error message, so I called the US Airways customer support telephone line. The agent initially attempted to book me on AA through the codeshare (and merger) they have through OneWorld, but didn't even mention it was American Airlines, rather than my preferred (no airline status pun intended ) carrier of US Airways. I know all the flights on AA / US doing MIA-TPA-MIA, so I quickly corrected her and said that I wanted to be placed on the last US Airways MIA-TPA hop of the night, US1860 / AWE1860, leaving just a smidgen after 8:00 PM Eastern Standard Time. Little did I know that this one small change to my itinerary would lead to total catastrophe...



Heading across the Level Crossing (bridge over the tracks) to the northbound train side. I love how the simplistic architecture makes the station appear just a bit more classy than normal public transportation infrastructure.



Suddenly, the ground started shaking, and I saw this ginormous blue-and-gray-nosed leviathan hurdling toward me, luckily, I managed to stabilize my DSLR and capture a few pictures of it while it literally rumbled the ground!. This is either the Amtrak Silver Star or the Amtrak Silver Meteor , which does New York - Washington, DC - Charleston - Savannah - Jacksonville - Orlando - Tampa/Miami and back, pulled by two steadfast General Electric GENESIS (trademarked in caps) locomotives, manufactured by General Electric's Transportation Locomotives and Services division (yes, the same folks who manufacture airplane engines, and all sorts of other things, for that matter ). For those who are wondering if I'll ever do an Amtrak trip report, yes, I would love to, but it is highly inconveniencing and nonsensical in some elements: FLL-DCA in one of their private bedrooms with your own bathroom and shower is around $1,500 one way, and takes 28 hours, so, compared to an equivalent domestic first class airline flight, it would largely be an impracticable, yet interesting and fun, novelty. Oh, and "Silver Star" and "Silver Meteor" are awesome names to describe this trainset, I just love the sleek, sexy chrome on the sides.


My less-exciting, but still quite fun, Tri-Rail trainset pulling up to the platform. It's no Amtrak rolling stock, but still, the interior is comfortable, and nothing beats the brute-force, awesome-level-of-tugging-power look of the front end of a good old Diesel Locomotive. Speaking of locomotives, the one pictured pulling my train is a MotivePower F40PHL-2 pulling two Hyundai Rotem all-passenger double decker coaches, and one Hyundai Rotem passenger / locomotive control bi-level wagon. The train can be driven north or south (or whatever way the track it is on is facing) from both the MotivePower F40PHL-2 on the front or the Hyundai Rotem control center on the back.


Zooming past Hollywood, Florida, with my luggage packed against the wall (left), and this is much more comfortable than a cab and not even a tad crowded. Plus, my two seats had two electrical outlets on the sidewall! Definitely much better than a cab.



The US app does not want to cooperate, so let's call up the Silver Preferred desk for some help...


Though American Airlines pulled all [Boeing] McDonnell Douglas Super 80 / S80 / MD-80 airplane operations from Miami on April 3rd, 2005, (thank you, RTA), AA October-1983-manufactured MD-82 N234AA was donated to and preserved at the George T. Baker Aviation Technical College as of May 20th, 2010.



Arriving into MIA on the Miami Dade City Bus operated for Tri-Rail, between the Hialeah Transfer Station (HIA) and Miami International Airport (MIA). Tri-Rail has since began operating directly into MIA by way of the newly-constructed Miami Central Station, which allows rail connections between Tri-Rail, Amtrak, and Miami MetroRail, the city's above-ground subway system. Amtrak service is expected to begin to Miami Central Station in Summer 2016 (Source -- from the Miami Herald.).

Now with more than a few hours to play around in MIA, I first set out to check my small blue Civil Air Patrol duffel bag so I wouldn't have to lug it everywhere I went throughout this massive avian complex. A grand total of two people made up the huge crowd waiting in line at the US Airways First Class check-in lane / area, so my bag was priority-tagged in a jiffy and off I went to tour MIA. After more than a few hours walking throughout the gargantuan facility, I decided to throw the towel in and clear security at the Concourse E checkpoint. Little was I aware that the events that occurred in the security checkpoint would change my life forever.



Christmas, Hanukkah, and holiday decorations from all walks of life adorned the entirety of MIA, lifting the general ambiance of the sort-of stuffy check in halls, concourses, and terminals.



US Airways has quite a peculiar location in American Airlines' MIA hub, it is all the way in the eastern end of the Concourse D ticketing hall, right by Oneworld partner Qatar Airways. While it makes sense that since AA and US are merging, the US counters were relocated to be in near proximity to the AA counters, the actual concourse US utilizes is in Concourse E, which means you need have a good bit of a stroll to get to E where US is located from D where their ticket counters are at. Thankfully, I don't mind walking, and there wasn't much of a line (or people at all) in the first class check in.


The ticketing counter agent priority-tags my little blue CAP duffel, and off it goes into the baggage-sorting oblivion. :P



QR's counters at MIA, you should have seen Miami's (user on A.Net, not the city ) reaction when he caught wind of Qatar Airways' plan to start service at MIA....Until he heard that Emirates was starting service at MCO instead of MIA several months later! {duck}




Passing by various entities in MIA, the AACU seems to be closed, though...


This sign looks a bit menacing, don't screw with it!



Passing by some paint-splotches art by the Miami-Dade County Department of Fine Arts and Cultural Affairs near the entrance to the MIA Mover Station, which is the train that connects the consolidated rental car center and Miami Central Station to Miami international Airport.




Speaking of the MIA Mover Station, here is the airport end of it. Note the faux lit-up icicles hanging from the curvy ceiling panels plus the giant Christmas Tree, those were really nice-looking.



This jumble of electric-gobbledygook is what makes the MIA Mover possible, a system of automated Mitsubishi Crystal Mover (now there's a cool name, almost like the vehicle could be an automated diamond or crystal mine cart) rolling stock by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. Note the rubber tire-semi-truck wheels, so this "train" doesn't really run on rails, but is almost like an automated system of trucks, interesting...


Heading downstairs to the airport courtyard, passing the quintessential MIA Mover stained glass windows.




The space-age-rounded-architectural style of the various structures at MIA. The building on top of the area near the stained glass windows is, I believe, the county airport office, and on top are helipads.While the collection of national flags in the main courtyard-type area are fine,


The airport's main facade and signage is looking a bit worse for wear, could use some touching up, IMO...


For example, this outline-artifact of the former Thomas Cook service.


Heading down to the Concourse E Security Checkpoint.


The last image I would ever take with my Nikon D5200 DSLR Camera.

I stepped into lane 2 of the checkpoint after having my boarding pass and ID checked, and took off my camera. Right after I dropped my camera into the bin, a smaller kid, around age 5-6 ran into me, and I turned around to see what it was. I just wanted to get through Security, so I went through the nudoscope and gathered my backpack+two bins. However, my DSLR camera was gone.

Worried, I went over to the nearest TSA agent and informed him of my situation. Thankfully, he turned out to be quite nice and asked me if I'd like to file both a TSA and police report. After which, around five MIA PD officers arrived, heavily armed for whatever reason (one even had a MP5 with holographic sight and flashlight--why??) and filled out a police report for me, asking what kind of camera I had stolen from me. I showed them this exact image:


I have [had] three cameras: A Nikon D5200, P500 Superzoom Point and Shoot, and an my iPhone as it is great for taking engine shots.

They asked me if I'd like them to take a look at the security cameras, of course I agreed.

They brought me into a small room elsewhere, and I watched in disbelief as I saw what happened: The small kid ran into me, I turned around to see what it was, and in a split second, the woman, of course his mother, in front of me grabbed my DSLR and shoved it into her purse, while quickly leading her kid with her by the hand. She had used her kid to steal my camera. The MIA PD officers searched the entire D and E concourse, only returning with forlorn faces of regret around 45 minutes later.

It was then decided that I, myself would search the concourse for the thief. If the MIAPD couldn't find her, I would.


However, this is easier said than done as MIA is a massive international airport...

While walking the concourse and trying to hold in my anger, I felt angry, sad, depressed, malevolent, anxious, and sick to my stomach all at once. It was awful, and I evetually decided the camera wasn't worth the pain anymore and hiked back to the Gate D30 Admirals Club.

For the record, I wasn't mad about having the camera the camera stolen from me. I also have a P500 point and shoot which works perfectly, and I used it to produce 18 of my 26 reports (as of this writing). I'm just disappointed that someone had used their kids to steal. And all this talk about "you won't know until you have kids"-bologna. You don't assume parenting skills by producing a bunch of kids.



Well, at least the Gate D30 Admiral's Club has nice Christmas decorations as well...


The P500 Point And Shoot misses her sister, D5200. :'''''''(



Luckily, my strong feelings subsided soon enough, but traces remained throughout the trip.

Even though my DSLR was pretty much gone forever, and my ONLY pictures of the Amtrak train taken with the D5200 were gone forever, and my ONLY pictures of the MIA Ticketing area taken with the D5200 were gone forever, and my ONLY pictures of the N234AA taken with the D5200 were gone forever, I still decided to press onward with the trip. At the gate, I couldn't see my aircraft, but looked up the flight on FR24 and found out it was N753US, thankfully a new reg for me. I also, to break a streak of bad luck, arrived only sixteen minutes before first class was called to board. For the first time in 2014, I walked down a jetway and into a domestic first class feeling with a heavy feeling of melancholy rather than elation.



On my way to the gate I spotted an update window on one of the advertisement screens, which lifted my spirits just a tiny bit.



Arriving at my gate,


Boarding, still feeling very, very, very sad.



The small first class cabin onboard N753US.


My seat, 1A, chosen specifically to experience the bulkhead legroom (or lack thereof).



Actually, it's not all that bad if you sit like this! There was no one in 1B, so it was okay.


Pre-departure beverage of Coca-Cola Classic, one of my vices.

LPDAL

I had just about felt better by that point....


I love the polka-dot cabin carpet that US uses!




But the first class seats on these old Airbi are definitely in need of replacement: my console's white (or yellowed white) plastic cover kept popping out, part of my seat was held together with 3M duct tape, and deactivated IFE controls as well...


Thankfully, the two swing-out cocktail tables work just as well even with the plastic cover dislodged.


Old-style PSU.




Still, I'm going to miss the cute little flag branding...It's my favorite livery, by far...

The crew on this flight were actually the exact same people I had on the second leg of when I originally flew both AA and US First Class on MIA-TPA-MIA to compare the products here: Airliners.Net: US Airways First Class, AA First Class MIA✈TPA✈MIA (by LPDAL Dec 4 2014 in Trip Reports) / FlyerTalk: American Airlines First Class, US Airways First Class, Baptism Ceremony MIA✈TPA✈MIA. They didn't recognize me, so I didn't say anything and just listened to the dull roar of our engines starting up after pushback.



FAA KMIA Airport Diagram, with our taxi path to Runway 30 marked in orange.




Taxiing out of the Concourse E ramp, past a BA 744 just having arrived from LHR.


Cayman Airways (IATA: KX, ICAO: CAY, Callsign CAYMAN) is the flag carrier airline of the British Overseas Territory of the Cayman Islands, and here we see their February-1996-manufactured Boeing 737-36E VP-CKW. Tell you what, a virgin Tortuga Rum Punch would be very good right now!


Taxiing past another British 744...No, not British Airways, but because it is Virgin Atlantic, it is a bird of British nationality!


Cargo Amerijet 727 taking off, wish it was passenger config, though...

In the same way that we flew into Runway 12 on TPA-MIA and touched down to an on time arrival into Miami, this time we did the reverse, taxiing out of Concourse E's ramp and onto Runway 30 on the opposite end. Our takeoff was rather thrilling due to our load factor, we had a nice blastoff into the cool winter night of South Florida, following the Runway 30 WINCO ONE departure procedure. Within (what seemed like, at least) no time at all, we had already reached our cruising altitude of 22,000 feet on our short 30-40 minute hop to Tampa.



FAA KMIA WINCO ONE Departure Procedure, which is the one we used via Runway 30 on our way to TPA tonight.


FAA MIA Takeoff minimums and notes.



Blasting off from Miami.


One of the great things about South Florida's insane over-development is that you can see the entire part of this portion of the state at night -- yes, that is the entire lower tip of the state of Florida.


Climbing to our cruise altitude of 22,000 feet.

As we were blasting away from South Florida, my sadness vanished and my "old self" came back. It was at that point that I decided that the theft of one of my cameras was not going to spoil this fun nighttrip for me, and I immediately distracted myself by buying a 30-minute-pass to the GoGo Inflight Wi-Fi to gaze at the inflight map. The flight attendant lead and her colleagues were quite professional, taking drink orders on the ground and serving them once we got to a point of smooth air. The snack basket was passed around twice, but I wasn't that hungry or in the mood for eating, surprisingly, so I only took a couple nibbles from the basket and then resigned to looking out the window for the duration of this short hop.


Checking out our flight path on GoGo with a 30-minute-pass.



I ordered a tonic water and had two tiny munchies as service for this flight, I was completely content.

When I felt our nose lowering just north of SRQ's inlet, I knew we were in close proximity to Tampa Bay. Indeed, the flight attendant began the usual highly-annoying US Airways credit card spiel, which strangely made no mention of the US / AA merger (how are they still selling this card??) as if US wasn't merging with AA or anything...Our pilots, according to FlightAware, used the DEAKK FOUR arrival procedure, which, from the south heading northbound, involves intercepting the bay around 15-20 miles from the runway, gradually lining up with the landing strip and descending over the massive cove right into TPA. We touched own hard, but nobody seemed to care, everyone just wanted to get into TPA! Taxi in was relatively smooth, and since we were one of the last flights of the night, the terminal was completely deserted.


FAA DEAKK4 arrival procedure for our approach into TPA, see above for description.


SkyVector Sectional Charts are Copyright © 2015 SkyVector
Don't be fooled, EVERY part of Florida's airspace, due to mostly year-round ideal flying conditions, is extremely crowded. Additional Remarks
- RY 19L IS NOISE SENSITIVE TO TURBOJET DEPARTURES. RY 01R IS NOISE SENSITIVE TO TURBOJET ARRIVALS. PUBLISHED NOISE ABATEMENT PROCEDURES IN EFFECT.
- ONLY ACFT WITH PRIOR PERMISSION MAY USE TERMINAL APRON; ALL OTHERS USE GA APRON.
- BIRD ACTIVITY ON AND IN VCNTY OF ARPT.
- TWY RSTRS: AIRPLANE DESIGN GRP V OR LGR - TWY N WEST OF TWY L UNAVBL. NORTH 1500 FT TWY E ALSO UNAVBL FOR WING SPAN GTR THAN 171 FT UNLESS PPR FROM APRT OPS.
- TWY RSTRS: GRP IV ACFT WITH WING SPAN GTR THAN 118 FT -- TAXILANE E SOUTH OF TWY S, AND TAXILANE R EAST OF TWY D ARE NON-MOVEMENT AREAS AND UNAVBL WO PPR FROM APRT OPS.


Departing land, and heading over the pitch-black bay.


The bay is divided every few or tens of miles or so by these artificial land-bridges linking the Tampa and St. Pete sides of the bay.


Intercepting land again by the very last land-bridge on very short final.


The hard touchdown resulted in this mess. Oh well...



FAA KTPA Airport Diagram, with our taxi path to Gate F89 / F90 in Airside F marked in orange.




Taxiing into and parking at the gate. Not until I was writing this sentence and coding the pictures you see above, did I realize the British Airways evening 777-200 was taking off behind us in the third photo above (near the upper left hand corner).... AWESOME!



Deplaning into the gate normally used by the British Airways flights to TPA from LGW (London Gatwick), hence the immigration tunnels.



Saying "Sayonara" to N753US, have a good night, sweet girl...

LPDAL

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Tampa International Airport / Greater Tampa Bay International Airport / International Plaza / Bay Street / Drew Field (IATA: TPA, ICAO: KTPA)
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Walking out into Airside F in Tampa International Airport, I wasn't that surprised to be hit by utter silence, as our flight was one of the last of the night (stop rhyming unintentionally, Colby! :P) so we all more or less waddled over to the tram station outside of the TSA security checkpoint. However, only one side of the tram was running, and everyone was attempting to cram them and their families into the same small little Bombardier Innovia APM-100 train, as if the shuttle ran every seven hours and the terminal was 40 miles away, and a kid's hand almost got stuck in the closing doorway as the red lights flashed and a dismembered male voice announced "ATTENTION! The tram is about to depart. Please stand clear of the doors!" I, however, know that the tram ride is no more than three minutes at best, and held back near the TSA checkpoint while the train returned, lemming-free. I walked aboard, and had a completely private tram ride. (it should be noted that one of my biggest pet peeves is being in crowds or crowded places--sensory issues, due to my Aspergers, so that is probably why I stayed behind to wait for the emtpy tram.)


Deplaning into a sleepy Concourse F.



Board the full-to-the-brim tram? No thanks.


I always wondered what airports in Venezuela this sign was describing...?


TPA had different decorations to match the colors of the various airlines' counters, and also complete Christmas trees made by poinsettias.


Claiming my duffel from the baggage belt.


Spotted this during the walk to the airport Intra-Terminal hotel -- "Rentals to Ages 19 and Up"... If only I had a reason to rent a car....

LPDAL

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Tampa International Airport Marriott Hotel and Resort *1*
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Entering the TPA Marriott (all decorated for Christmas--isn't it beautiful?), I didn't even have to leave the terminal! "Airport Gallery" is a little aviation museum on the right, we'll go there, but first let's drop our bags and get some din-din...

After I checked in with the friendly-enough front desk clerk, I received two room keys and went up to my room, dropping my stuff and taking a shower. When I walked into the airport hotel, all the restuarants and shops were closed in the pre-security mall and food court, and I was hoping that the hotel's restaurant, the Skyye Bar and Grill ("Skyye is the intentional spelling) was still open. I dialed the front desk from my room, and luckily the front desk agent told me it was open until 3 AM. I freshened up and showered before returning to the Skyye Bar and Grille for dinner.


I first went to see if the Marriott Concierge Lounge was open, which I have access to. As I expected, it wasn't, maybe next time...



Heading through the...yellow hallway to get to my room. I have no idea why the bottom shot is so yellow, it wasn't nearly as yellowish in real life as it appears in the second image above.




My room, so worth the 10,000 United miles, plenty of room for me, view out onto the ramp and one of the runways...Oh, and Marriott beds are the softest in the world.


My girlfriend asked if I could take a picture to "Prove *I* was [safe in Tampa]" (don't remember the exact verbiage) right as I picked up the phone to call the front desk, luckily, I had enough time to take and send a quick selfie...As for the key on my neck that somebody on either site asked about, it was a fundraiser where a local Fort Lauderdale charity put old keys on chains and donated 100% of the proceeds to charity, given to me by the female mentioned in the first sentence. The thinner chain with the ring around it was given to all of us seniors when we ordered our class rings, and the "ALPA" on the ring itself on my finger stands for Air Line Pilots Association, the largest pilot union in the world, representing over 51,000 pilots.


The Legendary "$5 will be added to your room total upon consumption" water bottles. Funny how, way back in the day, my parents would get after my brother and I for touching these, and now I'm paying for my own hotel room as a "'legal' adult" at age 19...How times change so fast, I have no idea...





Entering the Skyye Bar and Grille.


Ordering, everything sounds so good! *Licks lips*



I start out with a glass of Coca-Cola, and melty-cheese Quesadillas with salsa, sour cream, and onions on the side. Very good!


...Moving onto a grilled chicken sandwich on a warmed pretzel roll, splashed with barbeque sauce, and topped with onion ring strips, lettuce, and dill pickle...It was very, very tasty. And don't forget the fries!!


I switched tables for a better view outside, and ended my delightful (indulging) feast with: Warm chocolate lava cake with a melted chocolate center, topped with a scoop of vanilla, hot fudge, walnuts, and chocolate shavings. The other: Key Lime Tart topped with nuts and warmed caramel. Due to my overactive metabolism, I will never be able to gain lipid weight, so someone has to give the overactive metabolism a workout...







After I finished my dinner (and desert, of course. ), I headed up to my room, grabbed my P500 camera, and took a little self-guided tour through the TPA Marriott's entirety. The hotel's west deck, seen here, is where the pool is located, and there is no hottub....Bummer...I would love to hottub while watching airliners roar overhead! For families with kids, they have pool toys as well (sixth image).


The edge of the west deck has a nicely-decent view of a portion of the Airside E and Runway 1L action, if you can get over the road signs and palm trees in the way.




Playing some Corn Hole, it's much harder than it looks here in my photos, I promise.




I would love to play some Ping Pong in the TPA Ping Pong Zone, but my girlfriend is back home in FLL.......And no one is out here but me at this hour.


You can lie on this hammock and gaze at the airplanes, clouds, and birds (animal birds, that is ) soaring overhead.


The giant Marriott marquees are still of the old logo design, I wonder if they're going to replace them?




This humongous circular rotunda restaurant atop the Tampa International Airport Marriott Hotel is named View, and it used to, apparently, rotate, for panoramic views of the airport. Unfortunately, it hasn't rotated in many decades, and the hotel clerk informed me that it is permanently closed.



Believe it or not, this fire-pit was actually pretty useful tonight as the temperature dropped into the mid sixties (which, in Florida, is cold.) as you can see by the little monitors outside of each conference and / or ballroom as I head back inside to tour the east deck. Also, as the time is now 12:01 AM, it's now December 21st...




As you can see, the TPA Marriott (well, TPA, period) really goes all-out during Christmastime with their decorations, which looks just so nice!! Oh yeah, that reminds me...
It's the most wonderful time of the year
...



Awesome little ornaments, and a WN (Southwest Airlines) vertical stabilizer (tailfin) sticking out in the background.






The more easterly deck of the hotel looks to be an outdoor event space rather than a play area, and it looks like it is all set up to handle weddings -- an avgeek's dream -- becoming married while having jets blast you overhead! "Here comes the *JETBLAST* bride, here comes *REVERSE THRUSTERS IN THE DISTANCE* the bride!" :P


The west deck is overshadowed by the gigantically tall TPA ATC tower.


Unfortunately, while the east deck does have a [10%] view of the very-active Runway 1 Left, the same airstrip I landed on hours earlier, it is obstructed by tram tracks and airport maintenance facilities.


In fact, this awful picture of two WN tails was all I could get from the obstructed view.




Heading out of the Tampa International Airport Marriott Hotel to view the "airport gallery".

LPDAL

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Tampa International Airport - airport gallery
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Tampa International Airport has a small museum dedicated to the history of the airport, historical information of the airport,, future development plans for the field, and video / audio clips about historical figures and events associated with the airstrip. In addition, there are two large scale models of the airport depicting what it looks like at present, and how it will appear in the future once their "2030 Development Plan - Into the Future" airport-wide renovation and addition project is completed. It was more than enough to keep me entertained for well over an hour!


The entrance to the tiny museum area in proximity to the entrance area of the hotel, and some convenience / souvenir type joints.






The first model of the airport's planned expansion (above left, foreground of the image) is distinguishable by the gray plastic airplanes placed on it, while the other one has white airframes.


TPA seems to think 747 classics (note the engines, but the wings, ironically enough, have 744-style winglets) are the way of the future.


Microscopic light bulbs lighting up a microscopic tower on the first model.





I have a HUGE soft spot for scale modeling...





A flat - globe map showing all of TPA's nonstop destinations (red dots) and one-stop destinations (gray dots).





Map generated by the Great Circle Mapper - copyright Karl L. Swartz
TPA has more IntraFloridian flights (third image) than FLL and serves for destinations in Florida than MIA (fourth image) by the skin of their teeth (TPA has 8 Floridian destinations, MIA has 7) with service to West Palm Beach International Airport (IATA: PBI, ICAO: PBI).






Map generated by the Great Circle Mapper - copyright Karl L. Swartz
The St. Petersburg-Tampa Airboat Line (SPT Airboat Line) was the first scheduled airline in the entire world that utilized a fixed wing airplane, with the carrier having two Benoist XIV Flying Boat aircraft in its fleet. On January 1, 1914 the SPT Airboat Line became the world's first scheduled winged airline service. That same day, Antony H. Jannus piloted the airline's Benoist Type XIV on its maiden flight between St. Petersburg and Tampa, making PIE-TPA the first ever airline flight served:
PIE (27°54'36"N 82°41'15"W) TPA (27°58'32"N 82°32'00"W) 64.4° (NE) 69.6° (E) 10 mi
Total: 10 mi

Code Source Location
PIE FAA St. Petersburg-Clearwater [St. Pete-Clearwater Intl], FL, US
TPA FAA Tampa [Intl], FL, US








Timeline of TPA's history on the walls of the gallery.










This model portrays what TPA will look like once the $943,000,000 (Yes, nine-hundred-thirty-four-million dollars) massive expansion project is finished, which will apparentelly create over 9,000 construction jobs for the area.




A tiny 747, always wanting to land on Runway 1L, but frozen on its little translucent stand. :3 Apparentelly, what with the 747s all over the airport, TPA is planning to dedicate some of those 943 mils to drawing in 747 carriers...




...Seriously, what's with all the 747 predictions? :P On a screen nearby the above model, a Fly - By eagles-eye view of the model, albeit virtually, was shown, with moving airplanes, and guided by the Intra-Airport light rail. Around three-fourths of the way through the short film, the train goes underneath a taxiway - bridge on which a blank, white 747 is taxiing by. The video speeds up at that point, but you can clearly see that the plain looking (no homophone pun intended :P) aircraft has a SkyTeam logo -- just for fantasy's sake, at the time of this writing in mid-April-2015, Air France, Delta Air Lines, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, Korean Air, Garuda Indonesia, China Airlines, and Saudia (Saudi Arabian Airlines) all have 747-400s in scheduled, bookable passenger service. Not sure if any of those entities will ever serve TPA, but one can dream...


Both models were created by Kissimmee Display Models.

LPDAL

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Tampa International Airport / Greater Tampa Bay International Airport / International Plaza / Bay Street / Drew Field (IATA: TPA, ICAO: KTPA) *2*
---

Since it was 2:00 AM, by that point, on December 21st, 2014, the shopping mall and ticketing hall in the central terminal ("landside") were both completely devoid of human life, so I seized the opportunity to get some shots of the interiors while no one was around to obstruct my shots.

Tampa International Airport is one of the highest rated in the world, as you can see above, the airport authorities are all about "Putting the passengers first and the machines second". It consistently scores top tier awards from multiple institutions for it's innovative, user friendly, and clean terminals / airsides. In 2008 Condé Nast Traveler recognized TPA as the second-best airport in the world, just two-tenths of a point behind the first place winner. JD Power and Associates have also given TPA Airport consistently high customer satisfaction ratings over the years. In November 2011, CNN ranked TPA as the sixth most loved airport worldwide, the only airport in the entire United States of America to receive a place on the list. It should come as no surprise that I absolutely love the airport...


Heading out into TPA's pre-security shopping mall and food court.


What airplane is that in this Brookstone advertisement?




First Flight Wine Bar - Mise en Place is the centerpiece of the shopping mall / food court, paying tribute to the very first airline flight in the world in the above post.


As you can probably see, apart from the regular vices of Brookstone and Hudson News, TPA has some quite unique retail outlets, such as this Harley Davidson store.


A mini airport-sized Ron Jon Surf Shop, and a store selling Tampa - adorned merchandise.


In Florida, we don't have snowmen, we have sandmen! And they're not the scary version, either.


And TPA celebrates every little new flight that comes to the already heavily - serviced airport -- as they should -- way too many cities become all too pompous with their hub status and then they're dehubbed and that's that.


I'd believe that!


TPA uses these colorful FIDS boards to differentiate between flight statuses.


Each of the four sets of baggage claim / elevator collection "Colors" are named after famous individuals that left their mark in the aviation universe. Igor Ivanovich Sikorsky (Russian: И́горь Ива́нович Сико́рский) was a Russian American aviation pioneer in both helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft. He designed and flew the world's first multi-engine fixed-wing aircraft, the Russky Vityaz in 1913, and the first airliner, Ilya Muromets, in 1914.



One of TPA's giant touchscreen information screens, very intuitive and user friendly.


At around 2:30 AM, I figured I should head back up to my room at some point, and decided to hit the hay.

LPDAL

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Tampa International Airport Marriott Hotel and Resort *2*
---

After I got back up to my room, I phoned the front desk and extended my checkout time to the alright time of 12:00 PM noon, and then attempted to see if I could spot from my bedroom's window. Well, two things hindered my effort, one, there was nothing to spot at nearly 3:00 AM (before anyone shouts out OBVIOUSLY COLBY note that FLL, my home airport, has many, many redeye AM ops, especially from NK and international airlines), two, I was tired as heck. Thankfully, around 3:12 or so (don't remember the exact time) I snuggled into my ultra soft bed after taking another shower and not having to worry about any parents bothering me, lulling away into dreamland....



Heading back into the Tampa International Airport Marriott Hotel, not much going on the Sunday before Christmas.


Pretty much the only flight activity I viewed from my room, and they didn't move or even light up at all, either.


The massively-spooky looking TPA ATC monolith, towering (no pun intended) over my small hotel room. You can also see the Sikorsky elevators that I pictured earlier, but this time from the parking garage.




Tampa International Airport (at the time of this writing in mid-April-2015) has four airsides, with one central ticketing hall and shopping mall / food court connected by a fleet of 16 Bombardier Innovia APM 100 (formerly CX-100) trams. Most funnily, these trains zip back and forth between the various airsides and landside all night, even if nobody is onboard using them! :P It would be even more funny if the flashing lights and automated announcements inside the train stations and trains themselves still play, even with no one there to hear them! :P


The Marriott logo on this side of the hotel looks a bit shabby and in need of replacement, hopefully some of the $943,000,000 will go to that effect.



Getting ready to hit the hay. ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ......





I would have bought a movie but...Oh, who am I kidding, I wouldn't pay money to one-time watch a movie.... :P Goodnight.

LPDAL

KTPA (Tampa International Airport / Greater Tampa Bay International Airport / International Plaza / Bay Street / Drew Field) ✈ KMIA (Miami International Airport / Wilcox Field / 36th Street / Pan American Field)

FLIGHT DATA SOURCE (S):

1. PlaneSpotters.Net Airframe Data

2. PlaneSpotters.Net Airline Data

3. FlightAware Live Flight Tracking Data

4. Airbus A319 | US Airways

5. US Airways Fleet | US Airways

6. Domestic Premium Class | US Airways

7. First Class Meals | US Airways


Boarding pass for this flight.


FlightAware for this flight. Copyright © FlightAware 2014

I didn't even have to set an alarm, as more or less 20 minutes past ten AM, a distant BBBBBBBBBUUUUUUUUUUZZZZZZZZZZZ jarred me awake. Up to that point, I had forgotten that the DSLR D5200 had been stolen from me (and was most likely gone forever, so that kind of dampened my mood. I soon got over it quickly enough, headed back down to the front desk, paid the hotel bill (seeing as I paid with miles, it wasn't really that much), checked out, and went downstairs to the US Airways desk to check my bag and check myself in.
.

BUZZZZZZZ! The SAAB 340B+ has a very distinctive roar that actually sounds like more of a buzzing sound that can be heard miles away--this little bumblebee woke me up! She is Silver Airways' September-1998-manufactured SAAB 340BPlus (Plus is the version with improved performance characteristics) N347AG. Like all of the Silver SAABs, N347AG was previously operated by XJ (Mesaba Airlines) for Delta Connection and Northwest Airlink as N447XJ. All of 3M's (Silver Airways') tail numbers end with "AG" for the most part (some still have "XJ" endings), as AG is the chemical symbol for silver.


View from my room, as you can clearly see, it is much better than it was during nocturnal hours.




TPA's ATC Tower looming over my room, what is that white apparatus, a light gun? Or a fog horn?


Outside the TPA Marriott was this convenience store-looking joint that actually had a pretty decent stock of SkyMarks Snap-Together Models. Unfortunately, they were all way above MSRP at $59.99 each, so I passed.


Silver Airways' counter at TPA has a mini-model of a billboard. This billboard is actually present in FLL, their hometown and headquarter city, along FLL's highway access on-ramp.



Checking in at the US Airways TPA ticketing counter.


While waiting in line to check out at the TPA Food Court, I spotted this on one of the Burger King menu boards. Never fear, you can add bacon to your chicken burger for SIXTY DOLLARS! :P PERIODS. They are important sometimes. Or decimal points, whichever you prefer... :P


The way I shot this Innovia makes it look more like an Intamin. For my rollercoaster aficionados, quote this sentence if you got the reference...

One thing that is not so great about Tampa International Airport is that most of the TSA checkpoints do NOT have priority lanes for status flyers or first class ticket holders, etc. which is quite strange--I have no idea why TPA, being an airport that prides itself on "PASSENGERS FIRST AND MACHINES SECOND" doesn't have priority security lanes in all of its airsides (Southwest's airside has a Fly By Security Line, but no one else does). It's as easy as getting the signs from the airlines, and closing some line dividers (all TPA checkpoints are staffed by two county airport employees checking ID and boarding passes before TSA, so they probably wouldn't have to hire much more people).

Once I am finished getting groped by Big Brother and his agents, my friend all the way from Southampton texts me and inquires about which flight I'm on, so I reply US1860 / AWE1860 to which he quips, "That's in six hours, you madman!" (jokingly, of course ). I then explain how six hours in one of my most favorite airports, TPA, can really pass in six seconds -- time flies when you're having fun -- (thank you for that, Tesla) and I venture off throughout Airside F, spotting gleefully, finally checking into the former US Airways Club (now becoming a part of America Westimean American Airlines :P) after I took hundreds of pictures of nearby aircraft and had lunch at PopEyes fried chicken.


Looking down the airside from the north end.



Before US Airways turned to <del>the dark side</del> Oneworld, there was no lounge for BA or Edelweiss premium passengers, so in line with the airport's mission, the local authorities opened their own international first and business class clubroom. According to the US Airways agent in the Admirals Club, there are crustless sandwiches and soup inside, but nothing much in the way of "real" food to any extent.






Having some delicious fried chicken at PopEyes for lunch.



Interesting catch of the day numero uno: Cayman Airways February-1996-manufactured Boeing 737-36E VP-CKW (her eyebrows plucked off, how sad )....Wait a second...



I saw VP-CKW yesterday night at MIA! Makes sense, considering Cayman Airways' fleet only consists of 7 airplanes:
Four Boeing 737-300 Aircraft: Boeing 737-3Q8 VP-CAY, Boeing 737-3Q8 VP-CKY, Boeing 737-36E VP-CKW (shown above ), and Boeing 737-36E VP-CKZ. The average age of these airplanes is 20.3 years.
Two DeHavilland DHC 6-300 Twin Otters: VP-CXA, and VP-CXB.
One Embraer EMB-120 Brasilia: VQ-TDG
One SAAB 340: Registration Unknown, any Cayman Airways Experts who could assist me in finding their SAAB 340's tail number?



Sun Country Airlines' February-2001-manufactured Boeing 737-8Q8 (WL) N801SY performing a TPA-HAV-TPA charter flight. SY also flies MSP-TPA-MSP as well.


"707" and "747" crumbling parking marks on the ramp, from a long, long time ago...


Old and new AA logos on this bag sizer. I'm still not sure which one I prefer, which do you prefer?




The hind quarters of Delta Air Lines PMNW former "The Bernie Epple" May / June-2002-manufactured Boeing 757-351 (WL) N582NW and Air Canada Rouge December-1996-manufactured Airbus A319-114 C-FYIY across the ramp at Airside E.


American Airlines S80 parking mark. I wonder if the DL parking spaces over at Airside E say this or "717-200", "MD-88", and / or "MD-90"?


I miss the Tampa International Airport Marriott Hotel already!






Entering the "American Airlines Admirals Club". I placed the name in quotes because apart from a few "New American" and "Oneworld" rebrandings, little else has been done by American Airlines to modify this club, in fact, many areas still retain their US Airways logo and text, plus the front desk is still loaded with US Airways cardstock for printing boarding passes with.




The entrance of the [former] US Airways Club was decorated with classy looking Christmas decorations. Everything about the [former] US Airways Club at Tampa International Airport, from the entrance of the club to the L-shape of the lounge and viewing area, reminds me of the Philadelphia International Airport (IATA: PHL, ICAO: KPHL, current [as of this writing] US Airways hub) Concourse A and Concourse F [former] US Airways Clubs (taken by me, all images in my trip reports are mine unless otherwise noted). I'll provide some more comparisons below;

LPDAL

TPA Airside F [former] US Airways Club (first image) versus PHL Concourse A [former] US Airways Club (second image) : Seating area comparison, viewed from each Club's entrance (to the seating area... )



TPA Airside F [former] US Airways Club (first image) versus PHL Concourse F [former] US Airways Club (second image) : Seating area comparison, viewed from the opposite end of the pictures before these.



TPA Airside F [former] US Airways Club (first image) versus PHL Concourse A [former] US Airways Club : Bar area. That's all the comparison shots for now!






Now that I'm done with comparison shots (for now, that is... ), let's check out the munchies selection and coffee machine...Surprisingly, the instant coffee pouches were better than I expected, and I had a more than a few mugs of several flavors... Also, as I said earlier, notice how everything in this club, sans "New American" and "Oneworld" branding, is still US Airways fare, including the ceramic coffee mugs. They seem to have been manufactured by two providers, Wesco Inflight and Rocket Group, neither of which I can seem to find any data on, are they both defunct?




Snuggling in by one of the panoramic windows, with views of Runway 1L and the Airside F ramp. The US Airways agent had absolutely no problem at all printing me some extra cardstock after I mentioned to him that I collect airline merchandise and related items. Great customer service!


American Airlines operated by US Airways April-2009-manufactured Airbus A321-211 N196UW is pushed back from her gate at Airside F.




Almost brand-new US Airways July-2013-maufactured Airbus A321-211 N157UW is serviced at her gate, while Westjet April / May-2008-manufactured Boeing 737-7CT (WL) C-FCWJ looks for her gate nearby (first image).


An amazingly interesting array of Boeing 737s, of three different nationalities: Grand Cayman, Canada, and the United States, not to mention three different subtypes, from front to back: Cayman Airways February-1996-manufactured Boeing 737-36E VP-CKW (her eyebrows plucked off, how sad ), Westjet April / May-2008-manufactured Boeing 737-7CT (WL) C-FCWJ, and, last but not least, all the way in the back, Sun Country Airlines' February-2001-manufactured Boeing 737-8Q8 (WL) N801SY.


A detail shot of VP-CKW's vertical stabilizer, with the Cayman Island's motto, "He hath founded it upon the seas" wrapped all around the tail-fin and the lower rear fuselage.This line, a verse from Psalm 24 Verse 2, acknowledges the Caymans’ Christian heritage, as well as its ties to the sea, and is printed on the Cayman Islands' Coat of Arms.




Sun Country Airlines' February-2001-manufactured Boeing 737-8Q8 (WL) N801SY takes a hike...




...Followed by VP-CKW...





Thenceforth followed by US Airways Express operated by Republic Airlines November / December-2007-manufactured Embraer ERJ-175LR (ERJ-170-200 LR) N123HQ.





Probably the most generic-looking MD-80 I've ever seen, Falcon Air Express September / October-manufactured McDonnell Douglas MD-83 N836NK operating a TPA-HAV-TPA charter routing, with US Airways November-2001-manufactured Airbus A320-232 N664AW parked at an adjacent gate, as well as American Airlines January-2001-manufactured Boeing 737-823 (WL) N955AN taxiing into its own gate behind them. N836NK, the MD-83, has had a vast and interesting career, having been with six different airlines: Originally delivered to Midway Airlines as N906ML on October 31st, 1990, it was then transferred to Air Aruba and re-registered as P4-MDB on April 20th, 1992, then transferred to Reno Air and re-registered as N833RA on August 18th, 1992, then transferred to American Airlines (as part of their buyout / merger with Reno Air) still as N833RA on August 31st, 1999, then transferred to Spirit Airlines and re-registered as N836NK on February 18th, 2004, then transferred to Aeropostal operated by Falcon Air Express still as N836NK on May 7th, 2006, and finally found its way back to the direct air carrier of Falcon Air Express, still as N836NK, retaining its business / economy class layout of C16Y134, on January 29th, 2009. As of this writing in April 2015, it operates charters for the United States Department of Justice (USDOJ).







Another Falcon Air Express Cuban charter flight arrives shortly after N836NK departs (no pictures of that, sorry ), this one airframe (with a MUCH better - looking livery) being Falcon Air Express July-1992-manufactured McDonnell Douglas MD-83 N120MN.


A potable water truck still with old navy blue and red US Airways logos.


American Airlines S80 (Super 80, AA language for "McDonnell Douglas MD-80" or "Boeing MD-80" as they call it on AA.com)




US Airways January-2001-manufactured Airbus A321-211 N189UW skedaddles as the sky gets gray, dark, and stormy....




And the lounge subsequently darkens. I actually like it more at this light level, as it gives the clubroom a much more relaxing ambiance.




Of course, it starts downpouring, and the ramp starts flooding. A nearby doppler radar shows a mid-sized light-to-moderate storm right over the Tampa Bay area, luckily, another such screen still shows all departures as on schedule. Bet that won't stay the same for long!





US Airways Airbus June / July-1989-manufactured Airbus A320-231 N626AW trudges through the harrowing storm to Airside F. This airframe has a bit of an interesting history, it was originally built as one of the very early A320 models for Braniff II / Braniff 2 (IATA: BN, ICAO: BNF), the sucessor to Braniff International Airways (otherwise known as "Braniff I" or "Braniff 1") in July 1989, however, it never saw service due to that airlines' subsequent bankruptcy and defunct state, transferred to America West, then to US Airways, and now it is an American Airlines Group (AAG) - owned frame. It was withdrawn from service on January 15th, 2015 and then stored at Phoenix Goodyear Airport (IATA: GYR, ICAO: KGYR) five days later on January 20th, 2015. As of this writing in mid-April-2015, it is still stored at GYR.

LPDAL

And out from behind url=http://www.planespotters.net/Production_List/Airbus/A320/065,N626AW-America-West-Airlines.php]N626AW[/url] comes my ride, US Airways August-2000-manufactured Airbus A319-112 N747UW, which has been with US all of her life, and now belongs to AA.






The grand finale of the evening's spotting tour is British Airways' January-1999-manufactured Boeing 777-236 (ER) G-VIIO, wrapping up my visit to the now-Admirals Club in TPA.

After the BA 777-200 arrived and disappeared into Gate F89 / F90, I bid farewell to the clubroom agents and made a beeline to Gate F85, which was my gate for tonight's short jaunt back down to South Florida. Since Gate F85, as seen in previous photos, is right outside of the Admirals Club entrance, I didn't have to walk any sort of distance at all and was immediately greeted by the gate agents making their "Disabled passengers / Uniformed Military Personnel / Passengers with small children" spiel over the P/A. Only but a single wheelchair passenger was aboard this route, so I was one of the first pax to board N747UW, taking my seat in first class. Load factor on tonight's flight was low as always, and over half of the first class cabin went out empty.



Gate F85, the departure gate for my TPA-MIA segment.




Boarding, I just love the fact that US kept the airlines it swooped up as their regional carriers while placing their logos outside each main boarding door, this may as well contain an "AA" with Scissor Eagle logo. Luckily, the US Airways philosophy will live onwards in the vision of it's senior management, which replaced AA's [former] senior management at the helm.



The first class cabin, and my seat within it, 2A.


PDB of coke handed out by the exact same flight attendant as yesterday -- who still didn't recognize me! :P



First Class cabin right before coach started general boarding, the colorful lights on the ceiling are flight attendant signals.


Pushback, past Falcon Air Express July-1992-manufactured McDonnell Douglas MD-83 N120MN.

We made a relatively straightforward taxi-path to Runway 1L, taking off to the north in a somewhat rocketship-like fashion due to our low load factor, utilizing the GANDY6 / GANDY SIX departure path. That meant blasting off to the north, gaining altitude as we soared over the coast of Southwest Florida then swinging back around to begin our slanted run down to Miami. A good portion of the climb and the cruise portion of this flight were in some pretty turbulent cloud layers, so the fasten seatbelt sign only remained off for ten minutes or so before landing.



FAA KTPA Airport Diagram, with our taxi path from Gate F85 in Airside F to Runway 1L marked in orange.


Taxiing to the south on Taxiway Whiskey at TPA.


A rather dark interior during taxi.


I wonder what "Noise Abatement Procedures" entails...?



Turning onto Runway One Left, having landed on it to the north the previous night, I'm now departing from the north on it.



We'd be using TPA's GANDY6 / GANDY SIX departure tonight.


FAA TPA Takeoff minimums and additional notes.



Rocketing away from TPA!



Then steeply banking while climbing into the cloud cover.



Climbing to cruise altitude through the cloud layer, creating some interesting light beam reflections.

Service on this flight was identical to the outbound leg, with two rounds of the snack basket and a couple of rounds of drinks, the second of which was still being served even after the captain began our descent announcement over the horn. I'm always amazed how these flight attendants can hand out as many snacks and hot / cold beverages as they do on these short South Florida - Southwestern Florida - South Florida hops, but you clearly could see that this flight attendant possessed a high degree of acumen: since she had already taken orders down on some scrap paper during boarding, so she had a major time boost once we were airborne. US Airways [AA] has since cut MIA-TPA-MIA service, leaving AA only on the route, but I hope they come back to it before the absorption is complete.


The very skilled flight attendant (maybe a lead?) in the galley, bartending like a pro.


Checking out GoGo Inflight's moving map after purchasing another 30-minute-pass.



Coffee and junk food fuel me up to get back home to Fort Lauderdale.


Cabin during descent, very, very empty -- both rows of first class behind me were unnoccupied and three on the other side were vacant as well. Coach was similarly low-loaded.

In any event, we soon started descending after passing Cape Coral, and within minutes we had cleared the Everglades Conservation Area, bringing the vibrant lights of Miami into view. According to FlightAware, our approach plate on this route was the RNAV (GPS, basically) SSCOT2 / SSCOT TWO arrival into the sole diagonal runway at Miami International Airport, Runway 12/30. Since we were approaching for the north, we touched down smoothly around halfway down the strip and efficiently swept off the runway straight into the Concourse E ramp. I thought it was rather ingenious for AA/US/ops etc. to think of this, landing so that you will be close to the terminal you need to taxi into to not waste any time. Some other airports could use this strategy, hmmmmm....? I deplaned, thanking the flight crew, but still depressed that my DSLR was gone forever, and such a crappy event had kicked off my last compulsory - school Christmas Break, but gathered my bag anyway and used MetroRail plus Tri-Rail to get back to the beach house.


FAA KMIA SSCOT TWO / SSCOT2 Arrival Chart, our landing procedure this evening.




Exiting the ECA (Everglades Conservation Area) back to the sprawling metropolis of SoFlo.


Short final into Runway 12 at MIA.


Almost there...


Touchdown, spoilers deployed and reverse thrusters engaged.


Passing the hold short mark, and heh, our shadow looks like an A380's own...


A blank, white A340-300.




Taxiing past a stunning BA 744 in MIA as we roam to our assigned gate of Gate E2, the same one I had departed from [DSLR-less] the prior night.


Parking next to some US Airways [for now] brethren.


Parked at E2.


Getting up from my seat to deplane, once the "Fasten Seatbelts" sign is off, of course.


I have to say, seeing the US Airways Flag Logo used as a "Wi-Fi Connection Dot" is probably the cutest use of it I've seen so far...And...


...I'm really going to miss this awesome livery when it is finally just an odd curiosity from years ago...Luckily, like the management team, this color-scheme will live onward on an Airbus A321, albeit with "American" titles and the "New American Eagle" logo...Goodnight, N747UW.

LPDAL

---
Miami International Airport / Wilcox Field / 36th Street / Pan American Field (IATA: MIA, ICAO: KMIA)
---




Heading to the baggage claim.


All the usual PMUS routes, except, of course, MIA-TPA-MIA.


My little blue duffel bag arrives, on an American Airlines luggage tray.




Waiting at the MIA Mover Station for the Mitsubishi Crystal Mover train to arrive.


THE MOST EPIC button in the world -- one press and the train comes right to you!






Riding the MIA Mover to the Metrorail station.






Riding the Miami - Dade Transit Metrorail to the Metrorail / Tri - Rail Transfer Station.






Riding Tri-Rail, this time on one of the Hyundai Rotem car's upper deck, all the way to Cypress Creek station, and a massive CSX freight train blows right past me as I exit the station.

LPDAL

---
THREE WEEKS LATER
---

Around a thrice of weeks after I concluded this trip, one weekday morning my phone brrrrrrinnnngggedd with a 305 area code, which is the standard for Miami - area phone numbers (Fort Lauderdales' is 954, for comparison). I considered not picking it up, thinking it was a telemarketer or something, but something told me to pick it up anyhow and a soft-spoken man by the name of Steve Kauffman said "Hi, this is Detective Steve Kauffman with the Miami - Dade Airport Police Department. Am I speaking to Mr. 'Colby McCormack'?" When I answered in the affirmative, he responded, "Mister McCormack, your camera has been recovered. I'm going to email you a crime statement that you need to fill out, and American Airlines Corporate Security has your Nikon waiting for you down in Miami International Airport." I nearly dropped the phone: MY CAMERA HAD BEEN RECOVERED.


Police report, police case card, police emails, and other paperwork all gathered (and stapled), let's head down to MIA...

On January 6th, 2015, I headed down back to MIA to claim my camera. The detective had just told me to "correspond with American Airlines", so I waited in one of the Y lines. When I got to an agent, they told me that only the first class line has the capability to call corporate security, and furthermore that only managers can talk to that department as well. So I went over to the first class line, who told me that there were no managers on duty at this time, and to use the business class line to call corporate security. The business class line agent told me that there isn't corporate security at MIA, and to use the Y class customer service lane. I didn't have much to lose, so I stuck it out in the y class line and luckily found a manager. "She" called the "corporate security" ( I use "" because previous employees said these entities do not exist) and told escorted me back to the first class line once more. There, we got ahold of the security chief (I suppose) and I was told to wait by the ticketing counter while some paperwork was filled out. No problem, just pull out the phone and watch some TV episodes for fun.


In MIA, waiting for my camera to arrive...

Out of nowhere, a middle age woman casts a teleportation spell and just randomly appears out of nowhere shouting to a ticketing agent "YOU! GET! ME! A! (*rhymes with "trucking"*)! MANAGER! NOW! Do you know who I am!,??" I was trying so hard not to blurt out in laughter but held it in. Surprisingly, the next thing she shouted was "WHERE IS MY SON? YOU LOST HIM! HE IS A UM!!!" Saying something about being bumped off a flight in SFO or some such...a sheriff came over and she exclaimed at the officer "THIS ILLEGAL AIRLINE LOST MY KID!!" The sheriff responded that "he didn't lose his own kid, ma'am" while the ticketing agent was cursing right back at the belligerent woman.

Anyway, I waited another 30 minutes and the woman reappeared two times in that time before stalking off in one last instant. Finally, a corporate security agent showed up with my Nikon in pristine condition and I signed off for it.


OMG! My baby!! And she is in pristine condition!!!


And LPDAL traveled, spotted, and lived happily ever after. The end.

LPDAL

--- Upcoming Reports ---
31. American Airlines Flagship First Class Suites + Flagship First Lounge in LAX, 777-200, LAX-MIA
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30. Alaska Airlines First Class, 737-800, PDX-LAX + Alaska Board Room PDX
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29. Delta First Class, 757-200s of DL, FLL-DTW-SLC-PDX + A night in Portland, Oregon
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28. United First Class to visit my brother in Columbus, Ohio + Two nights in Columbus, 737-900, CRJ-700, ERJ-170, A319, and 737-800, FLL-ORD-CMH-ORD-EWR-FLL
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27. United First Class+BusinessFirst, 777-200, Dash-8-Q400, Silver Airways Saab 340B+, and a night in Portland, Maine + Portland Jetport FLL-IAH-EWR-PWM-EWR-TPA-FLL
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All finished trip pictures can be viewed here on my Flickr: LPDAL's Photostream on Flickr - Photo Sharing

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Thanks for all responses!

-LPDAL
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BostonPlanesAndTrains

Great Report! US A319's are the Best. I've been on N747UW half a dozen times! (Thanks to the DCA shuttle!

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