Pre-trip


Thanks to a lucky bump ATL-IND last year my friend davsjo on FT and I both had a DBC-voucher each. It came without saying that they would be used for another segment run this year. In July the planning began for the coming run. I really love this part and will spend days and weeks with Amadeus, ITA, the Delta PDF timetable and route map planning and planning. Trying to find the most fun destinations and airplanes with availability is a lot of fun, perhaps not as much for my wife though. With this trip we wanted to spend a few nights somewhere so that we would not be in the air on all of the trip. A requirement (as always) was to have AF operated flights trans-Atlantic, furthermore I prefer travelling eastbound not from north-east USA as flying time then is too short to get a good sleep. I was hoping on flying MIA-CDG or SEA-CDG as I hadn't flown these routes before but due to inconvenient timetables this was not a good option. Instead we settled for IAD-CDG which would give us time to visit the Smithsonian air museum at IAD. Another fun thing to do would be to fly to a really remote place with a turboprop. A good place for this turned out to be Iron Mountain, MI since they had service with a Saab 340 to both MSP and DTW, with the latter making a short stop in Escanaba, MI along the way. We also wanted to make a stop in SNA to experience the fun take-offs.

DL usually has good fares ex CPH to California so we used the DBC-vouchers for a round trip ticket CPH-SNA and then added a separate ticket SNA-LAS-SNA. Finally, since I live in HEL I bought a ticket with SK and LH HEL-CPH/CDG-HEL. Total cash paid was about €880 - $400 DBC = €600. The original plan was to do this trip in conjunction with the Star Mega DO in October but my financial situation would not allow me to do both.

So it was time to go segment running again. Itinerary as below and excitement in the following posts! If you read it all please do leave a comment, it is very appreciated! Happy reading now!


KF 645 25SEP 5 HELCPH 2115 2155 -AR8
DL8423 26SEP 6 CPHCDG 0705 0905 -320 (operated by AF)
DL8504 26SEP 6 CDGATL 1040 1415 -343 (operated by AF)
DL1647 26SEP 6 ATLSTL 1901 1951 -MD8
DL6387 27SEP 7 STLCVG 0800 1014 -CRJ
DL5199 27SEP 7 CVGCAE 1105 1223 -CRJ
DL5500 27SEP 7 CAEATL 1355 1501 -CRJ
DL1167 27SEP 7 ATLSNA 1612 1755 -73W
DL1100 28SEP 1 SNASLC 0645 0930 -73H
DL1925 28SEP 1 SLCLAS 1100 1122 -73H
DL1656 30SEP 3 LASSLC 1040 1305 -738
DL1225 30SEP 3 SLCSNA 1350 1445 -M90
DL2893 01OCT 4 SNAMSP 0725 1307 -319 (operated by NW)
DL3928 01OCT 4 MSPIMT 1530 1656 -SF3 (operated by NW)
DL3924 02OCT 5 IMTESC 0545 0727 -SF3 (operated by NW)
DL3924 02OCT 5 ESCDTW 0747 0930 -SF3 (operated by NW)
DL3103 02OCT 5 DTWLGA 1155 1348 -D9S (operated by NW)
DL6546 02OCT 5 LGACHS 1510 1732 -CRJ
DL1521 02OCT 5 CHSATL 1915 2041 -M88
DL5261 03OCT 6 ATLIAD 0831 1029 -CR9
DL8331 03OCT 6 IADCDG 2155 1130+1 -772 (operated by AF)
LH4249 04OCT 7 CDGMUC 1705 1835 -320
LH3116 04OCT 7 MUCHEL 1935 2300 -320

or in a more layman-friendly layout with a map:

Day 1. Helsinki-Copenhagen
Day 2. Copenhagen-Paris-Atlanta-St Louis
Day 3. St Louis-Cincinnati-Columbia-Atlanta-Santa Ana
Day 4. Santa Ana-Salt Lake City-Las Vegas
Day 6. Las Vegas-Salt Lake City-Santa Ana
Day 7. Santa Ana-Minneapolis-Iron Mountain
Day 8. Iron Mountain-Escanaba-Detroit-New York-Charleston-Atlanta
Day 9-10. Atlanta-Washington-Paris-Munich-Helsinki


Anyway, let's get started with the flying, shall we?