Trip Report: ABQ-LAX-ANC-LAX-ABQ

Hi everyone,

I finally find sometimes to sit down and to go through my flight logs. This set of flights is my last official mileage runs. They are designed to maintain my MVP status for AS next year and I actually have a whole set of safe and uneventful flights with AS this past weekend. The AS staffs continue to impress me and it is an enjoyable set of flights. WN has always been one of the airlines that I hate, but flying its latest Boeing 737-700 and in not too crowded hours (or flying through PHX) actually make these two flights very nice. The F/As are not being overly playful but helpful. The ground staffs are not rude and flying a new airplane improves my impression with WN.

June 10, 2000
WN 931 ABQ-LAX Lv0955 Arr1105
Boeing 737-700 (my first) N714CB

My first flight with a Boeing 737 next generation finally happened this weekend. For WN, the interior of the airplane is very nice (clean) and the ceiling with the curve is really nice. It really makes the plane brighter and more stylish. The overhead bin is very nicely done. They are the enlarged kind. For WN, the bulkhead rows are spacious and with much legroom, but no tray table. You have to hold your drink if you are happened to be in a full flight. I guess you can use a pillow like a long time ago. The emergency exit rows had 11ABC with much legroom, but on the other side, only 12F has the most legroom. The right side resembles the exit arrangement on Boeing 737 Classics. With a pair of seats occupying the exit row… I don't really know how to explain… maybe someone can help me out. In terms of seat comfort, it is about the same as Boeing 737 Classics - the increase in width is not obvious on either AS or WN. For the noise level in the aircraft, it does not dramatic decrease the amount of noise. If not, it is more noisier during takeoff, due to the powerful thrust of the engines. The high pitch noises featured by Airbus can also be found at Boeing 737NG too. Boeing 737NG is designed to help the airlines to save money, rather than increasing comfort for passengers. Its climb out rate is fast and on both WN flights, we were up to 39,000ft or 41,000ft within twenty minutes. Not usual… I can imagine AS and WN saving tons of money. After flying the 737NG, I can fairly say that I still like the A319/320 better.

My WN flight actually originated from Tampa, and it arrived much earlier than the ETA. It was on the ground for 50 minutes, which was not usual for WN. We were parked at Gate A6 and boarding began at 9:38am. The flight was pretty full on the outbound flight, but due to early boarding times, everyone was not rushing. I took 12F and the legroom was tremendous, but the noise level was pretty high sitting next to the engine. Anyway, we closed the door at 9:53pm, and took off from ABQ at 10am. Our flying time was an hour and thirty-eight minutes with 39,000 feet as our cruising attitude. For snack today, it was a big pack of snack mix, which I declined. Fortunately, the F/As came back with peanuts. Drink service was pretty much completed by 10:50am and the F/As retired into the back galley. Descent began at 11:05am and we landed at LA at 10:38am. We parked at Gate 7 this morning. It is a nice and smooth flight.

AS 457 LAX-SEA Lv1238 Arr1517
Boeing 737-400 N795AS with new interior and seats
I still could not check in with the kiosk due to my upgrade situation. Then I decided to skip the long check-in line and went straight to the gate. I used my Platinum Visa upgrades today and was all set. Since I spent much time at T3 lately, I decided to pay a visit to the TWA Amabassador club (AS and AA shared this lounge too). I walked up the very creepy looking stairs and entered a very nice room. They collected my pass and the lounge was pretty deserted despite of 2 TWA flights. The view was actually excellent. I grabbed a glass of juice and a muffin, and moved to the window. The muffin tasted fine and during the hour I was there, I spotted the arrival of many Asian airlines. SQ, MH, TG… the most special of all, it was CX 882 from HKG. The plane used was the Spirit of Hong Kong 2000, and it was very nice. I missed home. The design was quite cute, but the Japanese airlines seem to have funnier designs. My favorite is the ANA's Snoppy and Peanuts livery. I also saw BA's G-CIVC with the Netherlands' design.

AS plane came in from SEA slightly early and we began boarding at 12:15am. Another pretty full flight… I had an interesting conversation with my neighbor, who actually paid full fare F class. He was actually very nice. Anytime the door was closed on time and for some reasons, we did not have the bottled water service, due to mistakes from the catering company. We pushed back at 12:44pm and took off at 12:59pm. On the take-off run, I got an excellent view of the arrays of aircraft parked at the imperial terminal. It had seven airplanes sitting there and I could imagine the nightmares at Tom Bradley this morning. Lan Chile's Boeing 767-300, Varig's MD-11, JAL's MD-11 from Nagoya, Thai's Boeing 747-400, SQ's Boeing 747-400, Phillipines' A340, and Egyptair's Boeing 777 were all parked at this faraway imperial terminal, which were busy loading and unloading. Could you imagine the line at Tom Bradley? Anyway, we leveled off at 31,000ft and flying time was two hours and twelve minutes. Unfortunately, this lunch service was the same as my PHX-SEA flight, except a choice of a warmed sandwich. It was an one-tray affair and F/A did not give us a separate beverage service. With the wide amount of time and the limited lunch service, a separate nuts and drink service is not too much to ask for. The lunch entrée choices were
Chargrilled chicken breast salad with roll, or a warmed ham and cheese sandwich with potato salad. I chose the sandwich, which was nice but definitely not enough. The salad looked bigger though. There was also one single Almond Roca for dessert. My neighbor thought that the meal was pretty skimpy, which was eventually echoed by everyone. It was not only me… It was really a bit too little. I felt more filling during a Y class dinner snack flight. The F/A was super nice and tried to grab us extra cookies and candies, as she cleared the Y class cabin. She told us that it was pretty bad and apologized for AS' lack of luster lunch service. I wrote my comment card again because I thought that having F class passengers screaming hungry was a pretty bad scene. There was actually full-fare paying F passengers and F class should get a filling lunch. I actually recommend a fruit salad to start the meal or a larger sandwich, additional sides, or a separate dessert service. The food tasted great but the lunch service was a shame to look at. Anyway, flight moved on and we landed at Sea-Tac at 3:11pm. I saw two NW's Japanese bound planes (NRT and KIX) waiting at the threshold. We parked at gate D10 quickly.

AS 161 SEA-ANC Lv1742 Arr2005
Boeing 737-700 N611AS
I had quite a wait, so I bought myself a non-dairy Mango yogurt, and went to see planes at the C concourse. Nothing much to report, except SAS's Boeing 767-300 and WN's Nevada One (special WN Boeing 73G livery).
Finally it was an AS' Boeing 737-700. Parked at D5, this flight was fully booked and they looked for three volunteers - not me with this new airplane and a new aircraft. We boarded at 5:18pm and door was closed at 5:40pm. It was completely full. The F/A, Barry, was a very nice F/A and kept our glasses filled during the whole flight. We did not have bottled waters due to late catering (a common theme at SEA this time). Barry came with a tray of iced water in plastic cups instead. Better than nothing… Similar with WN, the engines were pretty powerful and the thrust sounded very powerful. We took off at 5:50pm and climbed to 35,000ft by 6:07pm. It was pretty impressive. Flying time was a little bit over three hours.

Barry began dinner with an almond service. The dinner actually was pretty much the same as other dinner flights. There was no additional course or better dessert service, as other SEA-LAX flights. Only Y class passengers see the difference, with hot meal on trays service. Anyway, no printed menu, but I will create one myself…

Garden Fresh salad (two tomato wedges, cucumber slices, one large slice of yellow pepper, some radish slices, red cabbage and lettuces) with Albuquerque Ranch dressing, and a warmed white roll.

Choices of Pork tenderloin with mushroom sauce, accompanied by broccoli and carrots
Or
Sauteed shrimps with a curry sauce, accompanied by rice pilaf and stir-fried vegetables
(Last time, I had this entrée. There were half of dozen of shrimps… now only three. Anyway, it was a very good entrée. The pork tenderloin actually looked okay {my neighbor chose this entrée} and did not look overwhelmingly dry.)

Dessert - A Country fruit pie (apple and peaches - okay - ice-cream will be better)

The food was okay and we hit a couple rough air spots. We began to descend at 8:27pm and we touched down at 7:45pm local ANC time. A pretty nice flight. The plane featured nice seats, which will find its ways into Boeing 737-400s as well.

I spent the night at Northern Lights hotel. It was a very basic hotel with sufficient facilities and clean bathroom. However the price ($104) was a bit much for such quality. I guess ANC hotels only had the summer seasons to make money. The shuttle driver told me that the price actually would hike up again the following week.
AS 192 ANC-SEA Lv1214 Arr1636
MD-80 N948AS
Another day of adventure at Anchorage International Airport. For fellow plane-spotters, morning is a great time to plane spots at ANC, especially the summer season with literally many cargo Boeing 747 planes parking all over the place. With the opening of the new concourse at ANC, there will be more plane spotting opportunity. There may be a new observation deck, too. Anyway, JAL Logistics Cargo, Nippon Air Cargo, Korean Air Cargo, Asiana Cargo, Fed Ex, and Evergreen International basically composed the massive cargo fleet on the grounds at ANC. The Korean Air Cargo looks beautiful - that blue livery is some of the best in the sky. Also, I saw two Gemini Air Cargo's MD-11F planes - what airline is it? Then, I saw Atlas Air's latest cargo livery, especially with the enlarged letter and the registration number is N412MC. Then I saw a CX's Boeing 747-400F parked at ANC (B-HUF) for the whole time I was there. Maybe a mechanical problem??? The two passengers flights - China Airlines' Boeing 747-400 and Cathay's A340s were there that morning. Then I want to ask a question regarding this Boeing 737-200 (N736BP) with the yellow and green stripes.

Check-in was an easy process. AS agents were always nice and friendly. They made sure that you were all set for your trip. We boarded this MD-80 at 11:44am and door was closed at 12:14pm. Taxiing was relatively quick and we took off at 12:29pm. Today's flight was a lunch service, and I hope it would be better than my lunch on SEA-LAX. The quantity of the food improved a bit, but it needed to be better, especially on a major trunk route between SEA and ANC. It was a three hour flight and we were cruising at 33,000ft. The meal service began with a mixed nut service (in a package of course - the same Econax company) and beverage service. Then, there was a choice of this one tray affair lunch. I had the salmon cold plate, which was basically a large but tasteless poached salmon with pasta salad and warmed French roll. The other choice was a hot roasted beef sandwich (much bigger than the ham and cheese sandwich) with home fries. Dessert was a Seattle's best chocolate candy. Once again, passengers were shocked at this so-called lunch service. The Y class sandwich looked pretty good. Anyway, the flight was pretty smooth until we were closer to Seattle. We began to descent at 3:16pm. Then we arrived at 4:37pm local time. C3 was the gate and I proceeded to my next flight.

AS 584 SEA-LAX Lv1733 Arr2006 MD-80 N968AS
This flight was late due to the late arrival from Phoenix. Our flight was completely full but no volunteers were needed. Flying time was just over two hour and we cruised up to 33,000ft. The whole flight was within layers of cloud. D10 was the gate and boarding did not take place until 5:25pm. The flight crew actually just started their word day. Their flights today were our flight and the nonstop LAX-ANC flight. Not too bad! Boarding took place at 5:25pm and the catering truck was once again late. Door was closed at 5:52pm. Till to traffic jams on the alley ways, we did not push back till 6:13pm. We took off at 6:22pm.

Dinner service was the meal. The dinner was exactly the same as the day before. The entrée choices were a filet mignon with gravy, red potatoes and mixed veggies, or shrimp curry. I think AS needs some variety on dinner flights, especially northbound and southbound. Most passengers are likely to fly ANC-SEA-West Coast, and it is pretty sad to have the same meals twice within a day. I guess AS can work on it after it cleans up its image.

We landed safely at 8:21pm and was parked at Gate 30 within four minutes. Another record for LAX.

WN 2128 LAX-ABQ Lv0655 Arr0940
Boeing 737-700 N741SA
This flight was not full at all with about 55 passengers. I took my 1A seat this time without trouble, since I was the first one in line for both check-in and boarding. I was proud of my boarding pass #1. The plane was there overnight and we boarded at 6:39am. Door was closed at 6:55am and we took off at 7:01am, due to the light traffic at LAX this morning. Drinks and animal crackers are service today. Bags of raisins were available too. The F/As actually kept refilling our drinks and she was very nice. The aircraft was pretty new and I had a decent flight. Flying time was one hour and thirty-one minutes, and we cruised at 41,000ft - very unusual for a domestic flight. We descent to 33,00ft at 8:17am and landed at 9:32pm ABQ time. It was a decent flight.

One note though - I noticed a UAL special flight to LAX. The flight number was 8871 and I heard a boarding announcement. It did not seem to have many passengers. It was a Boeing 727-200 flight. I was a bit surprised. I wish DGS was here. If DGS was here, he would have the answer… Anyway, that's it folks!
Thanks for reading!


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Carfield
Menu Scavengers
Inflight food critics