LPDAL

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Map generated by the Great Circle Mapper - copyright Karl L. Swartz.
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Trip Report # 28, High School Is Over: Delta First Class, 757-200s of DL/NW+Hampton Inn FLL✈DTW✈SLC✈PDX

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FOREWORD
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After I forked over all my United miles on an award roundtrip to Portland, Maine in late January / early February 2015, I began thinking about booking trips with my [then] remaining miles on AA, which had recently absorbed US Airways Dividend Miles, and DL with their colloquially - known "SkyPesos" program. As with my trip to ME, I wanted to actually stay a night and explore the city that I was going to visit rather than just performing a quick turn back to South Florida.

And for awhile after my Northeastern voyage, I knew exactly what destination I wanted to visit: the -other- Portland across the Rockies in Oregon.


Map generated by the Great Circle Mapper - copyright Karl L. Swartz.
I've visited Portland, so now I'm going to go cross country and visit Portland.



I knew about PDX from flying Delta BusinessElite (now Delta One, in this A330, replacing the angle - flat PMNW World Business Class pods with Weber Cirrus suites) on BOS-AMS-BOS. Wait a second, LPDAL travels internationally? Sure! Been all around the world, just recently I've decided to focus on the domestic sector before I move onto the international market.

While flying back with my parents from Europe to Boston on Delta, my dad reclined his eggshell - shaped recliner and found a boarding pass jammed into the cracks between the seat cushions that read PORTLAND (PDX) - AMSTERDAM (AMS). I didn't think much of it following that journey, but managed to maintain a dim awareness within my cerebral regions that Delta had a small "hub" of sorts in PDX (they don't classify it officially as a hub, but have several non-hub destinations such as AMS and HNL with a decent amount of flights).

Three years passed, and in May 2015, I graduated from High School. WIthin the 21-day advanced purchase regulations, I managed to snag a single-way itinerary on Delta in first class, all on 757s, to PDX doing FLL-DTW-SLC-PDX. Since I hadn't been to DTW or SLC in literally ages, and the fact that it was all 757s, the first part of the trip was in the bag. At 37,500 miles, it was just under the 38,200 miles I'd stored up for a few months. But how do I get back to South Florida?

In my quest to fly every airline's domestic first class within the USA, I had crossed every carrier off my list down to four that I needed to catch: Alaska Airlines First Class, JetBlue Mint Suites, Virgin America First Class, and Sun Country Airlines First Class. While I didn't have this goal specifically in mind when I checked out AAdvantage with a little over 40,000 miles in my account, I did have the idea that somewhere in there, I'd love to fit a transcon on American Airlines' 777-200 Flagship First Class Suites on LAX-MIA. Previously, within AA's redemption system I had noted that the saver award level, marked in violet, was 32,500 miles one-way. With my miles in hand and a sweaty pair of palms, I checked out AA's booking system for those elusive SAAver tickets.

And that's where I hit a slight snag. The day right after I flew into PDX on Delta, I'd be arriving near midnight on Saturday, May 30th, 2015. However, the only AA award available the next day for the three class 772 in First was leaving on Alaska Airlines First Class (YAY!) around 9:00 AM on Sunday, May 31st, 2015 in PDX to connect to the Boeing 777 in LAX, meaning I'd have no time at all to experience the other Portland (outside the airport, that is).

I tried to match up other days, but neither airline had a Saturday-Sunday matching-up itinerary that would work with the other (and trying to match up one way award tickets on two separate airlines is absolutely miserable, let me tell you.) even at the furthest away bookable month, which was sometime in 2016. I then checked other destinations in the west that I wanted to visit, Reno, Aspen, Eagle / Vail, Cheyenne, Colorado Springs, Boise...Nothing would result in a match.

Finally, after 6 excruciating hours of fruitless efforts to make Delta and American to play nice, I decided that the tradeoff of not going to be able to actually visit the city was one that I could live with, given the variety of Boeing aircraft and air carriers on this trip. *** I booked both airlines' mileage redemption, and snored away.

*** - Rest assured that I was impressed enough with PDX as a whole that I am going to make an effort to spend a two night trip there in the future. I'm looking at AS-only itineraries inolving QX and VooDoo Donuts to return to PDX on a two night revenue trip in which I will actually visit the city, so stay tuned.


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The sibling rivalry has ended between DL and AA, but only if certain compromises are reached.

This nighttrip will be divided up into three separate reports, the first being this one with Delta's various [Domestic] first class cabins on their Boeing 757-200s on FLL-DTW-SLC-PDX, the second reporting on Alaska Airlines First Class, their Board Room Lounge and Delta's Sky Club in PDX, and a bus spotting tour of the LAX ramp. Finally, the third, which will be my 30th report, will review American Airlines Flagship First Class on their 777-200 and their associated International First Class lounge in LAX.

Enjoy the ride!

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† - Full permission granted by the captain to post and use this picture.

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Trip Report 28 is dedicated to all past, current, and present employees of Delta Air Lines and the merged carriers before it.

LPDAL

KFLL (Fort Lauderdale - Hollywood International Airport / Broward County International Airport / Naval Air Station Fort Lauderdale / Merle Fogg Airport) ✈ KDTW (Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport / Detroit Metro Airport / Metro Airport / Romulus Field / Wayne County Airport)

• Airline: Delta Air Lines
• Airline IATA Code: IATA Code # DL
• Airline IACO Code: IACO Code # DAL
• Airline Callsign: Radio Callsign DELTA
• Airline Flight Number: # DL1804 (IATA) / DAL1804 (ICAO)
• Aircraft / Equipment Used for Flight : Boeing 757-251(WL)
• Aircraft / Equipment Registration: Registration # N540US, formerly N540US with Northwest Airlines at delivery as of April 15th, 1996
• Airline Aircraft / Equipment Fleet Number: # 5640, formerly 5640 as N540US with Northwest Airlines at delivery as of April 15th, 1996
• Aircraft / Equipment Nationality: United States of America - FAA - Registered Aircraft / Equipment
• Aircraft's First Flight: April 2nd, 1996
• Aircraft's Age as of Date of Flight: 19.3 Years Old as of May 30th, 2015
• Aircraft Test Registration: N540US
• Aircraft Config: C24W18Y132, formerly C20Y162 as N540US with
• Northwest Airlines at delivery as of April 15th, 1996
• Aircraft Construction Number (MSN) : # 26487
• Aircraft Line Number: # 701
• Aircraft Delivery Date: To Delta Air Lines as N540US: October 29th, 2008, to Northwest Airlines as N540US: October 29th, 2008
• Aircraft Powerplant (s) : 2x Pratt and Whitney Canada PW2037 High Bypass Turbofan Engines, formerly 2x Pratt and Whitney Canada PW2037 High Bypass Turbofan Engines as N540US with Northwest Airlines at delivery as of April 15th, 1996
• Aircraft Owned by / Leased from: OWNED by Delta Air Lines
• Meal: Lunch
• Cabin: Delta Air Lines Domestic First Class
• Seat Assignment: 6A
• A/C Equipped with IFE: Yes, shared overhead LCD screens in all cabins
• A/C Equipped with Wi-Fi Wireless Internet Access: Yes, GoGo Inflight Wi-Fi Available for purchase
• Airline Flight Date: Saturday, May 30th, 2015
• Boarding Call Time: 1:10 PM EST, Saturday, May 30th, 2015
• Boarding Zone: 1, First Class / PREM / Sky Priority
• Departure Time: 1:50 PM EST, Saturday, May 30th, 2015
• Departure Gate / Jetway: Gate / Jetway D8, Concourse D, Terminal 2 (Red Terminal), FLL
• Arrival Time: 4:50 PM EST, Saturday, May 30th, 2015
• Arrival Gate / Jetway: Gate / Jetway A66, Concourse A, Edward Howard McNamara Terminal, DTW
• Time Aloft: 2 hours 27 minutes (147 minutes)
• Filed Speed: 450 KIAS
• Filed Cruising Altitude: 39,000 feet
• Flight Distance: Direct: 1,131 SM | Planned: 1,202 SM | Flown: 1,199 SM
• Routing Waypoint (s) : D8 FLL ARKES3 ARKES J113 CRG J53 SPA HNN WEEDA2 DTW A66

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Boarding passes for this flight. Top: 8.5'' x 11'' Printer Paper; Bottom: Delta Air Lines Agent - Printed Receipt Stock


FlightAware for this flight. Copyright © FlightAware 2015



The great thing about arriving at your final destination in the armpit of midnight is that you don't have to start traveling in the wee hours in the morning, which may sound weird coming from me when most of my trips start at or near 5:00 AM, but recently I've realized the benefit of afternoon departures. Starting out with the fact that producing decent quality pictures is much easier when the sky is baby blue, you don't have to worry about the glare of a Starbucks location impounding your picture of the plane you'll be riding on, and you don't have to wait for TSA to open.

After I checked my trusty green roll-a-board suitcase, I hoofed it through the TSA checkpoint without being groped too severely, but didn't immediately head into the Sky Club. As I had only a few high quality photos of FLL's Terminal 2, I walked around photographing the terminal (without flash, still getting strange looks) before taking refuge in the Sky Club. In the clubroom I was slightly disappointed to see that the same food options were available as the last time I had used this lounge in November of 2014, but the variety was good enough still that I didn't really mind. Plus, they did rotate the soups out from what I had slurped back last fall. Finally, they made some small aesthetic improvements such as adding blue moodlighting and cleaning up a few areas, so that was quite pleasant to experience as well.


The Terminal I grew up in: FLL's Terminal 2, the "Red" terminal which encompasses a single Concourse D. Ironically, most of the year, D serves mostly Delta with a splash of Air Canada here and there.


Terminal 2 isn't earth shocking, but at least the ceilings aren't as low as EWR's Terminal A.


A bit of a line in the Sky Priority lane, which was renovated back in the fall.


Finding yourself a seat shouldn't be an issue in Terminal 2.


Silver Airways (IATA: 3M, ICAO: SIL) has since relocated all their ramp boarding operations from Gate C5 to Gate C8 in Terminal 1's Concourse C. Not sure what the reasoning behind this was, as both gates have the same parking area.


Air Canada A320 docked at Gate D4, with the Fort Lauderdale skyline on the left. Air Canada mainline will soon be wholly replaced at FLL by their lower cost subsidiary Rouge, which is good for aviation geeks as the OAG states that Rouge will send up to six weekly Boeing 767-300s down here.
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Newly renovated, oddly, as the Sky Club at FLL is slated to be completely re-designed by 2017. I wouldn't hold my breath though, I'd actually by surprised if construction starts by 2017, considering how long it took them just to renovate a ticket counter...



Now with a half - halo of cerulean moodlighting, and new metal logo behind the check - in desk as well.





Real food in the Sky Club: Chicken Noodle Soup and some other bisque, ranch / balsamic dressing, tomato / pepper salad, iceberg lettuce, hummus, vegetable sticks, white chocolate chip / snicker doodle cookies, crackers, hard boiled eggs, two varieties of snack mix, and Orville Redenbacher's buttered popcorn. I was dismayed to see that they removed the corn salad, that was one of my favorite choices, but regardless, it's nice to have "real" food over the munchies of yesteryear.


Chow down!


Not the best idea to be flying a drone near LGA (or JFK, or EWR, or TEB, or ISP....) or in that airspace at all...


Checking the FIDS before I head to my gate to board, note that the BCAD (Broward County Aviation Department) has changed the previous navy color scheme to a more charcoal note of hue.

LPDAL

In Florida, it is pretty common to have a vast assortment of wheelchair passengers on outbound flights, and this flight was not an exception to that rule; we had seven wheelchair passengers with three Eulen America agents to help them board. Once they were settled, boarding began just past 2:00 PM EST, and I was the second to briskly stroll down the jetway and turn left into first class. What I found in the forward cabin was a complete shock...


My ride up to the hub of the American automotive industry would be N540US, an INTERPORT Boeing 757-200 that despite having a DL paint scheme applied, was actually pretty exotic. Also, note the heavy clouds: Summer in Fort Lauderdale means hot, humid weather occasionally interspersed by nasty gray thunderstorms! Luckily, I made it out before those puffy cotton balls got too engorged.


Boarding through the 757's famous 2L door, have you ever planned to do something and it turns out completely different?


Well, this was certainly unexpected.

My original 757 for this flight was supposed to be a Pre-Merger Delta 757-200 with the 26F / personal TV configuration, so stumbling into a Pre-Merger Northwest cabin was a bit of a surprise. For those who don't know, Delta has way too many 757 configurations and widely varying hard products, especially in first class. In our numerical system, the highest place value is centillion (1000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 000000000000000000000
00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 00000000000000000000
00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 00000000000000000000
00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 00000000000000000000
000000000000000000000000; 10 to the 303rd or 600th power, depending on what classification is used), but Delta has surpassed that in their number of 757 configurations, so my tiny brain is unable to list all of them.

In any event, Interport was the pre-merger and post merger name given to Delta's Intra-Asia operations that largely stem from Tokyo, Japan's Narita International Airport (IATA: NRT, ICAO: RJAA). Pre-Merger Northwest ran this system, which served major destinations in Asia such as Osaka, Japan (IATA: KIX, ICAO: RJBB), Bangkok-Suvarnabhumi (IATA: BKK, ICAO: VTBS), Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands (IATA: SPN, ICAO: PGSN), and others. PMNW ran these services using their A330-200/300, specially configured 757-200, and 747-400 aircraft. Post 2008, the Northwest Inter Asia network continued on under the Delta Air Lines brand. Most recently, however, these operations have been drawn down in favor of joint venture codeshare and interlining agreements with alliance partners instead of USA-based airlines' own airplanes. Whether Delta and United, who also maintains their own intra - Asian flight system, will continue to offer these flights remains to be seen.

Why am I discussing Interport? The cabin you see above is actually that of a pre - merger Northwest Airlines Interport 757-200. Apparently, an equipment sub occurred, rendering this to be my utilized airframe instead of the originally intended pre - merger Delta 757. In any event, there are a few majorly noticeable differences between this particular config and others. First of all, the tray table is in the seatback even in first class, which apparently bothers a ton of people for whatever reason, there are fold-down footrests on every first class seat, and the upholstery is solid blue leather absent the usual teal stripe seen in the middle of other DL premium hard products. These seats do in fact have audio entertainment but no PTVs, overhead entertainment is provided on flat screen monitors every few pairs of seats. Nevertheless, these seats are nicely padded and pretty back - supporting, so I didn't miss the lack of personal entertainment screens.


Pre - Merger Northwest Airlines Interport first class seat 6A. One area Delta beats United in is that without request, a pillow, blanket, and a set of earbuds are provided at every seat along with a miniature Dasini water bottle. While the "bedding" is much too thin for my own taste, I do appreciate the little touches like this that actually go a long way to make the experience better.


Tray tables in the seatback along with footrests at every seat, decent legroom as well here.


Of course, there has to be a CCV (complimentary cockpit visit)! Full permission granted by the captain to post and use these pictures.



Both pilots asked to be in my report, so I accommodated their request. Full permission granted by the captain to post and use these pictures.


Observer station behind the main flight deck thoroughfare, what I'd do to sit here! Definitely better than any first class seat...


Across from that was this switch panel, a by product of where a flight engineer station used to be located on older Boeing models.


I'm happy to be out of high school, at a new, well paying office job, and having my own vehicle. Now all I have to do is find an apartment near my office, and I'll be set.


You may be a frequent flier, but did you know the rigorous course work a pilot must go through before they can work for the airlines? Here is an example of a video-guided test prep course for ATP, or Airline Transport Pilot, the pinnacle of a commercial pilot's career: the last cert they must obtain before they can become an airline aviator. From zero to 1,500 hours required by the FAA to obtain ATP, a fledgling airline pilot will typically pay upwards of $80,000 for flight lessons, hence 2015 [and beyond] ongoing pilot shortage.


My PDB of Coca Cola was waiting for me when I walked back to my seat in preparation for departure.


Amazingly enough, 6B went out empty, which is almost unheard of on DL flights out of FLL...Awesome!!!

In my last report, I received a request from a reader to describe how ground movement and the takeoff of my flights feels. One of the most distinct feelings that I sense when we're about to depart is the attachment of the towbar, which is amplified by the fact that since I'm sitting up front, the nose gear is in closer proximity and thus the jolt is much more noticeable. Even before that, however, sometimes the rampers will be loading baggage into the hold under first class on some airplanes when I'm boarding, and you can feel the slight bumps and rebound sounds of baggage hitting the metal of the fuselage, which also occurred on this flight. While it isn't as noticeable on planes that are higher off the ground, I still enjoy the little noises.

Luckily, there wasn't that much traffic in front of us as we taxied to Runway 10L, we only had to wait a few moments while a tandem of Southwest 737s blasted out before it was our turn. And I don't know when the last time Runway 10L was repaired or repaved but this takeoff combined with the high acceleration rate of the mighty 757 caused it to feel like we were taking off on a children's bounce house, making me have to bruise my shoulders to keep my camera steady for a takeoff video and pictures! 757s have gigantic engines for the size of the airframe itself (you'll notice that on the 757 the nacelles have a circular inlet instead of the smaller oblong opening on the 737, which brings much faster acceleration), so we were out over the Atlantic in no time. Just as we turned back to face the shore on the ARKES3 departure procedure, I noticed my [parent's] house and snapped a few pictures of it. My [parent's] residence is, interestingly enough, right near navigation waypoint SECOR, give or take a few hundred feet. This made sense to me, as I'd often see (and hear) planes roaring directly over my [parent's] house when I was on one of the balconies, so it was pretty cool to see it passing by below.


FAA KFLL Airport Diagram, with our taxi path to our departure runway, Runway 10L, marked in orange.


Pushback. The windows of seat 6A in most Delta 757s are in poor condition as they are right near door 2L which is most commonly used for boarding, causing the components of the jetway to rub up against the pane and cause abrasions.


If you are seated in the first or business class cabins, life vests are located beneath or adjacent to your seat.
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VIDEO -Delta Air Lines Boeing 757-232 Pratt and Whitney Canada PW2000 *TAKEOFF AND KFLL ARKES3 DEPARTURE* from Runway 10L Fort Lauderdale - Hollywood International Airport - VIDEO
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If you are having trouble watching this video due to slow loading times on Flickr, Click HERE / On this sentence to download it directly to your computer for viewing.
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FAA KFLL ARKES3 (ARKES3.ARKES) RNAV departure procedure that we used that afternoon.


Buzzing over Port Everglades, what my city is known for. Two points of interest: First, on the left, you'll notice a jetway - looking device that looks a lot like ones at the airport I just departed from. The main difference between cruise ship gangways and airplane jetways is that the former usually has completely translucent, glass walls instead of the opaque metal barriers at airports. Secondly, nearly all large - size vessels have a helipad onboard for either evacuation or other emergency purposes, along with equipment on the bridge (the "cockpit" of a large ship) for communicating with air rescue.


Cabin at cruise, right before the serving of lunch.

The last time I flew to Detroit to connect on Delta was in June of 2011, so I was excited for that and not to be going to dreaded ATL. This meant that I'd be able to sample Delta's recently - improved domestic first class catering! Choices were between a cold mixed greens salad with honey - garlic breaded chicken, or some type of artisan panini. However, by the time the F/A got to my row, only the salad remained, so I savored that instead. I do not have any elite status on DL, but I've heard they use some sort of "FEBO" or "BEFO" system for domestic first class meal ordering, so that may have had something to do with it. Complete order of service:

1. Hot Towel Service
2. Your drink of choice
3. A choice of two entrees:
...a) Artisan Panini
...b) Cold Mixed Greens Salad topped with Honey - Garlic Breaded Chicken
4. Dessert:
...a) Dancing Deer Baking Company Sugar Molasses Wrapped Cookie
5. Snack Basket Service
6. Water Bottle Service
7. More drinks of your choice until descent begins.


Hot towel service, though Delta clearly loses here as United uses full - sized cloths.


An ice cold glass of ginger ale to start out the meal service on this flight.


Spying on meal preparation in the most forward galley of this 757.


Main course: Mixed green salad topped with fried chicken (you have to top the salad yourself, which is what I did.), which was pretty nice, loved the amount of diced cucumbers and carrots within it. The breast of chicken was pretty decent but could've used a little more honey - garlic seasoning, as it was a tad bland in overall flavor. As for wrapped deserts, Delta loses over here as well, because on United and AA, the flight attendants actually warm up frozen cookies onboard, which will always be infinitely more tasty than cellophane sheathed confections. Overall, not the best meal I've had on an airplane, but it ranks right up there nonetheless.


Considering my original connection from FLL-DTW to DTW-SLC was only 40 minutes, this was relieving news!


Snack basket service after lunch, which my aisle - mates seemed to really enjoy.


Finally, a second water bottle. Delta's got some really thorough service standards, I tell you...


Checking out the moving map after I bought some GoGo Inflight Wi-Fi time. Wait a minute...


That's the nicest picture of a 757 I've ever seen! LOL!!!! What happened here? I'm pretty sure the plane I'm on at the moment has no upper deck and TWO engines, not four...Funniest bug I've seen on an airline website by far! :P


Greenville Spartanburg International Airport (IATA: GSP, ICAO: KGSP) in Greer, South Carolina, looks nice enough.


The inflight entertainment monitors would be useful if I could actually tell what the heck is going on...This isn't actually an issue with the screen, rather whatever media medium the show was stored on, as the screens were clear when they showed ads on the ground at FLL.


Yeager Airport (IATA: CRW, ICAO: KCRW), Charleston, West Virginia is not to be confused with Charleston Air Force Base / International Airport (IATA: CHS, ICAO: KCHS) in Charleston, South Carolina. Deja vu with PDX and PWM, no?
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Yucky thunderstorms coating a large portion of the midwest, including Detroit.
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Fell asleep just after looking at West Virginia, and woke up to find I had arisen just in time for our descent.

The bout of luck that ensured that I would be able to successfully escape from South Florida did not seem to accompany me on this afternoon's / early evening's descent into southeastern Michigan; we ended up needing to plow through several barriers of thick storm clouds just to utilize our approach plate, KDTW's WEEDA TWO (WEEDA2.WEEDA) RNAV approach. Of course, the whole way down we were bumped, jostled, thrown about, the whole nine yards, all the way up to a rather hard smackdown on DTW's Runway 22L. We made a brisk taxi on the rain - glazed apron up to Gate A66 of the Edward Howard McNamara Terminal, deplaning only a mere three minutes behind schedule (2:32 PM instead of the scheduled 2:20 PM). Since my departure gate for DTW-SLC was only a stone's throw away, I didn't worry too much about anything as I walked into DTW after having not used it for the better part of half a decade.
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VIDEO -Delta Air Lines Boeing 757-232 Pratt and Whitney Canada PW2000 *WEEDA TWO (WEEDA2.WEEDA) ARRIVAL, LANDING, TOUCHDOWN, AND ROLLOUT* into Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport - VIDEO
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If you are having trouble watching this video due to slow loading times on Flickr, Click HERE / On this sentence to download it directly to your computer for viewing.
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FAA KDTW WEEDA2 (WEEDA2.WEEDA) Landing plate, our [stormy] approach path into Detroit this early evening.


Detroit Metro Airport Arrival Information Delta, Main landing Runway 22L, transition level 50, Wind Two Three Zero Degrees at 10 knots, visibility less than 5 miles, Tempature 52 Dewpoint 50, All VFR Aircraft say direction of flight, all aircraft readback hold short instructions and advise controller you have Delta.


Delta 1804, you are 22 miles southwest. Turn left heading 200, descend and maintain 1,600, Cleared WEEDA2 approach. Maintain 1,600 until established on the localizer. Contact Detroit Approach on 124.05.


Throwing up water (and likely built - up runway gunk) as our flight crew deploys the spoilers and engages our 752s' reverse thrusters. Welcome to Detroit!


FAA KDTW Airport Diagram, with our taxi path to our assigned gate, gate A66, marked in orange.


Never thought of using FR24 at an airport, but I wish I had sooner -- it's a boatload of fun! Check it out, DL is sending 333s on the Atlanta to Detroit hub route, this one in particular being Delta Air Lines Flight DL9936 (IATA) or DAL9936 (ICAO).


Pulling up to Gate A66 in the Edward Howard McNamara Terminal at DTW, past their rather un - unique control tower.


Deplaning into DTW.


Bye sweet girl Ship 5640! Blasted dots makes it look like she is suffering from blackhead acne...Oh well.

LPDAL

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Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport / Detroit Metro Airport / Metro Airport / Romulus Field / Wayne County Airport (IATA: DTW, ICAO: KDTW)
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DTW is a very nice facility, with tall ceilings and amenities abound [at least in the McNamara terminal, that is.] However, there is one fatal setback to the airport that ticks me off somewhat: All of the windows are shielded by heat-reducing dots which pretty much ruin any chance of decent pictures out of the otherwise massive windows lining the building. If you stand back from the window, you can get a few decent shots, but not particularly good ones. Other than this simmering downfall, DTW is a classy airport with a good amount of spotting should you find a [nonexistent] window that hasn't caught the heat reducing chicken pox.

It was immediately obvious to me why my DTW-SLC flight was delayed, the ramp was being down poured on and the crackling of electrical bolts in the faraway distance was readily audible. I asked the gate agents if I had enough time to take the express tram, DTW's inter - McNamara Terminal train that runs the entire one - mile length of the building, to the nearest Sky Club, and they hesitantly murmured that I should probably stick around as the rain might miraculously clear up to the tune of angels descending from the heavens while "Hallelujah" blares on the terminal loudspeakers and the sun pierces through the omnipresent overcast.

However, I was still hungry because miniature first class chicken salads really don't hold over a 19-year-old for any significant period of time and I had an eccentric craving for French fries, so I looked around Gate A76 for a fast food joint to fufill my fast food desires. Luckily, right down the hallway from my boarding door was a Chick-A-Filet or however they ridiculously spell that, which I bought two cartons of fries from. And sure enough, in accordance with gate agent wisdom, while I'm walking back I noticed the rain has suddenly ceased so I headed back to my gate where, awesomely enough, first class boarding had already started. And thus, my short escapade in Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County International Airport (say that three times fast).


Checking a FIDS to see where my gate was. Let's see how many of the others I've been to..Philadelphia, PA: Done, Pittsburgh, PA: Done, Portland, ME: Done, Raleigh - Durham, NC: Not done, Rome: Done (apparently went to Italy with my parents when I was a little tyke), Saginaw, MI: Not done (where is that...?), Salt Lake City: Last time I was there was in July 2009, so we'll see how that field has changed, San Antonio: Done, San Diego: Done, and San Francisco: Done. Not bad....


Detroit's famous McNamara Terminal, well, a portion of it, anyway. Notice the Kanji (Japanese) characters; all the PMNW hubs seem to have them, including MSP. NW obviously had a very large Asian network!
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I was always wondering if you could hear the train as it passes by. Well, it turns out that it is actually very quiet but you can hear it a tiny bit as it slides by above. Also, I'm not sure what the purpose of the headlights are, as this train is located entirely indoors...


Got to my gate, but everything is being rained on....


...So let's get some food!
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And, as predicted, the weather makes an exception for our flight's situation, and also whatever flight Delta Air Lines December-2013-manufactured Boeing 737-932(ER)(WL) N812DN is operating, with the North DTW terminal and tower in the background. The north terminal has largely fallen out of use by DL, utilized mostly by Frontier, United Express operated by Mesa Airlines, Air Canada Express operated by Air Georgian, etc.


Air Canada Express operated by Air Georgian (IATA: ZX, ICAO: GGN) Beechcraft B1900D parked across the ramp at Gate D3B, which I'm guessing is used in tandem with D3A for ramp boarding.


Looks like this flower just got watered! Awesome, a United Tulip Livery on May 30th, 2015! Attached to a blue jetway to match the Rising Blue livery, too! The bloom is United Express operated by Trans States Airlines' (IATA: AX, ICAO: LOF) August-2004-manufactured Embraer ERJ-145LR N844HK at Gate D2. A bit of the United Express E145 and CRJ-700 fleets are still in Tulip livery, but they are quickly drying up...No pun intended...Ironically, AX's callsign is WATERSKI. Might have to use it if the rain starts back up again! :P


Let's skedaddle to Salt Lake City!

LPDAL

KDTW (Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport / Detroit Metro Airport / Metro Airport / Romulus Field / Wayne County Airport) ✈ KSLC (Salt Lake City International Airport / Salt Lake City Municipal Airport II / South Valley Regional Airport / Woodward Field)

• Airline: Delta Air Lines
• Airline IATA Code: IATA Code # DL
• Airline IACO Code: IACO Code # DAL
• Airline Callsign: Radio Callsign DELTA
• Airline Flight Number: # DL855 (IATA) / DAL855 (ICAO)
• Aircraft / Equipment Used for Flight : Boeing 757-232
• Aircraft / Equipment Registration: Registration # N6701
• Airline Aircraft / Equipment Fleet Number: # 6701, formerly 6701 as N6701 with Delta Air Lines D/B/A Song as of May 8th, 2003, formerly 6701 as N6701 with Delta Air Lines at delivery as of October 7th, 1999
• Aircraft / Equipment Nationality: United States of America - FAA - Registered Aircraft / Equipment
• Aircraft's First Flight: October 7th, 1999
• Aircraft's Age as of Date of Flight: 15.9 Years Old as of May 30th, 2015
• Aircraft Test Registration: N1786B (United States of America)
• Aircraft Config: C26W26Y32, formerly Y199 as N6701 with Delta Air Lines as N6701 as of May 8th, 2003
• Aircraft Construction Number (MSN) : # 30187
• Aircraft Line Number: # 892
• Aircraft Delivery Date: To Delta Air Lines as N6701: May 1st, 2006, To Delta Air Lines D/B/A Song as N6701: May 8th, 2003, to Delta Air Lines at delivery as N6701: October 7th, 1999
• Aircraft Powerplant (s) : 2x Pratt and Whitney Canada PW2037 High Bypass Turbofan Engines
• Aircraft Owned by / Leased from: OWNED by Delta Air Lines
• Meal: Dinner
• Cabin: Delta Air Lines Domestic First Class
• Seat Assignment: 7A
• A/C Equipped with IFE: Yes, PTVs in all cabins
• A/C Equipped with Wi-Fi Wireless Internet Access: Yes, GoGo Inflight WiFi available for purchase
• Airline Flight Date: Saturday, May 30th, 2015
• Boarding Call Time: 4:51 PM CST, Saturday, May 30th, 2015
• Boarding Zone: 1, First Class / PREM / Sky Priority
• Departure Time: 5:31 PM CST, Saturday, May 30th, 2015
• Departure Gate / Jetway: Gate / Jetway A76, Concourse A, Edward Howard McNamara Terminal, DTW
• Arrival Time: 7:18 MST, Saturday, May 30th, 2015
• Arrival Gate / Jetway: Gate / Jetway D3, Concourse D, International Terminal, SLC
• Time Aloft: 3 hours 22 minutes (202 minutes)
• Filed Speed: 464 KIAS
• Filed Cruising Altitude: 36,000 feet
• Flight Distance: Direct: 1,472 SM | Planned: 1,590 SM | Flown: 1,799 SM
• Routing Waypoint (s) : A76 DTW DUNKS J70 PMM J70 BAE ONL J148 CYS EKR LEEHY3 SLC D3

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Boarding passes for this flight. Top: 8.5'' x 11'' Printer Paper; Bottom: Agent - Printed Receipt Stock


FlightAware for this flight. Copyright © FlightAware 2015


My ride today for my flight out west would be Delta Air Lines' September-1999-manufactured Boeing 757-232 N6701, one of the most awesome short 5 character Delta 757 regs, with PTVs, and no winglets.

Boarding proceeded only forty - three minutes past the scheduled departure time, but it started raining again and so our flight was further delayed for some time. Weirdly, instead of the normal 2L door boarding procedure, we boarded from 1L this time, meaning the coach passengers had to file down first class in a line.

While pre-departure beverages were being served, one of the forward flight attendants saw me in full LPDAL button-down, slacks, wingtips and two Nikon camera gear, exclaiming "Are you making a trip report! I think I know who you are! You're ELPEEDAL!" Guilty as charged! Haha! It turns out multiple flight attendants on mainline DL are huge fans of my reports, and he said he would be back to row 7 after takeoff for a longer discussion. We pushed back an hour late, and taxied to Runway 4R, the opposite end of the runway I had previously landed on a couple hours beforehand, RWY 22L.


My seat, 7A, last row in this huge first class cabin with 26 seats.


IFE controls and those lovely little waters that always seem to be there when I'm very thirsty.


Nice legroom, but it looks like the seat cover for the seat in front of me is falling off (see the black velcro strap).
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Fizzy beverages always make everything better.
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American Airlines (Pre - Merger Trans World Airlines) April / May 1999-manufactured McDonnell Douglas MD-83 N961TW taxies by in the rain.


BRIGHTLY LIGHTED PARKING LOT 2.6 NM SW OF ARPT.
TWY H OPEN BTWN TWY H2 AND TWY G, BUT IS RESTRICTED TO ACFT WITH WINGSPAN OF 118 FT OR LESS.
TWY 'G' N OF TWY 'V' CLSD TO ACFT WITH WINGSPAN MORE THAN 171 FT. TAXILANE 'G' CLSD TO ACFT WITH WINGSPAN MORE THAN 171 FT.
BE ALERT BIRDS, WATERFOWL, ON & INVOF ARPT.
RY 21R DEPS BE ALERT FOR 'OPTICAL ILLUSION', ACFT TAXIING ON TWY 'T' MAY APPEAR AS THOUGH CROSSING RY 21R CNTRLN.
ACFT ON TWY 'F' AND TWY 'V' DO NOT BLOCK FIRE STATION EXITS.
TWY 'G' N OF TWY 'V' IS A NON-MOVEMENT AREA.
ASDE-X IN USE. OPERATE TRANSPONDERS WITH ALTITUDE REPORTING MODE AND ADS-B (IF EQUIPPED) ENABLED ON ALL TWYS AND RYS.
UNIDIRECTIONAL STOPBARS ON RY 27R WHEN BEING USED FOR TAXI.
RY ID 04X/22X SUPPORTS SECOND ILS'S (I-BZB AND I-ALA) AT RY 04L/22R.


FAA KDTW Airport Diagram, with our taxi path to our departure runway, Runway 4R, marked in orange.


Only two 747s? Where are the other fourteen? Neither of those two were N661US, the one I had rode on ATL-MSP-ATL on November 30th, 2014.



Turning onto the runway.

Unlike on the last flight, the pilots on this one seemed to jam the throttles forward and perform a rapid takeoff that really seemed to impart some serious g-forces which pushed me straight back into the cushioning of my seat. Doing the PALACE EIGHT (PALCE8.DXO) departure direct to the DUNKS intersection, which orientated us in the westward bound direction that we'd be taking to Salt Lake City. Initially, we struggled a bit to climb above the storms coating the Midwest, but once we cleared them it was mostly smooth sailing.
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VIDEO - Delta Air Lines Boeing 757-232 Pratt and Whitney Canada PW2000 *PALCE8 TAKEOFF AND DEPARTURE* out of Detroit Metro Airport - VIDEO
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If you are having trouble watching this video due to slow loading times on Flickr, Click HERE / On this sentence to download it directly to your computer for viewing.
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FAA KDTW PALACE EIGHT (PALCE8.DXO) Departure procedure, the one we followed out of DTW this evening.



Blasting out of DTW, notice the PAPI on Runway 22R / 4L says we are too high. For some reason, I found that hysterical.


...And through a rain cloud! Just watch that PW2000 suck in the rain like that!

Since I only had two boxes of fries to hold me over until my next meal, I was glad that this flight would have dinner served on it. The same quite thorough service was applied to this flight as the last, but both choices were still available:

1. Hot Towel Service
2. Your drink of choice
3. A choice of two entrees:
...a) Beef Short Rib with steamed vegetables
...b) Warm Grilled Chicken and Rice Salad with steamed vegetables and chopped side salad.
...c) Your choice of freshly baked roll
4. Dessert:
...a) Gelati Da Authentic Italian Gelatto -- Ameretto Chocolate Gelato
5. Snack Basket Service
6. Water Bottle Service
7. More drinks of your choice until descent begins.


Hot towel service, certainly refreshing!
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Coffee with dinner? Sure, why not?
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Main course: Warm Grilled Chicken and Rice Salad with steamed vegetables and chopped side salad, with a warmed sourdough roll. The chicken on this flight, though grillled, seemed to be a lot more seasoned and zesty, making it taste much better than the last segment's breaded chicken. The steamed vegetables were very good as well, just wish there was more of them instead of just a few. Regarding the salad, the vegetables were nice and crunchy, but I removed the little tomatoes as I don't really like whole ones like that. Finally, the bread was warmed and soft, which are both big quality measure in my book. Great job, Delta.


Dessert: Gelati Da Authentic Italian Gelatto -- Ameretto Chocolate Gelato. Unfortunately, an actual tableware spoon was not provided, so you had to eat it with this included Popsicle stick thing, which was a bit annoy as the Gelato was just in a freezer and as hard as a rock. Warm cookies would have been nice in this case.


To end the service, extra water and a pass of the snack basket. Those chocolate wafers were very good, have to check Publix for those when I get home....

LPDAL

Looks like we're right on the edge of SUX.


Sioux Gateway Airport/Col. Bud Day Field (IATA: SUX, ICAO: KSUX), Sioux City, Iowa, right on the western edge of the state. This field is famous for two instances, the first being that on July 19th, 1989, an United Airlines DC-10 flying DEN-ORD-PHL crash landed here killing 111 of the occupants, while 184 of the people on board survived. Luckily, the National Guard was staging a massive emergency training exercise, and was immediately available to help the victims. The entire crash was legendary because most of the landing and subsequent inverting of the stricken airframe was captured by news cameras, and because of the valiant effort of captain Alfred Haynes / Instructor Captain Dennis Fitch. Fitch died in 2012 after a long battle with brain cancer, while, as of this writing, Haynes is still alive at age 83 as of 2015. The second incident involving this airport involved the IATA and ICAO codes of "SUX" and "KSUX", respectfully, which then city mayor Craig Berenstein described as an embarrassment, appealing to the FAA for a change. The FAA responded that GWU, GYO, GYT, SGV, and GAY could be used, but these were rejected and the original SUX was kept. Now, the airport sells SUX branded merchandise, and as of this writing in mid 2015, the only airline service the airport has is a single ERJ-145 on American Eagle to Chicago - O'Hare International Airport in Illinois.

After meal service concluded, the flight attendant came back to my seat as promised and struck up a lively conversation about me and my trip reports. After I told him where my final destination was, he said that he wanted to nonrev to PWM as he himself was from Portland, Oregon, and, just like me, he wanted to see the other Portland as well! I asked him if he had a username, but he remarked that he was just a lurker for the time being, and also said that he had showed some of my previous reports to the lead flight attendant and her colleagues, who were very impressed with them as well. LPDAL is becoming known throughout the industry! Huzzah!


The moon appears over our wing, as it appears we are leaving the stratosphere into space.


Briefly passing through Wyoming, the least populated state in the union (as of this writing), on our way to Utah, over Cheyenne, the state's capital. Like SUX, Cheyenne Regional Airport (IATA: CYS, ICAO: KCYS) has only very limited once a day service to DEN on Great Lakes Airlines (IATA: ZK, ICAO: GLA) once a day. Nearby Laramie Regional Airport (IATA: LAR, ICAO: KLAR) has United Express service once a day only.
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Seeing mountains means we've hit the Rockies! And if you've ever wanted to know where one of my favorite candies got their name from...Well, here you go!
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Gorgeous water-feature-carved formations like this are all too common here in the mountain region.
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Beginning our final descent into SLC.

When we started flying downwards past huge mountain ranges, I knew we were on approach to SLC! About a third of the way into our approach, the same flight attendant who adored my reports came back and give me a hand - written "Thank You" Note, which was about the most heart warming thing that has happened to me on all 28 of these reports! I profusely thanked him, and then went back to capturing many pictures of the surrounding mountain peaks we were dodging. SLC's approach really is spectacular, we flew parallel to one mountain range to the end of it, doing an 180-degree-turn within the tight confines of the mountain valley which was really, really tight! Coming in for a somewhat slow landing, the 757 plopped hard down onto the asphalt of Runway 16R/34L with a very satisfying THUD, turning off the runway to pass the SkyWest hangar, and parked at Gate D3. As I deplaned, I once again thanked the great crew for their outstanding service, making my way into an airport I had not stepped foot in since July of 2009...
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VIDEO - Delta Air Lines Boeing 757-232 Pratt and Whitney Canada PW2000 *LEEHY3 APPROACH, LANDING, TOUCHDOWN, AND ROLLOUT* into Salt Lake City International Airport - VIDEO
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If you are having trouble watching this video due to slow loading times on Flickr, Click HERE / On this sentence to download it directly to your computer for viewing.
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FAA LEEHY THREE (LEEHY3.LEEHY) Arrival, our approach procedure for this flight.


FAA KSLC Sectionals. Brown areas mark mountainous regions.




The most heartwarming thing I've received on a trip...Thank you as well!!


The mountains were so close, it seems like I could reach out and grasp them...


As well as Bingham Canyon Mine.


Of course, we can't forget the namesake of the local metro area, Great Salt Lake.


One of the tightest turns I've ever done in a 757, swinging around to face Salt Lake City.
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THIS AIRPORT HAS BEEN SURVEYED BY THE NATIONAL GEODETIC SURVEY.
SURFACE MOVEMENT GUIDANCE CONTROL SYSTEM & LOW VISIBILITY TAXI PROCEDURES.
DUE TO TFC VOL, LCL DEPARTURE AND ARR OPNS ARE DISCOURAGED AND DLAS CAN BE EXPCD BTN 1000-1200 AND 2000-2300.
SVFR IS NOT RCMD AT THE ARPT, IF REQD, EXPT DLAS.
ANG RAMP - OPR 1430-2230Z++ MON-THU. CLSD FRI-SUN AND HOL. OFFL BUS ONLY. PPR REQ 48 HR ALL ACFT, VALID 1 HR +/- ETA. TRAN PRK/SVC EXTREMELY LTD. BASE OPS DSN 245-2274, C801-245-2274. MIL ALT HILL AFB (KHIF) 25 NM N. ALL ACFT CTC UTAH CTL (COMD POST) 20 MIN OUT WITH ETA AND REQ.
ANG RAMP - ALL ACFT CTC UTAH CONTROL WITH LDG & DEP TIMES. COMD POST DSN: 245-2416/2417; C801-245-2416/2417. PHASE II WILDLIFE ACT DURING MIGRATION/MORNING/EVENING HRS FR OCT-APR. CTC UTAH CTL FOR CURRENT BIRD-WATCH COND.
SEE FLIP AP/1 SUPPLEMENTARY ARPT INFO.
COMMUNICATIONS-ANG COMD POST: CALL UTAH CONTROL.
USE CAUTION FOR EXTENSIVE PARAGLIDING OPS INVOF POINT OF THE MOUNTAIN.
SEE CURRENT NOTAMS FOR DATES AND ADDITIONAL INFO.
RY 34R DEICE PAD CONSTRUCTION APR 2013-SUMMER 2015.
FLOCK OF BIRDS ON AND IN VICINITY OF ARPT.
ANG SERVICE-FUEL: A++.
TWY Y RSTD TO WINGSPANS LESS THAN 171 FT.
NEW CONSTRUCTION CHARTS TWY H CLSD BTWN TWY H3 AND H2 TWY H2 CLSD RWY 34R DEICE PAD CLSD
ACCESS TO NORTH CARGO VIA TWY V AND SPOT 97.
RWY 16L RUNUP AREA CLOSED PERMANENTLY.
TWY G CLOSED N OF TWY V.
TWY W CLOSED PERMANENTLY.
USE MINIMUM THRUST IN CONSTRUCTION AREAS.
CONTACT GROUND ON 123.775 BEFORE TAXIING OUT OF NORTH CARGO.
ASDE-X IN USE. OPERATE TRANSPONDERS WITH ALTITUDE REPORTING MODE AND ADS-B (IF EQUIPPED) ENABLED ON ALL TWYS AND RWYS.
HELIPADS B AND F LOCATED ON GENERAL AVIATION APRONS.
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FAA KSLC Airport Diagram, with our taxi path to our assigned Gate, Gate D3, marked in orange.
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Taxiing past the SkyWest hangar, with a company CRJ-200 resting outside, the smallest aircraft in the entire Delta fleet (when contracted Delta Connection carriers are included).


Deplaning through Jetway D3.

LPDAL

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Salt Lake City International Airport / Salt Lake City Municipal Airport II / South Valley Regional Airport / Woodward Field (IATA: SLC, ICAO: KSLC)
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SLC didn't seem to have changed much since the last time I blew through in 2009, seeming like more of a medium-large sized airport instead of a major international one. I don't know what exactly created that feeling, but nevertheless SLC seems to be a very decent airport with ample windows for spotting.

After deplaning from N6701 I spotted for a bit, but after seeing little other than Delta and Skywest aircraft I made a beeline to the only airport lounge in SLC, the Delta Air Lines Sky Club. SLC's Sky Club has a very nice and unique western theme, but doesn't have any windows that can be used for spotting, in fact the only set has a very good view of a...parking garage. However, it wasn't that crowded and/or loud, so I settled in for a bit of munching and device charging.


FLL-sized ceilings, though plenty more retail and dining outlets.


A 757 rests at the foot of the mountains before her next flight, with a portion of the SkyWest operation in the background. Nearly 7 years ago, I was a 13-year-old boarding on one of those funny looking ramps for a flight to PSP, where one set of my grandparents live.


Nice finger connectors!


SkyWest Airlines November / December-2008-manufactured Canadair CL-600-2D24 Regional Jet CRJ-900LR d/b/a Delta Connection boards a flight bound for Fresno, California (IATA: FAT, ICAO: KFAT).


United's lone gate at SLC, B5. I feel so terrible for cheating on my favorite airline.... :P


A dotting of pre-merger Northwest Airlines Airbii in a pre-merger Delta Air Lines hub, who would have known?


SLC Sky Club entrance.



As you can see, it is very western-ly, which creates a nice, comforting ambiance.



Buffet and bar with baskets of fruit. I'm feeling a little sleepy now though, so let's...



....Obtain some human jet fuel. I call this JET-A1MOCHA, which has a frothy white and cream colored hue.


Looks like my flight to PDX is right on time.


No HMS Host restaurants required to fill me up!


Heading back to the D Concourse to board my flight to Portland, the other one, that is.
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And you may find yourself on your last flight of the day...

LPDAL

KSLC (Salt Lake City International Airport / Salt Lake City Municipal Airport II / South Valley Regional Airport / Woodward Field) ✈ KPDX (Portland International Airport / Portland - Columbia Super Airport / Swan Island Municipal Airport)

• Airline: Delta Air Lines
• Airline IATA Code: IATA Code # DL
• Airline IACO Code: IACO Code # DAL
• Airline Callsign: Radio Callsign DELTA
• Airline Flight Number: # DL1764 (IATA) / DAL1674 (ICAO)
• Aircraft / Equipment Used for Flight : Boeing 757-232
• Aircraft / Equipment Registration: Registration # N673DL
• Airline Aircraft / Equipment Fleet Number: # 673
• Aircraft / Equipment Nationality: United States of America - FAA - Registered Aircraft / Equipment
• Aircraft's First Flight: February 13th, 1992
• Aircraft's Age as of Date of Flight: 23.5 Years Old as of May 30th, 2015
• Aircraft Test Registration: N673DL (United States of America)
• Aircraft Config: C24W20Y136
• Aircraft Construction Number (MSN) : # 25978
• Aircraft Line Number: # 430
• Aircraft Delivery Date: To Delta Air Lines as N673DL: February 24th, 1992
• Aircraft Powerplant (s) : 2x Pratt and Whitney Canada PW2037 High Bypass Turbofan Engines
• Aircraft Owned by / Leased from: OWNED by Delta Air Lines
• Meal: Beverage / Refreshment Service
• Cabin: Delta Air Lines Domestic First Class
• Seat Assignment: 6A
• A/C Equipped with IFE: Yes, Overhead TV Monitors in all cabins
• A/C Equipped with Wi-Fi Wireless Internet Access: Yes, GoGo Inflight Wi-Fi Available for purchase
• Airline Flight Date: Saturday, May 30th, 2015
• Boarding Call Time: 9:30 PM MST, Saturday, May 30th, 2015
• Boarding Zone: 1, First Class / PREM / Sky Priority
• Departure Time: 10:10 PM MST, Saturday, May 30th, 2015
• Departure Gate / Jetway: Gate / Jetway D13, Concourse D, International Terminal, SLC
• Arrival Time: 11:01 PM PST, Saturday, May 30th, 2015
• Arrival Gate / Jetway: Gate / Jetway D5, Concourse D, PDX
• Time Aloft: 1 hour 26 minutes (86 minutes)
• Filed Speed: 467 KIAS
• Filed Cruising Altitude: 34,000 feet
• Flight Distance: Direct: 629 SM | Planned: 689 SM | Flown: 645 SM
• Routing Waypoint (s) : D13 SLC TWF3 TWF J15 BOI J163 BKE JERDT HHOOD2 PDX D5

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Boarding passes for this flight. Top: 8.5'' x 11'' Printer Paper; Bottom: Agent - Printed Receipt Stock


FlightAware for this flight. Copyright © FlightAware 2015


My third and last 757 of the day would be the exciting Delta Air Lines February-1992-manufactured Boeing 757-232 N673DL, the former Soaring Spirit 2002 Winter Olympics Livery plane.

As I boarded my third and last Delta Air Lines 757 of the day, I was thoroughly humored to see yet ANOTHER different hard product inside. Yes, for all intents and purposes, I caught three different seats on the three unique Delta 752s that I had ridden on that day! Seriously, DL, I know some of these grandfathers are going to be hitting their [dusty] grave in Victorville's scrapping operation somewhat soon, some consistency would be appreciate (especially for people like me, who thrive on it).

This particular 757 configuration was the pre-merger Delta hard product without IFE, which has a much larger seat and decreased legroom in first class. I really don't like how large these seats are as it gives the cabin a somewhat cramped atmosphere, but on the plus side these seats do have a plethora of soft padding. They were recently re-skinned in DL's signature "diamond" pattern royal blue leather with exposed stitching widget logos yet retain their original fat girth.

As for IFE, the seats do still have audio entertainment, and overhead monitors which are now mostly flat-panel screens and not the cat-crushing drop down CRT monitors of yesteryear.


This view never gets old!!


Third DIFFERENT cabin of the day: Really old [and large] pre-merger Delta first class seats.


Headphones, bedding, water bottles, and hot dog style folded napkins atop the reupholstered chair, 6A, for the best views of the wing and engine inlet!


Audio controls.


Less legroom than the last config, though.


Cute little Delta Widgets adorn the blue leather throughout the first class cabin.


I had to top off the day with one last PDB. Okay, that was an awful pun...

LPDAL

The crew were much less animated than the prior segment (perhaps it was the lack of LPDAL recognition from the last flight -- gasp, they didn't know who I am!?!?!?! Hahahahahah, just kidding.), not putting any humorous spin on the usual pre-takeoff announcements [but definitely reminding the total of pax that this flight would be so full that even if you have a feint glimpse of taking a piece of luggage onboard, you better forget that dream as the overhead bins might be so full that they will fall off mid-flight, ad naseum] that Delta flight attendants are known for.

As some of my readers may know, I come from The Concrete Jungle©℗®℠™ (all rights reserved, restrictions apply, results may vary) otherwise known as the over-developed wasteland that is South Florida. This awful landmass is so overdeveloped that you can see the region where I live from space at both day and night because every single one of the streets is lit by orange lamps.

Thus, it is a strange experience to go to other parts of the country where they have these things known as non-artificial "grassy fields" (sarcasm) and "mountains that aren't landfills". In SLC, the city center is about the only part that is visible at night, since most of the surroundings are bare wilderness, I couldn't see anything but taxiway lights as we rumbled along to the runway.


FAA KSLC Airport Diagram, with our taxi path to our departure point, Runway 16R, marked in orange.


SkyWest Airlines MX, all lit up for the night. The dark aircraft in the center is an UAX (read: OO) E175.



Turning onto Runway 16R, thanks for helping me out, Mister King Schools!
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VIDEO - Delta Air Lines 757-200 Pratt and Whitney Canada PW2037 *TWIN FALLS THREE (TWF3.TWF) RNAV TAKEOFF AND CLIMBOUT* from Salt Lake City International Airport - VIDEO
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If you are having trouble watching this video due to slow loading times on Flickr, Click HERE / On this sentence to download it directly to your computer for viewing.
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FAA KSLC TWIN FALLS THREE (TWF3.TWF) Departure procedure, my last one of the day.

The lack of visible [or lit] scenery wasn't rectified when we blew down SLC's Runway 16 Right, and so I couldn't even tell which direction we were rocketing in until a few seconds after liftoff, when we jerked right in a turn that would be more suited to a thrill ride at an amusement park than a general public airline flight, even managing to beat out the previous approaches' turns to land. I could literally feel the G's in the seat of my pants!


WEEEEEEEEE!!!! As you can see here, well, you can't see much of anything other than what I assume are the distant lights of Salt Lake City's metropolitan area....


Shhhh...The cabin is snoozing.

SLC-PDX is almost the same length as FLL-CLT (FLL-CLT is 632 miles long direct, while SLC-PDX has a mere two miles chopped off that sum at 630 miles long direct), and since we were outside of meal hours, the dreaded wicker basket of doom lurched out from the shadowy confines of the forward galley.

Just as the service was to begin, however, we ran nosecone-first into an unpredicted rainstorm with some really nasty turbulence! The pilots jolted their sticks to the side and upward to clear the storm, and the air was smooth sailing after that. DL hasn't seemingly injected much creativity into their snack baskets since I last flew with them, so I munched on the same old shiny foils of pretzels and Biscoff as usual while I watched the glowing moon above our airplane.


One of the cool things about flying through rainstorms is that the aircraft lights illuminate the surrounding clouds, such as the strobes here making it look like lightning!


Above the rainstorm, the bright moon stayed alongside us for the duration of the flight.


Starting the service off with some tonic water to change it up a tiny bit.


Tasty, but I wish they brought back the Brownie Brittle so I can eat it when I'm not an United Club location.


Checking out the moving map just before we began our descent into Oregon.

Since I couldn't see much outside other than the left wing and number one engine, it was a smidgen difficult to tell when our descent began, but the sudden swinging up of the speedbrakes served as a pretty good indicator. Just like SLC, PDX's metro was almost completely pitch black except for the random halogens dotting the landscape below as we flew along PDX's HHOOD TWO (HHOOD2.HHOOD) STAR (Standard Terminal Arrival Procedure), which was a relatively straight yet slightly-curving easing-into PDX's Runway 10 Right. The subsequent taxi-in to our gate, D5, was one of the shortest I've experienced as the runway was parallel to Delta's gates. Much to my own humor, the flight attendants were still finishing up their after-landing announcements as the rampers marshalled us in! :P
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VIDEO - Delta Air Lines 757-200 Pratt and Whitney Canada PW2037 *PDX HHOOD TWO (HHOOD2.HHOOD) STANDARD TERMINAL ARRIVAL, LANDING, AND TAXI TO GATE* at Portland International Airport (Oregon) - VIDEO
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If you are having trouble watching this video due to slow loading times on Flickr, Click HERE / On this sentence to download it directly to your computer for viewing.
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FAA KPDX HHOOD TWO (HHOOD2.HHOOD) STAR, my final landing procedure for the night.


FAA KPDX - Area portion of the Seattle Sectional Chart.


Spoilers deployed, so we must be starting our descent!


Touchdown on Runway 28, Airport Remarks:

UNCONTROLLED TFC AT PEARSON FIELD VANCOUVER WA 3 NM W OF RY 10L THLD ON EXTDD CNTRLN.
(E143-20) LCZR ONLY.RWY 21.
(E94) WSFO/WSO/FW/RFC.
AREA OF TWY T BTN M AND E3 NOT VISIBLE FROM TOWER.
ACFT AUTHORIZED TO UTILIZE THE NORTHWEST RAMP WILL BE TOWED TO/FROM THIS RAMP.
AT THE WEST END ARM/DEARM AREA ON TWY C NO ACFT OF ANY TYPE MAY TAXI PAST THE ARM/DEARM AREA WHILE IT IS BEING USED.
ARPT CLSD TO NON-POWERED ACFT EXCP IN EMERG.
BEARING STRENGTH: RWY 03-21 ST 175, RY 10L-28R ST175, RY 10R-28L ST175.
JASU - 4(A/M32A-86) (MC-11) 1(MA-1A).
FUEL - A (AIR BP - ATLANTIC AVIATION SVCS. C503-331-4220) J8(MIL) (NC-100LL, A)
FLUID - LHOXRB.
OIL - O-128-133-148(MIL).
MISC: FLT NOTIFICATION SVC, ADCUS, AVBL.
ANG : PPR/OFFL BUS ONLY. BASE OPS OPR 1500-2300Z++ MON-FRI EXC HOL.; DSN 638-4390, C503-335-4390. CTC BASE OPS 15 MIN PRIOR TO LDG AND AFTER DEP ON 281.2. TRAN QUARTERS NOT AVBL. CAUTION: OBST LIGHTING IS NOT NVD COMPATIBLE. NVD NOT AUTHORIZED WHILE AIRBORNE IN VCNTY OF AFLD.
TWY V CLSD TO ACFT WITH WINGSPAN GREATER THAN 135 FT. ACFT WITH WINGSPAN GREATER THAN 91 FT PROHIBITED FROM TURNING WESTBOUND ONTO TWY A FROM TWY V UNLESS UNDER TOW.
ANG: SEE FLIP AP/1 FOR SUPPLEMENTARY ARPT INFO. HAZARDOUS BIRD COND EXIST. PHASE 1 MAY-OCT, PHASE II NOV-APR. CURRENT BIRD WATCH CONDITIONS ARE NOT REPORTED ON ATIS.
TWY W BETWEEN TWY A & THE GEN AVIATION RAMP CLSD TO ACFT WITH WINGSPAN GREATER THAN 95 FT. ACFT WITH WINGSPAN BETWEEN 79 FT AND 95 FT MUST BE TOWED. TWY K BETWEEN THE NORTH RAMP AND THE GEN AVIATION RAMP CLSD TO THROUGH TFC.
TWY T BTN EXITS B5 & B6 CLSD TO ACFT WITH WINGSPAN OF 118 FT AND GREATER.
NSTD YELLOW PRK SPOT DESIGNATORS AND EQPT TOOL BOX LCTN PAINTED ON RAMP. PLEASE CTC BASE OPS OR REQ FOLLOW ME IF NOT FAMILIAR WITH PANGB PRK PROCEDURES.
TWY C3 CLOSED TO ACFT WITH WINGSPAN EQUAL TO OR GREATER THAN 79 FT.
PDX HAS FACILITY CONSTRAINTS THAT LIMIT ITS ABILITY TO ACCOMMODATE DIVERTED FLIGHTS AND MAINTAIN THE AIRPORTS SAFE OPERATION DURING IRREG OPS. ACFT OPERATORS SHOULD CTCT THE ON-DUTY ARPT OPS SUPERVISOR (AOS) FOR AIRSIDE AT (503)460-4134 TO COORDINATE DIVERTED FLIGHTS EXCEPT IN THE CASE OF A DECLARED IN-FLIGHT EMERGENCY.
ACFTT WITH WINGSPAN GREATER THAN 118 FEET ARE PROHIBITED FROM TURNING EASTBOUND ON TWY C FROM SOUTHWESTBOUND ON TWY F UNLESS UNDER TOW.
MIGRATORY & WINTERING FLOCKS OF LRG WATERFOWL ON & INVOF APRT. HEAVY SEAGULL ACTIVITY SEP THRU APR; EXPECT HIGH NMBR OF BIRDS YEAR AROUND; CK LCL ADVISORIES.
NOISE ABATEMENT PROCEDURES IN EFFECT; CALL NOISE OFFICE AT 503-460-4100. RY 28L ARRIVALS ARE NOISE SENSITIVE, EXPECT APCH TO 28R WITH TRANSITION TO 28L.
180 DEGREE TURNS BY ACFT WEIGHING IN EXCESS OF 12500 LBS PROHIBITED ON RY 10L/28R, RY 03/21 AND ALL TWYS.
TYPE-H BAK-12B(B) (1625 FT).
TYPE-H BAK-12B(B) (2000 FT).


FAA KPDX Airport Diagram, with our taxi path to our assigned Gate, Gate D5, marked in orange.


Pulling in next to a MD-90 at PDX's Concourse D's Gate D5.

LPDAL

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Portland International Airport / Portland - Columbia Super Airport / Swan Island Municipal Airport (IATA: PDX, ICAO: KPDX) *1*
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Non-aviation geeks may not understand the feeling, but for me, walking into a new airport is invigorating. The sights, the sounds, the new smells (every airport seems to smell different, oddly enough) just brings a sense of euphoria that I can't seem to delve into anywhere else!

You, the reader, may have noticed that I did not include as much history as my last write-up, where I visited Jack Frost in Maine. Don't worry, as a full history of PDX (and maybe LAX ) will be included in report 29, Alaska First Class from PDX to LAX.

At near 11:00 PM Pacific Daylight Time, Portland International Airport (the one that is in Oregon, that is ) wasn't bustling with activity, but it appeared to be a very nice facility. Before I made my way down to baggage claim and onto my hotel shuttle, I stopped along the way to snap a bunch of pictures to add to my collection. Little did I know that a nasty surprise awaited me in the fields' lower levels.


Well, would you look at that: Another new airport for LPDAL. ^ Also, notice the classic Delta widgets imprinted on the gate benches.


Between the various gates in PDX are retail and dining areas. While I understand this likely drives sales, it seems to me that this could cause crowding during the busy season. The black windows on the second story is PDX's Delta Sky Club, which was unfortunately closed at this hour.


Fancy that, one of my hometown airlines [the other being 3M / SIL / Silver Airways], Spirit! Oh NK, no matter how many people hate you, you serve a critical role in this industry! Oof, that departure time though, and the flight was cancelled.


As noted above by Delta's handy-dandy city guide, Portland is home to a cavalcade of microbreweries, which I suppose includes this one. While I don't like alcohol at all (much too bitter), the fact that it includes planes makes it LPDAL approved!



VX's modern and chic gate space at PDX. I'll be reviewing Virgin America First Class, along with spending a night at [or near] Times Square, in November 2015 for my 20th birthday. Stay tuned!

LPDAL

At first glance, it might appear that Virgin America's February-2011-manufactured Airbus A320-214 N839VA was going to sleep for the night, it turns out this airplane was actually being prepped for another one, as I found out in my hotel room later...


Too bad I don't have enough time to see the city...But as a certain human hyrbid Cyborg says...I'LL BE BACK!


PDX was under heavy renovation at the time, which involved removing the airport's signature carpet, which subsequently cause local residents to attempt to preserve it in clothing and other items.


The consolidated US and AA desks at PDX have a bunch of different logos from a bunch of different eras. Too much consolidation!!!!


The AS kiosks told me to go away because they were sound asleep and didn't want to be bothered out of their slumber, so I headed over to AA's which subsequently told me that non-AA itineraries are hoopla. Also, American Connection? They went defunct some time ago...


F9 also has a mishmash of old and new logos at Portland International Airport. I definitely prefer the more blocky one than the italicized version, oh well...


Heading down to the baggage claim level.

Luckily, I managed to wisely utilize my time as the baggage belt started rumbling shortly after I strolled up. I waited patiently for my green rollaboard to show itself after nearly 16 hours of flying. It didn't come off at first, so I waited a bit more, and more, and more, and more, until the baggage belt shut off completely with no more bags on it. What is happening?

Worriedly, I headed over to the baggage desk, where I encountered the most surly, silver - tongued luggage agent that I'd ever had any spoken dialog with. After I explained my situation, he rudely assured me that my bag would be on my next Delta flight.

"I'm sorry, I'm not taking any flights on Delta back home, sir", I replied, and explained my one way mileage ticket on FLL-DTW-SLC-PDX, to which he snarled that most customers take roundtrip mileage itineraries instead. Okay? Not sure how that is relevant, but I resisted becoming rude or belligerent myself (the filter construction is 95% complete! ), and informed him that I'd be taking a combination of Alaska and American Airlines back home the next morning at around 7:00 AM. He then finally told me he would have a baggage agent deliver my bag from "where it was stuck in *rude verbiage* Detroit" down to FLL, and then without any prompting "Good day, sir, my shift is ending.", (with no offer of any toiletry kit or compensation) so I just went out to find the Hampton Inn Shuttle.

I'm really not sure why the agent was being so rude to me. Of course, these agents take garbage from people all day (watch a few episodes of Airline USA on YouTube to see some examples of that), but I just had never encountered such hostility even when I was attempting to be as courteous as possible and also say as little as possible to ease his workload. It also mystifies me that, while I had received AMAZING service from the flight attendants on DTW-SLC, even going to the extent of receiving a hand written thank you note, this person in OR was just outright uncaring. Luckily, my suitcase only had toiletries and clothes in it, and the office garb I was wearing was 99% clean, but I wasn't sure how to feel about how I was just treated as I boarded the dimly lit shuttle over to the Hampton Inn.


Heading over to the complimentary shuttle stand, I noticed that PDX has natural plant decoration at the pickup and dropoff curbs,which really looks nice.


Boarding the shuttle to the PDX Hampton Inn.

LPDAL

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Portland - OR International Airport Hampton Inn Hotel by Hilton Properties *1*
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When I went to go book a hotel for this weekend of nonstop flying, three distinct options came up that would interlink pretty well with my vacation: The Sheraton PDX, Hampton Inn PDX, and Aloft PDX. The Sheraton and Aloft were my preferred choices, but I ran into a situation I hadn't encountered before in my relatively short period of booking hotels for myself: Both the Aloft and Hampton were completely sold out for the night of May 30th / May 31st, 2015. Thus, I went to look at the Hampton Inn. I didn't really know much about the Hampton Inn other than it was an equivalent to Marriott's own Courtyard brand, but the reviews and rates combined looked rather sound, so I set myself up for a room there.


Looks nice enough, let's head inside.


Being checked in by the polite agent.

As opposed to the baggage dude who wasn't very welcoming, the front desk staff at the Hampton Inn were quite polite. While the agent clacked on his keyboard to check me in, he took a phone call in which I guess someone asked if they had any rooms, to which he replied that he had only but a couple of rooms left...I wonder what was happening that weekend that drove hotel demand in PDX so much? Anyway, he handed me a keycard for room 419, informed me of when breakfast starts, and wished me well, even giving me a free toiletry kit after I expounded on my baggage adventure about an hour previously up at the terminal.


Here it is, number 419.



All I can say is that I fell in love with more than a few new brands in PDX during my micro-stay here, one of which was Hampton Inn! The bed was so soft, almost like the one I lied on in the Amelia Island Ritz Carlton back in October of 2014, there was plenty of outlets, especially near the bed, but the piece de resistance?



The window had a EXCELLENT view of the active, the same runway I had landed on, Runway 10 Left / 28 Right! Oh my Aviation Geek hotel.



Getting cleaned up right before bed.

As I lifted the covers to begin my ascent to dreamland, I saw N839VA, the same dormant-looking Virgin America A320 I saw I Gate D1 a few hours erarlier, blast off from the runway outside my window....Life does not get better than this, absent baggage issues, of course.

LPDAL

All finished trip pictures can be viewed here on my Flickr: LPDAL's Photostream on Flickr - Photo Sharing

Add me on Flickr here: https://www.flickr.com/people/lpdal/relationship/

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Upcoming Reports
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24. Southwest Airlines Business Select, 737-300 FLL✈TPA✈FLL
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23. United First Class+BusinessFirst 757-200 + KLM Lounge to Ohio FLL✈MCO✈IAH✈CMH✈EWR✈FLL
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22. American Airlines Flagship First Class Suites 777-200 + AA First Class Lounge LAX✈MIA
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21. Alaska Airlines First Class (Pancakes!)+AA Flagship First Class Suites Lounge PDX✈LAX
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Previous Reports
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20. High School Is Over: Delta First Class, 757-200s of DL/NW+Hampton Inn FLL✈DTW✈SLC✈PDX | Trip Reports Forum | FlyerTalk
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19. Last trip report of High School (27) United First Class to a Night in Portland, Maine | Trip Reports Forum | FlyerTalk
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18. US Airways First Class+TPA Marriott Hotel, Stolen DSLR→Christmas Miracle MIA✈TPA✈MIA | Trip Reports Forum | FlyerTalk
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17. Delta Air Lines BusinessElite /First Class 747-400 Domestic Nov30 FLL✈ATL✈MSP✈ATL✈FLL | Trip Reports Forum | FlyerTalk
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16. American Eagle First Class with the Ritz Carlton Amelia Island Oceanfront Resort | Trip Reports Forum | FlyerTalk
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15. Delta Air Lines First Class with the dead Cincinnati and Memphis Hubs PBI✈CVG✈MEM✈MIA | Trip Reports Forum | FlyerTalk
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14. United GlobalFirst Suites, AA First Class, Times Square Hotel FLL✈EWR✈ORD✈DFW✈MIA | Trip Reports Forum | FlyerTalk
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13. American Airlines First Class, US Airways First Class, Baptism Ceremony MIA✈TPA✈MIA | Trip Reports Forum | FlyerTalk
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12. United GlobalFirst Suites First Class,Silver Airways S340B+C5 FLL✈MCO✈IAH✈IAD✈EWR✈FLL | Trip Reports Forum | FlyerTalk
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11. Delta First Class, BusinessElite 767-300 w/ Westin, Sarasota, FL, FLL-ATL-SRQ-ATL-FLL | Trip Reports Forum | FlyerTalk
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10. American Airlines Flagship Suites First Class Transcontinental, MIA-LAX-MIA | Trip Reports Forum | FlyerTalk
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09. American Airlines First Class (Business Class), 767-300 Florida Flights, MIA-MCO-MIA | Trip Reports Forum | FlyerTalk
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08. Silver Airways Saab 340B+, Marriott Residence Inn Penthouse, United Club, FLL-MCO-FLL | Trip Reports Forum | FlyerTalk
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07. United First Class with the Piper PA31-350 Navajo Chieftains of Sun Air International | Trip Reports Forum | FlyerTalk
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06. American Airlines 757-200 Lie flat Flagship Intrafloridian Business Class MCO-MIA | Trip Reports Forum | FlyerTalk
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05. Goodbye, US Airways: Envoy Suites First Class Farewell Flight FLL-PHL-MCO | Trip Reports Forum | FlyerTalk
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04. United First Class with the Pre-Merger 757-200s of United Airlines FLL-ORD-IAD-FLL | Trip Reports Forum | FlyerTalk
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03. JetBlue Even More Space and BahamasAir 737-500+Atlantis Resort and Casino FLL-NAS-FLL | Trip Reports Forum | FlyerTalk
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02. AirTran Business Class and Delta First Class FLL-ATL-CLE-ATL-FLL | Trip Reports Forum | FlyerTalk
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01. Delta First Class FLL-LGA/JFK-FLL | Trip Reports Forum | FlyerTalk
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-LPDAL

MikeyInSAT

Hey there, Colby!

Absolutely fantastic report as always. Great pictures, explanations and all the goodies. I'll probably read it again when I'm a bit more awake since the sleeping pill I took a bit ago is trying to take over my mind, heart and soul.

Keep up the great work and watch out for that swirling storm headed your way!!

-- Mikey

offerendum

Yeah, can imagain that airfield-view is yours