Had to wake up again at O’Dark Thirty (this time only 4am, so yay for sleeping in, though thats 1am PST so it was going to be a LOOONG day) and got myself all packed up ready to head towards the airport. While the drive should take about less than an hour from our friends house on the opposite side of Charlotte, who knows what traffic or accidents could lead to, especially with road works on the main interstate (I485). So I headed out early about 5am, for a flight that should board about 8am, but I had rental car stuff to deal with and a new company I have never returned to before so who knows what will happen.

The roads however were absolutely empty and the sat nav on the BMW sent me through the middle of downtown Charlotte, not even remotely close to the way I was expecting. The road was empty and I made it through to the airport in about 30 minutes. This allowed plenty of time to find a gas station to top up (I filled the tank fully the night before, so I only had to top up) and it turned out to be a 1 gallon top off, which made the guy look strange when I asked for a receipt. Then it was off to drop off the car in an unfamiliar place.

By the time I was dropping off, it was 5:55am and they didnt show up until 6am apparently so I waited a few minutes and when no one was still there, I dropped the key in the drop off box (with no envelopes mind you), kept the fuel receipt, took a photo of the mileage and also a full video of the car in case they tried to ding me for some BS reason. It was time to then navigate over to the terminal the easy way (fuck following the signs this time) and drag my bags up to the Delta check in which was empty! I dropped off my bag, they changed my seat to an exit row and then it was off to find my way to security. No clear here in Charlotte (booooo) but Precheck was in one central location, and thankfully the line was not all that long. While I was waiting, I got to the front and then rather than being called over to the line that was packed full of people, I was called over to the line handling employee entrance instead so I was through to an empty screener and it only took minutes.

Once through security, I just headed to the gate to find where it was and then I was going to go find a coffee, but the lines for Dunkin were too long, so I just stayed at the gate. It was at this point I realized I had just carried a half full bottle of water through security and TSA didnt say anything. Good job guys! I ate some of the breakfast I had carried with me and just sat at the gate listening to music and working on the trip report some. It was a pretty chill time at the gate. I was a little nervous as I had not had a connecting itinerary in a very long time (2016 was my last connecting flight, coming back from Japan with Heidi), and 2013 was my last proper domestic connecting itinerary when flying alone).

It was a bit of a wait at the gate, but our plane was there and eventually the crew showed up and went down, the Delta gate agent showed up as well and got the area set up to go.

Delta Air Lines – DL2327

Charlotte to Detroit (CLT to DTW)

0919-1115

Boeing 717-200 (N945AT)

Economy Class – Seat 21E

Boarding: 0846 (Gate A5)

Push Back: 0924

Take Off Roll: 0941 (Runway 18C)

Top of Descent: 1031

Touch Down: 1057 (Runway 21L)

Shut Down: 1104 (Gate A51)

When boarding began, I had to wait till most of the way through (Main 1) but when it was time I made my way down and stashed my camera bag in the overhead bin. Which I then promptly got in trouble for using that bin. The 717 has a smaller overhead bin on the left side of the aircraft, the larger bin on the right, I put it on the right, because thats where I was sitting, the flight attendant got upset I didnt put it on the left side. They then started announcing to use the bin on the left for full size suitcases, but it should have been the right, so they were getting upset a lot for people who were just following orders.

I stashed my backpack under the seat in front but as I had an exit row and an unlimited legroom seat (thanks to a missing seat infront) the person in that middle seat on the row in front got upset I was using “Her bag space”. Ugh no lady, thats my bag space but I eventually moved my backpack to fill the middle seat between us when no one showed up.

We began push back and got told of our quick flight up to Detroit. This was good news as it meant I wasnt going to miss my connection. First time on the 717 and it was perfectly fine, apart from the fact there is no IFE system, not even streaming, on the these aircraft. It was fine, I finished off watching my netflix downloads. The flight went by pretty easily, I looked out the window every now and then, ate a Biscoff, drank some water and just chilled out. Fairly soon we were descending into Detroit. What became obvious as we started to move down towards finals was that the Canadian border was directly across from the airport, and the airport was not far from downtown Detroit at all.

We touched down rather strong in Detroit and made our way slowly to the gate, from the air, it doesn’t look that big, but when you get to ground level, the size of the A concourse at DTW just is massive. The 1 concourse is probably the size of Seattles whole terminal from end to end. We pulled into our gate in the high 50s and when I looked at the Delta app it told me I was going to the low 20s. Guess that is going to be a walk!. But I waited my turn to get out of the plane and then it was into the terminal.

I was stunned the moment I stepped into the terminal. It was bright, open, airy, massive ceilings (to accomodate the train that runs along the ceiling) and it was wide as well. The only downside, the little dots on the windows to stop people from taking photos. Bah, one little downside aint bad. I wish Seattle’s airport could look like this. I could have found the train station and taken the train down towards my gate, but figured I now had extra time, so why not walk. It was about a 20 minute slow stroll down to my new gate, but it was worth it to look around.

The terminal was so nice and new looking (but I dont think its that new) and it was like everything you see at international airports, just not on the West Coast anywhere. I found my gate, tried to see if I would have an empty seat next to me or could move to a aisle seat and was told it was no to both, and then it was time to sit back and chill out while I worked some more on the trip report, and relaxed for a bit while I waited. I finished off the small breakfast I had brought with me (trying to readjust to PST at this point) and waited it out at a nearby gate, one that had no one really at it. Eventually the crew and pilots showed up and soon enough it was time to go.

Delta Air Lines – DL728

Detroit to Seattle Tacoma (DTW to SEA)

1246-1446

Boeing 737-900ER (N871DN)

Economy Class – Seat 31A

Boarding: 1205 (Gate A24)

Push Back: 1245

Take Off Roll: 1258 (Runway 22L)

Top of Descent: 1343

Touch Down: 1407 (Runway 16R)

Shut Down: 1415 (Gate A2)

Boarding began and it was time to wait, wait and more wait. Being in Main 2 this time meant it was a long way to wait, and this was a fully loaded 737-900ER, it was going to be a while. By the time it got to main 1, it felt like most of the plane had boarded and as Main 1 started to get towards the end, I snuck into the dregs of Main 1 before they called Main 2, which they did just as I started down the tunnel. Score! I was mainly worried about getting my camera bag in the overhead, while its small, I didn’t want them to try and make me put it under the seat, what with my backpack going there.

I got into the seat and got set up as quickly as possible and from here, I really didnt move at all for the next 5 hours :(. It was a packed flight, every seat was taken and the joint was overflowing really. We had a quick taxi and were told even with substantial headwinds, we would still be in early, with a 4 hour flight time. Gotta love schedule padding! It was mean’t to be 5 hours gate to gate and we were looking at 4.5 hours. Thankfully with Seat Back IFE, i plugged in my headphones and off we went.

We took off out of Detroit with a few bumps, but it smoothed out not long after and it stayed that way for a good portion of the flight. There was multiple services and instead of the biscoff I tried the “Granola Bar” option, which was really a protein bar, like a cliff bar. I watched a few movies, but otherwise the 4 hours just pretty much went by without any hassles. We did have the seat belt sign come on for about 10 minutes while we went through a section of “light chop” which made me think of some memes that go around regarding Delta and the term “light chop” because it was really nothing, not close to what I had going into Newark.

Clouds were out around Seattle and we didn’t even get a break through until we were on finals over the city and coming in over the southern suburbs north of the airpot. We touched down on 16R and that meant a nice long taxi to our gate, but we were early, so it didn’t really matter to much. Thankfully our gate was empty when we pulled in, and it was to the A gates as well, so it was a quick easy walk out of air side to the way down to baggage claim. But first I had to wait for what felt like the entire plane to get off first, since I was WAY down the back. It was fine, I wasn’t in all that much of a rush.

By the time I was off, it was only a few seconds to hit the bathroom (across from the gate) and then downstairs to Baggage claim but I did have to wait for my bags. I didn’t bother looking at the times for the bag to be hitting the belt as I couldn’t remember if Delta offered their bag guarantee like Alaska does. Once I had my bag, I ordered a pick up from a rideshare app and before you knew it, I was at home, to an empty house and a big mess to clean up from a messy kitty.

The morning started off at 0 Dark Thirty (aka 330am) but it would be worth it. Spent some time getting ready to go and helping to fend off the craziness that was DB Cooper, in prime crazy play mode. After leaving the cat to fend for himself (jk) we took a Lyft to thd airport. We ended up getting a Mustang Mach E as our ride so that was an interesting start to the journey for all of 4 minutes. 

Got to the airport to check in and thanks to first class tickets we were able to jump the giant lines that were there for regular bag drop, but the elite line was just a few people. After checking my bag, we went over to clear to get our ID and Biometrics fixed up (long story) and we finally got through security. Time from home to airside with a lot of faffing about, 30 minutes. 

Our flight was out of the N gates, so we jumped the train over to the Satellite and the Alaska Lounge. We thankfully still had access to the lounge with our F ticket, even after all the changes they made to the access policies. We sat down to rest and get a light breakfast while we waited. 

A short time before boarding we headed to thd gate and saw the door open & thought to ourselves…. It’s like 10 minutes to boarding thd gate area looks empty & the door is open, we thought we were one of the last people there. We weren’t, thank God. They were just checking bags to save overhead bin space. The gate area was empty because our flight was crammed into the adjacent gate and was made up of a high school band making it’s way to the east coast. Thank god for first class. 

Alaska Airlines – AS280

0730-1550

Seattle Tacoma to Newark (SEA to EWR) 

Boeing 737-900ER (N468AS) 

First Class – Seat 2A

Boarding: 0654 (Gate N2) 

Push Back: 0730

Take Off Roll: 0800 (Runway 16L)

Top of Descent 1533

Touch Down: 1630 (Runway 04R)

Shut Down: 1638 (Gate B40)

Boarding was eventually called and we got onboard to stash our stuff before the overhead bin space was filled with musical instruments. Waiting at our seat was a blanket (I did everything I could to not steal it) and a tiny carton of boxed water. 

The aircraft was not what we were meant to have as it had been scheduled for a long time as a 737Max9 but got equipment swapped a few days out. But a first class seat is better than coach so no complaints really. 

Settled in and the hoardes of teenagers boarded. We pushed back on time, down the back was full, up front still had a few empty seats. As we slowly made our way to the taxiway behind plenty of traffic they told us it would be a 5 hour flight time, which seems pretty good, however it would make us late getting in at the rate we were taking go get to the active. 

We made it to 16L eventually and headed up into the sky, It was not a horrible view as we climbed away from Seattle and turned east. We climbed out over the mountains and cleared the light cloud layer. As we climbed further higher towards cruise we started to pass places like Moses Lake and Spokane. 

Drink orders were taken and breakfast orders were confirmed, we were not in a rush and the service wasn’t either. It worked fine because we had already had breakfast on east coast time, best to try and adjust further to eating on a different schedule. Heidi was having the omelette, I was having the non egg option of an Apple Cobbler Oatmeal. I settled in to watch Netflix on my tablet since non of the onboard streaming even remotely seemed interesting. 

When the flight attendant started to bring around meals she apologized for the sight of my meal, she said it smealt great (it did) she was so apologetic about the look. I was already aware of the sight as had seen photos online. It was…. Interesting. While it looked like crap (literally) it wasn’t that bad. It tasted great, though I wouldn’t call it oatmeal, more like a pudding. The meal was rounded out by some ellinos yoghurt, a warm roll and some fruit. Heidi’s eggs was a sweet potato omelette with potatoes. 

After the meal was cleared away it was more of the same as we cruised east. Our flight attendant kept our drinks pretty topped up throughout most of the flight, a few hours out we were about to run parralell to some big storms near Chicago and that made it pretty bumpy for an hour or more. It also meant no bathroom options as they didn’t want us moving around, which is rough when you desperately need to pee after drinking liquids for several hours. 

What became evident as we got stuck in the turbulence was that we were going to be stuck in this for a while and when we cleared it we should be top of descent, but our top of descent came and we didn’t really descend all that much. When you looked down you didn’t see all that much. We then got told that Newark was under an arrival program. Dammit 🙁

That meant we got put in a stack and we were being held and it made for a very long descent, so much so that being 10-15 minutes late would have been a god send. We made our way slowly down towards New Jersey and our destination. It became evident just how low the cloud base was when we knew we were descending and on final (gear out, flaps down) and still could see the ground. It didn’t come into view until we were just about to enter the airport perimeter. Ouch. 

We touched down (finally) and then held on a taxiway for what felt like an eternity, but we eventually headed to what was described to me as “a shit show” and they weren’t wrong. It’s not a good look when everything around where your plane is going was surrounded by fences with consatina wire. O dear. 

We finally pulled into the gate next to a newly arrived Spirit A320 and that meant crowds. Add on that we were late and it was like swimming upstream during salmon spawning season. It was packed!  But we pushed our way out of the mess and headed towards baggage claim. It is never a good look when your bathrooms are essentially fancy portable toilets. 

My bag was not apparently priority tagged (thanks Alaska) and was way at the end of coming out. But it showed up which is the main thing and then it was off to find the train station. The air train is not really convienient to people collecting luggage, but we found it. Then it was more waiting, because those trains run sloooow. Well it’s not really a train but a monorail and reminded me of the monorail that ran at Expo 88 it looked almost the same and thd cars were just as small. People were jammed in everywhere just to make it on the train. My bag was jammed at my feet while I tried not to hit people with my backpack. 

We eventually got dropped off at the train station where we just missed a train and had to Wait 30 minutes for the next one. NJ Transit was meant to run 6 an hour, but 4 of those trains were coming within 6 minutes of each other (turns out they were all late). By the time the train showed up I was ready to get onboard! I struggled to get my suitcase up the steps inside of the train but it was lightly loaded in our carriage for the 30 minute ride into New York Penn (it’s not thst far, bug it runs slow apparently) 

By the time we pulled into NYP I was just done with travelling for the day, I was tired hungry & needed a bathroom, thankfully it was 3 blocks to our hotel, and some relief, we just had to get out of the craziness that was the station at the same time the Rangers fans are showing up for games at Madison Square Garden. But we did it…