Charlotte / Douglas International

In the terminal, I headed to the US Club. I had in mind that my flight would leave from the C gates, but later discovered, that this was wrong. Anyway, the lounge at C/D concourse is not only bigger; I think it is also the nicer lounge. I was granted access without problem and got a complimentary WiFi pass. I took a seat in the quiet room, which was like the main lounge quite empty on this Saturday afternoon. If you have Star Gold membership of a United or US Airlines, lounge access is only grated if one hold a same day boarding pass for an international flight, even if one is flying domestically in First or Business Class. As far as I know there is only one exception in the Star Alliance network and these are the p.s. flight from New York’s JFK to either Los Angeles (LAX) or San Francisco (SFO).

To access a lounge in conjunction with a domestic flight one needs a Club membership, either of US Airlines, United or Air Canada. Usually only business traveler have these memberships and usually they are not flying on a Saturday, so the lounges are less crowded than during the week with the exception of the time the longhaul flights are leaving.

Holding Star Gold with Lufthansa, I could access every lounge in the network if I was flying a Star Alliance partner airline. Unfortunately not every agent at the reception desk of the various lounges are aware of this rule. Therefore it is of help to have the lounge rules as printout in the carry on. But they were not needed on this trip. The most of the longhaul flight to Europe had already left at this time and so the lounge was unsurprisingly not very busy.

I grabbed my favorite beverage at the bar: a ginger ale. Unlike in Philadelphia the day before, it was served in a plastic cup, not a proper glass. Minor details, but one notices it. I think the reason lies in the fact, the staff is reduced on the weekend and therefore plastic glasses did not need to be cleaned. Not that they cleaned manually, but someone has to put them in the dishwasher and store them later.

I surfed the web, checked e-mails and waited for the boarding time of my flight to Philadelphia.

Time passed quickly and a few minutes before scheduled boarding time I left the lounge. As I left I looked at the information screen with the departure times and noticed something very interesting: the flight was now scheduled to depart five minutes earlier – this was a new for me. I have never seen a sign indicating an earlier departure time next to the scheduled one.

Boarding had not started yet as I reached the gate, where the PHL bound A 319 was waiting.

Our Airbus A 319 was delivered on December 18, 2000 as new plane. It was equipped with 12 First Class seats in a 2-2 configuration with a seat pitch of 37 inch and 112 seats in Economy Class in the usual 3-3 configuration.
The plane was powered by two CFM56-5B6/P engines. This type belongs to the very same family of engines which also powered the A 321 on my flight from SJU to CLT. It had of course less thrust, 23,500 lbf or 100 kN compared to the ones for the bigger planes.

Boarding started a bit late with first class, families and people who needed additional time.

25 June 2011
CLT – PHL
[Charlotte / Douglas International – Philadelphia International]
US 1528 (US Airways); Airbus A 319 (N769US)
Gate B 6
20:04 – 21:30 [effective 20:01 – 21:30]
First Class
Seat 03 D

I boarded the plane and was greeted at the door. I stored my belongings in the overhead compartment, as I was approached by a couple who asked me to change seat, so they could sit together. Sure, not a problem and so I moved to the other side of the aisle.

No pre-departure drinks were offered on this short flight. Luggage storing was a bit difficult and I and another passenger rearranged a few items, so at least everybody in First Class had their carry on in the first class bin, only one passenger in his early twenties had already stored his a bit further down in the plane. We asked him, if he would like to move it over, as there was now some more space, but he told us, he will try to go back after touch down and since it was in the first bin in the Economy Class Cabin this seems to be possible. The flight attendant thanked us for re-arranging the carry ons and joked that we must be true frequent fliers …

Safety demonstration was done during push back, which was a bit delayed at 20:01. It seems that catering was the reason for the delay.

We taxied to the runway, where we had to queue a few minutes before the captain told us we were next and asked the crew to take their seats. At 20:17 he powered the two engines, pulled the thrust level and the engines powered and we accelerated and finally climbed into the sky.

The first minutes were a bit bumpy but the flight became smoother soon later.

The flight was like many others before and the crew was average. A beverage round started and the flight attendant was asking the passenger about their choice of beverage. I took a ginger ale and got the whole can. The flight attendant was then serving the first rows of Economy Class. She also offered us in between some snacks from the snack basket. I did not took anything – the flights and especially the food had already not be the healthiest ones, so I was not into too much fat, sugar and what do I know for healthy ingredients.

I dozed during the flight and decided not to start my laptop for the remaining 25 minutes. I also skipped through my notes and made a few more notices about the hotel stays.

The flight time passed quickly and ahead of schedule we touched down at PHL around 21:26 and taxied for our gate C 17, which this time was available right now.

The young passenger was able to get his carry on from the overhead bin in Economy as the passengers with whom I rearranged the carry on in the overhead bin blocked the first rows of Economy and gave the carry on to him.

As I left he plane, I said good bye to the crew and soon I was on my way to the Shuttle bus pick up. On the way I made a quick visit at one of the self-check in kiosks to get the boarding passes for my flights on the next day.

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