Philadelphia International

I took the 5:40 airport from the Four Points Hotel to Philadelphia Airport and arrived at the US Airways Terminal 10 minutes later. The check-in counters were busy but the lines at the check-in desks not that long. With no checked luggage I used the self check-in kiosks and printed the boarding passes for the next two flights.

It was just a flight so San Juan and I would return immediately, probably on the same plane with the same crew. I might catch some unnecessary attention, but US Airways Crews are somehow used to people on mileage runs as I heard from colleagues and friends doing similar trips, which is also my experience from a trip back in 2012.

Security had long lines at all checkpoints and even the priority line for passengers traveling in first class, Envoy Class or Star Gold Passenger was far away from short. It took close to 30 minutes to pass security. I walked over the Terminal A, where our flight was scheduled to depart.

US Airways has a club in this part of the airport, which is quite large and given that the most flight depart from the B/C concourse, the US Airways Club there is usually not very busy. I took the escalator up and was granted access and only the right part of the lounge was open. The lounge was very empty and less than five passengers were in it as I stepped into it. I spend the next 30 minutes in the lounge before I left and walked down to our gate. I had a quick look at the dedicated gate from the lounge and there was an Airbus A330, not the scheduled Boeing 757. This means either the earlier flight had not left and we had a gate change or the flight to SJU was indeed on an Airbus A330, which sometimes happened.

At the gate was indeed an Airbus A330-200 for our flight to SJU and this means I could once again enjoy a proper and nice Envoy seat on this short four hour flight to SJU. Our plane had arrived from Tel Aviv in the morning and cleaning was not yet finished and there was also an additional security check. This means boarding was delayed by 30 minutes. I only had 1 hour in San Juan, but would most likely get the same aircraft for our flight back to San Juan, as a quick check on flightaware already confirmed as this plane was also performing the flight back to PHL – so nothing to worry about.

28 June 2013
PHL – SJU
[Philadelphia International – San Juan Luis Munoz Marin International]
US 1069 (US Airways); Airbus A 330-200 (N285AY)
Gate A 19
07:40 – 11:29 [effective 08:11 – 11:58]
First Class
Seat 2 A

Boarding started with the announcement that boarding had already started. There was no dedicated announcement for families, passengers needing assistance – the door was opened and the passengers standing next was asked to board the plane and so everybody headed for the door. By coincidence I was close to the door and among the first passengers to board the plane and the first passenger in the first class cabin. If US Airways used the longhaul widebodies for flights to the Caribbean the Envoy Cabin is used or sold as First Class.

The front cabin was not full and as far as I noticed the Economy Class in back had empty seats as well. The safety video was shown during boarding and later, after boarding was completed again. The crew did everything they could to speed up things. After 15 minutes the announcement boarding completed was made, this means everybody had boarded but not everybody had reached their seats. But they repeated the instructions how to place items in the overhead bins and under the seat.

The captain came over the microphone and welcomed us on board. He gave us information about the flight time and the weather situation in San Juan, which had cloudy skies and temperatures in the low eighties.

I had experienced the new Envoy Class on a flight with US Airways using the Airbus A 330-300 from Philadelphia to Munich in February 2012 and I had liked it. The Envoy cabin of the A 330-200 is smaller than those of the A 330-300 and offers only 20 seats compared to 28 seats on the A 333. The seat pitch is 48 inch offering a bed of 76 to 80 inch, depending on the location of the seat. The seat width is 20.5 inch. Envoy is configured 1 – 2 – 1, which means all seat offer direct access to the aisle. All seat offers Audio Video on Demand using the eX2 system by Panasonic and all seats in Economy class offer also an 110v universal power outlet, while the seats in Economy Class only offer USB outlets on this flight.

Out Airbus A330-243 was delivered to US Airways on March 24, 2010 and quite new. The plane was powered – as indicated by the 243 – by two Rolls Royce Trent 772B-60 engines with a static thrust of 71,100 lbf.

We taxied to the runway and had to queue for take of behind an UPS MD11 and an US Airways A321. Finally at 08.34 the captain powered the two engines and we climbed into the partly cloudy sky over Philli.

The seat belt signs were turned off quite fast and the crew began the service. Service started a bit slow, but this was okay as we had time and there was no need to rush. First were asked about our choice of beverage, which was brought to the passengers individually row by row. No cart was used on this flight. In the meantime another flight attendant asked for our choice of meal. We could choose between a spinach salsa and oatmeal. I went for the first option.

My meal was delivered round about one hour after we had left Philadelphia..

The flight was a bit bumpy every now and then in the first hour in flight and fasten-seat belt signs were illuminated. Trays were collected half an hour later.

The passengers on this flight were enjoying the larger seats the bigger privacy in this flight over the scheduled Boeing 757 and sleep, worked or read.
Every now and then the crew made a round in the cabin and asking if we needed anything.

During the flight the captain came over the microphone and announced that we would arrive in San Juan round about 30 minutes delayed. He expected not further delay and a smooth flight toward San Juan.

Around 11:23 we began our descend into San Juan International Airport. The crew asked a last time, if we needed anything, while back in Economy Class the crew began to collect the items from the second beverage service. Soon later, in our cabin glasses and trash was collected as well.

We approached San Juan from the sea and then made a left turn offering great view to downtown San Juan with the old fort and the high-rises at the beach. We touched down at 11:53 and had a short taxi to the gate, where we arrived at 11:58. I disembarked to the door between Envoy and Economy Class and walked through the jetbridge into the terminal.

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