Phoenx Sky Habor

The last flight of this US Airways Mileage Run was about to start. But there was some time before the last flight would depart and so I walked through the connecting corridors to the US Airways Club in Terminal A next to gate A 4. This was the nicer and bigger US Airways Club. I pend there the next 40 minutes before I left the club and walked back to our gate A 21, where our Airbus was awaiting us for our flight back to Seattle.

Boarding had already started despite the fact that it was before boarding time. In so far nearly all schedule flights on this trip boarded ahead of time.

29 June 2013
PHX – SEA
[Phoenix Sky Harbor – Seattle Tacoma International]
US 75 (US Airways); Airbus A 321 (N551UW)
Gate A 21
13:40 – 16:31 [effective 13:43 – 16:20]
First Class
Seat 2F

Half of the passengers in First Class had already boarded the plane, but I had no difficulties to find a place in the overhead compartment close to my seat to store my carry on, though some passengers seem to just throw their carry on in the overhead bins not caring if this was the most practicable and space saving way, so I and another passenger arriving later had to-rearrange a few bags, which seems to make at least one other passengers unhappy justifying from her face expression, but she did not say anything and of course no jacket or pother piece of wardrobe was in the overhead bin.

Pre-deapture drinks were offered while Economy Class Passengers boarded the plane. I chose again a tomato juice.

While I am enjoying the pre-departure drink, let me share some facts of this A321-231.
Our plane was an Airbus A321-231 delivered to US Airways on December 08, 2011. As indicated by the 231 this plane was equipped with different engine types than the previous A321-200. The “3” is the indication for engines by IAE. The V2533-A5 has a thrust of 33,000 lbf or 146.80 kN. The plane was equipped with 16 seats in First Class offering a seat pitch of 38 inch and a seat width of 21 inch.
In the meantime we were ready to depart and the items from the beverage service were collected. My first impression of the crew was that they were only average. It is hard to describe, but the way how they performed the safety demonstration, was just a duty, the spirit was missing, I had encountered on most of the other flights were this was done by the crew rather than by a video shown on the screens. Do not get me wrong, they were not in anyway unfriendly.

We taxied to our runway on the opposite site of the airport and rolled under the high bridge of the intra-terminal train.

This time, there were not many planes ahead of us and after a short wait at 13:55 it was out turn. The captain powered the two powerful IAE V2533-A5 engines; we accelerated and finally left the hot and sunny Phoenix. The captain had informed us, that the first time in flight could be a bit bumpy due to the high temperatures and therefore the seat belt signs were turned on.

Round about ten minutes after we had left Phoenix, the crew began to prepare the service. It was food and alcoholic beverage for purchase in Economy Class, while First Class could grab something from the snack basket and get all kinds of beverage. I choose a tonic water and grabbed a packed of pretzels from the basket.

After the service was done the flight attendant collected a few items and took her seat in the front galley and read in a magazine. Given her attitude which I have described earlier I was not really surprised. Unlike her colleague on the flight from Philadelphia to Phoenix she did not monitor the cabin. Okay this was a short flight and the most passengers were working, reading or sleeping but a little bit more attention would have been nice.

Finally we began our descend into sunny Seattle. We passed the airport and flew towards downtown Seattle. Sitting on the right side of the plane, I got gorgeous views towards the airport and downtown Seattle before we made a 180° turn and approached the airport. We touched down at 16:20 and taxied to our gate A2, where we arrived at 16:32.

I left the plane and headed to the United Check In Counters, as I wanted to check in for my flight to San Francisco and on to Ontario the next day before going to the hotel.

Top

next flight