Tampa International

I returned my rental car at the Sixt outlet and took their shuttle back to the airport, where I was dropped right in front of the American Airlines check in desk. This time I had already printed my boarding pass for the flight, as I wanted to see, if the TSA pre-check was printed on it. And indeed it was … This was my first flight as TSA approved traveller.

I had done the necessary formalities at the “Bundesgrenzschutz” Office at Frankfurt earlier in 2015 but after approval of the first step in the procedure of being accepted for Global Entry did not manage to find a date for the required interview, which fits into my travel schedule. On this trip it seems I was out of luck as no appointments for interviews at the airports I was connecting were available. Finally I managed to get an appointment in Fort Lauderdale at the Cruise Port office during this trip, although this means a drive up from Miami. On the other had I could choose between many times for the appointment without problems and chose one in the morning on the day after my arrival, though I would miss out the opportunity to try it out on the flight from Miami to Tampa.

I passed the check in desks and took the train to the concourse with the American Airlines gates and the American Airlines Admirals Club. Security is done at the entrance to the terminal and there was a regular line and a line for TSA approved traveller. The priority channel was available but not open. Despite there were no long lines at any of the counters, the experience to only put the bags on the belt without taking everything out of it, even not the liquids and not put off shoes and belts, was a really nice experience. It for sure it saves a lot of time and hassle.

I walked over to the American Airlines Admirals Club, which was one floor up from the main concourse. At the entrance, I was greeted but also asked about my club membership. I was a bit surprised, as the ticket was clearly marked with my Sapphire status, but I noticed that the agent only scanned the ticket and looked on the screen without really reading the ticket and the screen did not have my status. So the agent added it manually and then the status appeared and I was good to go. This time I did not get any drink vouchers.

I spend the time until boarding time approached in the lounge. Boarding should start around 18:50 I was told while entering the lounge, as this flight was one of the last scheduled flights out of Tampa on American Airlines. On this day, there were several delayed flights and some of those were now leaving lather than my flight to DFW. I had expected the club to adjust opening hours and remain open for a longer time, but at 18:45 the announcement was made, that the club was going to close at 19:00 and at this time everybody should have left it. This is for sure not the most customer oriented approached but then the number of guests who could access the lounge are most likely not very high as the club was not very busy at this time of the day.

Anyway, I made my way down to the gate and joined the queue at priority boarding. The first announcement was already made for member of the military services, passengers who need assistance and those travelling in First Class, followed by Oneworld Emerald and Sapphire Members.

This flight was flown with a Boeing 737-800 (WL). The plane came in from DFW and I was able to track the flight earlier on flightradar24 and therefore already knew that our 737-800 had the registration N914AN and was an older plane in the fleet of American Airlines. It was delivered to American Airlines on July 19, 1999 and powered by 2 CFM56—7B24 engines. Winglets were fitted to the plane in September 2007 and it was also already equipped with the 48 Main Cabin Select seats in addition to the 16 seats in Fist Class and the 90 seats in regular Economy Class. I could get a seat in the Main Cabin select, which offered at least increased seat pitch, but not much more.

01 November 2015
TPA – DFW
[Tampa International Airport – Dallas / Fort Worth International Airport]
AA 2360 (American Airlines); Boeing 737-800 (N914AN)
Gate F 78
19:25 – 21:14 [effective 19:22 – 20:52]
Economy Class (Main Cabin Select)
Seat 08 C

Boarding had already started as I approached the gate and I boarded with the oneworld elites as First Class had already boarded. The First Class Cabin was full on this flight as announced by the gate while I was boarding and it seems the plane was quite full in all other cabins as well.

The plane was much older than the Airbus narrow bodies of American Airlines I had flown on earlier on this trip. The seat pitch was increased but other than that it were the older seats without in-seat entertainment system.

Boarding was under way and the crew made several announcements that larger items should be stored in the overhead compartment and smaller items under the seats in front. However and not uncommon, not everybody followed this advice and also many people stayed there carry-ons in a way that was very space consuming.

The captain came on the intercom and welcomed us on board. He mentioned that we were ready to go as cargo and luggage was already stored by the ground crew and we could expect an on time departure and most likely also an on time arrival if not ahead of schedule. Weather on the way to DFW should be fine, but he expects some turbulence closer to DFW as thunderstorms were passing the area and it was still raining.

A couple of days earlier some heavy rain had fallen in Texas and caused some flooding which also caused some delays and was still affecting the schedule of many airlines.

The safety video was shown on the overhead screens while we began our push back at 19:22 and during our taxi to runway 19 R. This means we took off in Southern direction towards the Tampa Bay and the made a turn to the Northwest. Finally at 19:32 the captain powered the engines and we accelerated until we hit take off speed and left TPA.

We flew over the Gulf of Mexico towards New Orleans and climbed up to 38000 Feet.

The crew did a beverage service on this flight which started around 20 minutes after we took off. Available were soft drinks, tea and coffee as well as some juices. Also available was food for purchase, but I declined on the later offer to buy food and instead asked for a tonic water without ice. I received the whole can …

There was not much else offered on this flight to DFW, which was not very long. I read and wrote some e-Mails which I would send later from my hotels as internet was not offered on this flight.

The captain came over the microphone later again and mentioned, that he expects some bumps during the approach and asked the crew to be seated which means the crew would prepare the cabin earlier and service would be discontinued also earlier than usual. In fact, the crew began the preparation for the arrival immediately, which means they sat on their seats for 30 minutes.

I am sure, that this caution is necessary, but it is a little bit surprising that there were barely any bumps during the approach and I have had much bumpier ride without the crew being seated. Also the crew was standing for quite some time in the galley chatting, before they finally went to their seats …

Might it as it be, we passed DFW in the air and approached the airport from the North and touched down on runway 17 C at 20:43 local time and taxied for our gate A 18 at terminal A, where we arrived 9 minutes later at 20:52.

Soon, the jet bridges were attached to the gate and I was on my way to the courtesy van pick up locations on the lower level.

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