MY VACATION TRIP OF SUMMER 2009

BACK TO MY WEB HOME, My FLIGHT LOG

In the summer of 2009, my family and I took an extensive vacation that lasted almost a month. We went to India & the Middle East, as we have family members in both places, and I had SO MUCH fun! I describe my adventures here!

Part 1- Flying from Seattle to India

SUMMARY: SEA-DFW-LHR-BLR. AA 1702, AA 80, BA 119

Flight 1: SEA-DFW American Airlines AA 1702, July 20, 2009, Gate A9

We started our journey on July 20, 2009. Our first flight was American Airlines AA 1702 Seattle-Tacoma Internation Airport (SEA)- Dallas-FortWorth International Airport (DFW). The aircraft was a McDonnel Douglas MD-83, registration N9619V. More details about this particular aircraft can be found here. We got to the airport on time, and figured out our gate, and got to the gate. We had already checked in for the British Airways flight from London Heathrow to Bangalore, and had our boarding passed. It was a tight connection. About 100 minutes. Now once we got to Sea-Tac, we learned that our flight to Dallas was about 30-45 minutes late, due to thunderstorms in DFW. So we all started getting worried, as the connection time in Dallas was about 50 minutes.

After waiting for about an hour or two, our aircraft arrived. It was a relief to see the aircraft. It slowly arrived at the gate, and was parked there. Here is a picture of the "Mad Dog"! The airport employees prepared the aircraft for departure, and we finally boarded at about 2:30 pm for the 1:55 pm flight! Once we boarded, the flight took off around 2:50 pm- about an hour late! But since our connection flight to London was AA 80, we were not that worried. Really hoped they would not take off without us, and that we don't have to spend too much time in Dallas between flights!

There is nothing much to describe about this flight. The flight time was about 4 hours, and since I had a window seat, I was taking pictures of interesting things out the window using my Panasonic DMC-TZ1 camera. This journey did make me realize how empty the United States actually is! My seat was 27A. We landed at Dallas FortWorth International Airport around 8:30 local time, just half an hour before our next flight, AA 80! Our deboarding terminal was Terminal A & our next flight was from International Terminal D. As soon as we got out, we rushed to the skylink station, got into the one that took us to Terminal D, praying that the flight is 15-20 minutes late!

Here is a slideshow of the pictures I took at Seattle Tacoma International Airport:

Here is a table of the list of Airplanes that appear in the above video. It gives info about the aircraft registration and the routes of some of them. If you can help expand it, contact me.

Flight 2: DFW-LHR American Airlines AA 80, July 20

After we got out of the Skylink, we figured out the gate of flight AA 80, and got there. And what do u know?? The flight was labeled to be departing at 9:45 instead of 9:05! Great! Now the time in London is gonna be hell! So we found some seats and began waiting for the boarding announcement. It was getting quite dark, and there was no way I could take any pictures outside of the airport. I took a few pics while we were landing. Here they are.

We were waiting and waiting and waiting.. for about an hour and a half! At about 10 pm local time, we finally boarded! By this time, it was totally clear to me that we were gonna miss our British Airways connection to Bangalore. I was sad, and at the same time a bit glad! Yea! I secretly hoped AA/BA are gonna put us into a hotel or something so that we can catch the flight on the next day! We were sitting in the plane for about 20 minutes, and seemed like we were never gonna take off! After sometime, the captain came online and annonced that the aircraft that was originally scheduled for DFW-LHR had some hydraulic malfunction and had to be replaced with a different aircraft at the last minute, which required a lot last minute preparations, which is the reason for this unreasonable delay! I had alost started to hate American Airlines with passion but this explanation made me realize that this type of things is totally unpredictable, and I can't blame them for it. But I did wish they used a 777 instead of a 767 as a replacement, as the AA 767 had no In-Flight Entertainment. Now that is unforgivable! They could have at least made up for such a huge delay by using a better and more comfortable aircraft!

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, we left the gate around 10:45! It took about 10 minutes of taxiing to get to the runway! DFW is VAST! Now this was my first time in a 767, and I gotta admit it is one of my LEAST favorite aircrafts! Especially economy class! The screen display instantly revealed that this aircraft is usually used for Latin-American flights, as the display was in English and Spanish. The captain came back online and acknowledged that many of the passengers are most likely going to miss their connection flights, and assured that he is gonna do everything he can to get to London as fast as possible. Dinner was served about an hour into the flight. It was warm, and was alright. Nothing great about it, so not posting a pic of that. I had a window seat, around rows 37, 38, or 39, right side. The leg room was lamentable, and I was certain this flight is gonna be brutal. Nevertheless I tried to sleep after dinner but to no avail. I dozed off every once in a while but quickly woke up. I woke up and decided to stay up at dawn. We were stil flying over Northern Canadian coastline. The route diagram showed that we were going to slightly touch the southern coast of Greenland. The only other time I flew over Greenland was when I flew from New Delhi Indira Gandhi International Airport (DEL) to Chicago O'Hare (ORD) back in 2006 on an American Airlines AA 293. That was the flight that took me from India to the United States for the first time. Flying over Greenland was fun, and I hoped we would do that again...oh well!

I tried taking some pictures in the dim light but they did not come out right. Breakfast was served 6 hours into the flight. It was satisfying. I am posting a picture for forms sake. That bun was pretty delicious, especially with the butter and jelly! I stayed awake, staring out the window and on the display screen, back and forth, wishing this flight was over sooner.

After six and a half hours of flight, we were over Ireland. I was excited because I was able to see land, and I took plenty of pictures. If you really want to check out the pictures, do it here: Facebook Album SEA-DFW-LHR-BLR. After about an hour more of flying, we were over Wales, and even later, over England. Now I was more excited, as I could see all the English farms, and roads and it just seemed so cool! We had started descending, and I was wide awake by now!

After about 9 hours of flying, we were over good ol' London. Everything looked cool, and I felt amazing until the captain announced that we have been asked to hold. Up until then, I slightly hoped we might still make the British Airways BA 119 to Bangalore, but after hearing that we have been asked to hold, I lost all hope. But the good thing was we flew over a large part of London, and I took some amazing pictures. Here is a slideshow: My only London Expereince!

We were flying over London and the surroundings for about 15 minutes, and we finally landed! It was 1:30 pm, local time, and the flight to Bangalore was scheduled at 2:10 pm. This flight was an hour late, and it was pretty obvious that the BA flight is gonna take off without us. After we approached the gate, someone other than the captain came on the PA and announced that those who are booked on the flights to Bangalore, Hyderabad.... etc should exit the aircraft right away, and so all fibe of us got our cabin luggage and rushed out. Someone was yelling something out, and we were behind an Indian family headed for Hyderabad, and we overheard an airport personnel asking them to go to gate 5, and we decided to follow them. We walked for like 10 minutes, and the airport path never seemed to end! We had to catch the transfer bus to terminal 5, and once we got to the loading location, we got in and waited for the bus. The driver of the bus waited for an additional 10 minutes ad he finally decided to leave. If I remember correctly, he left around 1:45. The only way we were gonna make the flight was if the BA flight was half an hour delayed, and we were all praying for that! After about 10 minutes of bus ride, we got to terminal 5, rushed toward the check in area for British Airways, and submitted our Boarding Passes to a nice, old British Airways lady employee who examined our boarding passes and told us that the gate has been closed and we missed the flight! She even took the time to explain the procedures at Heathrow: if a flight misses it's take-off slot, it will have to wait for a long time until another slot opens up, thanks to the ridiculous 2 runway airport! The first thing they need to change about Heathrow is that they need to buils some damn runways! She asked us to contact American Airlines employees in Terminal 3, which meant we had to catch the tranfer bus BACK to terminal 3! Damn it!

The story continues in the next page. Click here                                                                                                                                                                   

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