Between my last 747 flight in 1997 and 2018 despite traveling overseas a fair amount I hadn't flown an another 747. But when I went to Greece two years ago I was able to fly on a Lufthansa 747-400 and I had forgotten just how much better and more comfortable the 747 was than the 777 even in coach. I really regret that its seen the end of its production but with the radical changes in aviation as of late and the even more radical changes coming in the next few years I guess there simply isn't a place for it. At least the Air Force One 747s will be flying far into the furture...

(Written on 07/03/2020)(Permalink)

Agreed, it appears he has lead a pretty interesting life!

(Written on 05/19/2020)(Permalink)

My dad retired in July 1968 and was mostly flying out of HNL at the time even though we lived in Seattle. We planned to spend a month in Hawaii that July, half before he retired and half after. Through coincidence my father ended up being the pilot of our flight to Hawaii too! He did fly once more in the cockpit in 1974 or '75 where our ORD-DCA flight was one seat short so he rode in the jump seat of the 727. His name was Hal Dahl by the way. It's interesting that you flew the DC-7. My dad was a DC-7 pilot as well as I noted but was on it for not all that long, early 1954 until mid 1959 where he was pulled off to start DC-8 training. Have you been through the United 727 at the Museum of Flight? It's like a time machine with its 1970s interior.

(Written on 05/16/2020)(Permalink)

What year did you start at United? My father was a United DC-3, 4, 6, 7 and 8 pilot who retired in 1968.

(Written on 05/16/2020)(Permalink)

Alaska Airlines used to fly to Russia back in the early '90s, to Magadan, Khabarovsk, Vladivostok and others but the collapsing Russian economy in the late '90s and likely political concerns, resulted in the flights being cancelled. Too bad as I would love to have a chance to travel there with my wife who was born in Russia but has never seen the east coast.

(Written on 05/15/2020)(Permalink)

Depends what you mean by “long haul”, I’ve flown Icelandair’s 757 SEA-KEF-Europe several times and it’s a perfectly acceptable aircraft for that route but SEA-KEF is only 7 1/2 hours which is about as long as I’d prefer to fly on a narrow body.

(Written on 05/09/2020)(Permalink)

We recently flew BDA (Bermuda) to DCA (Washington National) on American Airlines. Our flight out of BDA was delayed 6 hours as a result of maintenance issues with the outbound flight from DCA. Since AA (and likely every airline) doesn't have much if any maintenance staff at BDA they had to make sure that the aircraft (an Airbus A319) could make the round-trip flight with no issues. The AA staff at BDA was good at keeping us informed but unfortunately as US Customs stops work at 4pm even if a flight is delayed we had to wait 4 1/2 hours in the tiny airside section of the terminal (which at least had WiFi) before finally departing 6 hours late. Everyone was nice and the actual flight went well so I have no issues there but it would have been nice if they could have at least offered some minor compensation for the delay. The other two legs of our journey on JetBlue (to Bermuda) and Alaska Airlines (to Seattle from DC) went very well and departed on time. I'll probably avoid American in

(Written on 09/07/2019)(Permalink)

Alaska Airlines was 30 neos on order and several more in their fleet they might give up if Boeing offered them a sweetheart deal on new 737s.

(Written on 08/17/2019)(Permalink)

True, I’m just saying that if an airline wants to migrate Boeing->Airbus or vice-versa an acquisition is one way to go.

(Written on 07/27/2019)(Permalink)

I’d say the easiest way for SWA to add Airbus to their fleet would be to do it the same way Alaska Airlines did, buy another airline that’s already a Airbus operator like Jet Blue. That way you get their expertise, infrastructure, etc. so you’re not starting from scratch. Now that doesn’t mean that would be a good approach for SWA but it could be a way for them to expand their fleet mix quickly.

(Written on 07/27/2019)(Permalink)