March 2, 2007:

It was a rainy morning in New York and after entering the JFK entrance I could see a long line of planes waiting to take off. I was bound for SXM for a three day vacation and mostly plane spotting. There were two flights to SXM that day operated by American and I was on the second flight which departed at 11:40am. Check-in was easy at the First Class counter and same with security.




The gate for the flight would be 41 which is directly across from the admirals club. After taking a few pictures at the admirals club and watching our 757 pull in I headed to the gate.


Boarding would begin at around 11:10AM and it started right on time.





First Class passengers were allowed boarding first and after entering the aircraft I really noticed how badly the 757 need to be redone. The first class F/A greeting as at the door and I noticed that there was a huge pool of water on the galley floor. About thirty minutes passed and after everyone was on board the F/A brought the captain out to the galley to show him all the water. Turns out one of the coffee machines was broken so they had to call maintenance to replace it.



Well that took about 15 minutes as they were quick. So it was around 12:00PM when they closed the door and we were off.

In flight:

Airline: American Airlines
Flight: 449
Sectors: New York JFK - St. Maarten, Netherlands Antilles
Scheduled Departure Time: 11:40AM
Acutal Departure Time: 12:01PM
Sceduled Arrival Time: 4:35PM
Acutal Arrival Time: 5:05PM
Departure Gate: 41
Arrival Gate: A3

The usual safety briefing was played and soon after that we took off.


Cloudy Sky

Soon after takeoff the two FA's came around with hot towels. After that the post takeoff drink with the famous warm nuts. The male FA was incredibly efficient coming around to top off everyones drink every 5 minutes. As the plane was over Bermuda the meal cart came around.
The choices were three cheese pasta or grilled chicken with some type of sauce. I will say that this was much better than the meal I would have on AA3 a week later. Each meal came with a salad and in all the meal was not that bad. After the FA took away our trays we told us dessert would be coming soon. Well we could tell that because of the amazing aroma of the cookies in the galley.



After desert I settled into the seat for the rest of the flight. There was some moderate turbulence after lunch was served and coming into St. Maarten on approach was some beautiful weather. Landing was smooth and the jet parked at gate A3. The new terminal in St. Maarten is much better than the old one. It took 10 minutes to get out of the plane and into the car. The crew would be serving the flight back as with the pilots. LONG DAY. Anyhow I would rate the flight a 8/5-10.

I will post photos from the trip and the return part soon.

Comments Welcome