Dazed767 From United States of America, joined May 1999, 5447 posts, RR: 53 Posted (3 years 1 month 3 weeks 2 days 22 hours ago) and read 11398 times:
Lost my original trip report so this one might lack some detail. Ok not 13 straight hours, but I flew from 06:50 til about 19:45 that evening. Had been looking to fly on the -40 series for awhile and since it’s in the same inventory as the -30 series it was a crap shoot trying to find a dedicated route that it was on. Noticed JAX had a -40 out of there everyday and rarely would be subbed for a -30 or -50. JAX-DTW and back later in the evening on the -40 was $765, but when I added BOS (which the plane continued on to) it dropped to $124. My miles were getting ready to expire too, so I managed to snag my -40 and keep my miles from expiring (win win situation ).
Checked in and waited around the ticketing area for a half hour or so, since it was only 0430 and I misjudged the driving time to JAX. Headed to the gate around 0500. I really like the layout of JAX airport, it was bigger than I thought, but small enough that you can get from ticketing to the gate in no time. Boarded around 06:20 with zone 3 and took my seat in the ear bleed section of 21F and managed to have the row to myself. Seats were in very good condition and the walls and overhead bins seemed very clean. Never would have known this bird was 40 years old. Had about 55 open seats in Y so it was a pretty light flight. Flight attendant asked us in the back if we wanted to move up front since it was going to be loud in the back. A few moved, but I kept my seat. Pushed back on time and the JT8D-9’s cranked alive for the 2hr flight to DTW. I believe we headed out to rwy 07 and the 40 year old girl climbed into the sky. Flight attendant came around with pretzels, peanuts and biscoff cookies (for everyone). Guess since it was a light flight we got all 3. Landed a little early in DTW and headed over to gate A68 only to do a U-turn and head over to gate A11, only to sit short there a few minutes because there was another a/c at that gate then finally took A15. Walked around the terminal and was disappointed by the ‘tint’ on the windows in DTW, taking photos was out of the question.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Htw6zOx1MRM
Video of the departure from JAX. I think the free HD converter I downloaded online is the reason for the popping sounds in the video. If anyone can help me with that I'd appreciate it.
Boarded again with zone 3 and pushed back on time for the 1hr 30min flight to BOS. This flight was almost full with only about 15 open seats. Not much happened on this flight, didn’t really get any photos or video into BOS as the Dr. next to me decided to stir up a convo the last 10 mins of the flight. It was a beautiful day too. After landing in BOS I asked the flight attendant in the back if I could take a photo of the cabin. She stared at me for a second and said “uh…ok, sure”. I explained to her that I was on here just to fly on the -40 series. I asked if they would be on the return leg and she said yes. So I gave her a heads up if she keeps wondering why she keeps serving the same guy a coke all day on each flight. As I was taking photos I heard the other F/A’s up front ask her what is he doing? I didn’t feel too comfortable asking about taking photos of the cockpit, so I passed on that.
Headed to the food court for some clam chowder then back to the gate to get my return boarding passes. Just as I figured I was going to get weird looks. I asked her if she could print out my boarding passes. Her eyebrow raised up and she looked at me like “how did you get through security without your boarding pass”, so before she said anything I said I came in on the inbound flight and was going back out on it. She stared at my I.D. and my reservation (maybe cross checking me on the no fly list? ). Luckily I didn’t have to explain why I’m flying on the same plane all day and she printed out my passes and said have a good flight.
I again boarded with zone 3. Had the row to myself again, score! This flight had about 25 open in Y. Before push back the flight attendant I talked to on the previous flight came up and asked if I would like to have these. She handed me some NWA DC-9 collector cards (picture on the front, and stats on the back). Thought that was really nice of her and at least she didn’t think I was a complete nut job haha. Took off on 33L for the 1hr 30 min hop back to DTW.
Again not much to report here, snack service was peanuts and a drink. After landing I asked them if I could get shots of the cockpit and they were fine with it. The lead F/A made a comment about ‘this is why he avoided this plane for 14 years” and how DL is going to keep the -50’s for another 300 years. I laughed and said I’d take this over an RJ any day and he replied “oh don’t get me started on those!”. Since we were changing crew I thanked them again for the nice flights and allowing me to take photos and went on my way.
Walked around for a bit then headed back to gate A15 for departure. Boarded with zone 3 again and pushed back on time and taxied out to 22L. Flight down to JAX had light chop for the first hour. Drinks and snacks were served. Had a great view of the sunset after we finally got out of the clouds. Landed on time in JAX and he really greased the landing. At this point I had been up 36 hrs and wasn’t looking forward to a 2 ½ hr drive home!
Overall I was impressed with the old bird. No delays or mechanicals and all flights were on time. Hope I can get another 30 or 40 flight in before retirement later this year. Sorry for vague details, hard to describe the same coach class experience over and over and over.
MSNfan From United States of America, joined Aug 2008, 134 posts, RR: 0 Reply 1, posted (3 years 1 month 3 weeks 2 days 8 hours ago) and read 10000 times:
Great TR, glad to see the DC-9 day went well. The pics (both those in the database and those in this TR) are fantastic! This TR especially resonates with me as I had a smaller, similar experience doing a NW DTW-CMH and back turn on N8929E a few years ago. Went through all of the same things (explaining what I was doing and why to the same crew, the gate agent, the awkward cabin pic etc...) -It was well worth it though (as you know)...Thanks a lot for posting!
Dentistry: Because everyone smiles in the same language!
PlaneHunter From Germany, joined Mar 2006, 6190 posts, RR: 79 Reply 2, posted (3 years 1 month 3 weeks 2 days 6 hours ago) and read 9681 times:
Hi Justin,
very interesting report, great idea to spend a whole day on the DC-9-40. I'm glad that I was also able to get that rare bird last year.
Quoting Dazed767 (Thread starter): As I was taking photos I heard the other F/A’s up front ask her what is he doing? I didn’t feel too comfortable asking about taking photos of the cockpit, so I passed on that.
Bad to hear. DL and NW crews have always reacted positively to those requests on my flights.
Quoting Dazed767 (Thread starter): Before push back the flight attendant I talked to on the previous flight came up and asked if I would like to have these. She handed me some NWA DC-9 collector cards (picture on the front, and stats on the back).
Dazed767 From United States of America, joined May 1999, 5447 posts, RR: 53 Reply 3, posted (3 years 1 month 3 weeks 2 days 5 hours ago) and read 9375 times:
Thanks for the comments. Thanks to everyone for the feedback on the popping sounds in the video. I've downloaded other HD conversion programs and I may have it solved.
Dazed767 From United States of America, joined May 1999, 5447 posts, RR: 53 Reply 4, posted (3 years 1 month 3 weeks 2 days 2 hours ago) and read 9024 times:
MSPNWA From United States of America, joined Apr 2009, 1567 posts, RR: 4 Reply 5, posted (3 years 1 month 3 weeks 1 day 20 hours ago) and read 8439 times:
Nice to see some action on an DC-94. Thanks for the TR.
BNE From Australia, joined Mar 2000, 3156 posts, RR: 13 Reply 6, posted (3 years 1 month 3 weeks 1 day 14 hours ago) and read 8129 times:
Thanks for the DC9-40 trip report. I am off to the US in June, I am heading to DTW for 2 nights before flying over to New York for a few days. Just waiting for Delta to stop changing the DC9 schedule; I have watched the flight go from a DC9-50 to a DC9-10/20 and now its a DC9-40, does anyone have an idea when Delta will stop playing with the schedule. I am hoping to fly DTW-EWR but will happily fly into JFK if the timing is similar, all this hassle for a flight on a DC9.
Dazed767 From United States of America, joined May 1999, 5447 posts, RR: 53 Reply 8, posted (3 years 1 month 3 weeks 1 day 4 hours ago) and read 7495 times:
Quoting BNE (Reply 6): Just waiting for Delta to stop changing the DC9 schedule; I have watched the flight go from a DC9-50 to a DC9-10/20 and now its a DC9-40, does anyone have an idea when Delta will stop playing with the schedule.
I noticed it showed a DC9-10/20 once, not sure why, but NW retired the -10s like 5 years ago. It's a crap shoot really since they are in the same inventory (30/40's), not sure about the 50's though. The JAX flight 2 days before turned into a -50 which made me nervous, but I guess they needed the extra capacity for the weekend.
Dazed767 From United States of America, joined May 1999, 5447 posts, RR: 53 Reply 10, posted (3 years 1 month 2 weeks 6 days 21 hours ago) and read 6521 times:
Quoting flpuck6 (Reply 9): Should've told me you were there, I probably had time to stop by and say hi !
I was thinking about that on final haha. I wasn't there long anyways, but I should have given you a heads up just in case you were there!
It was decent, I didn't venture too far other than the food court though. I really need to come see the city of BOS one of these days.
September11 From United States of America, joined May 2004, 3623 posts, RR: 23 Reply 11, posted (3 years 1 month 2 weeks 6 days 13 hours ago) and read 6313 times:
TJM321 From United States of America, joined Jun 2009, 34 posts, RR: 0 Reply 12, posted (3 years 1 month 2 weeks 2 days 9 hours ago) and read 5184 times:
Thank you for your trip report! 13 hours, at least many of which were spent on a DC9 is a good thing in my book!
I flew on ship 762 last March, so it's nice to see that she's still looking good!
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