I have another trip in a week. I guess I should get cracking on this report. Thanks to a tip from someone here on Airliners.net, I learned that Delta was running their brand new A321neo between Boston and Atlanta on its downtime between San Francisco runs. Turns out I could have made this trip on an A330neo if I waited a day later to travel, so I’m not sure if this trip is a W or an L for me. Regardless, I picked up a new aircraft type, and gave myself a little gift coming home flying JetBlue to Fort Lauderdale and a 757 home to Atlanta
This was Monday June 20 to Tuesday June 21, 2022.
I may or may not have been sitting at a stop light while N6702 landed from Pensacola.
I got to the airport 3 hours before my flight anticipating large crowds. Turns out I was wrong, or at least I was for the PreCheck line anyway. I breezed through with almost no wait.
I popped out to an absolutely beautiful day temperature notwithstanding. N359DN pulling in to gate T7 was coming in from Milwaukee. I grabbed a quick bite at concourse F before heading back to concourse T for my flight, gate T6 to be exact.
Operating today’s flight was N502DX, at the time of this flight Delta’s newest aircraft having entered service just 3 weeks prior. I’ve flown on some new aircraft, but I don’t think any this new.
Meanwhile, back in reality, our gate was full of dipshits who don’t understand how boarding an aircraft works
(notice what stage of boarding the sign says we’re in).
Delta Air Lines Flight 1724
ATL-BOS
Depart ATL - 12:30pm (was actually 12:38)
Arrive BOS - 3:09pm (was actually 3:04)
Airbus A321neo
N502DX
The aircraft is new enough that there aren’t any photos of it on the site yet. I think that’s only happened maybe once or twice in all the trip reports that I’ve written, which at this point I think is quite a lot.
I was seated in 25A. N389DN next to us was going to ORD. We pushed more or less on time and headed to runway 9L.
N842MH was being towed to gate A2 for a flight to Boston coincidentally enough.
N690DL taxiing behind us to SAV. That seems like overkill for a 757, but who could complain about that? That’s doubly true because the other two legacy carriers would operate this flight with an E175 at the very best. I’m rambling. Hey, N776AU, talk about flying stuff and post more pictures. Yes, sir!
N681DA in from Charleston. Have I mentioned what a beautiful day it was?
N6702 greeted me coming in, so it’s only fair it sees me off too. It was going to Richmond now.
https://youtu.be/Q0phIz6MHLUHere’s a video of takeoff. I’ve always regarded the A320 series as a quiet aircraft, but man, the Neo takes it to another level. It might even be quieter than the A350.
Just a beautiful day for flying.
LT World Airport in Lithonia
Briscoe Field in Gwinnett County
Great views all around
The interior of this thing is almost as nice as the exterior. I ended up seeing quite the alphabet soup of airports on this segment.
IAD in the distance.
DCA
BWI
PHL
Didn’t realize everything sports-wise in Philadelphia was right there together.
EWR
Lower Manhattan
Most of Manhattan among other things.
LGA and jet exhaust clouding things up.
Soon enough it was time to descend in to Boston.
https://youtu.be/d76ygbYLaJcVideo of landing on runway 4R. ATC asked us about seeing a drone on the way down
Bit of a lineup heading out to runway 9.
N167AN in its special paint coming by on the way to DFW.
In to gate A16
N502DX looking just beautiful turning to SFO. I was staying at the airport Hilton, so I didn’t need any ground transportation but my feet.
Nice little observation on the outside walkway. It would turn out that N3761R (the SkyTeam aircraft) would follow me everywhere on this trip. More on that later.
The digs for the night.
I had a bit of a view of terminal E from my window, but not much, doubly so since there was no traffic flowing anywhere close to that direction. Whatever. I didn’t spend a ton of time in my room anyway.
This was the view from the elevator lobby as I went down. I walked back to the airport to catch a shuttle to the train station and in to the city.
Blue line train coming in hot.
I transferred briefly to the green line too.
Ended up grabbing dinner at a place called JM Curley. Pretty good
Heh, this statue is funny because it says hooker
I walked around enjoying the Boston weather. It was only about 100 times nicer than what I left in Atlanta (high 90s and humid as all hell).
After some more exploring I headed back to the hotel.
The 9/11 memorial was very close by, and empty when I got back, so I figured that to be the ideal time to visit.
I couldn’t get the United 175 passenger side without major reflection in the camera.
I made my way back to my room, and the landscape had changed a bit since I went in to town. I grabbed a quick dessert and headed to bed.
So came Tuesday. I woke back up at 7. Since I was flying JetBlue this morning, I could walk to terminal E and walk over to terminal C after security.
Delta’s terminal ever evolving.
A terrible photo from afar of N3077J, the A220-300 I flew from Atlanta back in April. Coincidentally it was occupying the gate I was heading toward, but she was gone when I got there.
Now there’s really something I don’t see at home.
Working my way to my gate I passed N946JL, the first A321 I ever flew way back in 2017. That day was JFK-LAX. Today it was flying BOS-LAX.
Something about those JetBlue A321s that looks so good
My aircraft was towed in at about 8:15 after landing very late the night earlier from Denver.
JetBlue Airways Flight 1219
BOS-FLL
Depart BOS - 9:55am (was actually 9:48)
Arrive FLL - 1:27pm (was actually 12:32)
Airbus A321
N975JT
“C’est la Blue”
This would be my first experience on a non-Mint A321, not that I have the wealth to fly Mint anyway.
Seat 26F was my spot today.
We pushed and headed for what I thought was going to be runway 9. That’s what all the other traffic was using, but we went to runway 4R. Seems strange since we were going south, but who could argue with the views on the SSOX6 departure? Anyway, N307JB here was going to DCA.
N273JB was going to LGA.
https://youtu.be/7D70_lEmAccVideo of takeoff. Flex thrust was strong here.
It was another perfect say to take to the skies.
BOS in the distance
I was beginning to wonder if the PTVs were out of service. Turns out they weren’t.
Breakfast of champions
Apparently I’m an old man and like to watch The Price is Right.
Some sight seeing down the east coast.
Coming down for the CUUDA2 arrival in Fort Lauderdale.
PBI
Not quite as nice as Boston was when we left.
https://youtu.be/oo_e0Gh40isVideo of landing on runway 10L
And in to gate E8. N618JB next to us was going to LGA.
N975JT was going to JFK after dropping me off. I also spot N531JL there too. I’ve flown him before. I wanted lunch, so I did that before I did anything else.
Not too crowded once you get down toward the end.
Gourmet? No, but it was free thanks to Priority Pass.
My flight home was on Delta. There were a couple of earlier flights to Atlanta I could have taken, but I didn’t want to risk it, especially knowing JetBlue is prone to delays. Changing airlines would make it dicy. In any case, I had to change terminals and reclear security.
This little color-coded arrow system was very useful when walking through the garage. In my case, I was going to terminal 2.
I get airside and am greeted by N3741S. I flew him SLC-BOI way back in 2014. Today it was going to LGA (what is it with me and seeing aircraft going to New York?)
N304JB, the blueprint was in from NAS.
737-800 heading probably anywhere. I had good views of 10L takeoffs.
N690DL was going to ATL. I could have gotten standby on this flight for free, but I opted to keep my window rather than likely end up in a middle seat.
N690DL on the way out.
My aircraft arrived at 3:45 from ATL. Today was N671DN, a 757-200 and a rare winglet-less variety.
Delta Air Lines Flight 2516
FLL-ATL
Depart FLL - 5:10pm (was actually 5:11)
Arrive ATL - 7:10pm (was actually 6:43)
Boeing 757-200
N671DN
We started boarding right on time at 4:30, but were held up for a few minutes because some lady in first class was being a Karen to the gate agents. What do I know? I’m just some lowly peasant who flies in the back like everybody else.
I was seated in 32A for this one.
N111DC was going an out and back from Detroit.
We pushed on schedule and headed for runway 10L.
Never seen an E2 E-Jet before. I don’t think it can really compete with the A220, but it looks nice anyway.
https://youtu.be/kLZ_tMk_AckVideo of takeoff on the FRSBE1 departure.
I didn’t take a ton more photos because the sun was shining right in my window.
MCO from 36,000. Check out the widebody taking off from 35L. I didn’t bother purchasing wifi for this flight, so I couldn’t look and see what this was. I ended up watching his entire takeoff roll and climb. Very cool from above.
Little bit of speed brake love. I didn’t take any more photos or video landing because the person in the middle seat next to me wanted to look out the window. I’ve only filmed landing on runway 27L in Atlanta about 8,000 times, so I don’t figure that’s too much of a loss, even if the landing was pure butter.
Hey look, it’s N685DA, my handle for a lot of things across the internet, just not here. We pulled her in at gate A29.
N671DN was done for the day, and for that matter so was I.
And as I stroll down concourse A I double take and see N3761R again. Turns out after seeing it in Boston, it also followed me to Fort Lauderdale, and ended up in Atlanta the same time as me after returning to Boston.
And one last photo of beautiful N685DA before I headed home.
Very enjoyable trip. Delta’s new A321neos are some nice aircraft. I do hope some them make their home in Atlanta, though I think that like the A220 might be a pipe dream. Hopefully my errors were minimal. I wrote this over the course of an afternoon. I have one more trip coming up before I go back to work in August. Always glad to get in some more flying. Thanks for reading