Two day trips in one day (#1) JFK-CLT-PDX-JFK
Posted: Thu Oct 20, 2022 12:53 am
It has been a year and a half since I did my last day trip across the country and back. I’ve done them several times. I had close to two weeks off work, and one of the days I decided I wanted to do a day trip. In the past when I would do daytrips, the difference was I booked my flights. So I knew what seats I would be getting. This time I would be flying standby. The advantage was I could do whatever I wanted for the flights, and could decide at the last minute. But the one part about it that made me nervous was getting stuck in a bad seat, on the overnight flight back. I wanted to do either SAN, LAX or SFO, but the flights were all pretty full. Every day the loads kept filling up. So eventually I decided I would do PDX. These flights had the most open seats. Once I decided on PDX, I came up with the flights I would be doing. For the flight out, I was planning on a Delta 757-200 JFK-SEA, and an E-175 SEA-PDX. For the flight back, I would do the jetBlue PDX-JFK redeye. I wrote about in a trip report last year that one of my favorite trips from when I was younger was when I flew jetBlue from JFK-PDX-JFK. I have flown this flight several times. Last year I flew the JFK-PDX flight, but the last time I flew the return was almost 9 years ago, in December 2013. I originally was going to do this trip the day before, but it filled up a few hours before the flight. So I decided I would go the next day. When I was looking at the jetBlue flight back I realized that it was the last day jetBlue would be doing PDX-JFK. They are suspending the flight for the winter. So the next day would be the last opportunity to do the flight for a while. I got my bag ready to go and was getting ready to leave for the airport, when I got a notification that the JFK-SEA flight was delayed 6 hours.
This really messed up my plans. The SEA fight was supposed to be leaving at 3:45pm. It was one of the last flights that would get me to PDX, in time for the flight back. After a few minutes of quickly looking for another flight, I found pretty much the only other option. An American 737-800 JFK-CLT, then an A321 from CLT-PDX. First flight had about 15 open seats, and the second flight had 30 seats open. It was about 1:45pm, and I still hadn’t left for the airport. The flight was leaving at 2:50pm, and it is usually 20-25 minute drive to JFK minimum. I really quickly finished getting ready and left for the airport, and wasn’t even sure I would even make this flight. I got to the airport at 2:15pm, and was waiting for the AirTrain by 2:20pm. At this point boarding was probably starting. It was a few minutes until the AirTrain pulled up. I was walking into Terminal 8 at 2:30pm, with twenty minutes until departure and even less time until they closed the door. I quickly went up to the crew line, and luckily didn’t get randomly selected to go through the normal line. My flight was departing from gate 44, so it was on the other side of the terminal. I quickly walked up to the gate, as they were about to close the door. The one woman said you’re to late, we are closing the door. The other woman asked if I had already listed for the flight. I had, and she quickly gave me a boarding pass. I even got a window seat. She also let one more passenger who was late, board as well. We were the last two people to get on the flight. The gate agent had given me a tag to check my bag, but as I was boarding the first officer was standing near the door. She said we would find room for my bag somewhere in first class. I was sitting in my seat at 2:40pm, less then an hour after leaving my house. The door was closed at 2:45pm, and we pushed right at our departure time
American 1556
New York, NY (JFK) – Charlotte, NC (CLT)
Boeing 737-800
N951NN
Seat 15A
Scheduled Departure Time – 2:50pm
Actual Departure Time- 3:08pm
Scheduled Arrival Time – 4:49pm
Actual Arrival Time- 4:36pm
1 hour 28 minutes
N951NN getting ready for our flight to Charlotte. It was its second flight of the day, after arriving from Miami
15A, next to N790AN that was departing a few hours after us to Milan, Italy. First AA plane I’ve been on with the logo on the winglets
As we taxied towards 31L the captain made his announcement. Hurricane Ian had hit Florida a few days earlier. It was now over the Carolinas. He mentioned that the majority of the flight we would be flying near the storm. He said the first 30 minutes should be smooth. He was going to have the flight attendants try to do the service quickly, and he made no promises how the second part of the flight would be
We were given taxi instructions to take Bravo, and Juliet to 31L and we were cleared to cross 4L before we even left the ramp
N712TW the 757, I was supposed to take JFK-SEA Terminal 2. I’m not sure why the flight ended up being delayed so long
There wasn’t anyone ahead of us, and we only had to wait on a Delta A319 landing from New Orleans
Tower instructed us to fly the RNGRR transition, and contact NY Departure
The Departure controller cleared us to 11,000ft, before handing us off to the next sector of NY Departure
We went up to 36,000ft, where we stayed for the entire flight. It didn’t start to get bumpy until the last 30 minutes of the flight
It got darker as we got closer to Charlotte
The flight attendants sat down early. It was bumpy on the arrival, as we descended through a lot of rain showers
We broke out about 1,000ft on final 36R
The wind was 21 gusting 31 knots, luckily it was straight out of the North, with heavy rain and 2 miles visibility. It was a rough ride on final
It ended up being a smooth touchdown despite the conditions
N757AN taxiing for a flight to Munich
N659AE taxiing for a flight to Lexington, KY
N905NN had just arrived from Hartford, CT
Pulling into the gate next to N990AN, getting ready for a flight to Tampa
After we landed, I checked to see how the next flight was looking. Probably due to the weather, but several more sets had opened up on the PDX flight
The next flight for N951NN was to Minneapolis
A dark looking ramp
N921NN had just arrived from Punta Cana
N342PM at gate B4 after arriving from Minneapolis. I’ve flown this plane from Aruba - Charlotte
American 1324
Charlotte, NC (CLT) – Portland, OR (PDX)
Airbus A321
N913US
Seat 27A
Scheduled Departure Time – 6:28pm
Actual Departure Time- 6:44pm
Scheduled Arrival Time – 8:55pm
Actual Arrival Time- 8:21pm
4 hours 37 minutes
N913US at gate C17, after arriving from Philadelphia. This would be my second time flying on it. I flew it once from Los Angeles – Charlotte
Boarding
I was originally in 24F. But it didn’t have much of a window. It also had no where for my bag underneath since it was the exit row, so I asked the flight attendant if I could move a few rows back and 27A was open. Someone ended up being on the aisle, but the middle seat was empty
Just like on the first flight the captain mentioned due to the weather, it would be turbulent for the first portion of the flight. The door was closed around 6:20pm, and we sat for about 10 minutes before pushing back
It was a fairly quick taxi to runway 36C, where we taxied onto the runway and took off without stopping
The ride out of Charlotte was a lot worse then on the way in. It was some of the worst turbulence I have experienced in a while. It was turbulent for about the first fifteen minutes of the flight. We were in clouds the entire time getting bounced around, as we climbed through the remnants of Hurricane Ian
About 25 minutes after taking off, I finally started to see a little light
Once we got out of the weather it smoothed out
We started out at 34,000ft. Then we went down to 32,000ft for a while. After this it was back up to 34,000ft, then finally 36,000ft. It was a nice sunset that lasted practically the entire flight. It didn’t get fully dark until shortly before we started descending. About an hour into the flight a service was done. They made an announcement that they had no apple juice. They told the woman behind me that they have been out of it for a few weeks, due to supply issues. This was the only service that was done other than a water service an hour before landing
Half way
Cruising
I spent the flight watching a show on my phone, and watching the sunset as we flew across the country
As we flew over Wyoming, it started to get pretty bumpy again. The captain made an announcement that we were experiencing moderate turbulence, and Air Traffic Control said it should last 4-5 minutes
Getting closer to Portland
I got up once about 4 hours into the flight. While I was waiting for the bathroom, I was talking to the flight attendants and they said it was an easy trip. They had the one leg to PDX then a 24 hour overnight, and the redeye back to CLT the next night
About 25 minutes before landing the captain announced the descent
It was a quick descent, and what felt like a few minutes later we were already at 10,000ft and on final descent
We checked in with Portland Approach. We were given a 250 heading to join the 28L final approach course, and to descend and maintain 4,000ft. We were then cleared for a Visual Approach to runway 28L, and to maintain 170 knots or better until ADDUM
Final 28L
It was a smooth landing on 28L
N913US spent the night at gate C19, and it flew down to Dallas early the next morning
I had about 3 hours until the flight back to JFK. I went up to the parking garage, to watch my plane land from New York. Even though it was late at night, I still saw a few planes takeoff and land
N62883 arriving from Denver
N278AK arriving from Albuquerque
N3058J as flight 1397 to Boston. jetBlue recently switched this flight to the A220, it has always been an A320
N7752B taxiing to the gate, after a flight from Sacramento
N863DN taking off for the redeye to Atlanta. I’ve flown this plane from PHX-JFK
And last but not least my A320, N806JB landing after the 5 hour 1 minute flight from JFK. The winds must have been pretty calm because that was pretty short. My flight going back the other way to New York on the longer side, over 5 hours. Usually the flights eastbound are under 5 hours
Earlier in the day the flight was showing 23 open seats. By this time it was down to 11 seats. Then 8 as it was closer to boarding. I was hoping for a window seat, or at least an aisle. I definitely didn’t want to get stuck in a middle seat
N806JB at gate D6
N37537 at gate E4, before a flight to Chicago – O’Hare
N62883 getting ready to depart for the flight to Newark
jetBlue 1006
Portland, OR (PDX) – New York, NY (JFK)
Airbus A320
N806JB
Seat 4A
Scheduled Departure Time – 11:47pm
Actual Departure Time- 12:20am
Scheduled Arrival Time – 7:59am
Actual Arrival Time- 8:29am
5 hours 9 minutes
I went up to the gate agent. She said that this was going to be the last flight to JFK for 5 months They had one more flight to Boston the next night, and then that was it for jetBlue at PDX until the Spring. She said that they were suspending some of their smaller cities for the winter. She asked if I wanted a window or an aisle seat. I asked for a window. She was going to give me 10A, but she ended up giving me 4A. A window seat up front, in their Even More Space seats
4A, next to N961NK that had just arrived from Vegas
The flight attendants made multiple announcements for people to hurry up and sit down, and that a lot of people had tight connections at JFK in the morning. Boarding finished up at 11:35pm, and the door was closed at 11:45pm. We sat for about 10 minutes after the door was closed, before we finally started pushing
The A321 I flew in from Charlotte
We sat short of the runway for about 10 minutes, before we finally took off
Taking off
We checked in with Portland Departure climbing out of 1,700ft for 7,000ft. The controller cleared us to 15,000ft, before handing us off to Seattle Center
Climbing out of PDX
We spent most of the flight at 35,000ft. Before going up to 37,000ft over Canada and New York. It was smooth for most of the flight. Just a few bumps on the arrival. About 30 minutes into the flight a service was done. Then I fell asleep for only about 45 minutes
Flying past Spokane
Cruising
I slept about another 30 minutes off and on, but was up for the rest of the flight. A few hours after watching the sunset, it was now time to watch the sunrise
Just starting to get a little light out
Flying over Canada
We had taken a more northerly routing, maybe due to winds. The weather from the day before, had moved up to the New York area. We arrived from the north. We came down over upstate New York past Syracuse, towards Albany and then descended via the Kingston1 Arrival
Shortly after starting the descent, we were into the clouds
Final descent into NY
ILS 4R
“jetBlue 1006 wind 040 @ 17 G 24, runway 4R cleared to land”
Line of planes waiting to depart 4L
It was my longest flight eastbound across the country. Over 5 hours in the air. I was back on the ground in NY, 17 hours after leaving
We were instructed to taxi via Foxtrot to hold short of 4L, while several planes departed. Here is JBU412 N353JB taking off to Syracuse. I had just flown N353JB less then a month before from LGA-PBI
N916DU DL613 taking off to Aruba
N729JB about to taxi for a flight down to Raleigh
N547JB at gate 20, before a flight to Punta Cana. I’ve flown this plane from JFK-SYR before
N508JL at gate 17. It had arrived a little before us from Phoenix. I’ve also flown this plane from FLL-BOS
Pulling into the gate next to N583JB that was about to depart to Atlanta. N583JB is yet another plane I have flown from JFK-SYR
Originally N806JB was supposed to go to St Maarten. It then ended up getting switched to Burbank, Salt Lake City and Savannah, before finally going to Atlanta the next day
It was a fun day of flying between the weather in Charlotte, and redeye back to NY. I was glad to be able to fly jetBlue from PDX-JFK again. Another one of my favorite flights is SYR-JFK on a jetBlue A320. Usually the flight is on an E190. Every so often they will fly the A320 on it. This is the flight I flew the most often, when I was younger. I happened to notice that they were flying the A320 to Syracuse the same night, and I decided I wanted to do this flight too. So I went home for a few hours and took a nap. Then came back to the airport, for a second mini day trip on the same day…
This really messed up my plans. The SEA fight was supposed to be leaving at 3:45pm. It was one of the last flights that would get me to PDX, in time for the flight back. After a few minutes of quickly looking for another flight, I found pretty much the only other option. An American 737-800 JFK-CLT, then an A321 from CLT-PDX. First flight had about 15 open seats, and the second flight had 30 seats open. It was about 1:45pm, and I still hadn’t left for the airport. The flight was leaving at 2:50pm, and it is usually 20-25 minute drive to JFK minimum. I really quickly finished getting ready and left for the airport, and wasn’t even sure I would even make this flight. I got to the airport at 2:15pm, and was waiting for the AirTrain by 2:20pm. At this point boarding was probably starting. It was a few minutes until the AirTrain pulled up. I was walking into Terminal 8 at 2:30pm, with twenty minutes until departure and even less time until they closed the door. I quickly went up to the crew line, and luckily didn’t get randomly selected to go through the normal line. My flight was departing from gate 44, so it was on the other side of the terminal. I quickly walked up to the gate, as they were about to close the door. The one woman said you’re to late, we are closing the door. The other woman asked if I had already listed for the flight. I had, and she quickly gave me a boarding pass. I even got a window seat. She also let one more passenger who was late, board as well. We were the last two people to get on the flight. The gate agent had given me a tag to check my bag, but as I was boarding the first officer was standing near the door. She said we would find room for my bag somewhere in first class. I was sitting in my seat at 2:40pm, less then an hour after leaving my house. The door was closed at 2:45pm, and we pushed right at our departure time
American 1556
New York, NY (JFK) – Charlotte, NC (CLT)
Boeing 737-800
N951NN
Seat 15A
Scheduled Departure Time – 2:50pm
Actual Departure Time- 3:08pm
Scheduled Arrival Time – 4:49pm
Actual Arrival Time- 4:36pm
1 hour 28 minutes
N951NN getting ready for our flight to Charlotte. It was its second flight of the day, after arriving from Miami
15A, next to N790AN that was departing a few hours after us to Milan, Italy. First AA plane I’ve been on with the logo on the winglets
As we taxied towards 31L the captain made his announcement. Hurricane Ian had hit Florida a few days earlier. It was now over the Carolinas. He mentioned that the majority of the flight we would be flying near the storm. He said the first 30 minutes should be smooth. He was going to have the flight attendants try to do the service quickly, and he made no promises how the second part of the flight would be
We were given taxi instructions to take Bravo, and Juliet to 31L and we were cleared to cross 4L before we even left the ramp
N712TW the 757, I was supposed to take JFK-SEA Terminal 2. I’m not sure why the flight ended up being delayed so long
There wasn’t anyone ahead of us, and we only had to wait on a Delta A319 landing from New Orleans
Tower instructed us to fly the RNGRR transition, and contact NY Departure
The Departure controller cleared us to 11,000ft, before handing us off to the next sector of NY Departure
We went up to 36,000ft, where we stayed for the entire flight. It didn’t start to get bumpy until the last 30 minutes of the flight
It got darker as we got closer to Charlotte
The flight attendants sat down early. It was bumpy on the arrival, as we descended through a lot of rain showers
We broke out about 1,000ft on final 36R
The wind was 21 gusting 31 knots, luckily it was straight out of the North, with heavy rain and 2 miles visibility. It was a rough ride on final
It ended up being a smooth touchdown despite the conditions
N757AN taxiing for a flight to Munich
N659AE taxiing for a flight to Lexington, KY
N905NN had just arrived from Hartford, CT
Pulling into the gate next to N990AN, getting ready for a flight to Tampa
After we landed, I checked to see how the next flight was looking. Probably due to the weather, but several more sets had opened up on the PDX flight
The next flight for N951NN was to Minneapolis
A dark looking ramp
N921NN had just arrived from Punta Cana
N342PM at gate B4 after arriving from Minneapolis. I’ve flown this plane from Aruba - Charlotte
American 1324
Charlotte, NC (CLT) – Portland, OR (PDX)
Airbus A321
N913US
Seat 27A
Scheduled Departure Time – 6:28pm
Actual Departure Time- 6:44pm
Scheduled Arrival Time – 8:55pm
Actual Arrival Time- 8:21pm
4 hours 37 minutes
N913US at gate C17, after arriving from Philadelphia. This would be my second time flying on it. I flew it once from Los Angeles – Charlotte
Boarding
I was originally in 24F. But it didn’t have much of a window. It also had no where for my bag underneath since it was the exit row, so I asked the flight attendant if I could move a few rows back and 27A was open. Someone ended up being on the aisle, but the middle seat was empty
Just like on the first flight the captain mentioned due to the weather, it would be turbulent for the first portion of the flight. The door was closed around 6:20pm, and we sat for about 10 minutes before pushing back
It was a fairly quick taxi to runway 36C, where we taxied onto the runway and took off without stopping
The ride out of Charlotte was a lot worse then on the way in. It was some of the worst turbulence I have experienced in a while. It was turbulent for about the first fifteen minutes of the flight. We were in clouds the entire time getting bounced around, as we climbed through the remnants of Hurricane Ian
About 25 minutes after taking off, I finally started to see a little light
Once we got out of the weather it smoothed out
We started out at 34,000ft. Then we went down to 32,000ft for a while. After this it was back up to 34,000ft, then finally 36,000ft. It was a nice sunset that lasted practically the entire flight. It didn’t get fully dark until shortly before we started descending. About an hour into the flight a service was done. They made an announcement that they had no apple juice. They told the woman behind me that they have been out of it for a few weeks, due to supply issues. This was the only service that was done other than a water service an hour before landing
Half way
Cruising
I spent the flight watching a show on my phone, and watching the sunset as we flew across the country
As we flew over Wyoming, it started to get pretty bumpy again. The captain made an announcement that we were experiencing moderate turbulence, and Air Traffic Control said it should last 4-5 minutes
Getting closer to Portland
I got up once about 4 hours into the flight. While I was waiting for the bathroom, I was talking to the flight attendants and they said it was an easy trip. They had the one leg to PDX then a 24 hour overnight, and the redeye back to CLT the next night
About 25 minutes before landing the captain announced the descent
It was a quick descent, and what felt like a few minutes later we were already at 10,000ft and on final descent
We checked in with Portland Approach. We were given a 250 heading to join the 28L final approach course, and to descend and maintain 4,000ft. We were then cleared for a Visual Approach to runway 28L, and to maintain 170 knots or better until ADDUM
Final 28L
It was a smooth landing on 28L
N913US spent the night at gate C19, and it flew down to Dallas early the next morning
I had about 3 hours until the flight back to JFK. I went up to the parking garage, to watch my plane land from New York. Even though it was late at night, I still saw a few planes takeoff and land
N62883 arriving from Denver
N278AK arriving from Albuquerque
N3058J as flight 1397 to Boston. jetBlue recently switched this flight to the A220, it has always been an A320
N7752B taxiing to the gate, after a flight from Sacramento
N863DN taking off for the redeye to Atlanta. I’ve flown this plane from PHX-JFK
And last but not least my A320, N806JB landing after the 5 hour 1 minute flight from JFK. The winds must have been pretty calm because that was pretty short. My flight going back the other way to New York on the longer side, over 5 hours. Usually the flights eastbound are under 5 hours
Earlier in the day the flight was showing 23 open seats. By this time it was down to 11 seats. Then 8 as it was closer to boarding. I was hoping for a window seat, or at least an aisle. I definitely didn’t want to get stuck in a middle seat
N806JB at gate D6
N37537 at gate E4, before a flight to Chicago – O’Hare
N62883 getting ready to depart for the flight to Newark
jetBlue 1006
Portland, OR (PDX) – New York, NY (JFK)
Airbus A320
N806JB
Seat 4A
Scheduled Departure Time – 11:47pm
Actual Departure Time- 12:20am
Scheduled Arrival Time – 7:59am
Actual Arrival Time- 8:29am
5 hours 9 minutes
I went up to the gate agent. She said that this was going to be the last flight to JFK for 5 months They had one more flight to Boston the next night, and then that was it for jetBlue at PDX until the Spring. She said that they were suspending some of their smaller cities for the winter. She asked if I wanted a window or an aisle seat. I asked for a window. She was going to give me 10A, but she ended up giving me 4A. A window seat up front, in their Even More Space seats
4A, next to N961NK that had just arrived from Vegas
The flight attendants made multiple announcements for people to hurry up and sit down, and that a lot of people had tight connections at JFK in the morning. Boarding finished up at 11:35pm, and the door was closed at 11:45pm. We sat for about 10 minutes after the door was closed, before we finally started pushing
The A321 I flew in from Charlotte
We sat short of the runway for about 10 minutes, before we finally took off
Taking off
We checked in with Portland Departure climbing out of 1,700ft for 7,000ft. The controller cleared us to 15,000ft, before handing us off to Seattle Center
Climbing out of PDX
We spent most of the flight at 35,000ft. Before going up to 37,000ft over Canada and New York. It was smooth for most of the flight. Just a few bumps on the arrival. About 30 minutes into the flight a service was done. Then I fell asleep for only about 45 minutes
Flying past Spokane
Cruising
I slept about another 30 minutes off and on, but was up for the rest of the flight. A few hours after watching the sunset, it was now time to watch the sunrise
Just starting to get a little light out
Flying over Canada
We had taken a more northerly routing, maybe due to winds. The weather from the day before, had moved up to the New York area. We arrived from the north. We came down over upstate New York past Syracuse, towards Albany and then descended via the Kingston1 Arrival
Shortly after starting the descent, we were into the clouds
Final descent into NY
ILS 4R
“jetBlue 1006 wind 040 @ 17 G 24, runway 4R cleared to land”
Line of planes waiting to depart 4L
It was my longest flight eastbound across the country. Over 5 hours in the air. I was back on the ground in NY, 17 hours after leaving
We were instructed to taxi via Foxtrot to hold short of 4L, while several planes departed. Here is JBU412 N353JB taking off to Syracuse. I had just flown N353JB less then a month before from LGA-PBI
N916DU DL613 taking off to Aruba
N729JB about to taxi for a flight down to Raleigh
N547JB at gate 20, before a flight to Punta Cana. I’ve flown this plane from JFK-SYR before
N508JL at gate 17. It had arrived a little before us from Phoenix. I’ve also flown this plane from FLL-BOS
Pulling into the gate next to N583JB that was about to depart to Atlanta. N583JB is yet another plane I have flown from JFK-SYR
Originally N806JB was supposed to go to St Maarten. It then ended up getting switched to Burbank, Salt Lake City and Savannah, before finally going to Atlanta the next day
It was a fun day of flying between the weather in Charlotte, and redeye back to NY. I was glad to be able to fly jetBlue from PDX-JFK again. Another one of my favorite flights is SYR-JFK on a jetBlue A320. Usually the flight is on an E190. Every so often they will fly the A320 on it. This is the flight I flew the most often, when I was younger. I happened to notice that they were flying the A320 to Syracuse the same night, and I decided I wanted to do this flight too. So I went home for a few hours and took a nap. Then came back to the airport, for a second mini day trip on the same day…