KPBI (Palm Beach International Airport) ✈ KATL (Atlanta - Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport (The William B Hartsfield / Municipal / Candler Field)
Airline: Delta Air Lines
Airline IATA Code: IATA Code # DL
Airline IACO Code: IACO Code # DAL
Airline Callsign: Radio Callsign DELTA
Airline Flight Number: # DL688
Aircraft / Equipment Used for Flight : McDonnell Douglas MD-90
Aircraft / Equipment Registration: Registration # N953DN, formerly with China Southern Airlines as B-2250 as of November 12th, 2004, formerly with China Northern Airlines as B-2250 as of July 26th, 1996
Airline Aircraft / Equipment Fleet Number: # 9253
Aircraft / Equipment Nationality: United States of America - FAA - Registered Aircraft / Equipment
Aircraft's First Flight: July 12th, 1996
Aircraft's Age as of Date of Flight: 18.7 Years Old as of October 19th, 2014
Aircraft Test Registration: B-2250 (People's Republic of China)
Aircraft Config: F16W15Y129, formerly F12Y145 with China Southern Airlines as of November 12th, 2004, formerly F12Y145 with China Northern Airlines as of July 26th, 1996
Aircraft Construction Number (MSN) : 53523
Aircraft Line Number: # 2143
Aircraft Delivery Date: To Delta Air Lines as N953DN: January 26th, 2011, to China Southern as B-2250: November 12th, 2004, to China Northern as B-2250: July 26th, 1996
Aircraft Powerplant (s) : 2x IAE V2525-D5 High Bypass Turbofan Engines
Aircraft Owned by / Leased from: OWNED by Delta Air Lines
Meal: Beverage / Refreshment Service
Cabin: Delta Air Lines Domestic First Class
Seat Assignment: 4A
A/C Equipped with IFE: No
A/C Equipped with Wi-Fi Wireless Internet Access: Yes, GoGo Inflight Wi-Fi available for purchase
Airline Flight Date: October 19th, 2014
Boarding Call Time: 6:20 AM EST, October 19th, 2014
Boarding Zone: 1, PREM, Sky Priority
Departure Time: 7:00 AM EST, October 19th, 2014
Departure Gate / Jetway: Gate / Jetway C2, Concourse C, PBI
Arrival Time: 8:47 AM EST, October 19th, 2014
Arrival Gate / Jetway: Gate / Jetway B24, Concourse B, ATL
Time Aloft: 1 hour 47 minutes (107 minutes)
Filed Speed: 460 KIAS
Filed Cruising Altitude: 31,000 Feet
Flight Distance: Direct: 546 SM | Planned: 654 SM | Flown: 573 SM
Routing Waypoint (s) : PBI TBIRD1 SHEDS ORL J81 VQQ ONYON1 ATL
FLIGHT DATA SOURCE (S):
1.
PlaneSpotters.Net Airframe Data
2.
PlaneSpotters.Net Airline Data
3.
FlightAware Live Flight Tracking Data
4.
The First & Business Class Experience | Delta Air Lines
5.
Palm Beach International Airport - Palm Beach County Florida - Palm Beach County Government
As
B-2250 with China Southern Airlines as of November 12th, 2004 :
As
B-2250 with China Northern Airlines as of July 26th, 1996:
FlightAware for this flight. Copyright © FlightAware 2014
Arriving (sleepily) into
PBI, the ticketing hall seemed to be just as drowsy as I was (hence sideways pictures in some instances) and almost no airline staff were present. Seizing the opportunity, I was the first (and only) person to use the "Carry-on Only" check-in lane and then began photographing the various areas of the ticketing area and pre-security mall.
As I said in the foreword of this report,
PBI is the smallest of the three South Floridian commercially-serviced airports, and thus has suffered a ton of cuts as a result of industry-wide consolidation and downturn of the economy following the September 11 Attacks. It doesn't help that
FLL is only a mere 42 miles to the south and offers not only many more destinations, but also low, low fares. Recently, however, due to a surge of northeastern folks moving down to South Florida, low cost carriers Southwest and JetBlue have significantly expanded their presence at the field--B6 with seven scheduled and
WN with eight (4 SKED, 4 SEAS), making them the two largest carriers at
PBI when factoring both scheduled and seasonal destinations into the equation.
Unfortunately, fares still remain high to this day at
PBI, and most non-hub service is only seasonal. Plus,
F9's service to
DEN is being cut on April 28th, 2015, disappointingly...Nonetheless,
PBI is still a great deal nicer than
FLL, and you'll see why in the following pictures.
PBI's single-room ticketing hall. Pueblo tiling and wood accents create a bit of a homey and comfortable feel.
Interesting Delta ticket counter layout here. Note the list of SkyTeam carriers by the Delta banner, I hadn't noticed that before. Also, the kiosk asked me to give up my first class seat on all six flights, despite seats remaining in all the premium cabins on every flight (one remained on this
PBI-
ATL flight)....I had to decline unfortunetely, on account of all my tight connections in order to fit six flights in 24 hours.
Huge wicker chairs with floral / palm print cushions and pueblo tile, doesn't get much more Floridian than this!
Plaques near the parking garage elevators detailing the history of the airstrip.
All the usual players for a small, seasonal Florida airport...
except...
PeoplExpress was a very much maligned startup based out of Patrick Henry Field, Newport News, Virginia that commenced operations on June 30th, 2014. Notice how at no point did I refer to PeoplExpress as an airline, because they are
not an airline. All of their flights were operated by Vision Airlines (V2), using one 737-400 (N745VA) and one 737-300 (N732VA). After burning through most of their startup capital, one airplane was hit by a servicing truck, and the next had to have an engine changed (but there was no money left to pay for it), all flights were "suspended" on September 26th, 2014, stranding thousands around the eastern seaboard of the US. The service coordinator, PeoplExpress, promised service would return on October 16th, 2014, but later rescinded the announcement with no set date of service resumption. On November 12, 2014, PEOPLExpress was evicted from the Newport News/Williamsburg International Airport due to non-payment of Passenger Facilities Charges of US$100,000, and it was evicted completely from the complimentary office space that the
PHF airport authorities provided them on January 23rd, 2015. At the time of writing (mid-February-2015), there has been no official announcement regarding resumption of service, and the company's telephone support line at 844.4FLYPEX (844.435.9739) has been disconnected.
The first image was taken during their 90-day run, the second was taken on the day of this flight (October 19th, 2014), three days after service was supposedly "resuming". The signage and other such PeoplExpress items have removed from
PBI as of late January 2015.
PeoplExpress still listed on the Concourse signage, which has since been removed as well.
Getting some updates posted to
PeoplExpress "Suspends" Service Through Oct 16 (by wjcandee Sep 26 2014 in Civil Aviation) (the reply I posted about
PBI here) on my Lenovo Y50.
The splash page for the airport Wi-Fi advertised Frontier's new nonstop service to Denver, which didn't work as well as they planned, I suppose, because
F9 is cutting
DEN-
PBI-
DEN effective April 28th, 2015. Still, Beginning of November 2014 - Beginning of May 2015 was a pretty good run, don't you think? They're also keeping
IAD-
PBI-
IAD and
TTN-
PBI-
TTN.
Like
FLL,
PBI was an all
CO station before the merger.
UA has done a pretty good job removing all the Continental logos and stickers, but feint traces such as this bag-tag reminder still remain.
Enough airline trivia and onto the niceties of
PBI.
The massive pre-security atrium boasts several restuarants, a very large putting green, a shopping mall, and an art gallery along with massive ceilings to complete the welcoming "Florida Beach Village" ambience. Better than
FLL, do you think?
I've seen putting greens in various Delta Sky Clubs before, but never as large as Sam Snead's in
PBI, with its little faux water hazards and bunkers! Have a round of putting before your long flight! ...Maybe another day...
The massive retail / dining center at the opposite of Sam Sneads and the pre-departure seating area. Unfortunately, it is 4
AM EST and everything is closed, but it reaffirms my opinion that despite the smaller size,
PBI is much nicer than
FLL. Read,
DXB: Size =/= Luxury. Also, in the second picture, notice the pleasantly flowing fountain under the two lit yellow pavilions--the
dripdripdripdripdripdrip was very calming for a nervous LPDAL trying to stuff as many flights into a day as possible!
Even after my extensive photography of the pre-
TSA area, security was still not open (one of the main disadvantages of arriving this early in the morning) so I bought a coffee from the nearby Starbucks stall and listened to some music while I waited. After
TSA finally opened up, I discovered my previous dim-awareness of the carpet ramps in
PBI was indeed correct! I had previously read that there was no Sky Club in
PBI, so I wandered throughout the straight concourse looking for a place to sit. Until, however, I stumbled upon a Sky Club! Strangely, the official
PBI website at the time listed no airline lounges at the airport. After the agent swiped my Sky Club membership card, we had a brief conversation about Airliners.Net and FlyerTalk, before I got a table and sat down to have a small breakfast before boarding my flight.
Carpet ramps! What a throwback.
An unexpected Sky Club here in
PBI.
VERY similar looking to the
FLL Sky Club, right down to the "Service from the Heart" Mosaic.
A very warm and welcoming seating area, with very soft chairs.
The Palm Beach Sky Club seems to have its own book club! If only I had a book to give...next time, I'll bring some aviation-related titles to leave for others to enjoy.
Delta recently upgraded the Sky Club food selections in 2014, adding a bit of "real food" to all Sky Clubs nationwide and abroad. For breakfast, this includes three types of cereal, yogurt, pastries, English Muffins, hard-boiled eggs (protein
), and fruit salad. For lunch...Well, that's later!
Usually, taking the case off my phone and pressing it up against the glass allows me to take a glare-free shot of the ramp from the airline clubs hither and yon during early morning departures, but it does not seem to work here. From what I can tell, I think this is a 717 being refueled by the truck near the left wing.
Walking over to my gate to board the usual South Florida to Atlanta hop.
Unfortunately, my gate,
C2, is the only gate without windows... :{ So that meant that the only view of my ride, Delta
MD-90-30 N953DN, would be from this tiny emergency exit door window. N953DN was originally delivered to China Northern in mid-1996, passed on to China Southern in late 2004, and finally found a loving home with Delta in April 2012, entering into service after an extensive series of modifications to the interior in July of the same year.
Boarding was slowed a small bit by a stunning seven (!) wheelchair passengers with only two Eulen America ground agents to assist them, so by the time first class was called to board, I was more than ready to sit down.
Inside 4A, which I had chosen as it is the best first class seat for views of the inboard slats and wing profile, my seatmate seemed to be in a kerfuffle. She was very annoyed at someone she was speaking to on her phone, which she explained to me was
AT&T trying to get her on an international data plan as she was flying
PBI-
ATL-
MAN. I gave her a little impromptu
IT support, and she ended up purchasing a good plan at a decent rate just as boarding for economy began.
I'm always amazed how Delta mainline flight attendants manage to get a full round of 16 first class pre-departure beverages out even in airplanes such as the
MD-90 where, even if the gate agents hold coach class passengers at the gate for a couple of minutes to give the first class cabin crew a breather, it is, or appears to be, at least, very difficult for them to get these drinks out with a parade of passengers seeking their seats in the rear end of the aircraft. I'm quite impressed by their ability to not only pour cocktails, but subsequently manage to hand them out without spilling them (most of the time, F/As, just as much as other people, should NOT be expected to be perfect) in a timely manner. Thumbs up,
DL.
The chief purser on this flight is a total southern sweetheart, genuinely caring for her passengers up front and taking our beverage orders in advance on the ground. Just after she finished writing the last of our orders down, she grabbed the P/A and begun the safety announcement as the rampers pushed us out from the gate. Taking off from
PBI was a bit surreal, as
PBI is pretty much a near 80%
GA airfield, so there were a lot of hangars lit up and little puddlejumpers scuttling about near our
MD-90 as we lined up with Runway 28 Right and blasted off towards the Everglades Conservation Area, making a steep right bank to the north for our short early-morning hop to Atlanta.
Boarding the
MD-90.
The
MD-90's first class cabin is pretty much the same as the
MD-88.
My seat, 4A. Delta has removed all bulkheads from the Maddogs and replaced them with faux cloth sheets. This gives the three Economy Comfort seats an insane amount of legroom (think near 45").
Typical first class legroom up here.
I just love these little waters that Delta places at each first class seat, very handy when you're thirsty after dashing from gate to gate......
And the sweetheart purser is more than ready to supply me with my daily (or hundred times daily) dose of caffeine.
Taxiing past an United Parcel Service A310. Unfortunately, my phone did not want to cooperate and kept focusing on the raindrops.
Blasting out of West Palm Beach International Airport past the rather short runway 10L.
Climbing to our average-for-this-flight cruise altitude.
Cruise.
Service on this flight was the normal Delta short-hop standard, with a few passes of the snack basket filled with Biscoff cookies, pretzels, peanuts, pound cake slabs, bananas, and chocolate interspersed with the occasional drink run. When I ordered a mug of hot coffee, it was delivered to me in a styrofoam cup, which seems to be a trend with Delta. While I don't find the taste to be anything different than java served in a porcelain mug, Delta may want to watch out for the Korean Nut Lady
V2....Maybe the Korean Styrofoam Coffee Businessman? I kid, I kid.
After a short coversation with my seatmate about her business in Manchester, I politely excused myself, reclined all the way back, and bent the winged-headrest into place before finally lulling into dreamland to the feint sound of the barely-audible distant engines. I wouldn't have much time during most of my connections in
ATL for the day to visit the Sky Club or nod off in rest, so every little bit counted. I only woke up to the sing-song voice of the purser saying something like "I'm so sorry sweetie pea, may you please bring your seatback upright for landing?" I looked out the window, and I think she had let me sleep as long as I could based on our altitude when I woke up, before I had to un-recline my seat. Touchdown was pleasantly gentle, and we taxied into Concourse B for an one-minute-early early arrival time.
Snack basket, round one.
Some "double-double" coffee to wake me up for a morning of traveling, and a continental breakfast from the snack basket.
Turning to start out approach into
ATL.
Turning onto short final to line up with the proverbial
ATL approach.
Short final, almost there...
Touchdown, spoilers deploying under the blanket of a beautiful Georgian sunrise.
Taxiing in
ATL, no day is ever without action at this place. Nonstop takeoffs, pushbacks, servicing aircraft, you name it. Also note the hump in the middle of the runway.
Delta, Delta, and more Delta.
Taxiing in beside a younger sib
MD-88 N905DE on our way into our assigned gate in Concourse B.
Pulling into our gate, B24, next to a very sharp-looking
757-200 N683DA.
[Edited 2015-02-18 10:26:34]
TWU represented. All of my views and posted content are mine alone, and should not be viewed as official communication from my employer, its subsidiaries thereof, or any other entities or airlines.
On the bright side, you can buy this exact model on the Delta Air Lines DeltaShop here: 
to your post. 