Florida Trip Report

Well I finally made a trip to Florida. All in all the flights were pretty easy. DAB has once again proven to be #1 in convenience.

1/5/11
US Airways 1511
Depart: New York-LaGuardia (On time departure) Gate 15
Arrive: Charlotte (Early) Gate B11?
Seat: 16A
Airbus A321

First, I want to mention I went from curbside to my gate in 5 minutes. LGA security is not as big of a hassle as you think.
We boarded right on time at 10:50 AM at gate 15. A relatively short line up to runway 31 and we were airborne for Charlotte. The flight was relatively smooth until our descent through an overcast sky over the area. We touched down on runway 23 using the entire runway. It was probably intentional since our arrival gate is right near the end of this runway. We did have a slight wait since we were early and our gate was still occupied.

US Airways 2675
Depart: Charlotte (1.5 hours late) Gate E25
Arrive: Daytona Beach, FL (1.33 hours late) Gate 5
Seat: 7F
Canadair Regional Jet 900

This was the issue of the entire trip, and it wasn't even that bad. I became suspicious after arriving at gate E25 to see that my flight to Daytona Beach was not listed. I went back to the monitors to see that we were delayed until 4:23 PM. It turned out the problem was the computer system that did all the crews paperwork. The other issue was that our plane had to go to GSO and back. After the GSO-CLT leg of our plane was cancelled the next issue was a/c availability. It all worked out. We departed at our new estimated departure time and were airborne shortly after. One note about the CR9 is how misaligned the windows are in reference to the seats.
I think the pilot put the thrust to the metal here because we were on our descent pretty quickly. For those of you who are not aware of the current events going on at DAB, Runway 7L is under construction and is partially closed for a repave and an upgrade on the ILS system. We had a rough descent due to a lot of unstable air with lots of rain. Our final approach into Daytona Beach included crossing the coastline near the Volusia/Flagler County Line followed by a turn to the south. We passed to the east of OMN and eventually landed on runway 16. Wheels up to wheels down was almost exactly one hour. A quick taxi to gate 5 and we were parked. Now, for those of you who are in favor of the checked bag fees (I don't think there are many on here), I would like to mention that a large majority of the passengers on this flight were lined up in the jetway waiting for carry on bags that they checked planeside in CLT. I made my way through the terminal (was a bit disoriented since I usually fly Delta into DAB and am used to exiting through gate 2 or 4), out front and my mother picked me up.

After two changes to my itinerary from the snowstorm up here, I was finally homeward bound this morning. I arrived at Daytona Beach International Airport at 5:45 AM with temps in the upper 30s. I went inside and got my boarding passes then went back out for a quick smoke. After that I went inside the terminal. I was at the gate within 5 minutes waiting for my flight.

US Airways 2284
Depart: Daytona Beach, FL (On time) Gate 5
Arrive: Charlotte (On time) Gate E19
Seat: 15A
Canadair Regional Jet 700

Of all the CRJ type aircraft, I must say I do enjoy the CR7 the most. Good window-seat alignment and I don't have to crouch to look out the window. Boarding was quick and easy. I sat near quite a few people who turned out to be very nice people. One of them was a woman from Bed Stuy (got to love representing the 718 with someone). The PSA operated CR7 has a lot of automated safety announcements as well. We pushed on time and made the taxi out to an "abbreviated" Runway 7L. The runway is still in operation but only with about 6,500-7,000 feet available. We did the usual departure out over the beaches and the turn to the north before turning back over land. The beverage service came and went and we were on our descent into Charlotte. A few turns and we touched down on runway 18R. A quick taxi parked us at gate E19 right on schedule. I made my way to concourse D gate 3 for my connecting flight to New York-LaGuardia.

US Airways 1910
Depart: Charlotte (On time) Gate D3
Arrive: New York-LaGuardia (5 minutes early) Gate 16
Seat: 25A
Airbus A321

We boarded our flight and we pushed with full overhead bins. We taxied out to the deicing facility for a quick spray since the plane was a RON and got some frost on the wings (temps were under 20 degrees in CLT). We made our way to runway 18L and made a full power departure. We hit some rough air during the climb out and were on course. The beverage service began but by the time the F/A's made it to my seat the descent had begun. Of course my remark was "I think you're running out of time." I ended up getting the whole can of Sprite though. We made our approach over New Jersey and proceeded with an Expressway Visual to Runway 31. We touched down and made our way to gate 16. All in all great trip. Hoping I can do my next one into DAB again. It really is so easy and it's getting cheaper now too.

Hope you enjoyed. Sorry I don't have pictures. I need to buy a new camera. Also, I have done the LGA-CLT-DAB round trip thing many times in my life during USAir's first reign as DAB's second largest carrier back in the 1990s. Nice to rehash a little bit of the past.

Great trip report. Hope you enjoyed the little time you spent here in CLT! Sounds like US did pretty well and that you had some nice flights. Hopefully your vacation was equally as enjoyable!

I love CLT! Its a great airport and so much easier than ATL! Aside from the Mesa Airlines computer issue I enjoyed it. The Chinese Food joint in the main food court was amazing. Living in NY we know our Chinese food, but I never hated airport chinese. US Airways and CLT has a thumbs up!