Ben's Air Blog

See my video of the arrival and departure. March this year, Southwest announced that they were starting service to Long Beach (LGB) on June 5th.  My good friend and fellow photographer Rick suggested us taking the inaugural flight.  Southwest had received four slots at the noise-sensitive, capacity-controlled airport and the airline decided to use all four slots for service to Oakland (OAK).  This further solidifies SWA’s position as the dominant airline in California, flying to all five Los Angeles area airports (LAX, BUR, ONT, SNA, LGB) – 10 cities in total in California with 160 daily intrastate flights and 19 unique city-pairs.

I went to Seattle in April for AvGeek Fest 2016 for a fun filled aviation weekend put together by the wonderful folks at Airline Reporter, Future of Flight, Museum of Flight, and Boeing. We got exclusive access to the Dreamlifter Operations Center (an AvGeek Fest first), tour of the Dreamliner Gallery, an on-the-factory-floor tour of the Everett Plant (home of the 747, 767, 777, and 787), a tour of the Renton Plant (home of the 737 – not open for public tours), and to top off – a walk around of Boeing’s newest baby – the 737-8 Max. Boeing even pulled out the Seahawks 747-8F out for us!  Alas, Boeing does not allow photography on their property so I was not able to take photos while on any of those tours.

There is something prestigious about seat 1A.  Sure, anyone can grab that seat this day and age when flying on an all-economy or regional airline.  But for someone like me who grew up in the 70s watching jumbo jets flying overseas – seat 1A was something special.

Flying on the Last US Airways Flight from PHX to SFO October 17th, 2015 was a significant day for the merger between American Airlines (AA) and US Airways (US).  Known as “Cutover”, the two airlines switched to a single Passenger Service System and became a single airline that day.  The two airlines now have a common reservation system, a single airline policy, and single airport operations.  For the customer, there is just one airline – American.  (The two airlines were already flying under a single operating certificate, received in April of this year).

Hainan Airlines San Jose to Beijing Inaugural In February 2015, Hainan Airlines announced that they would start new service between Norman Y. Mineta San Jose International (SJC) and Beijing (PEK) in June using the state-of-the-art Boeing 787 Dreamliner .  As a resident of the San Jose area and a big fan of the 787, of course I had to fly on the inaugural flight.

Flight in a Vintage 1929 Ford Tri-Motor The Ford Tri-Motor, known affectionately as the Tin Goose , was world’s first mass produced airliner.  Built with corrugated aluminum, the Tri-Motor resembled more like a tool shed than an airplane.

Flying on the Inaugural American 787 Dreamliner

Farewell to the Brasilia On May 5, 2015, SkyWest Airlines retired its last Embraer 120 Brasilia, known lovingly by those that work on them as the “Bro”.  According to airfleets.net, the Brazilian Air Force is now the largest Brasilia operator with 19 aircraft, followed by Swiftair in Spain with 10 aircraft.  The end has most certainly come for the this once-mainstay aircraft that served small towns and communities throughout the United States as an important link to hubs to the rest of the world.

See Part 2: British Airways A380 While pricing for my trip to Amsterdam for the last KLM MD-11 flight , I came across a fantastic deal in business class that I just could not pass up.  It was on a British Airways (BA) ticket from San Jose, California to Amsterdam for $2400.  The only catch - I had to make two connections to get there. The connection through LAX gave me an added bonus.  For the same price, I was able to choose to fly either on American (AA) or BA or a combination of both.  Of course, I went with the “enthusiast combo," flying outbound on the AA 777-300ER and returning on the BA A380 .  This also allowed for a BIS comparison between the new business class products from the two airlines.  How does the new American flying their newest airplane compare with the elegant old British queen flying their newest behemoth of the skies?

See Part 1, American 777-300ER Post Reservation Right off the bat, this flight got off to a bad start. After booking my ticket, I found out that I could not pre-reserve my seat.  Seats on all other legs on my ticket, including the codeshare AA flights and the European flights on BA, were available for pre-selection. However, seats on this leg from London Heathrow to Los Angeles on the A380 would cost an additional $105 to pre-select. I thought - I just paid for a premium ticket, why am I bring nickeled and dimed on the order of $100 plus to choose a seat?  Being cheap, I decided to take my chances and wait until check in. As the day of the flight approached, though, I noticed all the window seats at optimum locations were being taken up quickly. I was preparing for the worst.