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4/18/05
The trip started out with myself flying on Southwest from PVD-PHL, nice leg room for tall 6'4 goofy people like myself. Flight attendents were kind of arrogant in telling people to hurry and take their seats. Other than that it was fine.
Now comes the other part...
USA3000. I arrived in PHL at around 11am, to have a nice long layover and catch my 405pm flight to St. Pete. There was no one at the ticket counter's untill 2pm -- ok... No biggy, I'll just lug my suitcase around for miles back and forth trying to get some pic's.
Finally checkin - The agents seemed very clueless as to what they were doing, and finally I received my boarding pass, a peice of paper that I could create in Photoshop
.
Finally in the A terminal, A6 was reading Ft Meyers and A8 was reading St. Petersburg, they had it switched around and the agent didnt change it till about 30min prior, even though he told everyone it was wrong. All the ground op's is outsourced, along with boarding. We boarded 1hr and 10min early, why I dont know....but I was lucky enough to fly on a "rare bird"....
G-BXKC The Ex Thomas Cook A320.
Interior:
Flight Attendents were very nice
. Oh, and an inflight snack/meal.. 
The inflight entertainment was horrible, the headphone jacks didnt really fit in the seat, and I only got sound in my left ear peice. Irratating. The guy infront of me insisted on putting his seat back as far as it could go, plus more... gouging into my knees. Very uncomfortable. Approach was neat as we passed over a golf course on short final to 35R, a nice smooth visual approach to sunny St. Pete.
We had the option of deplaning via airstairs in the back, or in the front. I chose the front to get a cockpit shot which didnt really turn out good because of the sun glare. They were very cautious about pictures...I asked the F/A if I could speak with the captain to get a picture, and she jumped infront of the door and said NO! I have to speak with the captain first! (Amazing how paranoid people are....) I go upfront and take a couple pics, then I was told if I took pics of the exterior, I would have my camera confiscated by the Pinellas County Sheriff Dept.
Ok...the dream comes true, deplaning on air stairs, warn 75 degrees at sunset with the palms swaying, how nice
. Now the Huge International Airport...
4/21/05 - The Ride Back...
I arrive at the airport at 400pm for an "early checkin" - then I was going to leave and get some grub before my 740pm flight. I didnt have my bags on me, do'h... left them at my friends house. I asked if I could change my seat, and he told me to come back, and they will do it. I specifically wanted an emergency exit row. I came back, and when I asked to change my seats to an exit row, the remark I got was "What, do you think your special because your tall and you need an exit row"....and joking around I said "Yep!" Well she says to her coworker "If you want to change his seat, you can, Im not....go get Lou, and see if he'll do it..." What kind of BS is that, I was told they do everything by paper, nothing electronically. After 10min of bickering, I got it changed.
Finally...740 comes along, plane just arrives, the status was delayed and set for 800pm. No gate agents in the area, lots of irratated passengers, no service. Here comes 815, and Im wondering if this flight is even going to leave, still no agents near the counter. They do a speedy board and didnt tell us why we were delayed. Thanks a lot USA3000. Managed to snap an "illegal" pic on the air stairs (waiste level, quick snap).
Another thing I was intrested about, was the fact that the cockpit door is opened inflight to give the pilots their meals. They block the aisle off with the service cart's and then phone the cockpit, then it opens. I took a couple pics of it while open, but for some reason my camera comes up with an error while trying to upload those...
This time the IFE actually worked, crystal clear jazz while sippin on my drink and eatting my grub watching the sun set.
Overall, USA3000 Isnt the best of airlines and I might give them a whirl again, but you get what you pay for.
Pro's: IFE, Food, Kickass little airports like PIE.
Con's: No "service" half the time, uninformitave employees, and bad pitch.
Then for the PHL-Home... I took the SEPTA for $5.50 to Central Philly on the Subway, then caught an overnight train Acela Regional to RI. Now I just walked in the door from the train, and decided to write a report cuz I cant sleep. Hope you enjoyed.
The trip started out with myself flying on Southwest from PVD-PHL, nice leg room for tall 6'4 goofy people like myself. Flight attendents were kind of arrogant in telling people to hurry and take their seats. Other than that it was fine.
Now comes the other part...
USA3000. I arrived in PHL at around 11am, to have a nice long layover and catch my 405pm flight to St. Pete. There was no one at the ticket counter's untill 2pm -- ok... No biggy, I'll just lug my suitcase around for miles back and forth trying to get some pic's.
Finally checkin - The agents seemed very clueless as to what they were doing, and finally I received my boarding pass, a peice of paper that I could create in Photoshop
. Finally in the A terminal, A6 was reading Ft Meyers and A8 was reading St. Petersburg, they had it switched around and the agent didnt change it till about 30min prior, even though he told everyone it was wrong. All the ground op's is outsourced, along with boarding. We boarded 1hr and 10min early, why I dont know....but I was lucky enough to fly on a "rare bird"....
G-BXKC The Ex Thomas Cook A320.
Interior:
Flight Attendents were very nice
. Oh, and an inflight snack/meal.. The inflight entertainment was horrible, the headphone jacks didnt really fit in the seat, and I only got sound in my left ear peice. Irratating. The guy infront of me insisted on putting his seat back as far as it could go, plus more... gouging into my knees. Very uncomfortable. Approach was neat as we passed over a golf course on short final to 35R, a nice smooth visual approach to sunny St. Pete.
We had the option of deplaning via airstairs in the back, or in the front. I chose the front to get a cockpit shot which didnt really turn out good because of the sun glare. They were very cautious about pictures...I asked the F/A if I could speak with the captain to get a picture, and she jumped infront of the door and said NO! I have to speak with the captain first! (Amazing how paranoid people are....) I go upfront and take a couple pics, then I was told if I took pics of the exterior, I would have my camera confiscated by the Pinellas County Sheriff Dept.
Ok...the dream comes true, deplaning on air stairs, warn 75 degrees at sunset with the palms swaying, how nice
. Now the Huge International Airport...4/21/05 - The Ride Back...
I arrive at the airport at 400pm for an "early checkin" - then I was going to leave and get some grub before my 740pm flight. I didnt have my bags on me, do'h... left them at my friends house. I asked if I could change my seat, and he told me to come back, and they will do it. I specifically wanted an emergency exit row. I came back, and when I asked to change my seats to an exit row, the remark I got was "What, do you think your special because your tall and you need an exit row"....and joking around I said "Yep!" Well she says to her coworker "If you want to change his seat, you can, Im not....go get Lou, and see if he'll do it..." What kind of BS is that, I was told they do everything by paper, nothing electronically. After 10min of bickering, I got it changed.
Finally...740 comes along, plane just arrives, the status was delayed and set for 800pm. No gate agents in the area, lots of irratated passengers, no service. Here comes 815, and Im wondering if this flight is even going to leave, still no agents near the counter. They do a speedy board and didnt tell us why we were delayed. Thanks a lot USA3000. Managed to snap an "illegal" pic on the air stairs (waiste level, quick snap).
Another thing I was intrested about, was the fact that the cockpit door is opened inflight to give the pilots their meals. They block the aisle off with the service cart's and then phone the cockpit, then it opens. I took a couple pics of it while open, but for some reason my camera comes up with an error while trying to upload those...
This time the IFE actually worked, crystal clear jazz while sippin on my drink and eatting my grub watching the sun set.
Overall, USA3000 Isnt the best of airlines and I might give them a whirl again, but you get what you pay for.
Pro's: IFE, Food, Kickass little airports like PIE.
Con's: No "service" half the time, uninformitave employees, and bad pitch.
Then for the PHL-Home... I took the SEPTA for $5.50 to Central Philly on the Subway, then caught an overnight train Acela Regional to RI. Now I just walked in the door from the train, and decided to write a report cuz I cant sleep. Hope you enjoyed
.
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