Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

The 20,000 Mile Journey to China, part I

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • The 20,000 Mile Journey to China, part I

    A trip to China was on the horizon. I was going with a group that was meeting in Los Angeles on the morning of June 6th. Unfortunately, it is somewhat difficult to make it to LAX by 9:00am from the east coast so I decided to spend a few days in San Francisco before traveling to LAX.

    This trip was for a Global Young Leaders Summit that took place in Beijing, Xi'an, and Shanghai. It was the trip of a lifetime, even from a flying standpoint. 3 different airlines, 9 airports, 9 different aircraft, and a lot of fun.

    I started on June 3rd from Newport News (PHF).



    Of course, I was flying Delta to Atlanta. It was a beautiful morning in southeastern VA. Check in and security took all of 10 minutes. Today's ride would be on a CRJ-700.

    DL4435 (ASA) CRJ-700 N755EV PHF-ATL
    Departure: 7:00am gate 4
    Arrival: 8:50am gate C46

    This was your average domestic regional flight. Board, taxi, takeoff, select your coke product, read a book, land, deplane.


    On finals for RWY 28.


    The sprawling mass of DL at ATL.

    Unfortunately, camera trouble was the story of this trip, so I don't have anymore pictures from the ATL-SFO segment.

    I admire how Atlanta can handle so many flights and people. I think it is an extremely well organized airport with 5 parallels and 6 parallel concourses. This airport never ceases to amaze me. After an hour and a half, it was time to board.

    DL855 Boeing 767-300 N124DE ATL-SFO
    Departure: 10:52am gate A19
    Arrival: 1:30pm gate 40

    I must say, Delta's never interior with the live tv is great. I love the touchscreens. Even though the system isn't as extensive as Jetblue's, it still has the ability to keep you entertained for a 5 hour flight. Somehow we were number 2 for departure off of 26L. No line in ATL, that's a rarity. The climb to 35,000 was uneventful and I settled in for the transcon. The flight attendents came through about every hour and a half with drinks. This was another extremely uneventful flight full of tv watching and freezing my butt off (I was in an exit row and never have I been that cold in an exit row seat, so advice: don't sit in row 26 on a DL 763 unless you have a winter coat and pants). As we approached SFO, we were put into a holding pattern due to a fog bank sitting on top of the field. We did 3 huge circles over the valley that lasted abour 45 minutes until were we finally cleared. This being my first time to the bay area, my eyes were glued to the window. If only my camera was working...

    Deplaning was extremely fast and picking up my bag was even faster.

    After a few days in San Francisco, it was time for the big part of my trip. Unfortunately I had more camera trouble after I landed in LAX (My camera finally started cooperating after this section of the TR, I promise!).

    June 6, 2008
    AS264 Boeing 737-400 N794AS SFO-LAX
    Departure: 8:00am gate 24
    Arrival: 9:25am gate ? (somewhere in the mess that is Terminal 3)

    Security in SFO took forever because I had about 4 old couples in front of me with 2 pacemakers. Fun stuff. I had some time before my flight to walk around a take a few pictures.


    Sunrise over SFO




    My ride to SoCal

    We took off towards the northwest and did a sweeping turn back south towards LA. This was my first flight on Alaska and I have no complaints. It was another beautiful morning for flying. At this point it hadn't really set in that my next flight that day would be the longest I have ever been on. I just enjoyed the view on this short hop. We began descending into LA just before 9 and had a great approach that was loaded with views.


    Enroute on AS264


    On finals to LAX

    We flew right over the famous In and Out and taxied back to Terminal 3. I had my camera ready to take plenty of pictures.


    Unfortunately this was the only one I got when my camera got upset and decided to not work again (like I said, the next part of this report will be mostly pictures).

    Something happened with our bags and it took abour 45 minutes to recieve them. I was getting worried that I would miss my group but they were all still waiting when I arrived.

    I will crank out part two of this report in the next day or so...It consists of many pictures and detail on China Eastern's international and domestic service, an airline that has been discovered by many.

    (The pictures will be smaller too, sorry I haven't written a report in ages so forgive me)
    GO SIOUX

  • #2
    Re:

    Good that you calrified about the photos lol, got me wondering... All in all though, good reading, good photos too.

    Comment


    • #3
      Interesting to take on the ride, thanks for sharing.
      Thanks for visiting
      *Avimage's Monthly Slide list *
      *JetPhotos*
      Airliners*Pbase.com

      Comment

      Working...
      X