Round The World and other travels
A frequent flyer's collection of trip diaries
This is: American Double 2014
Flight Log 8: US1768
Charlotte (CLT) - Memphis (MEM)
This flight was operated by the same aircraft that had brought us to Charlotte as US1953, so that what had appeared to be a high-risk, tight connection was actually quite safe. In fact on re-boarding the plane, the only noticeable difference was that we had moved forward a row, from 3A/C to 2A/C. You would think, therefore, that the rest would have been plain sailing.
Erm, no. With the aircraft fully boarded for some time but no visible progress being made in preparing for departure, it was eventually announced at 2015 that the aircraft was undergoing some form of maintenance and that a further ten minutes would be needed to complete the job. How strange, given that we had just flown in from Boston on this very aircraft! In contrast to the announcement, however, Bruce received an electronic TripIt alert giving the revised departure time as 2100. This was eventually confirmed by the captain; apparently the maintenance people were searching the airport for suitable parts!
At 2055, it was announced that there was still 15 minutes' worth of work required. And indeed, this estimate proved to be accurate and the general mood among passengers had been understanding up to this point. What caused some to start getting a little bit ratty was the fact that, in this supposedly electronic age, it then took in excess of forty minutes to complete the relevant paperwork.
The door was eventually closed at 2148 and pushback came five minutes later, nearly two hours behind schedule. As we climbed out of Charlotte at ten minutes past 10pm, I moved my watch back an hour onto Central time. Thankfully, the flight proceeded without incident and I passed the time sipping a diet coke. Despite a short taxi following touchdown in Memphis, we arrived on stand 1hr 45mins behind the advertised time.
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| Date: Fri 07 Nov 2014 |
| Aircraft: Airbus A319 |
| Scheduled dep: 2000 |
| Actual departure: 2153 |
| Scheduled arrival: 2050 |
| Actual arrival: 2235 |
| Cabin: First Class |
| Seat: 2A |