Kinglobjaw's Blog

Archive for the ‘Posts With Pictures’ Category

US Airways will soon receive it’s first batch of the brandnew Airbus A330-200 (A332) which is a slightly meaner, leaner version of the A330-300 (A333). This will allow US Airways to fly nonstop long haul nonstops such as Philadelphia to Tel Aviv or to Beijing (should they choose to use this aircraft for that route). Regardless of what they decide for the future, US Airways is running this plane to San Juan even before they start using it to Tel Aviv. Obviously it makes sense as they need the crews to get acquianted with the new “bird” and it’s a smart business decision to run iton San Juan flights- US1071/1024. I swair, I have these two flights memorized! Those two flights, the outbound and return were previously flown by the A333, so US isn’t really wasting capcity by using a “heavy”.

And while coach class will only take in a whiff of brand new leather on the seats and that new plane smell, starting in June passengers up front in Envoy (seat is Envoy, service is domestic First) will get to enjoy a different kind of business class seat on US Airways. Tempe HQ is staying silent, but an airplane seat manufacturing company said the seats wil be fully flat and supposedly in a suite style setting. Looking at USAirways.com’s current Envoy seat map for the A332, it’s showing a 2-2-2 configuration so I doubt it will be suite like, but I’ll never really know till I try it, will I?

Based on schedules, the brand new US Airways A332 starts flying daily to San Juan as US1071 and back as US1024 on Sunday, June 7, 2009. It’s daily throught June and beginning of July with the exception of a few dates. Here are the details:

6/7/2009 – 6/15/2009 Daily A332

6/16/2009- 6/17/2009 B757 on both days, no A332 service

6/18/2009-7/1/2009 Daily A332

7/2/2009 B757 on this day, no A332 service

7/3/2009-7/5/2009 Daily A332 on all three days

After 7/5/2009 the flight goes back to B757 as the A332 starts flying to Tel Aviv daily on the evening of the 5th of July. We could see the A332 flying to San Juan again in Fall of 2009 as US Airways takes delivery of additional A332′s.

I’m tempted to hop down to San Juan just to check out the product in Envoy. If I can’t do that, I’ll try to arrange a tour with the US Airways Philadelphia Satellite Headquarters while the A332 is on the ground in Philly. I’ll schedule enough time connecting time on my way to Los Angeles or maybe on return portion. Whatever works for them and reasonable enough for me.

Here’s a picture of the aircraft itself, courtesy PictAero,

Have a nice clicK life,

-Mark

I’ve also found the new Hawaiian themed meals to be a much needed upgrade from the previous flights. Kudos to US Airways for this change!

Finally, KOA has no gates, which is what I love! I just love air stairs!

Kinglobjaw says Aloha from Kona, Hawaii!

Have a nice clicK life,

-Mark

Just got in to PHX on US180 from ORD. Aside from breakfast, I slept through most of the flight. To follow my weight loss ”regime” I took the fruit plate instead of the tasty, yet guilt tripping omelette. Glad I did.

Anyway, my Kona flight leaves from A13, so I’m staying in the lower A concourse US Club, which is the club with that horrible storm damage that took place here in August 2008.

The furniture here looks very nice and modern, but it did get crowded around 7AM. Now, it’s empty as majority of the folks left to SNA- Orange County, CA. Just looked up the flight, it’s US652, a 757 as usual!

More to come later, so stay tuned!

Have a nice clicK life,

-Mark

Just got off the phone with an US Airways Club agent to renew my annual membership. Since I wasn’t flying in March or early April of this year, I waited until today to renew. My membership is now valid through April 16, 2010. Same price as last year, $315 + no tax for basic Club membership. Was a pretty long hold until I got an agent (usually they pick up right away- very convenient 1-800-828-8522 with no menu tree, an agent picks up), so maybe a flurry of new members with the two added renewal promotions (either 2 months extra for free or 1,500 preferred qualifying miles, I chose the latter). Both promotions expire July 1, 2009. RNW15 is the code you use for 1,500 preferred qualifying miles which I blogged about a few weeks ago.

As usual, I asked them to email me a receipt and a printout of my membership just incase they want to card me (by card I mean, Club card, not driver’s license/ID). That actually happened to me once in a US Airways Club in PHX. Luckily I had the printout. Was promised card would arrive within 3-4 weeks.

While I connect in PHX next week, I will try out the re-opened lower ‘A’ gates Club (above A7/A9) which was severly damaged during a thunderstorm back in August 2008. Apparently they have brand new furniture in the Club. Anyway, here’s evidence of the damage. When I spoke to the Club agent a few days after the incident, I was told someone could have been seriously injured. Apparently, just seconds before the impact, a snob had to be repeatedly told to move to a different seating area away from the windows. After multiple pleadings, the agent yelled “Move away from the windows, NOW!” to which the passenger finally obliged. Literally seconds later, a big blow came in from outside and the result was this:

Something's Coming! US Airways A7/A9 Club in PHX damaged after August 2008 thunderstorm

Have a nice clicK life,

-Mark