Kinglobjaw's Blog

Posts Tagged ‘SJU’

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

December maybe the time for egg nog, holiday lights, kisses underneath the mistletoe, but it’s also a time when most mileage runs take place.

This year Kinglobjaw is running after some miles all the way to Dublin, London, New York and San Juan.

I’m booked on more US Airways widebodies within 7 days than I was aboard in the last 7 months. My SJU runs all involve widebodies as PHL and CLT schedules send a mix of 767’s and A330’s to SJU. Not to mention Europe, which is all widebody except Dublin (a 757 ETOPS).

Many firsts for me on this trip:

• First lenghty flight on an US Airways 767 in Envoy (CLT-PHL is nice but something longer would be nicer)
• First visit to the PHL US Airways ‘F’ terminal club while I wait for my PHL-LGA which is opearated by a US Airways Express Piedmont DASH-8
• First US Airways 757 ETOPS flight
• First ever flight on Star Alliance partner bmi
• First ever visit to the London Heathrow’s Star Alliance Terminal (1)

The good news is the fares are so low I won’t even have to leave milk and cookies for Santa. Santa may give you great gifts, but he won’t get you that low cpm (cents per mile) with a fun and creative routing.

As always flying gets me all excited, and like all the other times, I am thrilled and can’t wait for my upcoming trips.

It’s December and I was able to book some mileage runs to secure my status, but can I get the other things December has to offer? I think so! Hopefully I’ll be able to find egg nog at one of the airports where I transit. I’ll see the beautiful holiday lights New York or London, and if I’m very lucky I’ll get a kiss underneath the mistletoe. But first, I have to find that mistletoe.

Have a nice, while not getting drunk on egg nog, clicK life,

-Mark