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San Juan Luis Munoz Marin International
In the terminal a quick glimpse on the screens at gate B38 indicated that this was indeed our plane to PHL as well and the flight was still showing on time. As usual on trips like this, I subscribe for the text message notification of Flightstats.com and had already received a text message, which indicates the flight as being at on time. Subscriptions for flightstats.com and my tripit Pro membership are great ways to be notified about any delays or even gate changes. This can save you some time and get you ahead of the queue as you get this text messages usually earlier than the delay or cancelation is shown on the screens. Not necessary on this trip but nice to be prepared if anything goes wrong. We did a short walk through the concourse of this airport named after the first democratically elected Governor of Puerto Rico. Munoz Marin served as Governor from January 02, 1949 to January 2, 1965. Anyway, after a quick walk through the concourse, I returned to the gate just in time to hear the pre boarding announcement.
Boarding started a couple of minutes later for families traveling with small children and person, who needed assistance. Roughly two minutes later First Class Passengers and then Passengers holding Star Alliance Gold Status were invited to board. We had to queue in the jetbridge as stroller had to be brought back out of the plane and also a wheelchair.
29 June 2013
SJU – PHL
[San Juan Luis Munoz Marin International – Philadelphia International]
US 740 (US Airways); Airbus A 330-200 (N285AY)
Gate B38
12:30 – 16:26 [effective 12:45 – 17:08]First Class
Seat 2F
The Catering was still underway and the door opposite to the entrance door was open. I passed the galley and turned left as this time my seat was in 2 F. I stored my belongings in the overhead compartment and was asked if like to have a pre-departure drink. I opted for a glass of orange juice. With the exception of one seat, all seats in the Envoy / First Class Cabin were taken. One passenger asked one of the crew members to store their luggage in the overhead bin but was told, they could not do this. A fellow passenger finally helped the lady, but it was somehow strange, especially if you compare this with the attitude of flight attendant of Singapore Airlines, Thai Airways, Asiana or any other Asian airline. Also the captain was called, as one seat had a malfunction and it was the captain’s duty to reset the seat. This are the little different if you fly with an airline from the US. The crew had also changed and now different crew members were serving the First Class cabin.
In the meantime catering was finished and boarding was completed soon later. It is amazing how fast the plane was cleaned (more or less), fueled up and turned back. I think this does not happen that fast in Europe. Regarding my statement about the service attitude, turning a plane in top speed is something the airlines in the United States have achieved quite well. We were ready to be pushed back. A couple of minutes earlier the captain had welcomed us on board and announced the flight time to Philadelphia with 3:35. He also informed us about the weather in Philadelphia which was 86 degrees Fahrenheit with scattered clouds. The safety video was shown during push back and on our way to the runway.
At 12:59 the captain came over the microphone and told us we are number two for take off and asked the crew to be on their stations. At 13:05 he pulled the thrust lever and we accelerated on runway 8 and left San Juan.
While we climbed and reached our cruising altitude, I would like to share some information about the Airbus A 330-200. The Airbus A330-200 (or 332) is ten fuselage frames shorter than the A333-300 and has a length of 58.82 m compared to 63.96 meters of the Airbus A330-300. Both planes have a wingspan of 60.3 meter and a cabin width of 5.28 meters. The tail is one meter higher (17.39 meter) on the Airbus A 332 compared to the Airbus A333. The A332 has also a wider range with 13430 km compared to 10830 of the A 333. The cruising altitude is for both aircraft the same with 12500 meters.
Once in the air, the seat belt signs were switched off after round about 10 minutes after we left San Juan’s Luis Munoz Marin International and the crew began to prepare the service. One flight attendant was taken the orders for the meal service, which was either pasta with red sauce or chicken with rice. Another flight attendant asked what we like to drink. I opted for a glass of Chardonnay, which was soon delivered to my seat. I used the time till meal service started to start my laptop. Ten minutes later the tray with my meal was brought to my seat. I had opted for chicken, which was served with a green salad, scampi, a roll with butter and a chocolate cake with cream. The chicken was a bit dry, but otherwise okay. The scampi came with a mustard sauce which was too strong, so that the taste of the scampi was lost and one tasted only the mustard sauce.
I was offered a refill of my wine during the meal service but declined this offer and instead asked for coffee and water which was brought soon later. The crew was attentive and constantly passing through the aisle asking if we needed anything. They cleared the trays from the meal service individually, once a passenger had finished.
I used the flight time to finish some hotel reports and read in the Time Magazine, I brought with me. Other passengers worked on their laptops or watched a movie on their iPads or other tablet computers. The Video System was not available on this flight, which was this time announced earlier in the flight and passengers asked not to use the call button on the screen, as this was working.
The flight itself was uneventful and with the exceptions of some minutes an hour prior to landing the ride was very smooth. We flew over the cost and approached Philadelphia from the South East. Our descend into Philadelphia was a bit bumpy due to the rain and wind in the area. We touched down at 16:37 on runway 27 L and as soon as we touched down a thunderstorm with strong winds began, so that Philadelphia Airport was shut down and everybody on the tarmac had to leave. In so far, we had to wait on the tarmac for close to 20 minutes before we were allowed to taxi to our gate, where we had to wait another 5 minutes before the ramp agents returned and connected the jetbridge to the plane.
I left the plane through the door between Envoy / First Class and Economy Class and walked into the terminal, which was crowded with people. The blue lights on the terminals building where still flashing and it was raining. I left terminal B, where we had arrived and walked over to the pick up location for the hotel shuttles.