maverick
07-16-2005, 01:08 AM
Recently I traveled to Altus AFB, OK, for an ROTC program. I flew commercial air into Lawton/Ft. Sill regional airport, the nearest airport with commercial service.
AA flight 879 MSP-DFW
MD-80
Gate E16
Seat 11A
This was my first time flying with American Airlines. My flight left at 12:06pm. I arrived at MSP at about 9:45, to allow lots of time for check-in and security. Check-in went smooth, but there was quite a line at the security checkpoints, I waited about 20 min. or so. When I got past security, I headed for the gate. I saw that I was pretty early, so I went to the observation deck in "D" concourse and waited there until time for boarding. It was a smooth flight, and with no IFE I spent most of the time staring out the window, which was fine by me. When I got to DFW, we arrived at the C terminal, and I needed to connect to an American Eagle flight in the A terminal. I gotta say, the train made the trip very quick and easy, plus it gave a great view of the airport. Overall, I was pretty impressed with DFW, it was a nice, though crowded, airport.
American Eagle flight 3227 DFW-LAW
Saab 340B
Gate A2D
Seat 6A
When I arrived via shuttle bus to the AE satellite terminal, I checked the departures screen, which indicated my gate was A2B. This was abruptly changed to A2D, which was right next door. Still, would have been nice if there had been an announcement of the gate change. I boarded, and we taxied away from the terminal towards the runway. And then stopped. and waited. and waited. The captain came on the intercom and told us there was a problem with the air conditioning they were trying to fix. So we waited some more. Then the captain said we'd have to go back to the gate. So we taxied back to the terminal and got off the plane. The lady at the gate announced that our plane "was broken", and they had to get a new one. We waited some more while they got a different plane. Eventually we got underway, and arrived in Lawton and hour and a half behind schedule.
In case any of you ever travel through LAW, it is a very small airport, served a couple of times a day from DFW by a Saab 340. There's a single check-in counter, about 50 chairs, a small restaraunt, a few vending machines, and that's it. I highly suggest bringing a book, there aren't even any windows to watch any traffic at LAW from.
The return flights were pretty smooth, no problems, and everything was on time. The only difference was that the DFW-MSP flight was on a 738, which I thought was unusual, I usually only see MD-80s and ERJs from AA at MSP. I liked the 738 though, it was the only one with some IFE. didn't really matter, I spent most of the time looking out the window again :-)
AA flight 879 MSP-DFW
MD-80
Gate E16
Seat 11A
This was my first time flying with American Airlines. My flight left at 12:06pm. I arrived at MSP at about 9:45, to allow lots of time for check-in and security. Check-in went smooth, but there was quite a line at the security checkpoints, I waited about 20 min. or so. When I got past security, I headed for the gate. I saw that I was pretty early, so I went to the observation deck in "D" concourse and waited there until time for boarding. It was a smooth flight, and with no IFE I spent most of the time staring out the window, which was fine by me. When I got to DFW, we arrived at the C terminal, and I needed to connect to an American Eagle flight in the A terminal. I gotta say, the train made the trip very quick and easy, plus it gave a great view of the airport. Overall, I was pretty impressed with DFW, it was a nice, though crowded, airport.
American Eagle flight 3227 DFW-LAW
Saab 340B
Gate A2D
Seat 6A
When I arrived via shuttle bus to the AE satellite terminal, I checked the departures screen, which indicated my gate was A2B. This was abruptly changed to A2D, which was right next door. Still, would have been nice if there had been an announcement of the gate change. I boarded, and we taxied away from the terminal towards the runway. And then stopped. and waited. and waited. The captain came on the intercom and told us there was a problem with the air conditioning they were trying to fix. So we waited some more. Then the captain said we'd have to go back to the gate. So we taxied back to the terminal and got off the plane. The lady at the gate announced that our plane "was broken", and they had to get a new one. We waited some more while they got a different plane. Eventually we got underway, and arrived in Lawton and hour and a half behind schedule.
In case any of you ever travel through LAW, it is a very small airport, served a couple of times a day from DFW by a Saab 340. There's a single check-in counter, about 50 chairs, a small restaraunt, a few vending machines, and that's it. I highly suggest bringing a book, there aren't even any windows to watch any traffic at LAW from.
The return flights were pretty smooth, no problems, and everything was on time. The only difference was that the DFW-MSP flight was on a 738, which I thought was unusual, I usually only see MD-80s and ERJs from AA at MSP. I liked the 738 though, it was the only one with some IFE. didn't really matter, I spent most of the time looking out the window again :-)