Flight Log of Delta Airways Flight 4940 from Seattle to San Francisco on October 27th, 2016
This post follows on the previous one of flight DL128 from Beijing to Seattle.
Learning the experience last time of flight AA186 to Chicago, this time I wasted no time after getting off the plane, race-walked my way to the customs.
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And it helped. Although I sat relatively to the back of the plane, I was one of the first to appear at the borders.
One good thing about Seattle Airport was that, they seemed to have an interpreter at the borders helping those that didn’t speak English (which was the case for many Chinese nannies on this flight). (I recalled how I took up that role on the previous AA186 flight at Chicago.)
Oh, another good thing about Seattle Airport, it seemed to be offering free unlimited WiFi at quite reasonable speed.
A tram ride later, I was in terminal A, waiting to kill 3 hours.
What upset me was that, both escalators here were not in operation, so I had to take the stairs.
This was the next earlier Delta West Coast Shuttle flight to San Francisco.
By the time I reached my gate, the previous Delta West Coast Shuttle flight to San Francisco was still at the gate (but about to leave). So in theory if I had no checked baggage, I could standby for this flight. But since it seemed about to depart, I killed that thought.
By the way, the seats in Seattle Airport was really nice and comfortable. In comparison Chicago O’Hare really seemed somewhat third-world.
My plane to San Francisco.
One thing not so good about flight DL4940 was that, flightrader24.com told me it was quite prone to delay. So even though the plane was already at the gate and serviced, we waited for an extra hour after the scheduled boarding time to board the aircraft. The gate agent told us it’s air traffic control at San Francisco, and offered free snacks.
Once on the aircraft, the captain told us there would be more waiting. Interestingly, he told us the existence of Ground Delay Program. The logic was that, since you don’t want to wait in the air near an airport to land, wait on the ground for takeoff. Well, that’s some good queuing, maybe too good to be true.
On a positive note, the aisle seat next to me seemed to be unoccupied. Yes, I liked that.
Just arrived from Chicago Midway.
Off to Honolulu.
Off to Portland.
While we were waiting at the end of the runway.
The takeoff time of that flight was 90 minutes behind schedule.
There seemed to be a line between the yellowish sea water and the purer port water. I hoped the sea water appeared yellowish because of the rain, not pollution.
There seemed to be a line between the yellowish sea water and the purer port water. I hoped the sea water appeared yellowish because of the rain, not pollution.
The famous bridge that collapsed.
Once in the air, there wasn’t much to talk about. The cabin service equaled to a bag of peanuts and a cup of Cola. There was thick clouds all over the West Coast on that day, so not much a ground view.
I remember picking a left-side window seat hoping to catch some magnificent views of the Golden Gate Bridge. The sad thing was, it wasn’t until Palo Alto that we descent below clouds.
With Palo Alto and Stanford University Campus in the Distance.
Next to Facebook HQ.
My checked bag arrived at the belt pretty timely (almost the same time as I). I had some trouble finding the airport tram (as I bumped into another parking lot), but that wasn’t too much trouble.
END