Flights for a Day Trip to Detroit, 2026
American Airlines Flight 1540 and 5480 from Boston to Detroit via Philadelphia
I was originally ticketed to connect through LaGuardia, mirroring my trip to Pittsburgh just days earlier. As expected, a schedule change intervened, probably because American Airlines wanted to introduce some variety into my life, leaving me with a single viable option to reach the game in time: a connection through Philadelphia. The resulting itinerary was almost identical to my trip to Detroit last year, including the same flight number from Philadelphia to Detroit.
My flight to Philadelphia departed from Gate B22, the southernmost gate in Boston’s Terminal B. After my Lyft driver dropped me off at the terminal garage, I took a quick look at the security line on the western (American Airlines) side and found it distressingly long. I opted instead for the eastern (United / Southwest) checkpoint, where I found no line at all and cleared security in 4 minutes, still puzzled by this peculiar asymmetry.
Once onboard, the asymmetries continued: the main cabin was completely full but 4 seats remained in first class. My stereotype had American Airlines planes packed with way more elites than this.
American Airlines 1540 Boston, MA (BOS) - Philadelphia, PA(PHL) Airbus A321 (N978UY) Seat 3A Scheduled Departure - 6:00am Actual Departure - 6:04am Scheduled Arrival - 7:36am Actual Arrival - 7:05am 1 hour and 1 minute
Here's GPS tracking:
As for the flight itself, for me this was one of the rare moments where I had a takeoff from Boston's Runway 09, over Winthrop Peninsula and then Massachusetts Bay. The distant horizons were glowing from sunrise just minutes ago, sending my day to a beautiful start. Here's a video of the takeoff:
The flight to Philadelphia itself was largely uneventful. However, while onboard, I was constantly checking the status of the aircraft assigned to my next leg to Detroit. Originally, it was N578NN, flying in from Dayton, but its departure had been delayed. With little cushion for a late arrival in Detroit before the game, this was a cause for concern. Fortunately, upon landing in Philadelphia, I discovered that American Airlines had swapped the assignment to a different aircraft (N594NN) that was already on the ground.
Here's a video of the landing:
My next flight to Detroit began with a slight delay in boarding, likely caused by a malfunctioning boarding pass scanner; the gate agent was reduced to manually confirming each passenger's seat number. Once onboard, we found ourselves in a 30-minute long queue for takeoff, as the flight crew later explained "due to limitation of departure corridors".
American Airlines 5480
Operated by PSA Airlines
Philadelphia, PA (PHL) - Detroit, MI (DTW)
Bombardier CRJ-900 (N594NN)
Seat 3F
Scheduled Departure - 8:24am
Actual Departure - 9:02am
Scheduled Arrival - 10:21am
Actual Arrival - 10:17am
1 hour and 15 minutes
Here's GPS tracking:
Here's a video of the takeoff:
Here's a video of the landing:
The Game
Just like last year, here's a quick rundown of a selection of photos I took during the game. And just like last year, I was too lazy to properly title them. 😫 It was a good game though, a tight match that was decided in the third extra inning. These photos are in the public domain.
JetBlue Airlines Flight 1136 from Detroit to Boston
For my flight back to Boston, one of my credit cards had a promotional spending offer on JetBlue, and (the refundable version of) this flight was priced just above the threshold, so I happily took it. (My usual go-to airline, American, didn’t have any good offers for this Sunday afternoon anyway.)
Since the match concluded much earlier than my flight, I had some time to kill in the terminal, where I happened to capture the plane that would carry me to Boston landing in Detroit.
While waiting, I sat a bit away from the boarding gate in a quieter area of the airport, so I was a bit puzzled when I heard "final boarding call" as I started heading toward the gate. As it turned out, the gate agent had decided to start boarding early, though once onboard, we still sat until the scheduled boarding closure time before departing Detroit. (Well, JetBlue might have the "most legroom in coach", but I doubt it would be more comfortable than airport seats.)
JetBlue Airlines 1136 Philadelphia, PA(PHL) - Detroit, MI (DTW) Airbus A320 (N579JB) Seat 15A Scheduled Departure - 6:44pm Actual Departure - 6:49pm Scheduled Arrival - 8:40pm Actual Arrival - 8:10pm 1 hour and 21 minute
Here's GPS tracking:
Here's a video of the takeoff:
The flight itself was largely uneventful, as I was trying to catch some rest having woken up early today.
A brief note about JetBlue's WiFi: while the carrier pioneered free connectivity, the competition had certainly caught up. Most of American and JetBlue's narrowbody fleets used the same ViaSat system, which meant JetBlue’s competitive edge now boiled down to, I suppose, the lack of 60-second ads.
END