Review of American Airlines flight Philadelphia → Detroit in Economy

Hello and welcome to another flight report! Today I'll be bringing you a report on the smallest mainline aircraft currently flying in the United States.

Background: I was traveling for a job interview in the Detroit area. I would have loved to have flown non-stop on Delta ITH-DTW, but I was scheduled to interview right near the end of the school year for both Cornell and Ithaca College, and all of Delta flights were booked solid on the day I need to travel. So, the travel agent put me on American connecting in PHL. I'm still a bit upset about not getting to fly non-stop to my destination from Ithaca, since that was probably the one time I could ever actually do it (I did fly nonstop DTW-ITH the next day heading home). I won't cover my short Dash-8 flight ITH-PHL, as I've covered that route before (both ways infact, on both another Dash-8 and a CRJ-200).

The Flight: My flight from Ithaca arrived at PHL on time just after 4:00pm. My layover in Philadelphia was scheduled at just over two hours, which by itself was longer than my entire flying time ITH-PHL-DTW (the joys of flying in the Northeast United States, right?)

Boarding the US-liveried N943HA at ITH earlier in the day. I've read somewhere that the -HA registered aircraft won't see the new AA livery as the'll be the first ones retired starting shortly. I can't seem to find that source again, however.



Of course, good ol' Philadelphia airport requires a bus to get from Terminal F to the other American terminals (at least I thought at the time), so I boarded the bus for the "quick" journey over to Terminal C.

The 27 year-old N943HA resting at gate F18 after our flight from Ithaca.



Another Dash-8 at F20.



Our bus then fell victim to its natural enemy: a Dash-8 pushing back from the end of Terminal F. There were five buses waiting near Terminal E for this Dash to move, as well as my bus plus another behind it. We sat still for six or seven minutes as the Dash started its engines and finally pulled out of the alley. I could tell the driver was frustrated too, as they creeped very close the the aircraft after it had turned parallel to our roadway.



We were nearly even with the tip of N815EX's port wing at this point.



I'm realizing now that every single picture so far has been a Dash-8. Lets fix that.

My E-190 flight to Detroit was scheduled to depart from gate C31, towards the end of Terminal C. Since there are very few eateries on the actual concourses (lots in the B-C connector though), and also because I didn't actually have all that much time before boarding after that sluggish bus ride, I went and sat near my gate. At the next gate sat an American 757-200 resting between flights. I imagine it flew to Europe later that night, but I couldn't find any flights leaving from that gate at all on the FIDS, so I just enjoyed its tall-standing presence.



Unfortunately, a very dirty terminal window made taking photos a bit difficult.



DL Skyteam 757-200 arriving on runway 27R.



Sorry for the bar from the window, but here's two 757s, my E190 and an A319.



A new-colors E190 taxiing past.



Boarding began a few minutes later than planned but was completed quickly even with the fairly full flight.

The view from 19F, with an A321 which had just arrived from LAX about to depart back to LAX.



Pushing back from C31. The DL Skyteam 757 is visible parked at the end of Terminal D.



Looking east as we taxi around the long way towards runway 27L. Parked at the very back of the executive ramp is the ex-US Airways A320 that was written off in a takeoff incident in 2014. I wonder why it is still parked in PHL carefully wrapped in plastic and not yet parted out.



Looking back towards the main terminal area at PHL as we wait to cross runway 27R.



Taxiing past the fire station on the small taxiway on which I'd never seen anything larger than a CRJ-200.



Holding short of 27L at its southern entrance.



An American 737-800 wearing the oneworld livery as we begin our takeoff roll…



…and a Lufthansa Cityline A340 wearing its Star Alliance livery (all of the Cityline A340s are painted in the Star Alliance livery, lacking any Lufthansa branding). If you're keeping track at home, that makes one aircraft wearing each of the major alliance special schemes.



The initial climb was very steep as we heading towards the increasingly threatening skies above Philadelphia.



Looking back towards the airport as we head towards the northwest.



We broke free of the clouds after just a few minutes.



We left the clouds behind as we climbed towards central Pennsylvania.



One interesting note about our short flight to Detroit. Our cruise was at 39,000 feet, a full 30,000 feet HIGHER than my earlier Dash-8 flight from Ithaca.



The flight passed very quickly for me as I finished reading some material in preparation for my interview the next day. Soon we were descending towards DTW.



We flew our downwind leg right up the Detroit River, so seated on the right side of the aircraft I had a great view of Canada.



A nice blurry photo of safety card residing in the seat back pocket. I figured I'd capture "American E190" at least once since this flight occured right after it was announced the E190s would be retired in 2019. Not quite shown here is the fairly adequate leg room, which was about par for the course for American.



On final for runway 21L.



Landing on 21L.



We then began our long taxi over to the very north end of the North Terminal. Passing a few Spirit Airbuses.



Pulling into gate D26 next to another Embraer, a two year old E175 boarding for a flight to LGA. Also a nice comparison of the older Embraer winglet and the new "spatula" design.



I was pleasantly surprised at how quickly deplaning went, and I soon got my first glimpse of the North Terminal at DTW. My impression of the terminal was very good, reminding me very much of a "one-sided" McNamara Terminal with a less-curved ceiling.



I then headed out to catch the rental car shuttle bus, for which I had to wait almost 25 minutes … I know it was a Sunday evening, but that was still too long.

Bonus: Since I'm not planning on doing a report for my return DTW-ITH journey, enjoy these pictures of the downwind leg for runway 32 highlighting Cornell's campus and Cayuga Lake.