Information
This is the fourth in a four flight trip to and from Des Moines for my April break. We start the trip at MSP, I just having flown in from Des Moines.
BOS-ATL- link
ATL-DSM- link
DSM-MSP- link
MSP-BOS- Here- scheduled departure 5:50 p.m. central (5:57 actual) scheduled arrival 9:44 (9:31 actual)
We come in to this report where we left off , at gate 17 in concourse C. We were hungry, and anticipating the flight to Boston, we ordered food at a chick fil a. We then proceeded to take a series of moving walkways until we finally found ourselves at our gate, D4, where N358NB (MSN 1897), our A319 delivered on March 18th, 2002 to Northwest, was waiting.
I then decided to I was going to need more food, so I went to the McDonalds close to the gate. After waiting a while, boarding commenced, and I soon found myself in seat 20F. The bins are ginormous on the retrofitted A319, and that was very helpful on our 100% full flight. The 18 inch width and the 31 inch pitch were plenty for my 5 foot ten 140 pound frame.
Delta's A319s have been almost all completely modded, and this bird was looking sharp with these 9 inch AVOD screens.
Personal USB and shared power outlets were in every seat/row
After touring the seat, I was ready to test Chick Fil A's grilled nuggets against Mcdonald's McNuggets. You can guess which choice won.
Delta's more boring than in the past safety video played, and soon we had pushed back from beside a Spirit A320.
Taxi was quick, and we soon found ourselves lined up for takeoff.
After a quick takeoff out of rainy Minneapolis, we soon found ourselves in some turbulence.
We soon reached our cruising altitude of 37,000 feet and the cabin service started.
I chose my regular ginger ale and yogurt bar. The lady on the aisle, a grandmotherly type, was kind enough to offer me her granola bar, so I had even more food to eat.
I then proceeded to use the extensive, free ife section, watching Rogue 1 and Moana. It's a shame United still charges for ife on domestic flights.
As we passed over Michigan, I decided to use the moving map. Tailwinds were impressive during this flight, and I caught us at 603 mph, almost 90 miles an hour faster than the A319's cruising speed.
It became gradually darker as we passed over Ontario, and soon it was night outside.
The FA came through offering water over New York state.
As we started out descent over western Massachusetts, the lights were turned up, revealing the beauty of the interior.
We soon found ourselves on final approach over Boston's lights.
W landed gently and I was able to see one of United's domestic 777s.
We parked at gate A2, and moments later a company 737-800 came to a stop next to us. A Boeing 717 from LGA was also deplaning on the other side of us, and a little congestion was found in the terminal from all these overnighting aircraft. I asked the pilots for an A319 card, prompting a 3 pilot search for 1. (a pilot was flying standby in the cabin) Sadly all they had was the A320 card, which I already had, though definitely a nice gesture by them.
We took the shuttle to the economy parking, where our April break trip ended.
