2026 Weekend Trip to Laredo, Texas
American Airlines flight 479 and 3870 from Boston to Laredo via Dallas Fort Worth
I found it a bit peculiar that Boston's airport seemed so crowded on this first Saturday of August. It took me 24 minutes to clear security that morning, which could likely be a record for me at Boston. After that, it was a completely full (though otherwise unremarkable) flight to Dallas. My only real impression of the flight was that the cabin felt somewhat hot before takeoff, as though the airline were trying to acclimate me to the Texas summer in advance.
American Airlines 479 Boston, MA (BOS) - Dallas Fort Worth, TX (DFW) Boeing 737-800 (N315PE) Seat 16F Scheduled Departure - 9:01am Actual Departure - 9:20am Scheduled Arrival - 12:19pm Actual Arrival - 12:00pm 3 hours and 40 minutes
Here's GPS tracking:
We landed in Dallas slightly early, only to wait 13 minutes on the ramp for another delayed flight to vacate our designated gate. This only slightly compressed my connection time, but still left me enough of a window to pay a quick visit to the Capital One Lounge before continuing on to Laredo.
The next flight to Laredo was the complete opposite of the previous leg from Boston. The cabin was a bit chilly during boarding, the flight was somewhat empty, especially in First Class as it had shown completely empty when I checked the seat map a week earlier. In the end, it seemed all upgrades had cleared, with mine cleared days earlier.
American Airlines 3870
Operated by Enovy Air
Dallas Fort Worth, TX (DFW) - Laredo, TX (LRD)
Embraer ERJ-175 (N312BT)
Seat 3A
Scheduled Departure - 1:36pm
Actual Departure - 1:41pm
Scheduled Arrival - 3:03pm
Actual Arrival - 2:43pm
1 hour and 2 minutes
Here's a video of the takeoff:
Here's a video of the landing:
Palomino World Seires
This year, the city of Laredo finally unveiled its Buena Vista Sports Complex, designed to host Bronco and Palomino Leagues' World Series. But I found the reality of its artificial turf fields to be quite at odds with its "high-level tournaments" aspirations. The organizers of Palomino League probably agreed, and as a result, they scheduled only the first two days of competition at Buena Vista, relocating the final two days to the more proven grounds of Uni-Trade Stadium.
Below are some photos and videos that I took of the matches, all of which are released into the public domain.
Additionally, I edited clips from a few plays across the matches into the following montage.
- 0:00 G17 Taoyuan - Tijuana
- 2:25 G16 Youngstown - Laredo
- 3:29 Championship Game, Taoyuan - Laredo
The same video is also hosted on my server:
3 minutes and 46 seconds, 2160p60, H265 only, 15Mbps/455MB file size.American Airlines flight 3644 and 1048 from Laredo to Boston via Dallas Fort Worth
Fast forward to Tuesday, August 4. I was originally ticketed on the cheapest flight from Laredo to Boston, departing in the late afternoon and arriving at midnight. After some schedule changes, my first leg was moved to a comfortable 10:40am, while the second leg remained late in the evening. Since all the flights from Dallas to Boston that afternoon had empty seats, I was hoping to use American Airlines' same-day travel options, either confirmed change or standby, but neither was available on the app. Once I arrived at Laredo Airport, however, the check-in agent effortlessly switched me to an earlier, emptier flight for the second leg.
American Airlines 3644
Operated by Enovy Air
Laredo, TX (LRD) - Dallas Fort Worth, TX (DFW)
Embraer ERJ-170 (N748RR)
Seat 1A
Scheduled Departure - 10:39am
Actual Departure - 10:42am
Scheduled Arrival - 12:15pm
Actual Arrival - 11:47am
1 hour and 5 minutes
Below is a video of the climb out of Laredo Airport. Unfortunately, a storage error meant I lost the initial portions of the recording, with the following video starting after we were airborne.
1 minute and 56 seconds, 2160p30, H265 only, 8Mbps/127MB file size.
Here's a video of the landing:
Upon landing in Dallas, I endured a rather dismal journey on the airport's Skylink inter-terminal train (regrettably, not my first of the year). Running at a longer-than-advertised 5-minute interval, hence the trains proved so overcrowded that I watched two departures before I could board. While I understood that construction at Terminal F had necessitated speed restrictions for the system, and that I was traveling between terminals of American Airlines, where demand for the train was the highest, I nevertheless found the situation unacceptable for an airport of DFW's scale. Frustration ultimately compelled me to channel my anger into a complaint letter.
American Airlines 1048 Dallas Fort Worth, TX (DFW) - Boston, MA (BOS) Boeing 737-800 (N991NN) Seat 17D Scheduled Departure - 4:04pm Actual Departure - 4:21pm Scheduled Arrival - 8:50pm Actual Arrival - 8:52pm 3 hours and 31 minutes
My next flight to Boston was, for the most part, unremarkable. The only noteworthy exception occurred during our initial approach into Logan, when we executed a final go-around due to what the crew later described as "loss of separation". After years of flying without a single aborted landing, this was my second experience of the kind within a single year.
END