Flight Log of American Airlines Flight 2454 and 5879 from Washington DC to Midland/Odessa via Dallas

The flights to west Texas for my 2022 Thanksgiving trip to Big Bend National Park.

Background

Building renovations (that happened more frequently than I liked) at my workplace meant I could take the entire week of Thanksgiving off. I had been thinking of places to go for the week, and Big Bend National Park on the southern Texas border came to my attention. It featured some prominent mountains and impressive canyons amid a desert landscape. It’s one of the more remote national parks in the United States, that took more than 3 hours of driving to reach from the nearest commercial airport, Midland/Odessa. (It’s not uncommon for people to drive an entire day from San Antonio or El Paso.)

With that, I found American Airlines was offering award flights at 6k miles per one-way between Washington DC and Midland/Odessa 😎, leaving the Saturday before Thanksgiving and returning the Friday after. Excluding time on the road, this would give me 4 nights and 3 whole days in Big Bend National Park, the right amount of time to explore the park. Given it should be peak travel time, this offer was a bit unbelievable. The only downside was that both trips involve two connections at Boston and Dallas, the Boston connection seemed like a way to price-discriminate as American Airlines offered a decent number of direct flights between Washington Reagan and Dallas.

Things got even better two days before departure, as American Airlines sent me an offer to “move flights at no charge”, and most of the options only involved one stop at Dallas. So, I made the change, and was ready to go.

Flight AA2454 from Washington Reagan to Dallas Fort Worth

On the morning of Nov 19, my friend offered to drive me to the metro station. A string of green lights and some stroke of luck meant I made it onto the train just before its doors were closed. With that, I made it to the airport just past 9am.
The lodging situation in Big Bend National Park meant I brought lots of gear for this trip, with the baggage scale fluctuating between 50.5 and 51 lbs, which the checkin agent didn’t think twice before letting it through 🤫. And with that, I had time for breakfast at a PPS restaurant before boarding the flight.

American Airlines 2454
Washington Reagan (DCA) – Dallas Fort Worth, TX (DFW)
Boeing 737-800 (N994NN)
Seat 9B
Scheduled Departure – 11:00am
Actual Departure – 11:13am
Scheduled Arrival – 1:39pm
Actual Arrival – 1:23pm
3 hours and 10 minutes
Here’s GPS tracking:

American Airlines had a previous flight to Dallas that was delayed from 10am to 12pm 😏, so my fortuitous choice of 11am flight that’s on time became pretty full, that meant I could check get rid of my carry-on bag which was cumbersome with my gear. Probably for the same reason, this flight was rather elite-heavy, with 31 people on the upgrade list.

Click here to display photos of the flight from Washington Reagan to Dallas Fort Worth.

Breakfast
From “American Tap Room”, a restaurant in Reagan National Airport that participated in PPS.

American Airlines B738
N994NN, the plane that took me to Dallas.

Fields in West Tennessee

I was sitting in a middle seat for this flight, so there wasn’t much to show. Except that we had a rather low cruising altitude of 7300m (approximately FL24).

After landing in Dallas, I had about 3 hours before my connecting flight to Midland/Odessa, more than enough time for me to get some good rest (and great food) from the Capital One lounge.
There were some issues with the tram system at Dallas Fort Worth Airport, as it ended up operating one-way only on my way to the lounge. That meant, it’s abnormally crowded.

Flight AA5879 from Dallas Fort Worth to Midland/Odessa

By the time I left the Capital One lounge heading for my next flight to Midland/Odessa, the tram issue was fixed. This next flight was slightly delayed due to the late arrival of the incoming flight, so I had some additional wait at the gate.

American Airlines 5879 Operated by Mesa Airlines
Dallas Fort Worth, TX (DFW) – Midland Odessa, TX (MAF)
Bombardier CRJ-900 (N957LR)
Scheduled Departure – 4:44pm
Actual Departure – 5:00pm
Scheduled Arrival – 5:57pm
Actual Arrival – 5:53pm
53 minutes
Here’s GPS tracking:

Click here to display photos of the flight from Dallas Fort Worth to Midland/Odessa.

Elongated Shadow
30 minutes before sunset, the shadow of this CRJ900 was disproportionately long on the ground.

BNSF Intermodal Facility
North of Fort Worth, Texas.

Weatherford, Texas

Fields
With the clouds illuminated in the warm colors of sunset.

Colorado River, Texas
Under the clouds in the center-right was Colorado City, Texas.

West Texas Gas Plant
Flame from the burning of excessive gas rather visible in the center.

Apart from that, this flight was a short hop accompanied by the enchanting colors of twilight.

The cities of Midland and Odessa, Texas, were known for the massive oil and gas fields and reserves around them, and the energy industry they supported. As the plane approached Midland, the massive oil fields that dotted the landscape were an impressive and novel sight to me.

Midland/Odessa was a small 5-gate airport. Its official name was “Midland International Air and Space Port”, the “space” part due to it being the first commercial airport to be licensed by the FAA to conduct space flights. Ironically, XCOR Aerospace, likely the only user of the “space” port, went out of business not long after the FAA designated the “space” port.

For a small airport like this, I got my checked bags 24 minutes after our arrival at the gate, that’s above the 20-minute bar that Delta and Alaska set for the industry.
After that, I hailed a Lyft to take me to the hotel in Odessa. It ended up that Lyft matched with a driver just outside the terminal (while I was still checking the contents of my bags), that I grabbed a bag and ran out of the terminal, only to realize I had two checked bags a minute later. So after some more maddening dash, I was on the car to Odessa, concluding the day.

END

Flight Log of American Airlines Flight 2454 and 5879 from Washington DC to Midland/Odessa via Dallas by Huang's Site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.