Flight Log of American Airlines Flight 2658, 1285 and 2147 from Midland/Odessa to Washington DC via Dallas and Boston

The flights from west Texas for my 2022 Thanksgiving trip to Big Bend National Park, on Black Friday.

Overlooking Washington DC

This post was about my flights back home after spending a few days visiting Big Bend National Park. With American Airlines’ unbelievable web special offer of 6k miles per one-way from Midland/Odessa to Washington DC, I could hardly complain about the fact that this itinerary would have me depart at a miserable 6am from Midland/Odessa, with two connections in Dallas and Boston. Unlike the outbound flights, this time American Airlines didn’t offer me to “move flights at no charge”, so I stuck with this itinerary, and it ended up being the first time I made two transfers for domestic US flights.

Last night I only managed to get to the hotel in Odessa, TX at 7pm, after which I spent quite some time on the audacious task of packing up the suitcases (amazingly, one turned out to be exactly 50lbs). I tried to get some sleep, before waking up at 4am this morning and dropped off the rental car at a nearby shop.
As I witnessed along the road the previous day, a storm was brewing in west Texas, and there was some overnight drizzle. Much to my relief, the drizzle stopped as I was heading to the airport, making my life much easier.

Probably because it’s very early morning of Black Friday, I expectedly ran into some difficulties trying to hail a ride to the airport from the rental shop. After a few attempts switching between Uber and Lyft, it took me 20 minutes to be matched to what’s likely the only rideshare car in town. But with that settled, I reached the airport at 4:52am, more than an hour before my flight’s takeoff time.

Flight AA2658 from Midland/Odessa to Dallas Fort Worth

Click here to display photos from Midland/Odessa Airport.

Departure Hall

Decorations

A month to go before Christmas, but the Christmas tree was already set up. Next to it, some sculptures sponsored by an asphalt company, which I probably shouldn’t be surprised given how oil and gas companies were the backbone of the region’s economy.

Terminal Interior

American Airlines A319 (N801AW)
My plane to Dallas/Fort Worth.

Midland/Odessa was a small 5-gate airport so it’s pretty easy to get around. The advertisement for drill heads and pipelines in the terminal came a bit shocking to me at first, a testimony to the status of the energy industry in the region.

Usually, the airlines in the US would use monitors at the gate area to display information like complimentary upgrades and standbys, that’s not the case here as these were manually announced by the gate agent. Despite the flight wasn’t completely full, I gladly took their offer to get rid of check my carry-on bag, lighting up my loads for the remainder of the day.

American Airlines 2658
Midland Odessa, TX (MAF) – Dallas Fort Worth, TX (DFW)
Airbus A319 (N801AW)
Seat 10A
Scheduled Departure – 6:00am
Actual Departure – 6:07am
Scheduled Arrival – 7:16am
Actual Arrival – 6:58am
51 minutes
Here’s GPS tracking:

The flight wasn’t completely full, with empty middle seats in most Main Cabin Extra sections, including the one next to mine.
The flight itself was short but bumpy, likely from the weather system that created wind and drizzle overnight.

Here’s a video of landing onto runway 35C. It’s a few minutes before sunrise when the sky was still dark, under some gloomy clouds from the weather system.

After landing in Dallas, I headed over to the Capital One lounge for a quick breakfast visit, while watching the FIFA World Cup.

Flight AA1285 from Dallas Fort Worth to Boston

Next it’s my flight to Boston, which was mostly full. The 9am departure seemed to be the morning rush hour at Dallas/Fort Worth Airport, we waited for about 11 minutes for our turn at takeoff.

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American Airlines B738 (N977NN)
My plane to Boston.

Planes in Line for Takeoff
Friday morning rush. We waited in line for 11 minutes for our turn at takeoff.

American Airlines 1285
Dallas Fort Worth, TX (DFW) – Boston, MA (BOS)
Boeing 737-800 (N977NN)
Seat 14A
Scheduled Departure – 8:59am
Actual Departure – 9:14am
Scheduled Arrival – 1:35pm
Actual Arrival – 1:17pm
3 hours and 3 minutes
Here’s GPS tracking:

Here’s a video of the takeoff:

Except for a few places over Ohio, it was undercast for most of the flight, so there wasn’t much to show. Despite this, the captain went the extra distance to introduce a few cities along the flight path, such as Little Rock, Louisville, Columbus and Albany.
With the help of tailwind, ground speed was relatively fast throughout the entire flight, breaking 1000kmh near Albany, NY.

With that, we arrived at a rainy Boston. Here’s a video of the landing:

According to the schedule, I had a 55-minute layover in Boston. Helped by tailwind, our gate arrival was 13 minutes earlier. There’s a restaurant (Stephanie’s) that participated in PPS in Boston’s Terminal B, so I figured I should have enough time for a proper lunch. Unfortunately, this turned out to be my last PPS restaurant visit for the foreseeable future as Capital One stopped offering PPS restaurant visits on their premium cards.

Lunch at Stephanie’s

A quick lunch at this PPS restaurant for my brief layover at Boston. They didn’t seem to care too much about boarding pass.

 
Terminal Interior
One of the fancier airports in United States.

Flight AA2147 from Boston to Washington Reagan

My lunch schedule worked out perfectly, and by the time I wrapped up at Stephanie’s and reached the boarding gate, the boarding process just started.
For this flight, I chose the first row of coach, and found out AA’s A319’s featured a solid bulkhead with no floor storage😐, and the walls next to my seat was really dirty🤮 but I had an empty middle seat next to me🙂.

Stains on Wall
Not the most pleasant sight, especially given this was the first row of coach.

During the boarding process, FIFA World Cup USA vs ENG was underway, which I really hoped to catch, however, I couldn’t connect to American Airlines’ WiFi. It turned out that this plane used a different WiFi provider compared to the majority of American Airlines fleet (likely Gogo vs Viasat), so a different address than “aainflight.com” should be used.

American Airlines 2147
Boston, MA (BOS) – Washington Reagan (DCA)
Airbus A319 (N835AW)
Seat 8F
Scheduled Departure – 2:30pm
Actual Departure – 2:36pm
Scheduled Arrival – 4:12pm
Actual Arrival – 3:59pm
1 hour and 23 minutes
Here’s GPS tracking:

During my one-hour layover at Boston, the drizzle stopped and the sun broke free from the scattered low-lying clouds, making it a spectacular scene. Here’s a video of the takeoff:

Further west, I was treated with sights of Maryland countryside, and views of downtown Baltimore.

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Overlooking Susquehanna River

Uptown Baltimore

Downtown Baltimore

Overlooking Baltimore

But the highlight of the day should be the downwind segment before landing into Reagan Washington National Airport, where the flight path would overlook the orderly sprawling city of Washington DC. Despite being against the light, it’s not hard to pick up the few iconic landmarks like the National Mall and Washington Monument.

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University of Maryland, College Park

Overlooking Washington DC

Overlooking Washington DC

Reagan Washington National Airport

And here’s a video of the landing. It’s less than an hour before sunset, with elongated shadows among the golden glittering fields and waves.

While at the gate, we waited for some time for the jet bridge operator. But amazingly, American Airlines set up stairs at one of the rear doors to speed up deplaning, which was the first time I saw an airline in the United States doing this. It’s even more a novelty that A319 was a mainline jet on the smaller size scale, the rear stairs would be of more help for larger jets like A321.

In line with my tradition of losing things at Reagan National Airport this year 🤨, I couldn’t find my metro card while exiting the airport. To put an end to such an unfortunate tradition, I finally made up my mind to transfer the metro card onto my cell phone.
And with that, I conclude this trip to Big Bend National Park.
END

Flight Log of American Airlines Flight 2658, 1285 and 2147 from Midland/Odessa to Washington DC via Dallas and Boston by Huang's Site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.