Pre-flight: I am a huge soccer fan, especially for the women’s game, and the NCAA Women’s College Cup was set to be held in Kansas City. Best of all, my aunt's longtime friend/business partner has a condo in downtown Kansas City, and she and her husband offered their guest room for the two nights I would be in town. Southwest was the obvious choice, as I'd flown with them to MCI before, but it seemed as if they no longer had a late-afternoon departure to DCA, and only a very early one was on offer now. To avoid having to wake up early the day after being out late at a soccer game, I booked a flight out of DCA and back into BWI in the later afternoon, with the plan of hopping on a train back home. Orbitz let me do that because WN's website doesn't let you book a ticket where your arrival and departure airports are different.
At the Airport: I took the Metro to DCA, and it took me about 30 minutes. DCA is probably the best connected airport in the States to transit, with the station being just steps away from the terminal entrance (MARTA is right up there too, but , but since Southwest goes from the A gates, I had a bit of walking to do. There is a very nice exhibit in the old terminal about the history of DCA, however, and since I was very early, I had time to check it out. Once I got to security, it was a breeze (a first for me flying out of that terminal) and I was airside about 2 hours before boarding. I had a $25 burger and fries combo for an early lunch and just read and watched the action outside while I waited. There was a flight to MDW at my gate (A2) and A1 was not being used, so there was ample seating once the MDW flight departed, but the lack of seating and other amenities is still an issue in that terminal. Makes sense that it's where all the low cost carriers at DCA are, however.
My plane arrived from HOU over half an hour early, so we were very optimistic that we'd get out early. Boarding began right on time as advertised, and although I had position B14, the flight was not going to be full so I stood a great chance of getting a good seat. There was classic #BoardingNotBoarding in the jetway, however, as the people who had already boarded were looking for bin space, a big drawback of WN pivoting away from free checked baggage (two other flights going out to TPA and MCO were begging people to check their bags). I headed to 28A and found plenty of space, and just settled in with a podcast while chaos seemed to be happening in the aisle with some people's bags needing to be checked, and our departure time came and went. There was a girls' travel soccer team on board traveling to a tournament in KC to be held in conjunction with the College Cup, and two of the coaches sat down in my row, with one in the aisle seat next to me and his assistant in the other aisle seat. Both of those men talked through the safety demo and I was surprised that the FAs didn't tell them off. Once we got off the gate, we waited even more for a couple AA flights to take off before taking off about 36 minutes late.
Still lots of walking to do…
I get the ease of moving between terminals, but I miss just being able to go to National Hall and plane-spot whenever when it was before security
Cool exhibit between the A and B gates about the history of DCA
WN 3292 heading to MDW, and AC 8822 headed to YUL
The MDW flight
My 737 Max 8 arriving from HOU
This AA 738 had been taken out of commission briefly after arriving from DFW earlier in the morning
#BoardingNotBoarding
I’ve been lucky enough on my last few WN flights to get the newer interiors and I am a huge fan, not least because of the mood lighting
AC CRJ-900 boarding for YOW
F9 A320 “Marty the Marmot” had just arrived from DEN
AA 1177 headed for DFW
AA 5410 headed to CID
The Flight: The captain kept the seatbelt sign on for quite a while after takeoff, but that didn't stop people from getting up to get their carry-on items or using the toilet. Is this a new trend for people to disregard the seatbelt sign? Anyway, I stayed seated, and after the podcast I started on the ground ended, I opened up WN's stream-to-your-device entertainment system and put School of Rock on, which would last the rest of the flight. Once the drinks service came through, I ordered a cranberry juice and hot chocolate, the latter of which came in all of its individual components so I had to assemble it at my seat. Not a problem, but I did not want to spill anything on my clothes or the seat. The rest of the flight was spent watching School of Rock, and I was thankful that I had my noise cancelling headphones on because the two coaches in my row spent the entire flight yapping about their team's game plan. Hopefully no opposing coaches were on the flight also. It was a clear day across Ohio, Indiana and Illinois and they had just gotten a lot of snow, so I got some amazing views out the window and I will let those do the talking.
Long Bridge Park, a youth soccer complex
The Ballston section of Arlington, with I-66 running past
IAD
Athens, OH
Chillicothe, OH
Wilmington Air Park, OH
Cincinnati off in the distance
Brookville Lake, IN
Shelbyville, IN
Terre Haute, IN and its airport
I-57 and US-45 in Illinois
Springfield, IL, the state capital
Crossing the Mighty Mississippi near Hannibal, MO, the birthplace of Mark Twain
Mark Twain Lake
Drink/snack service featuring Mike White & Sarah Silverman
Not only were we late leaving DCA, the headwinds were very strong as explained by the captain, so our flying time ended up closer to three hours. I've always liked flying WN, but there were some bumps on this particular flight, especially as far as cleanliness was concerned. The lavatory looked like it hadn't been cleaned on either of the plane's stopovers that day (or the day before), and it was kind of grimey up by the air vents. Clearly this wasn't the result of one tight turnaround, and I would expect them to do better, especially considering that this plane sat at HOU all night and had an early arrival into DCA. Anyway, unlike my last trip to MCI, we made our approach north of the city and airport and touched down from the north about 40 minutes behind schedule. When you land from the north into MCI and are on the left side of the plane, you get a good view of the Jet Midwest maintenance facility, so I had that going for me.
Grimey air vents
Ned Schneebly
Smithville Lake
Jet Midwest
DL 5412, a CRJ heading back to MSP
Post-flight: We pulled into gate B54 at MCI and I pretty much stayed comfortable until the aisle around me was clearing. This particular flight was one of those that made me ponder why air travel makes people act as if they were born yesterday, and we were almost an hour late. Nonetheless, since I didn't have any checked bags, I headed straight through MCI's terminal and out to the freezing curb to catch a $50 Uber to my accommodation downtown, which took about 20 minutes. There is a bus that goes from the airport into downtown, but it runs every hour and takes quite some time to get there.
Many of these folks were soccer players or coaches
