Good evening everybody from a pizza place in the food court of terminal 3 in Chicago’s O’Hare airport! I have just arrived from Jackson Hole on an American Airlines Airbus A319 and now continuing the next part of the journey which is a flight back to Miami 🏝️😎 also on AA but on their Boeing 737MAX8 once again. After I wrapped up my Pizza and Breadsticks 🍕🥖 I decided to walk to the gate which wasn’t far at all from the food court, H4 will be it for tonight.
FLIGHT INFO:
Origin: Chicago O’Hare International 🇺🇸 (KORD)
Destination: Miami Intl 🇺🇸 (KMIA)
Flight Time: 2:36
Boeing 737-8MAX (American Airlines)
Server: Expert
Along with the control tower, he is our aircraft for tonight N324RA one of Americans older B38Ms this one in particular being delivered in September 2017. At first I was expecting to be back on a basic, boring 737-800 but it seems like AA decided to swap it for a MAX which makes me a happy panda 🐼 since it will be very comfortable for this night flight.
All of Americans 737-800s and MAX8s have the exact same configuration so I won’t go into specifics all over again so let’s just head to our seat which will be 26A. It is slightly less comfortable than the ones on their A319s but it isn’t the end of the world at all. It’s definitely more modern and cleaner for sure which is well appreciated since I really like airlines modernizing their cabins as much as possible. Everybody boarded quickly meaning we are pretty much allowed to push back right on time, pretty rare in the US 🇺🇸 for this to happen. Usually we always pushback at departure time or even later, runway 22L is in use for departures tonight so that is where we’ll be heading!
Bye bye, Chicago!
Off in the distance you can see Lake Michigan along with downtown Chicago, I’m really glad to have had an unexpected layover in ORD since I was able to spend one amazing night in the Windy City and one day I hope to return soon for real this time. Oh and right below the wing, you can see the other Chicago airport Midway.
We pretty much flew straight south when departing O’Hare and we reached our cruising altitude of 32,000ft quickly. The crew didn’t waste any time getting their service done especially since I can imagine some passengers want to use this time to get some rest, especially those who had just arrived on long haul flights. Biscoff cookies 🍪 were available tonight along with the typical beverages and I decided to have myself a cranberry cocktail 🍹just to spice things up and it was very delicious! 🤤 the crew were in a very good mood but there was one guy in particular, Jerry he was working this flight while his wife and kids were on board flying to the 305 🏝️😎 spending the night and take off the next day to Port of Spain, T&T 🇹🇹 hope they enjoy their vacation in beautiful Trinidad hope I get to visit one day. This crew earns their 5 stars! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ after this like I had expected, the crew vanished leaving us all to ourselves for the remaining hour and a half until MIA. Since there was no view outside, I checked out to see what the in flight entertainment offered which is only accessible through personal devices as screens are not installed which really sucks since this is a modern aircraft and PTVs are pretty much an expected amenity on newer aircrafts. The selection was still good, last flight I watched some Family Guy so now let’s watch some South Park as it’s another show I like to watch when I’m bored. While not visible at all, towards the east in the distance is Indianapolis, IN and to the west is Champaign, IL.
Unfortunately, AA didn’t seem to give South Park as much love as Family Guy which really sucks since I prefer the former but it’s all right. Since I was done watching all the episodes available, I went to see what music they had and I was impressed with the selection, I put on a few songs from a variety in genres and took in the night views outside. While I was listening to music, we happened to fly directly over the music city itself. Nashville, TN 🎶
A couple songs later we had begun flying along the west coast of Florida 🏝️🐊🍊 meaning it was soon time for begin the approach into MIA. Official y called the FROGZ4 arrival, I like to call it the “I-75 approach” we pretty much flew along the coast crossing by the major west coast cities like Tampa, St Petersburg, Sarasota, Punta Gorda, Fort Myers, Naples before flying directly over the Everglades not seeing any civilization till we reached Krome Ave and Tamiami just west of Miami International Airport before coming into land on RWY 9, very similar to how I-75 runs through the state hence why I call it the I-75 approach. Down below is the Fort Myers area with the airport in the distance. Directly below is the “city” of Cape Coral. It’s not really a city it’s more like a big suburb but I’m not a geography expert so it’s not a big deal.
After saying goodbye to the final site of civilization, Naples we crossed right over the Everglades which was pure darkness, there is NOBODY here except for gators 🐊 of course. Our time in the dark was over once I finally saw Krome Ave and the Doral neighborhood was starting to show its lights along with the Florida Turnpike and Palmetto Expressways showing its colorful lights as we sit back, relax and enjoy our approach into MIAs RWY 9 tonight!
TOUCHDOWN! Welcome back home to Miami 🏝️😎 and the end of this amazing trip to Jackson Hole, I was super happy to be able to get this trip done since I wanted to relive my Eagle trip from last year and not only did I enjoy Jackson, I was super fortunate to be able to revisit O’Hare which I haven’t been to in a while, yeah the 25 hour delay was annoying but it did let me explore Chicago on a trip I had no intention to do so in. The flight was really smooth as well, good seats, comfortable and quiet cabin, amazing crew especially Jerry and his family, sufficient entertainment and the nice atmosphere on board. Yeah no PTVs suck but you truly don’t need them on short flights like this one although they will be a nice re addition American 😉 overall, it was an amazing flight and I’ll definitely see myself back on AAs 737MAX8 whenever I get the chance to.
Here at gate E11 in MIAs central terminal concourse E, our aircraft will stay the night here before leaving tomorrow morning for marvelous Medellín, Colombia 🇨🇴 and while I do love this airport with all my heart, I can 100% agree that this part of the airport just sucks and desperately needs to be renovated. Especially concourse G it’s literally a liminal space, nostalgic but stuck in time and in need on an update. But I’ll rant about that a different day and since I had no bags to collect. It was straight to the exit to grab my car and begin a 1 hour late night drive home to Palm Beach 🏝️🏌️. That will be for this flight on American Airlines from Chicago O’Hare to Miami 🏝️😎 on their Boeing 737MAX8, stay tuned for February as we head back down to South America for not only a new country but also to fly a pretty unique route 👀 and as always between now and the next time, see you in the sky! 😉👋