American Airlines Portland, ME to Austin

This post is written by Katie about her return from Portland, ME after the 2016 RoboCup US Open.

After driving down from Acadia National Park in a snow storm, I managed to arrive at the Portland Jetport about 90 minutes before my 1:30pm departure.

I returned my Hertz rental car by parking it in the rental car parking garage.  Then I dropped the keys at the Hertz desk and self reported fuel level and mileage.  Although different than the return process at larger rental car offices, this seems common across the various companies at the Portland Jetport.

From the rental car offices, it was a lengthy walk to the American Airlines check-in counter.  With less luggage – or on a day with more pleasant weather – this walk likely would have seemed much more reasonable.  But lugging camping equipment and robots by myself, the walk was rather miserable.

De-icing a JetBlue plane

Check-in was quick.  After going through secondary screening with the robot heads, I walked around the terminal and watched the de-icing procedures.

My flight from Portland and Philly boarded and departed on time.  There was no one next to me, so it was a pretty comfortable flight.

I ate lunch at Chipotle in Philly Philly Terminal F and then walked to terminal A to see international planes. After wandering the international terminal, I walked to Terminal B for my 6pm departure.

I got the upgrade for my flight from Philly to Austin.  Dinner was a choice of steakhouse salad or thai noodle wrap. Both came with hummus and a key lime pie. The wrap came with a salad as well, while the salad come with pre-packaged breadsticks.

Thai Noodle Wrap in American Domestic First between Philly and Austin

I opted for the wrap. The salad was crisp and fresh. The crackers served with the hummus were soggy, but the actual hummus was good. The wrap was a bit soggy but okay, although the noodles were extremely bland. The pie was pretty tasty, although probably not worth the calories.

I fell asleep after eating dinner, so the remainder of the flight back to Austin was nothing noteworthy.

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