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Date | Airline | Flight | Type | Regn | Routing | Time | Miles | Remarks | |
| Back | 14 Dec 23 | UA | 2121 | A321-271NX(SL) | N14502 | PHX-ORD | 03:09 | 1540 mi | N/C - My first for UA | Next |
When my buddy Martin text me in September with the news story that UA would be inaugurating new A321 service between Chicago and Phoenix on December 14, 2023 I got happy. Initially I didn't think about trying to fly on the inaugural. Shortly afterwards though I started looking at options to fly onboard a United A321neo.
I surfed on over to the UA website and began exploring. Fares for the inaugural ORD-PHX flight were a little high for my tastes plus there weren't any decent window seats available. However, the A321neo inaugural return flight to Chicago that day plus a return to PHX the next morning on an A321neo was attractively priced AND decent window seats were available. I wouldn't be spending much time plane watching at the second-busiest airport in the USA but that was OK. And what would the mid-December weather be like anyway at O'Hare? Would the flights even operate?!?
The dates I'd chosen...Dec 14 & 15...would also mean I'd be cutting it kinda close for a Rick Springfield concert the night of the 15th I'd already bought a ticket for. Sure, there were about seven hours between flight arrival and concert time of 7:30pm...I'd just have to hope for the best all the way around.
Fast-forward to December 1st. I'm on my phone scrolling through news stories and I got slapped with the following news: United inaugurates A321 service between Chicago and Phoenix today. (WHAT?!?) TWO WEEKS EARLY?? Oh geez...that's a bummer. Not only would I not get to ride the inaugural PHX-ORD return flight but I also missed getting the chance to watch the actual inaugural ORD-PHX flight arrive Phoenix. I just had to laugh it off as "oh well...can't win them all." This news did nothing to discourage me from still having MY A321neo flights to look forward to in a couple weeks. I did go out to PHX the next day to watch the A321neo arrive from ORD and depart back to ORD a couple hours later. I did this a few times during those initial days of service.
Keeping an eye out on Flight Radar 24s fleet for United, they had two A321neo deliveries so far, but for the first week only N44501 was in revenue service. I was happy to see the second A321neo, N14502, would fly this ORD-PHX-ORD turn on December 8th. I headed out to the airport to watch planes and wait for its arrival. I was photographing alongside a new acquaintance out there and almost lost track of time. I was monitoring the arrival of N14502 and was just able to make it to 24th Street and Sky Harbor Blvd and catch it on very short final over 24th street.
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N14502 arriving Phoenix from Chicago as flight #321 prior to my flight to Chicago on this day, 14 December 2023.
Snack onboard N14502 enroute to Chicago.
N14502 at Chicago O'Hare after my flight from Phoenix. It is being serviced for a return flight to PHX as #602. It will RON then return to ORD in the morning as UA #503.
Below is Flight Aware screenshot of this flight from PHX to ORD:
Below is Flight Radar 24 screenshot of this flight from PHX to ORD:
Below is Flight Radar 24 data for N14502 since first flight in late November 2023 at Hamburg:
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