Originally Posted by
West Coast
FL200 is out of the immediate craziness of the terminal area, yet likely not all that far from the airport considering they had lots of gas, airport options, communications to complete and possibly reading to do depending on what if any messages were displayed. Very comfortable with this aspect of the crew's reaction.
I agree that FL200 is better than crawling along the surface like Ethiopian, but I would rather reduce speed and keep the flaps out. Imagine having a thing big as a house door in your slats and you try to retract them...