Once again I feel like I've been shorted FF miles on a JFK route [humor]
The AA website is very good about crediting me the proper amount of AIR miles for each flight I take from JFK.
But what I'm missing are the GROUND miles. It seems every flight I take, in or out, involves what must be three miles of taxiing along the ground for a seemingly interminable period.
Last night's return from LHR was no exception. A nice drive around the airport from tarmac to terminal. The taxi times seem longer than other airlines' flights I've taken from JFK.
Are these extended taxis because of the AA terminal's location? If you look at an airport map, there's eight runways with two ends each, making eight possible locations you can end up after landing. Six of those locations are far from AA's terminal. Compare this to T4, which is near six of those runway end locations and farther from two.
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Ever landed on the Siberia runway (northernmost runway) at ORD and taxied all the way down to T3? 20-25 minutes
T8 at JFK is on the backside from the runways. It is close to the takeoff point for 13R (the 15,000 foot runway) and there are very, very few landings on that runway in either direction to the best of my knowledge. The only other close point is for a landing on 31R, any other takeoff other than 13R/13L or the rare 31L landing will involve a fairly long taxi to T8.
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31R is the best landing runway for AA's T8.
Unfortunately, it seems that this runway is very, very seldom used. 22L is much more common, I'm guessing because the prevailing winds tend to come from the ocean, which is located south of the field.
But 22L is by far the least convenient to all (except T4), plus it involves waiting to cross 22R which is often used for departures. 22L is also at the extreme opposite edge of the AOA from T8.
It is infuriating, especially after a long flight.
There was some controversy a few years back on a LAX-JFK flight where the captain demanded 31R and told ATC that he would declare an emergency if he couldn't get 31R. ATC relented, but the pilot was investigated. Not sure whether there was an actual emergency or if the captain just wanted to get home sooner. It's on youtube...check it out.
There's a thread that covers topics of "value" like this. I guess, though, that others are not allowed the suggest a merge with that thread; the OP of such a thread has to have had the foresight to post the missive in that thread in the first place. Too bad.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ESpen36
There was some controversy a few years back on a LAX-JFK flight where the captain demanded 31R and told ATC that he would declare an emergency if he couldn't get 31R. ATC relented, but the pilot was investigated. Not sure whether there was an actual emergency or if the captain just wanted to get home sooner. It's on youtube...check it out.
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ROFL!
Gee, I guess I should get more miles and segment credit for our SMF-DFW diversion (SMF-LBB-DFW) and a couple of extra miles for taxiing to / from the tarmac to wait at Lubbock...
Ground Control for airports is fairly complex, and separate from ATC at most larger airports.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JDiver
Gee, I guess I should get more miles and segment credit for our SMF-DFW diversion (SMF-LBB-DFW) and a couple of extra miles for taxiing to / from the tarmac to wait at Lubbock...
When TW 847 was hijacked and shuttling back and forth between BEY and ALG in 1985, pax ended up getting all mileage credited for the flying the plane did while under hijacker control.
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I can only hope I never have to earn miles that way.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dr. HFH
When TW 847 was hijacked and shuttling back and forth between BEY and ALG in 1985, pax ended up getting all mileage credited for the flying the plane did while under hijacker control.
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Most of my JFK arrivals are on LAX-JFK transcons (10 or 30), and most of the time, unless there are strong winds, we land on 31R and we're at the terminal in just a couple of minutes. Most of my JFK ground tours occur on departure (not arrival), where taxi out times can sometimes exceed 90 minutes.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by FWAAA
Most of my JFK arrivals are on LAX-JFK transcons (10 or 30), and most of the time, unless there are strong winds, we land on 31R and we're at the terminal in just a couple of minutes. Most of my JFK ground tours occur on departure (not arrival), where taxi out times can sometimes exceed 90 minutes.
Both AA 10 and AA 30 are early morning arrivals. By contrast, most of my JFK arrivals tend to be in the afternoon/evening, and for those we tend to do a lot of awkward circling to position to rwy 22L. I wonder if the winds from the ocean pick up in the afternoon/evening.
(sometimes, in fact, we have to fly quite far out of the way....coming up from the Caribbean, flying all the way north to Connecticut, and then back around and across the Sound to line up with 22L)
Most of the landings (I've been on) into JFK, if we arrive from the west, fly almost over the airport, go out over the Atlantic ocean going counter-clockwise in a circle and then land; while the flights from the East seem to go straight in without doing "loops".
[Foreign arrivals (which have to go through customs), too often land at a gate numbered > 12, the amount of walking to get to customs is huge--it would be much nicer for such flights if we landed at 1-12.]
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Quote:
Originally Posted by nrr
Most of the landings (I've been on) into JFK, if we arrive from the west, fly almost over the airport, go out over the Atlantic ocean going counter-clockwise in a circle and then land; while the flights from the East seem to go straight in without doing "loops".
[Foreign arrivals (which have to go through customs), too often land at a gate numbered > 12, the amount of walking to get to customs is huge--it would be much nicer for such flights if we landed at 1-12.]
Well, gates 1-12, 14, and 16 (in Concourse B) are the only ones that AA uses for 772 equipment. I'm not sure if the C-concourse gates are able to accommodate the 772s, but AA chooses not to park them there.
That leaves the remote C-concourse mainline gates (33-47) for the 757s, 767s, 738s, and S80s. Since many international flights use 763 and 752/75L/75W equipment, passengers arriving on those flights are likely to experience the long walk to FIS, unless you get lucky and happen to arrive at a B-concourse gate. It does happen from time to time.
If you want to be guaranteed a short walk to FIS, be sure to fly on 772 equipment so that you will use gates 1-12 or 14 or 16.
