tomashi
Oct 19, 03, 11:03 am
Hi!
This is my second trip-report! Again I apologize for all spelling and/or grammar-mistakes!
Earlier this summer, I celebrated my "Matura" (thatīs how the final-exams at Austrian high-schools are called) with a nice trip to New York and Boston. Like every trip of mine, this journey started in my hometown Graz in the Styria-region of Austria. The trip was also a good opportunity to give the Economy-Class service on the "new" (former Swissair/Sabena planes) LH A-330īs a try. I booked all my flights at the local LH airport office about one month in advance. The fares were 399 EUR+Tax for the transatlantic flight and 150 US$ for my day-trip to Boston.
July 04, 2003
GRZ-FRA / LH5459
Sched 10:15-11:40
Actual 10:20-11:30
Avro RJ85
D-AVRI
Seat 11D
I flew this route several times before, but this was my first time on the LH Cityline Avro RJ85. The flight was previously operated with 737īs. Some words about the quite uncomfortable seating: I donīt know how, but they managed to stuff 6 seats in each row of this narrowbody. The cabin was so cramped that there was hardly enough space to walk! Anyway! Service was very attentive, the ham-sandwich was great and the friendly FAīs did two drink-runs. All in all a nice and smooth inner-european flight.
After 70 minutes we touched down at FRAīs runway 25L and taxied to a parking spot far away from the terminal-buildings, near the Cargo-Center. A 10min bus-ride later, we arrived at the B-area of terminal 1 and I was on my way to the C-concourse. Normally this part of the terminal is not used for LH flights, but this day LH406 was parked at C6. Other planes there: UA B-777 bound for San Francisco, AA B-763 bound for Chicago, Kuwait Airways B-777 bound for Kuwait, ...;
As one can probably imagine, security was very, very tight. After a long wait and the usual procedures (screening, bodysearch,...) I was accompanied to a special area where they examined my video-camera. The security-officer was extremely rude and throughout the whole process I was treated like a suspect. I had similar experiences flying out of Vienna (also to New York) some months ago, but so far never any problems at US-airports or at FRA.
However, I finally made it to my gate and after another short passport-check I entered the waiting area at 12:15. A bad decision, because boarding was delayed and the place was a real dump. Everything was quite dark and dirty and there were no washrooms! And some screens still displayed the logo of Saudi Arabian Airlines, because their flight to Riyadh departed from the same gate about one hour ago.
July 04, 2003
FRA-JFK / LH406
Sched 13:20-15:50
Actual 14:00-15:45
Airbus A-330-200
D-AIMA
Seat 27C
At 12:50 boarding finally started. Because they did not announce different groups (which they do every time in VIE) the whole process was very chaotic. When I boarded this Airbus A-330, I could see the Swissair-Business Class seats and found them slightly better than the regular LH C-Class seats. But my Y-seat was a real disappointment. Row 27 was the last row of the forward economy-cabin, there was no possibility to recline and last but not least my aisle-seat was surrounded by three lavatories. "Great!", I said to myself and sat down. I later noticed, that my reading-light was also broken. So my seat was probably the worst on this whole flight! Boarding took very long and 10 minutes after the scheduled departure-time we were still waiting for some passengers. The captain apologized for the delay but informed us that we can still expect an on-time arrival at JFK.
Pushback commenced at 13:45 and after the usual safety-video and a short taxi we took off from runway 25R. Airshow on my PTV displayed the flight-time with 07:45 and the routing this day took us over Cologne, Amsterdam, Manchester and Ireland before we crossed the atlantic south of Iceland and Greenland. We approached the American continent at Goose Bay/Labrador and started our descent into JFK right after Boston. Cruising altitude: 38000 feet;
I noticed that the load on this flight (at least in Eco) was really high. The Y-cabin was completely full but there were quite a lot empty seats in C-class. In general it was a usual summer-holiday leisure-crowd. Now itīs time to tell you something about the interior of this plane. There are PTVīs and footrests in Economy-Class but the seats are very hard and not very wide. But all in all better than the usual LH-cabin. Although my seat on this flight was a bad choice. Iīll never ever reserve any seat again without knowing the exact seatmap. However, the flight continued and I had to cope with my situation. Service started soon, with drinks and packaged refreshment towels. About one hour into the flight the FAīs started to deliver the hot meal-trays. Choices: Vegetarian pasta with tomato-sauce or Chicken with "Schupfnudeln" (difficult to translate; potato noodles), some vegetables and another variation of the good old tomato-sauce (spicy); My seat neighbor took the pasta and after seeing it, I was very happy that I opted for the chicken. It really was OK! I also liked the small salad and the cake dessert. Just the size was a little bit disappointing. The meals of Austrian Airlines (my usual carrier on the JFK-route) are a lot bigger and are served on real china. Anyway! After the meal I ordered my usual Baileys and switched from Airshow to the movie "Bringing down the House" with Steve Martin on my PTV. I didnīt like the movie but there were no alternatives. After the movie, the immigration and customs-forms were delivered and the FAīs served some pre-filled cups with drinks from trays. I only took water this time. Within the next few hours I read the Lufthansa magazine, watched some interesting and funny documentaries about chimpanzees and Madagascar and tried to relax with the Lufthansa audio-program. I also tried to escape from my seat as often as possible, especially during the peak lavatory-times! Walking around the cabin is always interesting, especially on such a full flight. About one hour prior to landing in JFK a snack-pack was served. It consisted of a dry ham- and cheese-sandwich, a chocolate bar and a small fruit-salad. As you can imagine I was still hungry after that. Fortunately, I knew a nice and cheap restaurant near my hotel in Manhattan!
After the usual approach over Long Island, we touched down at JFKīs runway 31L five minutes ahead of schedule and after a very short taxi we arrived at Terminal One. Right next to us, an Air France B-777 and an Olympic Airways A-340 had just arrived. This resulted in long queues in the immigration-hall. I never waited longer than 10 minutes on my former trips but this time it took me around 40 minutes to arrive at the baggage-claim area. The positive thing: my bag arrived immediately after the immigration-officer stamped my passport! No further delays at the customs counter. I just gave them my customs-declaration form and continued to the ground transportation area. After waiting another ten minutes in the hot and humid air, I finally got a cab and was on my way to the Bentley Hotel. This is a small and quite cheap four-star design-hotel right next to the Queensboro Bridge. A real gem. Every time Iīm in New York I stay there.
New York, July 4-10, 2003
In the following days I "enjoyed" a heat-wave with extremely hot and humid-conditions, visited some art-galleries, enjoyed the beach at Coney Island, went to my favorite shopping-spots in SoHo, Nolita and Midtown and explored interesting areas like Williamsburgh in Brooklyn. And on Sunday morning I went to La Guardia Airport to go to Boston for a quick daytrip.
It wasnīt that easy to get a cab on York Avenue at 6:30 am on a Sunday morning, but after 10 minutes a driver stopped nearby and we were on our way to LGA. Because there was hardly any traffic I arrived at the US Airways terminal about 20 minutes later and the fare was very low (about 12 US$ if I remember correctly). I went to the US Airways Shuttle counters but nobody was there yet. So I tried to use the E-Check In machines but because my ticket was issued by Austrian Airlines, this wasnīt possible. After 10 minutes a lady arrived at one of the counters and waved me over. I got my boarding pass within 10 seconds. Also security was a real breeze, because I only carried a small bag and the officers were very friendly. On the way to my gate I stopped at the big windows and did some plane-spotting. Unsurprisingly there were many US Airways A-319īs, A-320īs and one A-321 as well as some taxiing planes by DL (757, 737), AA (757, MD-80, ERJ-145) and UA (757, 737).
July 06, 2003
LGA-BOS / US2118 08:00-09:02
Actual 08:10-08:45
Airbus A-319-100
N753US
Seat 14F
Boarding started at 07:45 and because there only were 15-20 passengers on this flight, "Boarding completed!" was announced just two minutes later. The captain wished us a very good morning and informed us about a short flying time of 35 minutes. Right after his announcement we pushed back from our gate and took off from runway 4 about 15 minutes later. The flight was very uneventful and took us over the Long Island Sound and Providence straight to Boston. The overhead-LCD screens just showed US-Airways ads all the time and the service consisted of some pretzels and a full drink service. Not bad for such a short flight! On similar regional flights within Germany (e.g. FRA-DUS) or Austria they offer nothing! Sometimes not even a drink! Anyway! Approach into Boston Logan started soon and I enjoyed the great view over the pittoresque New England landscape. Some moments later, we touched down on runway 22L and taxied to our gate at the US Airways-part of terminal B. I like the architecture of this building. Big windows, and a nice and roomy atmosphere. I followed the signs to the Subway-Shuttle Bus and just 20 minutes after touchdown at BOS, I left the "T" -train (thatīs how the Subway in Boston is called) at "Aquarium", right in the city center. Very impressive!
Boston is a wonderful city! Nice buildings, some very nice parks, great restaurants and some of the worlds best universities in the Cambridge-area. For sure a nice place to live, especially when you are one of these lucky students!
After eight hours of sightseeing I was totally exhausted (daytime temperatures around 35°C / 100°F) and it was time for me to take the "T" Blue-Line back to Airport-Station. At 19:00 I arrived at the check-in area of US Airways. I was the third in the line and got my boarding pass within 5 minutes. Surprisingly the lady at security stopped me and told me that it is not allowed to take more than two pieces of hand-luggage onboard. But I only had a camera-bag, a small shoulder bag and one Harvard COOP-Store plastic-bag. Some passengers carried suitcases which were three times bigger than all my bags together and were allowed to take them onboard. Strange Rule! Anyway! I had no choice, stuffed the Harvard-souvenirs into my shoulder-bag and went back to the checkpoint. No further delays! The rest of the time I walked around the terminal, did some plane-spotting and bought some postcards for my friends at the newsstand.
July 06, 2003
BOS-LGA / US2143
Sched: 20:00-21:05
Actual: 20:30-21:30
Airbus A-319-100
N751UW
Seat 12A
Boarding started very soon and the flight was completely full this time. It took ages until all passengers were seated and the FAīs managed to store all bags ("Only two bags sir!") in the overhead-bins. Five minutes past eight we finally were ready for push-back but due to heavy traffic behind us we had to wait another 10 minutes. I could see some interesting airliners when we taxied along the terminals to runway 22R. For example at terminal E, planes of some major European airlines were waiting for their evening departures: Air France A-343 to CDG, Virgin A-343 to LHR, LH A-330 to FRA or MUC (I didnīt know that they also use them to Boston) and last but not least the BA 744 to LHR;
When we took off some minutes later I had another great view over the airport and the skyline of Boston. This flight was again very uneventful and the service was great. One funny episode for me (because Iīm from Europe): When one of the quite young and very friendly FAīs (by the way: she looked like Salma Hayek) forgot the ice in the coke of my seat-neighbor she laughed and said "Oh Iīm sorry! I did so many flights to Europe in the last months that I forgot that you Americans are Ice-Freaks!". Many passengers laughed.
About 30 minutes later we arrived at New York, but it took another 20 minutes until we were allowed to start our final descent into LGA. The last ten minutes of our approach were absolutely awesome! It was a stunning sightseeing flight over Manhattan by night. I could see the Empire State Building which was illuminated in Independence Day colors (Red, White,Blue), Liberty Island with Lady Liberty and all the famous bridges. What a great city! At 21:30 we finally touched down at LGAīs runway 31 and taxied to our gate. Another 45 minutes and some jammed expressways later I arrived at my hotel.
July 10, 2003
I checked out at 12 noon, stored my luggage at the hotel and reserved a Town Car-service to JFK for 5 pm. I spent the rest of the day in Midtown. When I returned to the hotel the driver was already waiting for me. Exactly at five we started our "journey" to JFK. Not an easy task during rush-hour traffic. But 90 minutes later I finally arrived at Terminal One. Except of the five employees at the desks, the Lufthansa area was deserted. My bag was checked through to Graz and I got my two boarding passes within two minutes. I really like Terminal One at JFK. Just 11 Gates, not many people, no long queues and a clean and modern atmosphere.
At 19:00 I proceeded to the security-checkpoint. Everything was done very professionally and quickly. No special extra-checks this time. I bought some magazines at the newsstand and walked to the gates to take some pictures. Many interesting planes were sitting at their gates: Alitalia 777, two AF 777, AF 744, Virgin 744, Virgin A-340, Turkish A-340, Royal Air Maroc 763, JAL 744 and one LH A-340 bound for MUC. The LH 744 from Frankfurt arrived 30 minutes later at gate 8.
July 10, 2003
JFK-FRA / LH405
Sched: 21:30-10:45+
Actual: 21:55-10:10+
Boeing 747-400
D-ABTA
Seat 30C / 43DE
Boarding for this flight started at 20:40 and there were different lines for First/Business/Star Gold passengers and Economy Class. "Ladies and Gentlemen! We will divide the boarding into different groups depending on your seatrow! ..." was announced but actually there were no further announcements in the next five minutes. So I just went to one of the lines and boarded the plane. Believe it or not, but this was my first Jumbo-flight ever! A great plane! Very big and powerful. Although the interior of LH isnīt up-to-date. A very tight seat-pitch, no PTVīs and no footrests in Economy Class. My aisle-seat was in one of the first rows of Economy Class and soon after I sat down, my two seat neighbors arrived. A young and very friendly American couple on their way to Prague.
Surprisingly the load on this flight was not very high. About 60% in all three classes, according to my observations and the seatmaps at checkmytrip.com. I asked one of the FAīs if there are some free seats I could use and she said "Yeah! We have many unused seats today! But now weīre departing! You can change your seat when we reach our final cruising altitude!".
Some moments later the captain announced our push-back time with 21:40 and informed us about the unusually short flying time of 6 hours and 15 minutes. At 21:55 we took off from runway 13R. Just some seconds after the captain turned the seatbelt-sign off the FA came to my seat and told me that I can take any Economy Class seat I want. I think this was very nice of her! I collected my things and said Goodbye to my seat neighbors. I found two free seats in row 43, a bulkhead row right next to the galley. The seat pitch was better and I managed to get three hours of sleep.
Service started with drinks and I only took water. Dinner was served a couple of minutes later and they offered the usual choice between Vegetarian Pasta and Grilled Chicken with Rice. I took the chicken-dish. This time they called it "Barbecue-Style", maybe because of the spicy sauce. The "main course" was accompanied by a small salad, a chocolate-mousse dessert and warm and crispy bread. Everything was tasty and fresh! Another drink service followed and I ordered Baileys and another water. After they collected the meal trays I reclined my seat, activated the audio-system and tried to sleep. Three hours later the cabin-lights were turned on again and the captain made his "Good Morning!" announcement. Breakfast was a joke: a small "Muesliriegel" (muesli-bar) and some grapes if i remember correctly; But I wasnīt hungry at this time of the day (night?). Soon after "breakfast" we started our descent into Frankfurt and they showed the information video about FRA airport on the screens. By the way: I could not see anything because I was sitting in a bulkhead row with the screens right above my head! But that was absolutely no problem on such a short flight.
However! We touched down on FRAīs runway 25L around 30 minutes ahead of schedule and taxied to our gate at the B-concourse. Immigration took five seconds and I was on my way to the A-Gates. I was very tired and so I cannot remember exactly what I did within the next two hours.
July 11, 2003
FRA-GRZ / LH3688
Sched: 12:40-13:55
Actual: 12:45-13:41
Boeing 737-500
D-ABIA
Seat 15ABC
Boarding for my flight to Graz started at 12:10. I used the quick-boarding line for etix-holders. There you can insert your boarding pass in a machine and then walk trough an electronic-turnstile. This time I had a whole row for myself because the flight was quite empty. There only were about 60 passengers in Economy Class and 10 in C-Class. We pushed-back right on-time and departed from "Startbahn West" (runway 18) just five minutes later. There is not much more to say about this flight. Just another uneventful inner-european LH-flight. Service consisted of a sandwich (I like them!) and two full drink-runs. After 55 minutes we landed in my hometown Graz and my Dad picked me up after customs-control.
Conclusion
This was a great and very interesting and inspiring little trip! I love New York and Iīm also a big fan of Boston now. All in all, I liked the professional and friendly service on both Airlines (LH, US) but Iīll try to avoid row 27 on LH A-330īs and A-340īs in the future!
Regards,
Thomas
[This message has been edited by tomashi (edited 10-19-2003).]
[This message has been edited by tomashi (edited 10-19-2003).]
This is my second trip-report! Again I apologize for all spelling and/or grammar-mistakes!
Earlier this summer, I celebrated my "Matura" (thatīs how the final-exams at Austrian high-schools are called) with a nice trip to New York and Boston. Like every trip of mine, this journey started in my hometown Graz in the Styria-region of Austria. The trip was also a good opportunity to give the Economy-Class service on the "new" (former Swissair/Sabena planes) LH A-330īs a try. I booked all my flights at the local LH airport office about one month in advance. The fares were 399 EUR+Tax for the transatlantic flight and 150 US$ for my day-trip to Boston.
July 04, 2003
GRZ-FRA / LH5459
Sched 10:15-11:40
Actual 10:20-11:30
Avro RJ85
D-AVRI
Seat 11D
I flew this route several times before, but this was my first time on the LH Cityline Avro RJ85. The flight was previously operated with 737īs. Some words about the quite uncomfortable seating: I donīt know how, but they managed to stuff 6 seats in each row of this narrowbody. The cabin was so cramped that there was hardly enough space to walk! Anyway! Service was very attentive, the ham-sandwich was great and the friendly FAīs did two drink-runs. All in all a nice and smooth inner-european flight.
After 70 minutes we touched down at FRAīs runway 25L and taxied to a parking spot far away from the terminal-buildings, near the Cargo-Center. A 10min bus-ride later, we arrived at the B-area of terminal 1 and I was on my way to the C-concourse. Normally this part of the terminal is not used for LH flights, but this day LH406 was parked at C6. Other planes there: UA B-777 bound for San Francisco, AA B-763 bound for Chicago, Kuwait Airways B-777 bound for Kuwait, ...;
As one can probably imagine, security was very, very tight. After a long wait and the usual procedures (screening, bodysearch,...) I was accompanied to a special area where they examined my video-camera. The security-officer was extremely rude and throughout the whole process I was treated like a suspect. I had similar experiences flying out of Vienna (also to New York) some months ago, but so far never any problems at US-airports or at FRA.
However, I finally made it to my gate and after another short passport-check I entered the waiting area at 12:15. A bad decision, because boarding was delayed and the place was a real dump. Everything was quite dark and dirty and there were no washrooms! And some screens still displayed the logo of Saudi Arabian Airlines, because their flight to Riyadh departed from the same gate about one hour ago.
July 04, 2003
FRA-JFK / LH406
Sched 13:20-15:50
Actual 14:00-15:45
Airbus A-330-200
D-AIMA
Seat 27C
At 12:50 boarding finally started. Because they did not announce different groups (which they do every time in VIE) the whole process was very chaotic. When I boarded this Airbus A-330, I could see the Swissair-Business Class seats and found them slightly better than the regular LH C-Class seats. But my Y-seat was a real disappointment. Row 27 was the last row of the forward economy-cabin, there was no possibility to recline and last but not least my aisle-seat was surrounded by three lavatories. "Great!", I said to myself and sat down. I later noticed, that my reading-light was also broken. So my seat was probably the worst on this whole flight! Boarding took very long and 10 minutes after the scheduled departure-time we were still waiting for some passengers. The captain apologized for the delay but informed us that we can still expect an on-time arrival at JFK.
Pushback commenced at 13:45 and after the usual safety-video and a short taxi we took off from runway 25R. Airshow on my PTV displayed the flight-time with 07:45 and the routing this day took us over Cologne, Amsterdam, Manchester and Ireland before we crossed the atlantic south of Iceland and Greenland. We approached the American continent at Goose Bay/Labrador and started our descent into JFK right after Boston. Cruising altitude: 38000 feet;
I noticed that the load on this flight (at least in Eco) was really high. The Y-cabin was completely full but there were quite a lot empty seats in C-class. In general it was a usual summer-holiday leisure-crowd. Now itīs time to tell you something about the interior of this plane. There are PTVīs and footrests in Economy-Class but the seats are very hard and not very wide. But all in all better than the usual LH-cabin. Although my seat on this flight was a bad choice. Iīll never ever reserve any seat again without knowing the exact seatmap. However, the flight continued and I had to cope with my situation. Service started soon, with drinks and packaged refreshment towels. About one hour into the flight the FAīs started to deliver the hot meal-trays. Choices: Vegetarian pasta with tomato-sauce or Chicken with "Schupfnudeln" (difficult to translate; potato noodles), some vegetables and another variation of the good old tomato-sauce (spicy); My seat neighbor took the pasta and after seeing it, I was very happy that I opted for the chicken. It really was OK! I also liked the small salad and the cake dessert. Just the size was a little bit disappointing. The meals of Austrian Airlines (my usual carrier on the JFK-route) are a lot bigger and are served on real china. Anyway! After the meal I ordered my usual Baileys and switched from Airshow to the movie "Bringing down the House" with Steve Martin on my PTV. I didnīt like the movie but there were no alternatives. After the movie, the immigration and customs-forms were delivered and the FAīs served some pre-filled cups with drinks from trays. I only took water this time. Within the next few hours I read the Lufthansa magazine, watched some interesting and funny documentaries about chimpanzees and Madagascar and tried to relax with the Lufthansa audio-program. I also tried to escape from my seat as often as possible, especially during the peak lavatory-times! Walking around the cabin is always interesting, especially on such a full flight. About one hour prior to landing in JFK a snack-pack was served. It consisted of a dry ham- and cheese-sandwich, a chocolate bar and a small fruit-salad. As you can imagine I was still hungry after that. Fortunately, I knew a nice and cheap restaurant near my hotel in Manhattan!
After the usual approach over Long Island, we touched down at JFKīs runway 31L five minutes ahead of schedule and after a very short taxi we arrived at Terminal One. Right next to us, an Air France B-777 and an Olympic Airways A-340 had just arrived. This resulted in long queues in the immigration-hall. I never waited longer than 10 minutes on my former trips but this time it took me around 40 minutes to arrive at the baggage-claim area. The positive thing: my bag arrived immediately after the immigration-officer stamped my passport! No further delays at the customs counter. I just gave them my customs-declaration form and continued to the ground transportation area. After waiting another ten minutes in the hot and humid air, I finally got a cab and was on my way to the Bentley Hotel. This is a small and quite cheap four-star design-hotel right next to the Queensboro Bridge. A real gem. Every time Iīm in New York I stay there.
New York, July 4-10, 2003
In the following days I "enjoyed" a heat-wave with extremely hot and humid-conditions, visited some art-galleries, enjoyed the beach at Coney Island, went to my favorite shopping-spots in SoHo, Nolita and Midtown and explored interesting areas like Williamsburgh in Brooklyn. And on Sunday morning I went to La Guardia Airport to go to Boston for a quick daytrip.
It wasnīt that easy to get a cab on York Avenue at 6:30 am on a Sunday morning, but after 10 minutes a driver stopped nearby and we were on our way to LGA. Because there was hardly any traffic I arrived at the US Airways terminal about 20 minutes later and the fare was very low (about 12 US$ if I remember correctly). I went to the US Airways Shuttle counters but nobody was there yet. So I tried to use the E-Check In machines but because my ticket was issued by Austrian Airlines, this wasnīt possible. After 10 minutes a lady arrived at one of the counters and waved me over. I got my boarding pass within 10 seconds. Also security was a real breeze, because I only carried a small bag and the officers were very friendly. On the way to my gate I stopped at the big windows and did some plane-spotting. Unsurprisingly there were many US Airways A-319īs, A-320īs and one A-321 as well as some taxiing planes by DL (757, 737), AA (757, MD-80, ERJ-145) and UA (757, 737).
July 06, 2003
LGA-BOS / US2118 08:00-09:02
Actual 08:10-08:45
Airbus A-319-100
N753US
Seat 14F
Boarding started at 07:45 and because there only were 15-20 passengers on this flight, "Boarding completed!" was announced just two minutes later. The captain wished us a very good morning and informed us about a short flying time of 35 minutes. Right after his announcement we pushed back from our gate and took off from runway 4 about 15 minutes later. The flight was very uneventful and took us over the Long Island Sound and Providence straight to Boston. The overhead-LCD screens just showed US-Airways ads all the time and the service consisted of some pretzels and a full drink service. Not bad for such a short flight! On similar regional flights within Germany (e.g. FRA-DUS) or Austria they offer nothing! Sometimes not even a drink! Anyway! Approach into Boston Logan started soon and I enjoyed the great view over the pittoresque New England landscape. Some moments later, we touched down on runway 22L and taxied to our gate at the US Airways-part of terminal B. I like the architecture of this building. Big windows, and a nice and roomy atmosphere. I followed the signs to the Subway-Shuttle Bus and just 20 minutes after touchdown at BOS, I left the "T" -train (thatīs how the Subway in Boston is called) at "Aquarium", right in the city center. Very impressive!
Boston is a wonderful city! Nice buildings, some very nice parks, great restaurants and some of the worlds best universities in the Cambridge-area. For sure a nice place to live, especially when you are one of these lucky students!
After eight hours of sightseeing I was totally exhausted (daytime temperatures around 35°C / 100°F) and it was time for me to take the "T" Blue-Line back to Airport-Station. At 19:00 I arrived at the check-in area of US Airways. I was the third in the line and got my boarding pass within 5 minutes. Surprisingly the lady at security stopped me and told me that it is not allowed to take more than two pieces of hand-luggage onboard. But I only had a camera-bag, a small shoulder bag and one Harvard COOP-Store plastic-bag. Some passengers carried suitcases which were three times bigger than all my bags together and were allowed to take them onboard. Strange Rule! Anyway! I had no choice, stuffed the Harvard-souvenirs into my shoulder-bag and went back to the checkpoint. No further delays! The rest of the time I walked around the terminal, did some plane-spotting and bought some postcards for my friends at the newsstand.
July 06, 2003
BOS-LGA / US2143
Sched: 20:00-21:05
Actual: 20:30-21:30
Airbus A-319-100
N751UW
Seat 12A
Boarding started very soon and the flight was completely full this time. It took ages until all passengers were seated and the FAīs managed to store all bags ("Only two bags sir!") in the overhead-bins. Five minutes past eight we finally were ready for push-back but due to heavy traffic behind us we had to wait another 10 minutes. I could see some interesting airliners when we taxied along the terminals to runway 22R. For example at terminal E, planes of some major European airlines were waiting for their evening departures: Air France A-343 to CDG, Virgin A-343 to LHR, LH A-330 to FRA or MUC (I didnīt know that they also use them to Boston) and last but not least the BA 744 to LHR;
When we took off some minutes later I had another great view over the airport and the skyline of Boston. This flight was again very uneventful and the service was great. One funny episode for me (because Iīm from Europe): When one of the quite young and very friendly FAīs (by the way: she looked like Salma Hayek) forgot the ice in the coke of my seat-neighbor she laughed and said "Oh Iīm sorry! I did so many flights to Europe in the last months that I forgot that you Americans are Ice-Freaks!". Many passengers laughed.
About 30 minutes later we arrived at New York, but it took another 20 minutes until we were allowed to start our final descent into LGA. The last ten minutes of our approach were absolutely awesome! It was a stunning sightseeing flight over Manhattan by night. I could see the Empire State Building which was illuminated in Independence Day colors (Red, White,Blue), Liberty Island with Lady Liberty and all the famous bridges. What a great city! At 21:30 we finally touched down at LGAīs runway 31 and taxied to our gate. Another 45 minutes and some jammed expressways later I arrived at my hotel.
July 10, 2003
I checked out at 12 noon, stored my luggage at the hotel and reserved a Town Car-service to JFK for 5 pm. I spent the rest of the day in Midtown. When I returned to the hotel the driver was already waiting for me. Exactly at five we started our "journey" to JFK. Not an easy task during rush-hour traffic. But 90 minutes later I finally arrived at Terminal One. Except of the five employees at the desks, the Lufthansa area was deserted. My bag was checked through to Graz and I got my two boarding passes within two minutes. I really like Terminal One at JFK. Just 11 Gates, not many people, no long queues and a clean and modern atmosphere.
At 19:00 I proceeded to the security-checkpoint. Everything was done very professionally and quickly. No special extra-checks this time. I bought some magazines at the newsstand and walked to the gates to take some pictures. Many interesting planes were sitting at their gates: Alitalia 777, two AF 777, AF 744, Virgin 744, Virgin A-340, Turkish A-340, Royal Air Maroc 763, JAL 744 and one LH A-340 bound for MUC. The LH 744 from Frankfurt arrived 30 minutes later at gate 8.
July 10, 2003
JFK-FRA / LH405
Sched: 21:30-10:45+
Actual: 21:55-10:10+
Boeing 747-400
D-ABTA
Seat 30C / 43DE
Boarding for this flight started at 20:40 and there were different lines for First/Business/Star Gold passengers and Economy Class. "Ladies and Gentlemen! We will divide the boarding into different groups depending on your seatrow! ..." was announced but actually there were no further announcements in the next five minutes. So I just went to one of the lines and boarded the plane. Believe it or not, but this was my first Jumbo-flight ever! A great plane! Very big and powerful. Although the interior of LH isnīt up-to-date. A very tight seat-pitch, no PTVīs and no footrests in Economy Class. My aisle-seat was in one of the first rows of Economy Class and soon after I sat down, my two seat neighbors arrived. A young and very friendly American couple on their way to Prague.
Surprisingly the load on this flight was not very high. About 60% in all three classes, according to my observations and the seatmaps at checkmytrip.com. I asked one of the FAīs if there are some free seats I could use and she said "Yeah! We have many unused seats today! But now weīre departing! You can change your seat when we reach our final cruising altitude!".
Some moments later the captain announced our push-back time with 21:40 and informed us about the unusually short flying time of 6 hours and 15 minutes. At 21:55 we took off from runway 13R. Just some seconds after the captain turned the seatbelt-sign off the FA came to my seat and told me that I can take any Economy Class seat I want. I think this was very nice of her! I collected my things and said Goodbye to my seat neighbors. I found two free seats in row 43, a bulkhead row right next to the galley. The seat pitch was better and I managed to get three hours of sleep.
Service started with drinks and I only took water. Dinner was served a couple of minutes later and they offered the usual choice between Vegetarian Pasta and Grilled Chicken with Rice. I took the chicken-dish. This time they called it "Barbecue-Style", maybe because of the spicy sauce. The "main course" was accompanied by a small salad, a chocolate-mousse dessert and warm and crispy bread. Everything was tasty and fresh! Another drink service followed and I ordered Baileys and another water. After they collected the meal trays I reclined my seat, activated the audio-system and tried to sleep. Three hours later the cabin-lights were turned on again and the captain made his "Good Morning!" announcement. Breakfast was a joke: a small "Muesliriegel" (muesli-bar) and some grapes if i remember correctly; But I wasnīt hungry at this time of the day (night?). Soon after "breakfast" we started our descent into Frankfurt and they showed the information video about FRA airport on the screens. By the way: I could not see anything because I was sitting in a bulkhead row with the screens right above my head! But that was absolutely no problem on such a short flight.
However! We touched down on FRAīs runway 25L around 30 minutes ahead of schedule and taxied to our gate at the B-concourse. Immigration took five seconds and I was on my way to the A-Gates. I was very tired and so I cannot remember exactly what I did within the next two hours.
July 11, 2003
FRA-GRZ / LH3688
Sched: 12:40-13:55
Actual: 12:45-13:41
Boeing 737-500
D-ABIA
Seat 15ABC
Boarding for my flight to Graz started at 12:10. I used the quick-boarding line for etix-holders. There you can insert your boarding pass in a machine and then walk trough an electronic-turnstile. This time I had a whole row for myself because the flight was quite empty. There only were about 60 passengers in Economy Class and 10 in C-Class. We pushed-back right on-time and departed from "Startbahn West" (runway 18) just five minutes later. There is not much more to say about this flight. Just another uneventful inner-european LH-flight. Service consisted of a sandwich (I like them!) and two full drink-runs. After 55 minutes we landed in my hometown Graz and my Dad picked me up after customs-control.
Conclusion
This was a great and very interesting and inspiring little trip! I love New York and Iīm also a big fan of Boston now. All in all, I liked the professional and friendly service on both Airlines (LH, US) but Iīll try to avoid row 27 on LH A-330īs and A-340īs in the future!
Regards,
Thomas
[This message has been edited by tomashi (edited 10-19-2003).]
[This message has been edited by tomashi (edited 10-19-2003).]