pfieldston

Not so much a SkyMiles question but I was curious...

I landed at LaGuardia around 10:30pm on June 29 and saw at one of the Delta gates flight #1960 scheduled to depart to JFK at 1:23am. I thought perhaps it was a flight destined for JFK that got diverted to LGA but according to FlightAware, that flight number is usually used for the MEM-LGA trip, so why a LGA-JFK flight? Was it maybe just a relocation? Or were there actually going to be passengers onboard?

aviatorzz

More than likely a diversion and they needed the aircraft in LGA. So they probably flew it to LGA empty considering they were already at JFK and I am sure that all pax deplaned and went on their merry way.

davetravels

I was at JFK, once, and saw a flight on the monitor to LGA, and couldn't figure it out. There was also a flight with the same flight number to XYZ, so it was apparently JFK/XYZ/LGA - really 2 separate legs, and you'd never book or fly JFK/STOP/LGA - especially since it'd only net 500 miles! Maybe this was the same thing.

edited to say . . . . As I re-read your post, and checked FlightAware, this clearly wasn't the case with this flight, but I was still intrigued to find a JFK to LGA flight on the monitor!

The situation with this plane was probably DL needing the aircraft at JFK for some other IRROP.

KeaauFlyer

Had this been more generally known, I'm sure some FTers would love to have taken the flight just to be able to say they'd done it . . . and to get the miles.

Berto

On a similar note I was in Orlando the other month and noticed one gate for a Delta Connection flight said Tampa. I figured there was no way that there was a MCO-TPA non-stop, turns out it was a MCO-DCA-TPA flight.

High Technology

I would assume it was a relocation, but why would they put it on the monitor if it was a no-passenger flight?

As an aside -- a few years ago I actually took an AA flight from LGA that had an equipment issue (faulty indicator light) about 20 minutes into the flight, and due to the wonderfully short runways and the full fuel tanks, they diverted us to JFK rather than back to LGA. When we landed, the flight attendent announced the following:

"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to New York's John F Kennedy Airport where the local time is now __PM. For future reference, I wanted to remind you that the quickest way to get from La Guardia to JFK is one of those yellow New York City cabs that you can find outside the terminals".

The humor was priceless, especially after having all of the fire safety trucks waiting for us to land since the faulty light was for the landing gear...

PMD

I have flown MCO - TPA many times

DL2SXM

Oh heck yeah. especially if I needed to get to JFK in a hurry to catch a flight. Its taken me an hour plus to get from lga to jfk via the GCP and the VWE. Traffic is horrendous on those highways! Maybe thats not a bad idea for Delta, offer a shuttle service between the two airports, say on a 77L!

dgxoxo

I have said it before, and I will say it again - DL really needs to get helicopter service back in effect from downtown and E34... and my rooftop in chelsea.

Down3Green

I may be able to help answer this one as I participated in a round about way. On 29JUN, Flt 1960 MEM-LGA departed from MEM about 3 hours late. They knew on departure that the flight was going to arrive in the New York area after the start of the curfew at LGA and therefore they landed in JFK which doesn't have a curfew. I suspect the monitor that you saw was a cryptic way of showing people at LaGuardia that #1960 was going to land at JFK around 0130. The reason I know this is because the next morning they still needed that jet over in LGA so I ferried it from JFK to LGA. Now I've actually done a couple of repositioning flights between the two airports and it's generally not as quick as you'd think. You often have to fly a full departure out of the NYC area in order to rejoin a published arrival pattern back inbound. However, on this particular morning (30JUN), immediately after takeoff from JFK, they cleared me direct to join the Expressway Visual to 31 at LGA. It was a little over 6 minutes of total flight time, however Kennedy being Kennedy, we spent close to an hour on the ground from pushback to takeoff.

Here is the Flight Aware track of the ferry: Flight Aware Link

Jazzop

It would probably be faster than the Van Wyck.

Spent_All_My_Miles

Various RJ flights now use the same number for outbound and return.

I was once at LGA and saw on a monitor that DL was selling upgrades (not many elites in some out stations). It was something like $100 for an upgrade to MCI but only $75 for an upgrade to LGA (e.g. LGA-MCI-LGA)!

davetravels

How many miles would one earn flying LGA/MCI/LGA? 2214? 500? 0?

redlegsfan21

I would love to take an intercity flight i.e. ORD-MDW, IAD-DCA, SFO-OAK, LAX-ONT/SNA/BUR. Get a window seat just before sunset or right before sunrise. Maybe someday, I'll have that diversion.

zman

The last time the Red Sox played in New York they had a DL charter back to BOS scheduled from LGA. Due to a major rain delay, the game got over after 1 AM, DL had to move the plane from LGA to JFK due to some type of LGA curfew. The charter left JFK for BOS after 3 AM.