Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Segment 6: New York (JFK) -> San Francisco (SFO)
Airline/Flight: American Airlines (AA177)
Departure Time: 6:00pm EST
Landing Time: 8:52pm PST
Seat: 10G

Finally, I'm going home. I've been gone 11 days now and as Judy Garland once said, there's no place like home!

I left our NY office building and found my way to the Empire Limo Mercedes Benz with my name in the window. The driver got out of the car and promptly helped with my bags. We then headed for the Midtown Tunnel.

I knew I was in for a long trip with this driver. He was the slowest, least agressive driver on the planet! It took him forever to change lanes and maneuver in NYC traffic and no matter what lane he picked, we ended up behind some stopped delivery truck. Truly frustrating.

Once past the Midtown Tunnel, we hit a lot of traffic. I thought this must be lots of traffic heading out of town for the Thanksgiving holiday. The driver estimated it would be about 40 minutes from that location to the airport, but I didn't worry as we were leaving at 3pm for a 6pm flight. I figured / hoped that there wouldn't be too much difficulty once I reached the airport.

We got to the airport just after 4pm, and I went inside Terminal 8 to the AA business class line. Wow! I haven't been inside of Terminal 8 before and have no idea when it opened. It's beautiful! ^^ I used to fly AA to JFK all the time, years ago, and this is a big upgrade.

In the Business Class/First Class check-in area, there were two lines. One was labeled for AAdvantage Gold members, and the other wasn't labeled at all. I figured like most lines, they would take the people waiting in the Platinum/Exec. Plat line before the gold people, but that's not how it worked. It turns out the Gold line was beign serviced by 4 lanes of Business Class desks and the Platinum/Exec. Plat line was being serviced by 2 lanes of First Class desks. Luckily I didn't have to wait long, but I did see multiple people who went to the gold line and were serviced before me, even though I had been waiting longer.

I told the agent when I arrived at the desk that "there might be an issue with the sign" and she indicated she knew about it and understood it was misleading and unfair, but there was nothing she could do about it. It didn't matter to me anymore as I was easily checked in, but for others who were waiting in a now very long Platinum/Exec. Plat line, with a much smaller Gold line, it just didn't make sense. Anyway, the agent handed me my BP, my bag claim check and told me the AAdmirals Club was near my gate. Away I was.

I made my way to security and there was almost no line at all. Getting through was a breeze.

I headed down towards gate 36, down the escalator, across the moving sidewalk and up the next escalator. Let me pause for a second and gripe. I think the most lazy thing on earth that somebody could possibly do is to stand still on a moving sidewalk. How freakin' lazy do you have to be just to stand there, taking up space and then looking at me odd when I want to pass you. A moving sidewalk is intended to help you move faster, not go slower! Please people, for the love of (insert whatever you love here), don't stand still on a moving sidewalk. It's just stupid!

OK... back to our story.

I headed to the AAdmirals Club in this wing of the terminal. I don't have a membership and I was paid Business Class, so I figured when the lady told me where it was it meant I had access. I presented myself and BP to the lady at the entrance and asked if I had access. She punched some stuff into the computer and told me no, that only full Business Class had access and I had a reduced price ticket. I could buy a day-pass for a large fee, but I declined. While she was checking, I did notice on the counter that there were coupons for a free trial of Internet access via GoGo, and I knew this plane I was taking was equipped, so I grabbed that free pass. ^

I've used GoGo before and already have an account, but I have about 5 junk email accounts that I keep for signups that require an email address. So this card is good until 12/31/09. I have a few more trips so I'll use it again and again. $12.95 value! ^

I left the AC and headed down to my gate area to wait and to bang out a little email.

Before long, the agent came over the PA and announced that it was time to start boarding. I was in J today, so I boarded immediately and found my seat: 10G. I stowed my laptop bag and got comfortable in the seat while others boarded. Right as the doors were closing, I noticed that the J cabin was completely full, except for the seat right next to me. Sweet! ^ I'd have a little room to put my pillow and laptop next to me. Always convenient to have that extra space. BUT.... one of the FA's told a man who was sitting in 11A that he could move to the 10D aisle seat next to me. There goes my space!

The flight took off and I do what I typically do on takeoff: sleep.

I woke up about 10-15 minutes into the flight and the FA's were starting their service. Warm nuts, a cocktail and a hot towel. They also handed out the menus and then took our order. I wasn't too hungry, but chose the steak over the pasta. Starters were prosciutto with melon, and a salad with tomato and mozzarella. They also handed out the entertainment systems. I passed.

I fired up my laptop and hooked up to GoGo to do some work. Eventually I goofed off a little and started this stupid thread on Flyertalk: (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...les-aa177.html) Yes, it's stupid, but it was fun at the time.

While I was VPN'd into the network, I typically use MS Communicator to Instant Message my peers or staff on things to get done. But we recently enabled the voice communication to work and my peer, Bart, called me over IM. The voice clarity was great and being the CTO that he is, he was thrilled and over the moon that this worked so well. Bart flies a lot too, and he's excited to be able to talk to people during his flight. I'm hesitant to go that far as the last thing I want in the sky is a bunch of folks on conference calls. It's neat that it worked, but no thanks for the future.

The salad and prosciutto were served and they were quite good, but I wasn't much hungry after that, and the overdone steak with scorching hot mashed potatoes just didn't do it for me. I only ate about half and gave it right back to the FA.

I relaxed a bit more and even though not tremendously hungry, I did have the ice cream sundae, topped with nuts, warm caramel and whipped cream. Yummy!

I then settled in with my iPod and listened to some music while trying to nap a bit.

Before I knew it, the cabin was starting to prep for landing. I opened my computer and fired up FlightAware to see where we were. Sure enough, we were making near-record time and would be landing about an hour earlier than advertised. Not sure if we just made it faster in the sky, or made it out of JFK faster than AA typically does. Bottom line is we were landing early. ^

At 8:52pm - 1 hour, 3 minutes early - we settled down onto the runway at SFO and a few minutes later parked at the gate. Bags were delivered fairly quickly and I was on my way to the taxi stand.

In the taxi I reflected on the fact I just spent 11 days on the road, traveling to Asia for the first time, visiting 3 countries on the way and flying more than 23,000 miles. Wow. What an adventure. I can't wait for my next trip, and a good thing: It's next Tuesday, SFO -> DFW!

The End