Part 2 - LAX for the Star Mega DO and the rush home for the last party of junior year (LAX-JFK-YYZ)
Finally landed at LAX, now I do hate Canadian cell phones company, why? Because they try to rip you off at every possibility, my cell phone bill was not very friendly at the end of the month due to 2 trips in the US in April. After arranging some plans with other flyertalkers while I was in STL. It was worked out that I was going to catch a ride from
alcathiax and then meet up with
SFO777, Bristoltraveller and
Luvtworce at the Hilton LAX airport. By the time AA 1661 taxied to the gate, we were about 10 mins late from landing. Fortunately I got both SFO777 and alcathiax’s phone number so I was in luck in updating my situation. One of my fallback when I’m travelling is that I’m very rushy, in fact I was so rushy that I went past alcathiax at the T4 baggage claim which he was holding a sign with my FT handle on it. I walked all the way to T5 then back. After he found me, we also waited for Canarsie who was inbounding on DL, unfortunately Canarsie didn’t know about his ride so we waited and waited and waited. He never showed up :@ so off we go to the Hilton after 45 mins of waiting.
Hilton LAX Lobby
Hilton gave me a corner room which was slightly bigger than the regular size room, unfortunately, the room was so 80’s dated that the hotel room still has the old CRT TV.
Corner Room
Due to the delays earlier, I didn’t get a chance to swim as I originally planned so off downstairs I went to meet SFO777, Bristoltraveller, and Luvtworce. As agreed earlier on FT, I’ve met others at the hotel bar then off to the shared cab ride at the launch event.
Once again, my thanks to the Star Mega DO 2 organizers,
tommy777, sbm12, and oliver2002 for the putting together such a great trip.
Star Mega DO 2 Launch Party
Visit CO Headquarters in IAH
Frequent Traveler Awards
Visit Boeing Factory for the 1st Boeing 747-8 tour at Paine Field
It was my first DO which I truly enjoy meeting other Flyertalkers such as
Aviators99 which I thank him for answering a question I had about VX earlier in the year, me and
alcathiax also chirped
Canarsie for disappearing, lol
, it’s all good. Another recognition goes to
scoow who has to deal with all the TSA security issues on the security forum. Finally it was meeting my night time Flyertalk chat pals
SkiAdcock and
Iluv2fly which I truly enjoyed meeting and getting to know each other. All in all, I thought the launch event was a very great experience for this relative newbie. After some dinner at Tony P’s with
SFO777 and
luvtworce, we head back to the Hilton for some rest. Such a long day, now why did I choose to fly at 8am, sleep time.
Apr 24, 2010 – Saturday
AA 34 LAX-JFK 8:00am - 4:30pm (762/J)
AA 4470 JFK-YYZ 5:05pm – 7:30pm (ER3/Y)
Ok, alarm goes off at 5:45am, off to the bathroom for a morning shower. Damn, where is my plastic baggy. Must be at home, damn the TSA
Since the shuttle ran every 20 mins on the hour from the Hilton, I made my way to the lobby by 6:10am. Went on the shuttle and
SFO777 is right behind me?????? Apparently he had an irrop on his 10:00am flight so he tries to get on the 7:35am instead and gets the battlefield upgrade too
So here’s I can learn from the veterans, SFO777 somehow picked out that half the people at the priority security line was not priority at all. I guess I’ve got much to learn, at least I didn’t do too shabby at the security, hehe
. After saying good bye to SFO777 at his gate, I went to the LAX admiral’s club to check my internet then back down for usual pre-flight Caramel frap.
LAX Admiral's Club
AA 34
Los Angeles – New York Kennedy
8:00am – 4:30pm, 5 hr 30 mins flight
Business Class, Seat 7H
Food – Breakfast
Aircraft – Boeing 767-200
American Airlines Boeing 767-200
Boeing 767-200 Business Class Seat with my caramel frap
Get on the plane for a pic of my seat. Hmm, 8H gives me a staredown as evident of this pic. Talk about DYKWIA, yeesh!
AA 34 Breakfast
Main Meal
Breakfast Skillet
Scrambled eggs with Cream Cheese and chives, goat cheese sauce with asparagus and potatoes
Seasonal fruit appetizer
Cereal and Fruit with Yogurt
Served with a banana and fresh seasonal berries
Breakfast Breads
A selection of breakfast breads
Light Refreshment
Freshly baked on board cookies
Chilled Sparkling or Still water with a fresh citrus garnish
Yay, no more of the Eggs Benedict from the February Transcon breakfast, talk about a disaster, I still rank that the #1 worst meal on a plane ever. Start eating, not too bad, I’m not a fan of asparagus but the potatoes and the eggs were fine. Meal shown below.
Oops, spoke to soon
, really upset stomach, I ended up using the lavatory 4 times on a transcon!!! Unfortunately I would still rank this better than the previous Eggs Benedict, at least this still taste better than dorm food and Eggs Benedict also made me use the lav heavily as well. Rest of my flight went quite quick with the Gogo Internet, flight seems to fly by with internet with some flight tracking, msn messenger, facebook and of course Flyertalk, another bad characteristics by generations Y-ers, hehe
Landing was uneventful although we landed close to 30 mins early, so my 35 mins connection became an hour long. Good, more Admiral Club’s for me. JFK Eagle boarding is always confusing to me, the 5 gates combined into 31A-31E means sometimes people including myself have no clue as to which flight is really boarding.
AA 4470
New York Kennedy to Toronto
5:05pm – 7:30pm, 2 hr 25 min flight
Economy Class, Seat 9A (exit row)
Food – Beverage Service
Aircraft – Embraer 135 Regional Jet by American Eagle
Thank you JFK runway construction, you basically made every ex-JFK flight super-padded in terms of time. JFK-YYZ is 1 hr 10 min in the air, they’ve now padded 50% of the time for tarmac delays. Oh well, only 35 min wait at JFK, bumpy ride but still got a drink and even recognition of the EXP. Land again about 30 mins early into YYZ.
Funny times about the Canadian customs, didn’t ask me how long were I gone, just ask where did I go and that was it. New one for me, no grilling by customs
and the shuttle home even put me on standby so I ended up getting home at 9:15pm, not bad for someone living 1 hr away from airport.
Drop off the luggage at home, get changed and off to my friends for some binge drinking. Ya Ya, not healthy but I can’t stay young or in college forever. Off to the bar for some dancing, drunk texting, drunk NHL on Xbox, and drunk pizza and not so much memory left(mini blackout)