No, they were bluffing
just looking at flightaware's
flight history, your's took 11h 38m.
and there is a flight "only" took 11h 09m. considering these records are just 40 days window, I bet there was flight took less than 11h.
I'd personally really hate to land at JFK that early (3:30am)...... or I could go to Katz's/Pastis and catch up all the late party
.