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Routing for this across-the-USA just for fun trip.
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My 19th birthday trip: United GlobalFirst Suites First Class on the Boeing 767-300, United Domestic First Class on the Boeing 737-800, Executive King Suite in the Marriott Courtyard Times Square, Shopping in and a tour of Times Square in New York City, New York, American Airlines Domestic First Class on the "Boeing" McDonell Douglas MD-80, American Airlines Domestic First Class on the 737-800, and finally a Cuban Coffee in Miami, thus, United First Suites+AA F MD80 FLL✈EWR✈ORD✈DFW✈MIA
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FOREWORD
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November 7th, 2014 would be my 19th birthday on this planet (it's not like I'm from any other planet, oh never mind...
) and, months before, I had been planning for what I would do the day after, November 8th. Before I went on this somewhat impromptu trip:
http://www.airliners.net/aviation-fo...d.main/260050/ (which was on the Saturday before this trip, I add), I had never been on United GlobalFirst suites, and noticed a GlobalFirst - equipped 763 on EWR✈ORD nearly every weekend as part of a repo op. Since GlobalFirst is only disappearing these days, I booked the trip.
My original routing was a rather simple FLL✈ORD✈EWR✈FLL. However, resident ORD expert and good friend
LFutia (Leo) reminded me that American Airlines uses their Super 80s/MD-80s out of ORD, and that was an aircraft type that I've always wanted to catch with AA (they do not run them out of the MIA hub, much to my dismay) because they SUPPOSEDLY aren't going to be repainted and are somewhat being retired in a rapid fashion. Searching up fares two weeks before this trip, I was delighted to see an ORD✈DFW✈MIA routing with both an AA S80 and 767-300!! However, my excitement was dulled a bit when I saw that the last 763 routing out of DFW left just a bit too early for my UA itinerary to link up with it. I ended up booking a less-exciting itinerary that still contained a S80 and a 738 (a type which I had not caught with AA), with barely over an hour to connect, so this was going to be one epic daytrip. I kept my UA ORD✈FLL tickets as a backup plan should the GlobalFirst EWR✈ORD flight be delayed.
However, it doesn't stop there. Looking over my itinerary just after I booked the United tickets, I came upon a small button proudly declaring "UNITED Hotels - Book now and save!". Glancing down into my FLL✈ORD✈EWR✈FLL schedule, I noticed that I had a connection time of over five hours between FLL✈ORD and ORD✈EWR. While I've been on Long Island in previous reports (notably,
http://www.airliners.net/aviation-fo...ad.main/217437 and
http://www.airliners.net/aviation-fo...ad.main/228132 ), as well as the city itself many times, I wanted to visit yet again but I wanted a nice, high hotel room in which I could not only have a dynamic vista to gaze at, but also to rest and store my luggage while I perused the city. I had Times Square, the epicenter of the metro with many unique shops and department stores, on my mind from the beginning, and I ultimately narrowed down my search to two hotels:
New York City Marriott Marquis and
New York City Marriott Courtyard Manhattan Times Square. I went for the Courtyard and booked my dayroom (daysuite doesn't sound right..).