CMH-JFK American Airlines Flight# 4685
Aircraft: ERJ-175 N122HQ
Class: First
Seat: 3A

I initially planned to fly into JFK the following morning as our LOT flight to Warsaw left that evening, but after getting screwed by weather in NYC earlier in the summer decided it would probably be better to fly out the night before. I booked three tickets in economy about a week in advance for 8,000AA miles and $5.60 a person—not bad!

CMH has one lounge, the Aspire Lounge, in concourse B, where American Airlines flights depart, but it is nothing to write home about and closes at 20:00. You can access it for free with a Platinum Card and I certainly wouldn’t pay the $60 entrance fee if you don’t already have a card.




My parents who have AA status were upgraded to a very empty first class cabin a few minutes prior to departure as American only allows 1 companion to be upgraded. After boarding and going to my initial seat, 9A, I was moved up to 3A, presumably for weight and balance reasons, by a very kind flight attendant.



As we were getting ready to leave lighting struck close by and we were forced to wait for about 30 minutes for it to clear up. After the storm passed the fuelers were unable to get the fuel cap open, but after another 30-minute delay for maintenance to fix the issue, we taxied to depart.



The flight over to Kennedy was extremely uneventful. One drink service coupled with a small Biscoff bar was all we got for the 90-minute flight.




Hyatt Regency JFK Airport

The last time I had an overnight layover at JFK I stayed at the TWA hotel, which while nice routinely costs nearly $400 a night. Due to that I opted to stay at the Hyatt Regency JFK which I booked for 15,000 Hyatt points. The hotel is nice, but I would consider the TWA hotel again in the future—the Hyatt isn’t exactly close to the airport and a taxi to/from JFK costs about $30 each way. I didn’t realize it when booking, but it also is attached to a casino if you want that.