dat4life

My dad actually had a conference in San Diego, so my mom and my little sisters tagged along, thanks to the aforementioned award tickets and Rapid Rewards Companion Pass. To make it worthwhile for my sisters, my parents decided to turn it into a PAC-10 (Yes I know it’s the PAC-12 now, but it just sounds weird) college run. As one of my friends says, “Typical FOB life.”

Anyways, as there are no PAC-10 schools in San Diego, I was called upon to drive them up to Los Angeles, so they could visit UCLA. My dad can barely make it from their house to the mall, which is 10 miles away, without falling asleep. My mom…well…she’s a typical case of DWA. There’s always some truth to stereotypes…

But again, I didn’t mind as I like So Cal and I really don’t mind driving, until of course I hit traffic. More on that later. Besides, we could see my cousin in LA, who just got married. Not a terrible weekend with the fam, if you ask me.

Again, to avoid boring y’all with family pics, here are some shots of Southern California.


Downtown San Diego


San Diego Harbor


PetCo Park


Free Willy


Free Willy 2




Elephunk


Deer-esque Creature


Panda


Beach

As I was only with them one day in San Diego, I can’t claim credit for the above pictures. But I did go a sunset harbor cruise with them that night and I was able to take a few shots. I apologize in advance for the blurriness due to the lack of light.


Well, I sure hope have ton of that if you have that boat.”


Escort carrier




Unidentified nuclear powered carrier. This is probably the closest I’ll get to one without being hauled away in cuffs.

dat4life

The next morning, we woke up early and hit the road. I had reserved a Chevy Equinox, but I ended up with a 2011 Mitsubishi Endeavor. To say it was a disappointment is an understatement. The Endeavor was underpowered, yet had horrific fuel economy. Steering was not very responsive, with little feedback. With over 31,000 miles on the odometer, it has the highest mileage of any vehicle I’ve ever rented from Hertz. But it did get the job done, getting us to LA intact. After taking care business (i.e. visiting UCLA and dinner with relatives), I took my sisters out to show them some of the touristy stuff since this was their first time to LA.


Never heard of it…




To paraphrase another one of my friends, I am such a dork.










Santa Monica Beach



We stayed at the Residence Inn Long Beach Downtown, since it was close to where our relatives lived and we could burn the last of my Mega Bonus Certificates from last year. It was a fairly nice property, as far as Residence Inns go. And the property was only 40 minutes away from most of tourist attractions in Los Angeles, without traffic of course.

On Sunday, we slept in a bit and checked out a little after 10AM. We headed to Monterrey Park for lunch at the New Lucky Restaurant. While the reviews on Yelp weren’t favorable, I found the food to be fresh and very authentic, and I just got back from Hong Kong. After lunch, we headed straight to LAX as my flight was at 3PM. That would give me a little time to return the car, check my bag, and clear security. I managed to avoid a couple of traffic snags thanks to the traffic information from Google Maps, and arrived at the Hertz lot just before 1PM. After returning the car, we hopped on the terminal bus which dropped us off at the terminal 15 minutes later. We managed to avoid the long line in at check in counters by checking in with sky cap. Security was surprisingly quick and we were in the terminal by 1:45.

I passed time by plane spotting with my sisters, who were surprisingly receptive to me rambling on and on. Soon it was time for me to board. I bade farewell to my parents and sisters, who were waiting for their 3:30 flight to San Francisco, to check out Stanford and UC Berkley. #FOB life

I managed to get an A21 boarding pass by shelling out $10 for Early Bird Check In. After the Business Select passengers boarded, A16-30 were called to board. I made my way down the jet bridge once again, after handing my boarding pass to the gate agent.

WN 2636
Los Angeles (LAX) – Albuquerque (ABQ)
Depart: 2:50 PM
Arrive: 5:40 PM
Aircraft: Boeing 737-700 (N784SW)
Seat: Economy 1A

I don’t usually pick bulkhead seats on WN flights, since leg room is restricted and there are no tray tables. For some reason, I did pick one on this flight and remembered why I hated these seats the second I sat down. But I decided not to move, as I didn’t want to disrupt the steady stream of boarding passengers. The flight was only an hour and a half anyways. Midway through the boarding, a middle aged man, with a copy of Conde Nast magazine in hand, took up residence in the aisle seat. The cabin door was soon shut, with the middle seat empty. Woot! We pushed back smack dab on time, and quickly taxied to Runway 25R. We ended up holding short of the runway to allow a CX 77W to land. Oh the memories…

After the CX plane had cleared the runway, we taxied onto the runway and began rolling immediately. We flew the runway heading for a few minutes before turning south, flying parallel to the coast. After passing by Long Beach, our capable pilots turned the aircraft east, setting course for Albuquerque.




Long Beach. Where I laid my head the last couple of nights. You can see the Residence Inn as well as the Queen Mary in the pic

The climb out to cruising altitude was rather fast, presumably due to the light load. At that time, FAs began the drink and snack service, which consisted of just roasted peanuts today since this flight is under 1,000 miles. I passed on the peanuts but ordered a water. My seatmate began to talk to me. He was an interesting fellow, and very passionate about his state, New Mexico. We chatted about things to do in our respective home states, which would be Louisiana for me. I only claim Texas if it’s advantageous to me. And of course, our conversation turned to travel and I educated him on a few finer points of the frequent traveling. He doesn’t travel much for business, though he expected travel to pick up soon.

All the while, FAs constantly roamed the aisle collecting trash and offering refills, all the while regularly checking up on the unaccompanied minors seated in row 2. About 30 minutes out, our captain came on the PA asking the cabin crew to prepare the cabin for landing immediately because it would get really bumpy on our descent. He was definitely right. The aircraft was tossed around a good bit over the next 20 minutes, although it did smooth out a few minutes before we made our final approach. During the descent, my seatmate heartily recommended me try the green chili, which is apparently a New Mexico staple, during my layover.

Touchdown was smooth, and we pulled into the gate 5 minutes early. I followed my new friend into the terminal, and he led me to the green chili place in the food court. I order a bowl of it, which would serve as dinner. It was delicious. This was my first time in the ABQ airport. It was small, but very nice and clean. The rest of my layover was eventful, as was my flight to Love Field. We left and arrived on time. The flight was full. Standard drink and snack service was conducted. The only thing of note was the aircraft operating the flight, N697SW.

The 737-300 was delivered to TACA, straight from the Boeing factory in 1988. It’s original registration was N75356. After two months of service, N75356 operated TACA flight 110, from Belize City to New Orleans. As it neared New Orleans, the aircraft suffered a dual engine flameout and was forced to make a dead stick landing on a levee in New Orleans East, near where my family lived at the time. I learned about the incident on an episode of Air Crash Investigation. Afterwards, I researched the registration number and learned that the aircraft had been repaired and put back into service within a few months. In the years after the incident, N75356 wore the colors of America West and Morris Air, before being acquired by Southwest in 1995. It was reregistered N697SW, and still wears the Canyon River Blue livery today. I had wanted to fly this particular aircraft due to the connection with MY city, and I finally got to do so after a year and a half.

Bags hit the belt after 15 minutes after we arrived in Dallas. I got home a little before 11PM.

One week in Dallas, and then I'm off on the final leg of my big adventure.

Waldofriend

Thanks for the great trip reports - I've enjoyed reading them very much - from F on CX and SQ to WN! That's what I call a range. You've got them all covered.

jmj9905

Spectacular trip report! I have flown CX F but not SQ. I do hope to do so in the future.

dat4life

After another busy week at work, it was time to hit the road again. Luckily, I wasn’t leaving until Sunday, so I had some time to catch up with friends and take care of few chores around the house to please my homeowners association. This is the last jaunt of my epic 4 week adventure, and it came courtesy of work. I had been scheduled for a one week training session in Washington DC, something I do several times a year. I have been fortunate to be able to attend these training sessions with the same group of people, who are all a lot of fun. So while the training can be a bit grueling (Seriously, who likes to sit in the classroom for 8 hours a day), it’s always a great time in DC.

For some time now, one of my best friends from high school and I had been plotting a trip to DC and New York City, since he hasn't been to either city other than connecting at their respective airports. This training session happen to fall on one of his weeks off, so it seemed to be the perfect time for us to go. So I began planning how I could make this into a cost effective side trip. I managed to find Delta flights from DCA to JFK and JFK to DFW for $160 all in, about $100 less than our contract fare from DCA to DFW, so I would not incur any extra cost as far as transportation goes. Score! And besides, I might well put my Delta Silver Medallion status to some use…ok stop laughing. It actually really did come in handy during this trip. As for my friend, he was departing out of New Orleans, so he was on a separate itinerary. He would meet me in DC on Wednesday of that week, and we would head up to New York on Friday after I finished work. With our transportation booked, I then looked for a hotel in New York. Needless to say, rates were outrageous since it prime tourist season. I finally settled on the Intercontinental Barclay. While the all in rate was still expensive ($345 per night all in), I could use my Ambassador BOGO certificate, which would break it down to about $86 per night for each us.

My flight to DCA would be on AA, since they are our contract carrier out of DFW. As I wrote about earlier in this TR, AA had called me to notify me of schedule change in early July. I had originally booked the 9:25 AM departure, but due to a change in schedule I had been rebooked on the 11:25 departure. On the Friday before the trip, I realized my beloved Saints would be kicking off the Hall of Fame Game at 7PM. Although it is a preseason game and it doesn’t count, I was yearning for any semblance of live action after the living hell of an off season we had endured. The 11:25 departure would get into DCA close to 3:30 in the afternoon, plenty of time before the game. But I wanted to have plenty of time to settle in to my hotel room, do some pre-course work, and workout before the game. So I consulted Expert Flyer and saw a few seats available on the 9:00 AM departure to DCA. After a quick call to AA, I was rebooked on the earlier flight, which would arrive at DCA at 1 PM. After I arrived in DC, I realized the game was actually at 8PM Eastern time, after I arrived in DC. Stupid me. Anyways, better safe than sorry.

At 6:30 AM on the dot, my trusty iPhone woke me up with a nice piano riff. I had been out late the night before, and ended up staggering home close to 1:30AM. With some difficulty, I dragged myself out of bed and made myself semi-presentable before the Super Shuttle arrived at 7:15. I even managed to squeeze in a quick breakfast of Nutella with toast, yogurt, and milk. Super Shuttle arrived on time and I was dropped off at DFW’s Terminal C after a 20 minute or so ride.

The terminal was busy, though not at the same level as when I departed for Chicago a few weeks early. There was only one person ahead of me in the Priority AAccess line, and I was called to a counter by an AAgent after a short wait. Though he was efficient, this AAgent wasn’t particularly friendly. But I was able to get my boarding pass and my bag checked after less than 2 minutes at the counter. I then made way to security, and cleared that after the usual imaging routine. But when I went to the belt to retrieve my laptop bag, a TSO asked if I minded if he tested my laptop. Well, can I really say no? After the TSO determined my laptop wasn’t a threat, I was sent on my way.

My flight had originally been scheduled to depart out of gate C24. I arrived at that gate to find our gate had been changed to C16, just a couple of gates down. After making that short trek, I settled in a quiet corner and finished up a few things for work. Just as I shut down my computer after I finished what I needed to do, the gate agent invited the First Cabin to board. As DFW-DCA is another EXP heavy route, I usually don’t even bother to request an upgrade, though I did this time. Expert Flyer showed this flight zeroed out at 24 hours out, so not surprisingly I did not clear, putting me at 8/10 on the year for upgrades. After EXPs and OneWorld Emeralds boarded, I marched up to the podium just as the gate agent uttered the word “Platinum”.

I was pretty excited about this flight, as it was my first time flying to DCA as a Platinum. When I was a lowly Gold, I boarded with the rest of the Priority AAccess passengers, and there are a lot of them on any AA flight to DCA since government YCA fares book into Y class, giving all of those passengers Priority AAccess privileges. Thus, boarding was always a bit of scrum with so many people boarding at the same time. This time around, the boarding lane was wide open and it was a nice leisurely walk down the jet bridge and into the aircraft.

AA 1600
Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW)-Washington-Reagan National (DCA)
Sunday August 5, 2012
Depart: 9:00 AM
Arrive: 12:59 AM
Aircraft: McDonnell Douglas DC-9-83 (N577AA)
Seat: 14F (Economy)

I was greeted by a cheery FA, who was preparing for PDB service, as I entered the aircraft and did the walk of shame through the first class. My seat today was 14F. AA’s Mad Dog coach cabins are configured in 2-3 setup , with the A-B seats on the “2” side. I like the A seats, since it feels a little roomier without the pesky middle seat. Unfortunately, all of the A seats in front of the exit rows were taken, and I refuse to sit anywhere behind the exit rows, since it gets noisy due to the rear mounted engines. Yes, I know I’m spoiled. So, I ended up in 14F. It was only a 3 hour flight anyways, so it wasn’t a big deal. Since most of y’all here are EXPs, here’s what the coach cabin looks like, in case you forgot.


Remember when…

I stowed my laptop bag into the overhead, and settled down in 14F to finish up a book I was reading on my iPad. The stream of boarding passengers soon turned from a steady trickle to a full on raging river. Of course, there were a few battles over overhead space, but no flying fists…yet. Although the seat map showed quite a few available seats the day before, it was quickly apparent this was would be a full flight. The middle seat next to me showed as empty when I checked in, but someone ended up taking it midway through boarding. Teenagers from a church group took up residence in the two rows in front of me. Other than an amusing conversation about the use of the word “bomb” on a plane while we were parked at the gate, they were very well behaved.

All of the hatches were buttoned up a few minutes before the scheduled departure time, and we pushed back exactly on time. The weather that day was absolutely beautiful with clear blue skies, though it was going to be another Texas scorcher. The temperature was already pushing the upper 80s at 9AM. After we pushed back, the Captain made his welcome aboard announcement and added our APU was inoperative so we would have to wait a few minutes for the air cart to get the engines cranking. As there was no air conditioning without the APU or engines running, it did get a little stuffy in the cabin, but an air cart did materialize rather quickly. The cabin cooled down immediately after the engines were started. There was no one in the take off queue, so we lined up, raced down Runway 17R, and were airborne after a rather lengthy take off roll.

We had taken off toward the south, so I got a nice a view of Rangers Ball Park in Arlington and Jerry World as we made a turn toward the northeast. FAs began their drink/buy on board service not long after we climbed through 10,000 feet. I ordered a ginger ale, which was served as a full can with cup of ice. Again, it’s the little things. I hate being served just a cup on longer flights, which I find many subpar crews do. I sipped on that while reading and intermittently watching the beautiful green landscape and rivers of the southeastern U.S. pass by. It’s quite a contrast to the desert and mountains of the southwest.



The rest of the flight was uneventful. FAs went on a second drink run. Trash was collected No bumps were hit. I managed to finish the book I was reading. We began descending over southern Virginia. About 15 minutes from landing, FA came around to collect trash again, and give their usual spiel about seat backs, tray tables, seat belts and electronics. We had descended to about 3,000 feet and leveled off and I could see we were flying along the Potomac River. Normally, we would turn to line up with the river and continue our descent into Runway 1. It didn’t seem like we were in a holding pattern since we were continuing on the same course, and not circling. Could it be… A few minutes later we passed to the west of Reagan National Airport, and I knew it was. RIVER VISUAL 19!

As I mentioned earlier, my two favorite approaches in the U.S. are in San Diego and Santa Ana (might as well toss in taking off at Santa Ana as well). San Francisco is definitely up there are far as views go. The River Visual 19 approach into DCA runs from north to south along the Potomac, offering great views of all of the monuments in DC on the left side and the Pentagon on the right. Also, there a few tighter than usual turns given the large amount restricted air space in the area. Despite my regular flights to DC, I had not flown this particular approach as the wind dictated using Runway 1 each time, so I was pretty excited.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t in my usual “A” seat on the left side, but I was able to get nice view of the Pentagon. Not a bad consolation prize. Touchdown was a bit firm, and we pulled up to gate 40 after a quick taxi. After deplaning, I hit up an ATM for some cash and headed down to baggage claim. The airport was very crowded due to summer traffic, so I had to fight my way to exit the terminal. One nice touch AA has at DCA is specific area for priority tagged luggage. It’s manned by one or two employees who take the orange tagged bags off the belt for you. Not a big deal, but again, it’s the little things. There was no one in the taxi line, and I was in a taxi headed to Arlington 20 minutes after I stepped off the plane.

Although this was a business trip, it doesn’t mean I can’t have a little fun. As I mentioned earlier, I attend these training sessions with the same group of people, so I’ve become good friends with all of them. We all work hard during the day listening to some guy droning about derivatives and interest rate risk models during the day and then doing whatever exercise they come up with. But when class is over, we’re ready to paint the town red. Though, we’re certainly a lot tamer than when we first started two years ago. It just so happens one of my friend’s birthday was during the week. She had wanted to go on a night cruise on the Potomac. It turned out to be a fantastic dea. At $14 a head, it wasn’t cheap for an hour long cruise, but it was a lot of fun and the views were great. We went to dinner at Founding Farmers in Foggy Bottom beforehand, and it was very good.






A United 757-200 on River Visual 19 approach







My high school friend from New Orleans had arrived during the middle of the week. He had gone sightseeing while we were in class so I’d thought I’d share a few of his pictures.











We’ve definitely calmed down over the past two years, but when you get a bunch of twenty something year olds together… Well, certain things just naturally happen. And besides, we couldn’t let our friend go home without celebrating her birthday properly.







We were all in class bright and early Friday morning and wrapped up around 11. I said my good byes to my work friends, most of who were scheduled to leave on early afternoon flights. I headed back to my room to finish packing and then checked out. I stored my bag and my friend’s bag at the hotel. Since our flight wasn’t until 5, we decided to go have lunch and do a little last minute sightseeing. We ended just having a quick look see at the White House and had lunch at the Old Ebbitt Grill, which was good. It took us just half an hour to take the Metro back to the hotel to grab our bags. Another 20 minutes later, we were getting out of the taxi at the airport at around 3:00PM.

I got a text from Delta notifying of a one hour delay, as we approached Reagan. Not one minute later, I got another one showing a 2 hour delay to 7:10PM. I had kind of expected this, as there had been bad weather up and down the East Coast that. Anyways, we entered the terminal after paying the cabbie and found a short line at the Delta desks.



Thanks to my Silver Medallion status, we were able to skip the line via the Sky Priority lane. One of the nice things about flying from out stations is the ability for Silver Medallions, or FO in Delta speak, to use the Sky Priority lane, since it’s not technically part of the FO benefits package. FOs aren’t allowed to use the Sky Priority lane in most hubs, unless they are upgraded. That never happens, right? We were quickly checked in by a friendly agent and our bags were tagged to JFK. I inquired about the delay and the agent told me not to worry about it, since it was probably not going to be delayed further. Mollified, we headed down to TGI Friday’s near the US/AA gates (Fate perhaps?) for a few beers. Not surprisingly, I ran into a couple of my work friends who were delayed. It’s kind of our traditional to pound a few pre-flight beers there before we go home.

They ended up leaving just before 5PM to clear security. A few minutes after that, I got another notification from Delta informing our flight was delayed until 9PM now. I can understand weather is an issue, but the weather was fine in DCA. Besides both the US Airways and American Eagle flights were departing to JFK/LGA without a delay, so weather must be fine there too. So it must be a system backlog from earlier today, but a 4 hour delay was a bit much. I told my friend to stay put and to be ready to leave at any time, while I tried to get us an earlier flight.

I ran back up to the ticket counters. By this time, there was already a long line in both the regular lane and the Sky Priority lane. Luckily, a lady marched up and told everyone in the Sky Priority line that there was another line downstairs. A number of people took her up on it and I ended up being number 2 line. I was called up by an exhausted looking Red Coat named Carol. She came off as a bit gruff at first, but quickly warmed up to me. I approached the counter with a sympathetic smile and asked,” Long day?” She smiled and said, “Yeah, what can I do for you?” I explained our situation and Carol got to work. She couldn’t find anything to JFK, but she was able to find two seats on the 6PM shuttle flight to La Guardia. Carol was able to rebook me with no problems, but she had trouble with getting my friend’s ticket reissued. “I just can’t get the computer to do what I want it do,” she said. I laughed and said “It could be worse, you could be working over there.”, while gesturing toward the United counters. She got a kick out of it and replied she’s heard many stories. Finally, she issued a paper ticket for my friend and told me she had sent a note down to rampers to reroute our bags on the new flight. I thanked her profusely, and ran down to grab my friend.

It was around 5:25 by the time I got back to TGI Fridays. I found my friend and told him that we needed to leave NOW since we still needed to clear security. But he had ordered a cheeseburger and told me to chill out. We could just wait until original flight if we missed. Dude, do you know how many hoops I had to jump through to get us on this flight. Ok…not really, but it did take some effort. Oy, the joys of traveling with infrequent travelers. Besides, we can find much better eating places when we get to New York. Finally, I was able to convince him to take the cheeseburger to go. We paid our tabs and headed to security. I spotted a sign listing FOs as eligible to use the priority lane and headed there. We cleared security within minutes, and made it to the gate area, 15 minutes before departure.

Except…we were delayed. Just by 45 minutes, so it wasn’t too bad. As this was a shared gate area with 4-5 other gates, it was a complete mad house due to the numerous delayed flights. Also, gate agents at each gate were making simultaneous announcements, so you really had to strain hear what they were saying. My friend was slightly pissed off at me for making him hurry to the gate for nothing, but hey if we missed this flight we wouldn’t get in until midnight. He soon found an empty seat and settled down to eat his prized cheeseburger, while I took a little walk around the terminal. During my stroll, I got this an email that would bring a smile to any FTer’s face.



Given the light load I had observed in recent on Expert Flyer, I had expected my upgrade to clear. But for it to clear more than 24 hours out was a real bonus. As soon as the delayed 5PM shuttle flight departed, our aircraft pulled into the gate. 10 minutes after the arriving passengers had deplaned, the gate agent began boarding our flight. However, after First Class had boarded, it was just a free for all. I grabbed a copy of Financial Times from the rack by the boarding door. All of the reading materials were complimentary for shuttle passengers. We finally made it up to the podium. I hurried to join my friend after the gate agent scanned my boarding pass, but the gate agent told me stay put for a second. He wordlessly handed me with a little slip of receipt paper with a F on it. What does it mean? It took me a second, but I finally realized my upgrade had cleared. Delta Shuttle flights have open seating so the only thing on the boarding passes to indicate what class you’re in is a Y or F on your boarding pass. I confirmed this with the gate agent and went on my merry way. My friend saw me grinning and asked what that was all about. So I told him, and he remarked, “Must be nice.” Oh yeah, it is. A First Class trip for $165 a/i…only on Delta. At least United makes you pay a little extra.

DL 5924 (Operated by Shuttle America)
Washington-Reagan National (DCA)-New York LaGuardia (LGA)
Friday August 10, 2012
Depart: 6:58 PM (Delayed 58 minutes)
Arrive: 8:05 PM
Aircraft: Embraer E175 (N212JQ)
Seat: 3D (First)

I had offered to switch seats with my friend, but he declined. By the time we boarded, the majority of passengers had already been seated. I stowed my bag in the overhead, and the gentleman seated in 3C let me in. In typical Delta fashion, bottles of water had been placed at each seat. Our purser seemed a bit frazzled, and spent quite a bit of time on the phone with the gate agent complaining that we had not been properly catered. Good for her. The carts were finally loaded after a few calls

Boarding began wrapping up soon after. Just before the door was closed, a young guy emerged from coach telling the purser there were no more open seats in coach. The FA working the rear confirmed this. After consulting with the gate agent, he was told to just take the open first class seat, which was 4D. Talk about a lucky break. The boarding door was closed soon afterwards, and the FAs began their manual safety demo as we pushed back. The purser then came around the F cabin to take post take off drink orders. While we were waiting to take off, the captain made his welcome aboard announcement and apologized profusely for the delay. He also added that we should be able to make up about 15 minutes in the air.

This was my first flight on an Embraer “E” Jet. While I absolutely loath the ERJ-145 series, I thought the E175 was very comfortable and quiet. In fact, it was quite comparable to most, if not all, mainline aircraft. Though, I wouldn’t want one on a transcon flight.

We took off on Runway 1 and flew south for a good 5 minutes before heading back to the north, giving DC a wide berth in our turn. FAs went into action as soon as we climbed through 10,000 feet. The FA working the coach cabin came around with the snack basket in First Class before beginning the drink service in the back. I chose a bag of Garden Salsa Sun Chips and packet of Craisins, enough to tide me over until a late dinner in NYC.

I passed time by reading the Financial Times and gazing out the window at the coast line. The flight was quick, and we were soon descending into the New York area. The FAs began tidying up the cabin for landing. As my seatmate was still sipping his red wine, the purser allowed him a few more minutes to finish it. However, she never came back to collect the glass, and he finally returned it as we were deplaning. Strangely, he didn’t take another sip of the wine after that interaction. Our final approach took us over Manhattan and we had great views all the way in. Touchdown was smooth and taxi was very quick. During the taxi, our purser thanked us for our business on this “difficult day for the entire aviation industry.” We parked at gate A5. The jet bridge was quickly attached and I was in the terminal within minutes.

I waited for my friend before heading to baggage claim. Not surprisingly, our bags didn’t make the flight. We filed a claim with the baggage office, and were provided with amenity kits to get us through the night. I had emphasized the point that we were leaving NYC on Sunday, so it was imperative our bags be delivered soon. The agent promised us the bags would be delivered to our hotel tomorrow. Satisfied, we hailed a cab to our hotel. Little did we know, how bad our baggage situation would become.

dat4life

We arrived at the Intercontinental New York Barclay after a 30 minute cab ride. The hotel is located on the corner of 48th Avenue and Lexington. It is housed in an older building, with matching period décor in the lobby. While a bit older, the hotel was rather elegant. We were greeted by a bellman, who was puzzled by our lack of luggage. Believe me, it’s not by choice, sir. At the front desk, we were checked in by a rather disinterested front desk agent. He did, however, acknowledge my status and asked if we needed a late check out, which we did. Before we headed up to our room, I dropped by the Bell Desk to inform them of the impending delivery from Delta.

The elevators were quite old, but were in good condition. While in good repair and elegantly decorated, the corridors were not air conditioned, amplifying the musty smell that all older buildings seem to have. We were assigned to room 1461.











The room was quite large by Manhattan standards. Furnishings, just like the rest of the hotel, were older but in good condition. My welcome gift, a nice selection of fruit along with a chocolate and a bottle of mineral water, was already in the room. We were both thankful that the air conditioning was quite good in the room, and cranked it down as soon as we found the thermostat.

I unpacked the amenity kit given to us by Delta. The contents were actually pretty useful, and included the usual toothbrush and toothpaste, deodorant, comb, and a Sky Team t-shirt. Unfortunately, the t-shirt was of rather poor quality and was only good for say a wet t-shirt contest. It did, however, serve its purpose in giving me something clean to sleep in the next two nights.

After we settled in and I plugged my phone in to the charger, we headed out to find a place to eat. We found this great little Japanese place located in the basement of an office building a few blocks away, though I can’t remember the name of it. After eating, exhaustion set in and we somehow found our way back to the hotel. After a long hot shower, I went to bed, which wasn’t very comfortable as the mattress pad was way too thick and soft. Despite this, I fell asleep as soon as my head touched the pillow. Tomorrow would be a long day.

I awaken by the sound of my phone going off. Squinting groggily, I was able to make out a New York number was calling me. “Who the hell is calling me this early from New York”, I thought. I answered and it was the Delta JFK baggage office. Our bags had arrived on our original flight, which ended up getting in at 11:30 the previous night. It was a good thing we got on that earlier flight. The agent on the other end sounded very cheery and friendly especially for 8 o’clock on a Saturday morning. She informed me that she would try to get out bags out for delivery by 11AM, and worse case they would be delivered by 2 in the afternoon. After confirming the hotel’s address, I thanked the agent and hung up. All the commotion had woken up my friend. After a short discussion, we decided to just head out to make the most of our day. Besides, our bags would be here by the time we got back, right?

We hit up the deli across the street for bagels with lox, and headed toward Mid Town to do some sightseeing. Though I hadn’t been to New York in 10 years, I still felt I could still be a pretty good tour guide especially with the aid of my iPhone.





After a couple of hours of walking around, we were getting a little thirsty so we headed to an Irish Pub, Tir Na Nog, located on 34th Street near Madison Square Gardens to get something to drink and watch the men’s soccer Gold Medal match.



The barkeep there was absolutely fantastic. He was personable and kept the drinks coming. We had a great conversation about soccer and the bloody New York Jets and their idiot Head Coach. As 11 o’clock rolled around, the kitchen opened and we ended up eating lunch there. I had the bangers and mash, which was good, and my friend got the Sheppard’s pie, which looked very good. The Gold Medal match was great, with the Mexicans out playing and out hustling the Brazilians. They managed to hang on for a victory, despite Brazil’s late surge. We paid up soon after the game was over, and headed back to the hotel and hopefully our bags.

We got back around 2:30, and made a beeline for the bell desk hoping to hear good news. But no dice. A little disappointed, we headed back to the room to call Delta. The agent who answered my call was able to confirm that the bags had been handed off to the courier. After some back and forth, she told me that the bags were on the van and should be delivered by 6 PM. They were just back logged due to the large number of mishandled bags. Not exactly comforting words, but I ok I’ll trust you. So we headed back out to do a little more sightseeing.



We spent a good bit of time browsing at the shops at Rockefeller Center. Though we could have gotten reimbursed, we decided to hold off on buying clothes as I was feeling pretty confident our bags would arrive soon.

Afterwards, we wanted to go visit the 9/11 Memorial, so I entered that into my iPhone. It showed the memorial was a mile away. Not close, but certainly walkable. Following the instructions given by Google, we ended somewhere on 33rd Street with no memorial in sight. In fact, we were near the Empire State Building, which is in the total opposite direction of the World Trade Center site. Grrr, some tour guide I am. I ended up deciding to hail a taxi to bring us to the memorial, since I was pissed off and feeling pretty lazy.

The cab was nicely air conditioned, a nice reprieve from the heat and humidity outside. The ride itself was surprisingly cheap, as I was only $15 poorer. After arriving at the memorial, I realized I made a second mistake. Tickets were needed to visit the memorial, as they were trying to limit the amount traffic due to the construction all around. I was pretty ticked off at myself, but my friend got a real kick out of it. Though, he banned me from being his tour guide ever again. We did make the best of situation and walked around lower Manhattan and hung around for a while in Battery Park. We even helped out with a little fund raiser for a boys basketball team, at least I hope it was legitimate.









At around 5:45, we decided to head back to hotel once again. This time our mode of transportation would be the subway, as it was much cheaper than a cab. It only cost us $2.50 each to get back to the hotel. We headed to the bell desk only to be disappointed once again. I called Delta and unfortunately drew a disinterested agent. Without looking up my tracking number, she told me unequivocally the bags would be delivered by 9 PM. Fine…I’ll take your word for it. After running through the shower only to put on the same clothes again, we went to meet my friend’s aunt and uncle for dinner. We ended up at another Japanese restaurant near the hotel. They had 3 course pre fix menu which was reasonably priced. I chose the chicken katsu with a sashimi salad appetizer. It came with pickles, rice, miso soup, and ice cream for dessert. The meal was delicious and we were all completely stuffed. Again, I can’t remember the name of the restaurant, but it’s located on 49th Street just past Park Avenue, going toward Mid Town.

After eating, it past 9 PM so we bade our dinner mates farewell and made the short walk back to the Intercontinental. Again, we were met with disappointment. By this time I was seething and absolute sick of the run around. I called the JFK baggage office again to give them a piece of my mind. My pissed off attitude got the agent on the other end moving to do some digging. She confirmed yet again my bags were with the courier, and the delay was due to the back log. Since we were in a hotel the courier would be willing to do a night drop. She then said, “Trust me, the bags will arrive tonight.” We have this saying in Texas, fool me once shame on you… Fool me twice…

But the Delta app seemed to confirm what she was saying, so I did felt a bit better.



So we went to drown our sorrows at another Irish pub, where we met up by another high school buddy who now lives in NYC.


Mmmm…an alcoholic chocolate milk

We went back to the hotel a little after midnight, and of course our bags weren’t there. So we went to our room to get some rest. I woke up for good at 6:30 AM after a restless, and went downstairs to check for the bags, which still hadn’t arrived. So I called Delta. Again. I remained calm and explained the situation and emphasized we were leaving today to the friendly agent, named Krystal. She immediately grasped the severity of the situation, and contacted the courier. The courier dispatcher was unable to reach the driver, so she promised to call me as soon as she found anything out. Despite the broken promises of the day before, I decided to trust Krystal as she seemed so friendly and helpful.

This time I wasn’t disappointed, as Krystal called me about 2 hours later saying she was working on something and assured me they would ship the bags to our final destinations, in the absolutely worst case scenario. However she guaranteed it wouldn’t come down to that. Okay, I trust you. As we stepped out of the hotel a little while later to go to lunch with our friend and his wife at their Mid Town apartment, still wearing the same clothes we wore departing from DC on Friday, I got another call from Krystal. She had located the bags, which got lost in the shuffle so they were still in the courier’s warehouse. She said she would personally go to retrieve them and have them waiting for us within an hour. I thanked her profusely, and promised to write in to Delta for her, as she was absolutely great. Unfortunately, her shift ended by the time we got to the airport, so we weren’t able to thank her personally. But I did write in, so I really hope that at least adds some positive points on her record.

I was hoping to finish brunch by 11:30, but we ended up talking for quite some time so we didn’t leave until almost 12:45. And we still had to run back to hotel to grab what little belongings we had at the moment and check out. The hotel was only 4 blocks away, which we managed to cover in 10 minutes. Check out was swift, and we were in a cab a little before 1 o’clock. Unfortunately, we hit some serious traffic and didn’t make it to JFK until 2:10. We still had to grab our bags and get my friend’s boarding pass before his flight left at 3:30 PM. The cab dropped us off at the departure level of Terminal 2. I ran into the terminal to print a boarding pass for my friend, while he took care of the cab. We then headed down to baggage office, which was naturally near the baggage claim.

Unfortunately, the cabbie had dropped us off at the international area. Our bags were located in the domestic baggage office, which was a good distance way in Terminal 3. Luckily, there was a Delta employee on a smoke break outside of Terminal 2. We asked him for directions and he directed us through short cut that did save us a few minutes. The new route did require us to play a game of Frogger with the line of passing taxis. Fortunately, we won. Even with the short cut, it still took about 10 minutes of walking to reach Terminal 3.

Finally, we reached the entrance into baggage claim and made a beeline for the baggage office. We were both sweating profusely at that point, and I’m sure people were wondering why these two bums were in the terminal. Though Krystal had left already, she had informed the employees on duty we were coming. After showing our IDs, we got FINALLY got our bags back, after two nearly days.

dat4life

By the time we got our bags back, it was past 2:30 and my friend had yet to clear security. We took the elevator up to departure level. The terminal was a complete mess, with the regular security line snaking around the check in area. I would never do this in a normal situation, but my friend really needed to make this flight as he had to be back at work early the next morning. This was the only non-stop JFK-MSY flight, and per Expert Flyer, there wasn’t anything available to New Orleans even with connections until the afternoon of the following day. So I used my mobile boarding pass, which showed Sky Priority due to my upgrade, and talked the line dragon into sneaking him in the priority line. A minute or so later, I sneaked back out to check my bag, since I had liquids and I had used the expansion feature of my bag, technically making it an “illegal carry-on”. I circled back and used the empty Sky Priority lane to check in.

The counter was womanned by a very cute agent, who seemed to be about my age. I approached the counter with a big smile and as much confidence as I could muster after wearing the same clothes for a few days. She was a pretty big flirt, and we ended having a pleasant conversation for a few minutes before I headed back toward the priority security lane. The line dragon looked puzzled as I was entering the lane for the second time, but let me pass without a question.

I made through security very quickly, so I was able to go say good bye to my friend before he left. His flight was departing out of gate 18, which is just past security. It was certainly memorable trip for both of us, and we have to this again soon.

After he boarded, I was left to figure out what to do for the next 3 hours before my flight left. I was in a desperate need of a shower, and feeling pretty charitable at the moment, so I decided to spring for a Sky Club one day pass. I headed to the club in Terminal 2, as I was departing out of there. On the way, I stopped at kiosk to buy my pass, and was pleased to find a discounted price of $39. Pass procured, I headed to the club which was located above the fast food establishments in the center of the terminal. I presented my pass to the agent who promptly admitted me. She gave me a tour of the lounge, before leading me to the shower room as I requested.

I then realized I had made yet another mistake. Since I was too busy chatting with agent while checking my bag, I had forgotten to grab fresh clothes, like I planned Oh, well. At least the shower will do me some good. Besides, my clothes passed the sniff test. And no one seemed to be shying away from me… Anyways, after a good long shower I nearly flooded the room due the funky drainage patterns in the shower cubicle. It was a bit embarrassing to say the least, I cleaned up my mess as best I could with the available towels, and hurriedly got dressed and hustled out of there.

Feeling like a new person, I headed to the bar to grab a drink and some carrots and celery with hummus and settled down and got some work done for the following week. I picked a quiet corner with some tables and chairs, located in a seemingly older area of the club. While bar and reception areas seemed fresh and new, the shower room and the other seating areas of the club were a bit tired and in need of a makeover. But the club did serve my needs: a quiet comfortable place to sit with access to showers, drinks, and snacks.


Rear seating area of the JFK T2 Sky Club

A little while later, I headed back to the bar for a refill of my scotch and ginger. I was entertained by the bar tender trying hustle away a clearly drunk 30ish guy who was about to fall off his bar stool. The guy couldn’t even answer where he was going. Talk about lushes…though I probably don’t have a lot of room to talk. On the way back, I grabbed some of delicious lemon cookies covered with powder sugar. I really had to control myself, or I would have wiped out the entire jar.

After another hour and a half of work, it was time to go back to hustle and bustle of the terminal. I got to my gate, 23, to find the gate agent looking for volunteers as my flight was oversold. How the flight went from Y7 to oversold in less than 24 hours was beyond me. The offer was for a $300 voucher, hotel for the night, and a non-stop from LGA the next morning. I was tempted as there was one seat in first class available on the LGA flight. But I would miss half a day of work, so I decided against it since I’ve been gone for so long already.

Soon enough, 3 volunteers were found and the boarding process began. First class was called after the pre-boarding. My boarding pass was scanned and I was on my way for the final flight of my big adventure.

DL 3325
New York Kennedy (JFK) – Dallas Fort Worth (DFW)
Sunday August 12, 2012
Depart: 6:35 PM
Arrive: 9:30 PM
Aircraft: Bombardier CRJ-900 (N927XJ)
Seat: 1D (First)

Gate 23 at JFK is designed specifically for regional jet flights. It has several different doorways, with a RJ at each, so make sure you pay attention to which door your aircraft is departing from. For me that night, our aircraft was parked at the very last doorway, which was J.


My ride: N927XJ



My relationship with the CRJs is the same as my relationship with the rival Brazilian family, I hate the little brothers (CRJ-100/200s) but I love the big brothers (CRJ-700/900s). A friendly flight attendant welcomed me on board after I climbed stairs into the aircraft. I quickly stowed my laptop bag in the overhead, and settled into 1D. A few minutes later, a woman, with the worse body odor I have ever smelled, entered the aircraft. I had passed earlier her in the gate area, but I had hoped she was on a different flight. So my next hope was that she would saunter back into coach. Alas, she took up residence in 2D. I had to laugh at the irony of my situation. Here I was wearing the exact same clothes on a Sunday evening that I had worn to work on Friday morning, yet I wasn’t the smelliest person on the plane. Boarding proceeded quickly. It was rather amusing watching each person scrunch up their face as they walked into the cabin. PDBs were anything you wanted. I ordered an orange juice, as it was about time my liver got a little break after the past 4 weeks.

We pushed back a few minutes late. Surprisingly, we were number one for take off without any sort of a wait. After a short take off roll, we were airborne and turning toward the southwest. Our friendly purser came around, after we had leveled taking dinner and drink orders from front to back, without any sort of priority for status. The choices tonight were a Thai chicken salad and a turkey sandwich. I went with the salad, while my seatmate went with the turkey sandwich. It looked a lot worse than my roast beef sandwich I got on my American Eagle flight in July. He just ate the tomatoes off the sandwich and the fruit cup and called it a meal. My chicken salad, on the other hand, was a different story.



The presentation obviously sucked. Seriously, is it really that difficult to unwrap the salad and put the chicken on it before it’s served? It would definitely make it seem more premium. Despite the shoddy presentation, the salad was very good. The dressing was just right: tangy with a hint of spiciness. Carrots and cabbage comprising the salad were fresh and crisp. The chicken was tender, though it tasted a bit process. With the breadsticks, fruit cup, and brownie, it was a very tasty and filling meal. Trays were cleared as soon as each passenger finished, and then I fired up my laptop to work on this TR, while admiring the gorgeous sunset





At that time most of the cabin had finished their meals, and the smell of flatulence began filling the air. Everyone was looking around trying to identify the source, which soon revealed herself: it was the aforementioned lady in 2D. She constantly had to the lavatory, to put it politely, to make a deposit. This continued for the remainder of the flight. Each time she got up, she made it point to grab my seatback, which annoyed me to no end. But I definitely had it much better than the poor chap in 2C. The man had the patience of a saint. He always let the lady get out and had to put up with the offensive odors at close range. I kid you not, the odor got so bad the FAs holed up in the galley to get some relief. To their credit, they did try to make passes in both cabins. You could definitely see the strained smiles on their faces each time they made a pass. Though it wasn’t a pleasant situation, I had to laugh at the ridiculousness of the situation. And besides, it was kind of a fitting ending to the weekend I just had.

The closer we got to Dallas, the darker the clouds outside got. And soon I could feel the pilots making several course adjustments as lightning streaked through the clouds on both sides of the aircraft. Both our flight crew and ATC did a great job navigating around those large thunderheads, as we didn’t even hit a bump until we were well into our descent. The FA made one last pass through the cabin to collect trash and glasses when we were 20 minutes away from DFW. The lady in 2D made one last dash to the lavatory just before we descended below 10,000 feet. A few minutes after she returned to her seat, a lady and her 5ish year old daughter, whom were seated in the first couple rows of coach, headed into lavatory. They pause for a moment to decide whether or not their situation was bad enough to warrant entering that smelly pit. Strangely, the FAs made no attempt to stop them even though the seatbelt sign was on and were minutes away from landing. The mother and daughter duo did not return to their seats until well after the landing gear was down and locked. Moments later we touched down smoothly on a wet Runway 17R, the same one I had taken off on a week earlier.

We taxied for the next 5 minutes or so and parked at gate E5. There were several other Delta flights arriving at the same time, so we ended up waiting 10 minutes for the jet bridge to be attached, much to chagrin of all of us seated row 1, as we were jockeying for position to be first off to be off the plane. Finally the jet bridge operator showed up and the cabin door was opened, giving us some relief. As soon as the flight attendant gave us the go ahead, the guy sitting in 1C and 1 hauled alpha sierra sierra off the plane, leaving the lady seated in 1A in our wake and nearly running over our captain on the way out. Oh man, did I feel better after I got off the plane.

Baggage claim was just a short walk away. Bags didn’t hit the belt until 30 minutes after we arrived, due to the number of flights arriving at the same time. To make matters worse, Delta only uses one baggage claim at DFW. Talk about a model of inefficiency. When the bags from my flight did finally arrive, I was relieved to see my bag, and as an added bonus it was the first one out. For once, priority tags work on Delta!


MY BAG!

I went out and hailed a cab, and I was finally on my way home, where I would remain grounded until early October. On the ride back, I reflected on the amazing past 4 weeks. I reunited with old friends, made some new friends, and met many interesting people on the way. Quite a few of my aviation geek milestones had been reached, though I still had many more to achieve and even added some new ones along the way. I had set a new monthly BIS record of 29,061 miles and finally circled the globe, on two of the world’s finest airlines to boot. It has been a fantastic journey, but like all good things, it must come to end. I would have never been able to achieve all of this without the help and wisdom of many here on FT. And I thank sincerely thank each one of you.

Well folks, you’ve finally reached the end of nearly 41,000 words of my rambling. If you’re still with me, you deserve a huge pat on the back. Thanks to all of you for reading. I hope you've enjoyed this report as much as I've enjoyed writing it. Now it’s time for me to go back to my real life. Speaking of which, I’ll leave you with a few pics from my real life. Till next time, I wish you all happy trails.


Chicken fried French fries. Yep. True story.




Welcome back to sky high gas prices.

tropicsplendor

Bula from Fiji! Thank you so much for the interesting TR of your around the world adventure! Loved the photos and drooled over some of your food photos. I have gotten spoiled flying BC from Fiji to LAX altho it's not as nice as those little cubicles you slept in.....one of these days! Air Pacific is bringing in new A330s next year so maybe they'll offer FC and I can finally try it! My dream is to fly FC on an A380. One of these days maybe our paths will cross....let me know if you ever head over to our beautiful South Pacific! And keep up the interesting TRs! Happy trails!

Concerto

Here’s your FT first: name another TR with CX F, SQ F, AND WN. Exactly. There are none!

I managed to an interesting one a couple of years ago:

YVR-DEN UA 1st
DEN-BOS UA 1st
BOS-LGA US 1st
JFK-ZRH LX 1st
ZRH-LUG LX (0D) Business
LUG-GVA car over the Alps
GVA-AMS DS
AMS-EDI KL
GLA-PIK FR
PIK-BSL FR

So, I had a mixture of United and US First, followed by the amazing SWISS First product with the new cabin design from JFK to Zurich. This was followed by a short hop across the Alps on Darwin Airline, which has aircraft small enough permitted to land at Lugano. Crossing the Alps was by car, and a few days later I went from Geneva to Edinburgh via Amsterdam on a mixture of easyJet Switzerland and KLM. Then Glasgow Prestwick to Stansted on Ryanair, 3 hour layover in STN, and Stansted to Basel on Ryanair. The latter two tickets cost 1 penny each, plus the credit card fee, so a total of GBP12.02. Weird!

I loved this trip report, sprinkled with references to reality (such as what you had for breakfast), which help to anchor the whole thing into something that everyone could relate to!

Seat 2A

Took me a while to get to this, but once I did I thoroughly enjoyed both the text and photos. Thanks for this nicely done trip report! ^^

dat4life

Thanks tropicsplendor. Believe me, the South Pacific is on my "list". I'll get there one of these days!

Thanks concerto. Sounds like you had a really interesting trip too! Ryanair and Swiss First is definitely another interesting polar opposite combination. You got a fantastic deal out of it too!

Thanks Seat 2A! Glad you enjoyed it.

YU_GO_GONE

Great trip report, what an interesting adventure! The food looks fantastic!

dat4life

Thanks!

pupicu11

Great report!!! Loved it!

dat4life

Thanks, pupicu11!