The morning started off at 0 Dark Thirty (aka 330am) but it would be worth it. Spent some time getting ready to go and helping to fend off the craziness that was DB Cooper, in prime crazy play mode. After leaving the cat to fend for himself (jk) we took a Lyft to thd airport. We ended up getting a Mustang Mach E as our ride so that was an interesting start to the journey for all of 4 minutes. 

Got to the airport to check in and thanks to first class tickets we were able to jump the giant lines that were there for regular bag drop, but the elite line was just a few people. After checking my bag, we went over to clear to get our ID and Biometrics fixed up (long story) and we finally got through security. Time from home to airside with a lot of faffing about, 30 minutes. 

Our flight was out of the N gates, so we jumped the train over to the Satellite and the Alaska Lounge. We thankfully still had access to the lounge with our F ticket, even after all the changes they made to the access policies. We sat down to rest and get a light breakfast while we waited. 

A short time before boarding we headed to thd gate and saw the door open & thought to ourselves…. It’s like 10 minutes to boarding thd gate area looks empty & the door is open, we thought we were one of the last people there. We weren’t, thank God. They were just checking bags to save overhead bin space. The gate area was empty because our flight was crammed into the adjacent gate and was made up of a high school band making it’s way to the east coast. Thank god for first class. 

Alaska Airlines – AS280

0730-1550

Seattle Tacoma to Newark (SEA to EWR) 

Boeing 737-900ER (N468AS) 

First Class – Seat 2A

Boarding: 0654 (Gate N2) 

Push Back: 0730

Take Off Roll: 0800 (Runway 16L)

Top of Descent 1533

Touch Down: 1630 (Runway 04R)

Shut Down: 1638 (Gate B40)

Boarding was eventually called and we got onboard to stash our stuff before the overhead bin space was filled with musical instruments. Waiting at our seat was a blanket (I did everything I could to not steal it) and a tiny carton of boxed water. 

The aircraft was not what we were meant to have as it had been scheduled for a long time as a 737Max9 but got equipment swapped a few days out. But a first class seat is better than coach so no complaints really. 

Settled in and the hoardes of teenagers boarded. We pushed back on time, down the back was full, up front still had a few empty seats. As we slowly made our way to the taxiway behind plenty of traffic they told us it would be a 5 hour flight time, which seems pretty good, however it would make us late getting in at the rate we were taking go get to the active. 

We made it to 16L eventually and headed up into the sky, It was not a horrible view as we climbed away from Seattle and turned east. We climbed out over the mountains and cleared the light cloud layer. As we climbed further higher towards cruise we started to pass places like Moses Lake and Spokane. 

Drink orders were taken and breakfast orders were confirmed, we were not in a rush and the service wasn’t either. It worked fine because we had already had breakfast on east coast time, best to try and adjust further to eating on a different schedule. Heidi was having the omelette, I was having the non egg option of an Apple Cobbler Oatmeal. I settled in to watch Netflix on my tablet since non of the onboard streaming even remotely seemed interesting. 

When the flight attendant started to bring around meals she apologized for the sight of my meal, she said it smealt great (it did) she was so apologetic about the look. I was already aware of the sight as had seen photos online. It was…. Interesting. While it looked like crap (literally) it wasn’t that bad. It tasted great, though I wouldn’t call it oatmeal, more like a pudding. The meal was rounded out by some ellinos yoghurt, a warm roll and some fruit. Heidi’s eggs was a sweet potato omelette with potatoes. 

After the meal was cleared away it was more of the same as we cruised east. Our flight attendant kept our drinks pretty topped up throughout most of the flight, a few hours out we were about to run parralell to some big storms near Chicago and that made it pretty bumpy for an hour or more. It also meant no bathroom options as they didn’t want us moving around, which is rough when you desperately need to pee after drinking liquids for several hours. 

What became evident as we got stuck in the turbulence was that we were going to be stuck in this for a while and when we cleared it we should be top of descent, but our top of descent came and we didn’t really descend all that much. When you looked down you didn’t see all that much. We then got told that Newark was under an arrival program. Dammit 🙁

That meant we got put in a stack and we were being held and it made for a very long descent, so much so that being 10-15 minutes late would have been a god send. We made our way slowly down towards New Jersey and our destination. It became evident just how low the cloud base was when we knew we were descending and on final (gear out, flaps down) and still could see the ground. It didn’t come into view until we were just about to enter the airport perimeter. Ouch. 

We touched down (finally) and then held on a taxiway for what felt like an eternity, but we eventually headed to what was described to me as “a shit show” and they weren’t wrong. It’s not a good look when everything around where your plane is going was surrounded by fences with consatina wire. O dear. 

We finally pulled into the gate next to a newly arrived Spirit A320 and that meant crowds. Add on that we were late and it was like swimming upstream during salmon spawning season. It was packed!  But we pushed our way out of the mess and headed towards baggage claim. It is never a good look when your bathrooms are essentially fancy portable toilets. 

My bag was not apparently priority tagged (thanks Alaska) and was way at the end of coming out. But it showed up which is the main thing and then it was off to find the train station. The air train is not really convienient to people collecting luggage, but we found it. Then it was more waiting, because those trains run sloooow. Well it’s not really a train but a monorail and reminded me of the monorail that ran at Expo 88 it looked almost the same and thd cars were just as small. People were jammed in everywhere just to make it on the train. My bag was jammed at my feet while I tried not to hit people with my backpack. 

We eventually got dropped off at the train station where we just missed a train and had to Wait 30 minutes for the next one. NJ Transit was meant to run 6 an hour, but 4 of those trains were coming within 6 minutes of each other (turns out they were all late). By the time the train showed up I was ready to get onboard! I struggled to get my suitcase up the steps inside of the train but it was lightly loaded in our carriage for the 30 minute ride into New York Penn (it’s not thst far, bug it runs slow apparently) 

By the time we pulled into NYP I was just done with travelling for the day, I was tired hungry & needed a bathroom, thankfully it was 3 blocks to our hotel, and some relief, we just had to get out of the craziness that was the station at the same time the Rangers fans are showing up for games at Madison Square Garden. But we did it…