{"id":3740,"date":"2013-05-27T21:19:11","date_gmt":"2013-05-28T04:19:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bigmal.net\/?p=3740"},"modified":"2013-05-28T17:22:57","modified_gmt":"2013-05-29T00:22:57","slug":"trip-report-memorial-day-firsts-seattle-to-new-york","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bigmal.net\/?p=3740","title":{"rendered":"Trip Report: Memorial Day Firsts – Seattle to New York"},"content":{"rendered":"

Introduction<\/a>
\nSeattle to New York<\/a>
\nNew York
\nNew York to Vancouver
\nVancouver
\nVancouver to Seattle
\nConclusion<\/p>\n

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Thursday 23rd May 2013<\/strong><\/p>\n

As I paniced my way through a long, extremely busy day in the office, trying to get everything tied up prior to my long weekend, all I could do was think about what laid ahead. \u00a0It didn\u2019t help as I chatted along with people on the phone about weekend plans and with them thinking I am pretty insane. \u00a0As the end of my shift grew nearer all I wanted to do was hit the road and get to SeaTac, however it was around 3pm when I got the bad news via Tripit. \u00a0Inbound flight delay \ud83d\ude41 \u00a0O well! \u00a0At least it meant I didn\u2019t have to hurry to the airport and that was a good thing as the 405 was a parking lot as usual.<\/p>\n

I actually made pretty good time to the airport after leaving work as I took a back way to cut through a good majority of the traffic and actually managed to get through to the airport in around 45 minutes, suprising cause it usually takes an hour! \u00a0After parking the truck and hopping on the shuttle, I was at the airport before that usual hour was up. \u00a0Pity that meant I had 4 more till my flight was due to leave pretty much.<\/p>\n

I headed towards the Jetblue counters and checked myself in, trying to talk my way into an exit row without any cost. \u00a0The agent told me he could\u2019t waive the cost but that it would only be $35 for my flight. \u00a0I jumped at the chance cause it would normally be $65 however about 2 seconds after I said that he said he made a mistake and it would be the proper price. \u00a0Bad move!! He wouldn\u2019t honour what he said so I walked away with my window seat intact and a tip from him to \u201ctry again at the gate\u201d with a wink.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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I headed off for a bit of an explore of all the new check in desks as there had been some major reshuffles with United moving from the North to the B gates. American, Jetblue and Frontier moving from A to D. Delta consolidating all to the south, along with Alaska moving the majority of it\u2019s gates to the North and still a smattering here and there at some other areas. Confusion I am sure for just about everyone!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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What it meant was shiny new check in counters for both Delta & United. How shiny? Well Delta\u2019s opened that morning! It looked good to and if this was anything to go by for T4 in New York, well I was looking forward to tomorrow! Since I was all the way down in the Southern end anyway, I decided against back tracking to security closer to my gates. It was smarter as well as security was quiet and I only waited because the TSA agent checking my ID was busy chatting with a collegue till the collegue pointed that someone was standing in front of her. I wasn\u2019t in a rush so I didn\u2019t mind the extra 15 seconds of waiting time. Hell I was tempted to go for a TSA Grope if they pointed me towards the backscatter machines to waste some time (and my hard earned tax payer dollars).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Once through security my main focus was to find some power for my laptop and log into work to finish stuff off since I wanted to make sure my inbox was empty before I flew out. \u00a0My plan was get it empty and then not touch it till Tuesday. \u00a0I had plenty of other work to do if I was going to do anything. \u00a0I scoured the terminals for something resembling a desk and a power point, but there wasn\u2019t much of anything till I found some by the D gates, about 4 up from where my flight was departing. \u00a0Good location right? \u00a0I plonked myself down, connected to the free wifi, started charging my phone so it would have as much power as possible for when I hit the ground in New York and got stuck into it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Time passed pretty quickly and I didn\u2019t even really notice my surroundings. \u00a0A couple of tweets and about an hour or so later my inboxes were all empty (personal and work), blogs caught up on and I was getting a tad sleepy. \u00a0Coffee time! \u00a0I packed up my stuff and as I turned around, what should be sitting opposite the gate… Salmon Thirty Salmon. \u00a0HAH! I was to busy working I hadn\u2019t noticed the rarest of rare birds sitting behind me!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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I headed off to Starbucks for a coffee and went all the way back to the main food court because it would give my legs a stretch and because well, I didn\u2019t want to use any cash when I could get a coffee off one of the cards I had been given. \u00a0Slow stroll through the terminal looking around, people watching, perving, thinking. \u00a0All the things you do when you have time in a terminal right? \u00a0I was totally relaxed. \u00a0No stress of work, just not thinking at all. \u00a0We were only meant to be delayed about 20 minutes or so and that was not a big deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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I headed back towards the gate as I wanted to try the exit row trick again, and when I did, the last aisle seat was taken already (windows were gone days ago) so I sat down and read my book for a while and munched on a couple of cookies I had stashed in my bag from my work stash (which were actually from my last VX flight) being in a \u201cmeh\u201d kind of mood. \u00a0The delay kept on adding up though as the aircraft just was not showing up at all. \u00a0When it should of arrived it was no where in site and my brain went into \u201cO SHIT\u201d mode.<\/p>\n

My plans upon arrival in New York had been pretty solid. \u00a0I was to hit the ground running at JFK \u00a0Caffinated up from the flight I had booked a cheap car (thank you Dial 7) to take me to the hotel, where I could drop my bag and hit the gym at the hotel for a run or a quick workout before a shave and shower and getting my butt back on a train to the airport. \u00a0Well that workout was now in jeapoardy and if things got any worse so would my shave (a shower I was determined to keep if i could). \u00a0I would have to really be on the ball if I wanted to get back to JFK in time for the hour window I had to get photos. \u00a0If push came to shove I could scrap the photo plans and just do the media proceedings at 1030 onwards.<\/p>\n

I was thinking through my situation and decided that if I wanted to get things done quickly I should just try and get as close to the front as possible, no matter what the seat was. I could deal with a middle seat for 5 hours if I could get out of the aircraft quickly and cleanly (but I would have to wait for my bag anyway). \u00a0So I saw my opportunity with a nice young girl manning the gate and took the opportunity to put on a bit of charm and a smile and see where that would get me. \u00a0Pretty soon I had a fresh boarding pass and had just traded a window seat for a middle, but the middle seat was row 4 and had the \u201cEven More Space\u201d leg room. \u00a0I knew it was going to probably be an uncomfortable red eye flight, stuck between two people and probably not able to leave my seat all that much but it could be worse…. I could have a middle seat in the rear of the aircraft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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With that I repacked my bag so that all the stuff I would need during my flight was all in one bag so that when I stowed my camera bag I wouldn\u2019t need to access it, since I knew there was chance in hell that was going to happen. \u00a0The aircraft eventually turned up and that\u2019s when the scrum started. \u00a0There was people EVERYWHERE. \u00a0I couldn\u2019t not join them either because if I didn\u2019t get overhead bin space I was boned! \u00a0There was no way I was going to be able to gate check my camera bag… no way in hell! \u00a0Eventually the flight boarded half an hour after we wee due to originally depart which meant a good half hour till departure. \u00a0A solid hour late! \u00a0Definately no gym now!<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

jetBlue Airlines – B682
\nSeattle Tacoma to New York John F Kennedy
\n2130-0545+1
\nAirbus A320 (N637JB)
\nEven More Space – 4A<\/p>\n

Boarding: 2200 (Gate D5)
\nPush Back: 2230
\nTake Off Roll: 2240 (Runway 16L)
\nTop of Descent: 0550
\nTouch Down: 0618 (Runway 31R)
\nShut Down: 0622 (Gate 19 – T5)<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

When the flight was called it was as though someone had thrown some fries into a flock of seagulls. \u00a0People came from everywhere and no where and they pushed, they shoved, it was on for young and all. \u00a0My main desire was get onboard, get my stuff stored, get the phone switched off to conserve power (since Jetblue don\u2019t have power onboard) and try to settle in as much as possible.<\/p>\n

It was an almost full flight with as far as I could see one empty seat in the same row as me but my focus was my book as we eventually pushed back, safety demo\u2019d and headed for the 16s. \u00a0Being a red eye flight it was dark outside by now so it wasn\u2019t as if I could take photos and since I wasn\u2019t in the window anyway I took a quick couple of snaps and stashed the camera as well. \u00a0What can you do when your jammed in the middle? \u00a0But it was my decision in the first place! \u00a0Next time, remember your rules Malcolm. \u00a0Red Eye flight, Aisle Seat. \u00a0Daylight flight, Window seat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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We climbed out and it was a pretty uneventful climb out as they asked everyone to close their window blinds since this was a \u201cSnooze\u201d service. \u00a0They ran through the order of service was went as follows:<\/p>\n

1. Distribution of \u201cSnooze Kits\u201d (Eye Shades & Ear Plugs)
\n2. Selling of Snack Boxes\/Headphones\/Blankets etc
\n3. Drink orders
\n4. Drink distribution
\n5. Snack offering<\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n

Did I just say snacks? Well yes I did. \u00a0Delta gives either Biscoffs, Peanuts or Pretzels. \u00a0Jetblue offers a whole lot more. \u00a0Blue Chips, Corn Chips Nuts, Popcorn Chips, Chips and even cookies! \u00a0Score! \u00a0Also the drinks were full cans!! I munched down my dinner which at this stage was almost 11pm just as drinks were being distributed and grabbed a bag of nuts to round out my dinner. \u00a0Once that was all cleared and the cabin headed off into sleep land, my task was now to keep myself awake and work. \u00a0It was going to be a solid 36 hours of non stop awake time and I was determined to be productive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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I pulled out the laptop and set to work, switching from watching Iron Chef on the tv (Battle Turkey Wings for those watching at home) to listening to SiriusXM. \u00a0I have to admit Jetblue have it nailed down pretty good, I was impressed. \u00a0Free snacks, free drinks, free entertainment. \u00a0The Even More Space seats up front had HEAPS of leg room (way more than I needed) the only thing it needed was a half decent frequent flier program and I would be pretty loyal.<\/p>\n

My #1 criteria lately for airline judging had been drink size. \u00a0United gave full size coffee cups but tiny tiny cups of soda. \u00a0Delta gave big cups of Soda but tiny tiny cups of coffee. \u00a0Alaska just gave tiny cups of both and well Virgin just was slow at giving anything at all when you order it. \u00a0Jetblue was pretty generous. \u00a0Full size cans for soft drinks (or double small cans for things like tomato juice etc) or a normal 10oz coffee cup for the hot liquids. \u00a0The coffee was good to… Dunkin Donuts!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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After finishing up my work and some of the trip report, I switched the laptop off, snacked on some cookies and channel surfed pretty much till the \u201cwake up\u201d service was offered. \u00a0With a tail wind and a reduced flight time, maybe we could make up sometime (yeah right). \u00a0I pretty much went between the tv channels of food network, map and the news shows till we started to descend. \u00a0Towards the end of the flight I could smell fresh coffee on the brew and I knew the \u201cwake up\u201d service was going to begin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Jetblue on their red eyes offers a wake up service on their red eyes. \u00a0So about 45 minutes prior to landing they will offer a round of water, orange juice or coffee to those who are awake. \u00a0Again the cabin crew in my area didn\u2019t use a trolley at all, he hand carried around the bottles of water and then out came the coffee. \u00a0Once that was all done then came another suprise… a \u201cHot Towell\u201d. \u00a0Though by the time that I got mine it was cold. \u00a0But even still it wasn\u2019t what you would expect for an economy service. \u00a0Very impressed with Jetblue. \u00a0If only they had some decent FF parnters.<\/p>\n

The flight started to descend and because pretty much everyone had their window shades shut still it meant that I had no idea where we were and couldn\u2019t see a damn thing. \u00a0The map didn\u2019t help much. \u00a0There was no real time pick up in the delay so that did not help at all. \u00a0I had pretty much canned the thought of any gym workouts at all, and with the live shots of the news showing rain all weekend, I had given into the fact that most of my plans for the weekend were going into the trash. \u00a0Damn!!<\/p>\n

Eventually we came into final descent and the seat mate to the left of me in the window woke up and opened his blind… finally. \u00a0I was just happy to be able to see things. \u00a0Meant that I could see and even though I had no idea where we were, some landmarks came into view and then I saw a Costco and thought \u201cso thats where all my friends spot from\u201d. \u00a0We touched down pretty effortlessly right next to T5 and that was that. \u00a0My first jetblue flight was over.<\/p>\n

We taxiied quickly over to T5 and I was out of the aircraft fairly quickly which was good, though I now had to wait for my bag. \u00a0T5 looks pretty good and was very impressed. \u00a0I knew I was on the East Coast where the line for Dunkin Donuts was the longest around. \u00a0Compared to the west coast where it would of been the line for Starbucks (which funnily enough was not in site anywhere that I could see). \u00a0The bags took a bit of time and they didn\u2019t come out at all. \u00a0Which was suprising because I was at the Baggage Carosel they had said. \u00a0Apart from the fact it was going to a different one! \u00a0Went over there and a minute or to later the bags started spitting out. \u00a0My bag was about 30th out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Bag in hand, phone dialled off to the city I go!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Introduction Seattle to New York New York New York to Vancouver Vancouver Vancouver to Seattle Conclusion \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,4,8,1,18,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adventures","category-spotting","category-expat","category-life-in-general","category-travelling","category-tripreports"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p49RU0-Yk","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigmal.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigmal.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigmal.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigmal.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigmal.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3740"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/bigmal.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3740\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3759,"href":"https:\/\/bigmal.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3740\/revisions\/3759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigmal.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigmal.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigmal.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}