Posted by Seth on May 23, 2012 under News | 
Just how do the multitude of trains crossing the East River in NYC deal with navigating the labyrinth of tracks? Turns out some guy named Harold is responsible for it all. From the NY Times this week:
For decades, a standard response to delays and disruptions on passenger trains in New York City has been to blame it on Harold.
That would be the Harold Interlocking, a century-old intersection of 14 train tracks in Queens, where hundreds of trains traveling between Pennsylvania Station and points east and north are sorted out each day. The central role it plays in the life of the city is invisible to almost all New Yorkers. At least until something goes awry.
Then it could be poor Harold’s fault. Harold was incriminated again this week when officials of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority said that connecting the Long Island Rail Road to Grand Central Terminal would take six years longer and almost $2 billion more than originally estimated. Harold again was the culprit. Tunneling beneath it and rearranging the spaghetti-like web of overhead wires and other equipment there is proving more daunting than expected, they said.
As for who Harold really is, no one knows. Poor guy.
Posted by Seth on May 16, 2012 under Review, Trip Reports |
There is only so much that can be done to make the airport gate experience enjoyable for customers. When you’re dealing with cramped old terminals like those at LaGuardia the options are even more limited. There’s not enough space to really make things nice and tearing down and rebuilding the facilities is not going to happen any time soon, either. These challenges haven’t stopped Delta from trying, however. The carrier has stepped up the experience in their terminal, working to make pre-flight actually enjoyable.
One of the aspects of the effort is replacing the typical gate area seating – rows of uncomfortable seats crammed too close together – with new seats, including tables and outlets, so people can work or eat more easily. The layout is definitely more comfortable and customer-friendly, so long as you can actually get a seat. The main problem with the setup is that the seating density is decreased, meaning there are a lot of folks left without seats. And at LaGuardia, with the crowds, that is definitely a challenge.
In addition to the booths for sitting there are also taller tables with bar stools set up in the area. Again, lots of power outlets available and a nice desk for working or eating. But the high tops have more than just power and space; they also provide pre-flight entertainment options.
There are iPads set up at the tables, offering a few pre-loaded apps (e.g. FaceBook) and also an ordering platform for the OTG concessions in the terminal. The OTG setup is similar to that which the company debuted in the JetBlue JFK T5 a couple years ago, allowing passengers to order meals to the gate area rather than having to walk over to one of the stands to get the food. And this version offers entertainment, too.
The setup is quite nice. It is definitely a big change from the traditional gate experience. Not quite perfect, but definitely a step in the right direction.
Posted by Seth on May 15, 2012 under Dining, Flying, frequent flyer, Mileage Run, points, Review, Trip Reports |
Having had so much fun the last time around (plus, I did book five of these!) I was off again last week for a quick trip to Portland, Oregon, again for just long enough to have dinner before heading back home on the redeye flight. And, like last time, the trip was pleasantly uneventful. I didn’t put together a video this time, but it still was a reasonably fun trip to document.
Somewhat shockingly we left on time from LaGuardia and made it in to Houston early. Alas, only a snack plate so I declined (I had just eaten at my favorite NYC taco truck) and took a nap instead. Incredibly exciting, right??
Flight number two had a meal service offering up two options that both sounded decent enough. I asked the flight attendant to surprise me and I ended up with a ravioli-ish option in tomato sauce. Nothing to write home about, good or bad.
A couple hours later we were on final into PDX, though we came in from the "wrong" direction. The winds were different than any other time I’ve arrived in PDX so we came in from the other side. It gave me a very different view of arrival than I was expecting
The really good part of the evening came when I arrived in Portland. A friend who lives there was available to go out to dinner that night so he picked me up from the airport and we headed out to some awesome Cuban food at Pambiche.
Just a quick stay in Portland, however, so I was soon back at the airport, just in time to clear security and head over to the gate for my departure back to Chicago.
I was happy to be upgraded for the redeye, though that may have worked against me. The two folks in the row ahead seemed to become fast friends prior to departure and they kept chatting into the first hour or so of the flight. Mid-con redeyes are already bad enough. Having chatty passengers nearby didn’t help the situation. I still managed to get a bit of sleep and was semi-functional by the time we made it to O’Hare.
I did rather enjoy being the only passenger in the first class cabin on the 6am ORD-LGA flight not wearing a suit. It was a pleasant reminder that life can be fun without having to dress up to play a part.
Departure from O’Hare was right on time and pretty soon I was napping again, all the way to New York City.
We arrived early and an hour later I had navigated the bus/subway transfer – including helping another passenger who didn’t have a MetroCard and who only had bills – back in to Manhattan. The day was just getting started and I was ready to go. Or at least ready to try to survive on just a couple hours of sleep.
Like I said at the beginning, nothing too amazing on the flights, but it was a fun day. Special thanks to Luke for driving out to the airport to pick me up for dinner, and for knowing where the good food is in Portland. Definitely made for a great night.
Related Posts:
Tags: Chicago, Dining, Flying, frequent flier, frequent flyer, houston, in flight, New York City, PaxEx, Photos, points, Portland, review, Trip Report
Posted by Seth on May 6, 2012 under News |
Several months ago United Airlines announced that they would be changing the configuration of the 757-200 aircraft they have running in their "premium service" routes between New York City‘s JFK airport and both Los Angeles and San Francisco. The changes include removing the first class cabin and replacing the business class seats with the flat-bed models used on their transatlantic 757 service. It also means adding in more economy seats and changing from an all Economy Plus layout to both regular economy and Economy Plus. The target date for the conversions to begin was sometime in the second half of 2012 but nothing more specific was ever announced. Looking at the timetables today, however, it appears that a bit of information about a possible start date for the conversion has been sighted.
Flight number 161 is operated by a sCO 757-200 with lie-flat seats.
The change appears to start on September 1, 2012. In many cases I’d discount changes such as this one which show up on weekends, particularly with all the schedule changes that United is running on weekends still. This one, however, changes the operating carrier of the flight on that route making it seem much more likely to be legit.
The change makes sense for a number of reasons. The company will need to pull at least one aircraft out of service at a time to fit them with the new configuration. This move comes after the peak summer season for trans-Atlantic trips, allowing the company to shift a properly configured 752 over to the route and to provide the new premium service to customers. It isn’t enough seats – 10 fewer than the new config will eventually have – to offer it to everyone, but it is definitely better than putting a non-flat bed config on the route.
The sCO 752 also has the new AVOD IFE system and Economy Plus seating, but it does not have gogo wifi, unlike all the other p.s. aircraft. It remains to be seen which in-flight connectivity solution the p.s. planes end up with after their conversion but I’d bet on them ultimately having the Panasonic-supported satellite-based system. They might have to go with gogo in the interim if the new system isn’t ready yet, but I would expect them to end up there eventually.
The overall conversion timeline is still somewhat in question, but this is a pretty good indication that things are finally getting started.
Related Posts:
Posted by Seth on April 30, 2012 under frequent flyer, Mileage Run, points, Trip Reports |
Lots of folks have dinner in Portland, Oregon on any given night. Or course, most of them actually live in Portland and aren’t visiting from New York City for 3 hours, but that’s just part of the entertainment value to me. A couple weeks ago I found myself flying out for dinner, thanks to the $120ish fares United Airlines offered back in January.
I took a whole bunch of photos and videos over the 20 or so hours I was on the road, from snacks to planes to trains, and then edited them together into a roughly two minute time-lapse of the trip. I think it came out pretty well; I hope you agree.
The trip was, by nearly every standard, textbook. Upgrades cleared, flights were on time and I even managed to get home an hour early, albeit in the very last row of coach rather than my original upgraded seat. I slept a little bit, ate a little bit and drank a little bit (probably more of this last category than the other two).
I’m looking forward to the two more of this fare I’ve got booked, as well as a few other similar trips over the coming weeks. Really a pleasant way to spend a day.
Posted by Seth on April 20, 2012 under News |
I am, once again, back at the airport headed out on a quick trip (Rio for the day, but that’s not so important to the story) and I had some time to kill prior to my flight so I headed up to the United Club (the former CO one) to check in for my flight, get my SDC processed to an earlier flight and to grab a snack. Having reasonably quickly completed those three tasks I decided to chat with some of the folks here a bit to see if there was any new news about the consolidation efforts of the split operations here. Much to my surprise, there is!
United Airlines is currently split between the A and C piers at LaGuardia. They operate two clubs and have a few dozen daily flights to Chicago, Cleveland, Denver, Houston and Washington – Dulles. The operation is one of the larger non-hub setups and there is definitely a need to consolidate the operations. The question has always been how to do that without ceding gate space that they actually need and while maintaining the number of flights they have.
The current version of the story is that operations will be consolidated into Terminal C (the legacy UA gates) as much as possible. This will include closing the old Ionosphere lounge and expanding the old Red Carpet Club. The former RCC is larger anyways and it has room to grow over the terminal and security checkpoint area. The construction effort will also bring the entrance past the security check-point, making it much more convenient for most passengers. This construction plan has supposedly already been approved by the Port Authority but I have not yet been able to confirm that.
Moving everything to the C pier will be a challenge from a gate utilization perspective. There are four gates in that pier which United doesn’t operate from; they are run by American Airlines (Eagle express flights, really) which also operates from the adjacent D pier. It is highly unlikely that AA will be looking to yield any of those gates and there aren’t many other options for shuffling things around to make them work out well. It will be interesting to see if they can juggle the schedules enough to make just those gates accommodate the demands of the flight timings.
Now it just remains to be seen if they update the signage in the terminal. There are some pretty entertaining remnants from the days of yore still visible.
Posted by Seth on April 15, 2012 under Trip Reports |
Most days spending 30 minutes on the runway at JFK is just another typical taxi time situation, waiting for your turn to take off. Not particularly fun at all. This weekend, however, I was actually ON the runway, not in an airplane, thanks to the JFK Rotary Club and their annual Runway Run. It was AWESOME!
For a few hours today runway 22L/4R was closed to aircraft and more than 750 participants headed out for a 5k fun run. Some folks took it more seriously than others – the winners were in the 15 minute range, while I was in the middle of the pack at 32 minutes – but even for the folks not looking for a competitive race, the fun factor of being on the runway with the planes passing overhead was tremendous.
The course took us from the fire department training facility out on to taxiway echo and then on to 22L, about 1.5 miles out and then 1.5 miles back to the finish. And all along the way there were great views of the field and the planes coming and going. As is typical for JFK there were plenty of JetBlue and Delta flights, as well as a bunch of American Airlines departures. We also saw Korean Air, Lufthansa, Emirates, Taca and Avianca, among others (some cargo, some passenger). The Lufthansa cargo departure actually exacted a huge cheer from the 20+ strong team of employees the carrier had at the event; that was fun.
With just a tenth of a mile left in the race I stopped to celebrate at the edge of the taxiway:
And then another photo at the finish line, after cooling off and walking out the fact that this was the first time I’d done anything remotely resembling running in a couple years.
Looking forward to getting a bigger group together and doing it again next year. Definitely worth the early morning wake-up for the aviation geek fun.
Posted by Seth on April 13, 2012 under Flying, frequent flyer, Mileage Run |
I’m a huge fan of Istanbul and Turkey in general. I’ve had nothing but wonderful experiences there (even with attempted scammings twice) and between the architecture, food and people it is one of my favorite places to visit and one that I return to willingly, which is a big step for me. When a visit can be had on the cheap that’s an even bigger draw. And right now there are some great deals out there for travel from the USA to Istanbul.
The deals are for the shoulder season so look for travel in September or October for great weather and even better rates. Here’s what the fare calendars look like for October, departing a few cities in the USA:
New York City
Washington, DC
Los Angeles
Chicago
In many cases the W fares on United Airlines aren’t too much more than these lowest fares (~$300 ex-EWR) and the upgrade inventory is plentiful. I’ve already confirmed my flat bed for a weekend in early October. It is going to be a lot of fun.
Tags: Chicago, Deals, Istanbul, Los Angeles, Mileage Run, New York City, Newark, Turkey, United, United Airlines, Washington DC
Posted by Seth on April 11, 2012 under News |
Following the first phase of slot swaps a couple weeks ago, Delta launched a $160MM investment in the renovation of their facilities at LaGuardia airport today. The main focus of the work is an air-side connection between terminals C and D, allowing all Delta flights (other than the Shuttle) to operate from a single secure area. In addition the security areas will be upgraded and expanded and terminal C will see the conversion of the US Airways Club to a SkyClub.
The event was attended by a number of elected officials and there were the usual laudatory remarks made, focusing on the investment value and the new jobs it is expected to bring into the area. There was also mention of the impact to the aviation industry in general, noting that the move further cements New York City‘s position as the "aviation capitol of the nation," as Mayor Bloomberg noted. They only took a couple questions and nothing particularly pointed was asked. Little things, like how the 10,000+ additional daily passengers will find transportation in to the city, for example, were not addressed.
After the Q&A the whole crew headed out to a section of the tarmac that had been set aside for the actual ground breaking part of the event. Everyone – from the CEO and Mayor to ground and in-flight crew – grabbed a shovel and chipped in on the effort.
They even let me have some fun.
And then some folks collected souvenirs to take home. Seriously, when was the last time you saw someone walking through an airport terminal with a shovel in hand?
Overall it was a nice event, though nothing particularly surprising or "ground breaking" about it. Then again, I suppose that was the whole idea, so it makes sense.
Posted by Seth on April 1, 2012 under News |
And you can come, too.
As for aviation geek fun, this event has to be towards the top of the list. Getting out on the runway is a lot of fun and it is also a great reminder of just how big everything that we deal with in air travel really is. The main runway at JFK – on which part of the event is run – is 14,000 feet long, more than two miles. The event doesn’t run the full length, but for one morning it will be runners jockeying for position, not jets.
The even is the annual JFK 5K Run on the Runway, sponsored by the JFK Rotary Club. It is one of the main fundraisers for the group and, as such, there is a nominal registration fee involved. You also have to get yourself out to the administration building at JFK pretty early on a Sunday morning in mid-April. Oh, and you’re expected to actually run or walk the 5K. But it will be completely worth it.
Register for the event here and I’ll see out on the runway.
Posted by Seth on March 24, 2012 under Dining, Flying, Review, Trip Reports |
In many ways calling it the short route is silly. After all, it is the longest scheduled commercial flight in the world, clocking in at more than 18 hours. Singapore Airlines flight 21, Newark to Singapore, is simply ridiculously far. But it is the fastest way to get from the New York City area to Singapore and it is a pretty stylish way to do it, too.
The route is flown on an Airbus A340-500 with only 100 seats, all business class. Booking one of those seats used to require a large chunk of cash (or getting lucky with a couple routings out of the Pacific Islands) but recently they started showing up in limited quantities for award bookings. Needless to say, I jumped at the opportunity and even though I don’t really have any pressing reason to be in Singapore I’m on my way. It seems like a reasonable enough place to spend a couple days. And the flights to and from seem pretty fun, too.
The Seat
With such a low density seat map there is plenty of room on board for each seat and Singapore Airlines takes advantage of that fact. The layout is 1-2-1 across the A340 body, the same spacing as First Class on Lufthansa. The seats are about 30″ wide; it is quite spacious.
When the time came to convert the seat to a bed it actually flips forward rather than reclining all the way back. This is good and bad, as it somewhat limits the reclining positions available, but it also means that the full width is usable for bed mode. I chose the bulkhead seat so the footwell was full width as I don’t really lie my feet going in to a cubby hole. That part worked out well, though there is a gap between the seat and the well, basically forcing you to sleep at a slight angle.
Also, the bed is quite firm. Not a problem for me but I could see how some might not enjoy it too much. With a few pillows and sufficient booze in my system from the lounge and from dinner I had no problem sleeping for a solid 8 or 9 hours. Or again for another few hours after my mid-flight snack.
Checking in for the flight at the counter the agent was somewhat surprised that I had selected the seat I had. He mentioned the proximity to the lavs and the potential noise and smell issues there. That turned out to not be an issue for me, though I can see how it could be annoying.
Food & Beverage
There are three meals served during the flight. The first is a dinner served shortly after takeoff. Next is a lunch mid-flight and finally breakfast shortly prior to arrival. I very much prefer this sequence of service over the option from Thai on their soon-to-be-retired LAX-Bangkok flight. It just makes more sense. Also, the food was much better.
My first meal started with a salad and bread. Fresh veggies and a couple strips of seared fish on top, with a nice balsamic dressing.
For the main course I had the braised pork served over egg noodles in a broth. Excellent presentation and the food was quite tasty, too.
Finally, for dessert, I had both the chocolate ice cream and the chocolate mousse, though I did pass on the petit fours.
Somewhere over Uzbekistan, I was hungry again. Having been asleep for the past eight hours that seemed to make sense and I wandered back towards the galley to see what my options were. Set up in the galley was a nice spread of chips, fruit, cookies and other snacks; I grabbed a couple for later. But I was thinking of something more substantive. The flight attendant greeted me by name (little things like that really make me happy) and offered up a few lunch options. I went with the chicken over udon noodles. About 10 minutes later she brought it out to my seat.
The flavors were great; no real surprise there. But it wasn’t heated all the way through. I actually didn’t mind that too much, but it was somewhat surprising. My seatmate ordered the same a few minutes after I did and his was heated evenly. Go figure.
Oh, and they had Dunkin Donuts on board. They spelled it wrong in the menu, but they had an actual box of Dunkin – the variety pack – and gladly served up donuts upon request.
For breakfast I had another noodle option, sliced beef in broth with noodles. The omelet looked fine, too, but I like the flavors of the soups. This also may have been the first time I’ve had a 4-course breakfast, with fruit, pastries and yogurt all preceding the actual meal. The bagel was actually quite good, too.
In-flight Entertainment
The IFE system on Singapore routinely gets high marks and it is easy to see why. The screen is large – 15.4″ – and the range of titles available is rather extensive. Whether you want TV, movies, audio or games, there are plenty of options to choose from. Me? I just watched the moving map when I wasn’t sleeping. But I like that there were lots of other options available.
Also, there is a universal plug, a couple USB plugs, iPhone/iPad interface and RCA jacks for hooking in to the system. Even if you don’t like what they’re showing, there are still plenty of options.
Lounge/Ground Services
The lounge used in Newark is the SAS lounge. It is pretty nice and for the late departure of the Singapore Air flight there are no other passengers in the lounge. They up the catering a notch to offer a more substantial meal option around 9:15pm, tiding folks over until the dinner served on board. I enjoyed the self-serve alcohol and a bit of a snack and then headed out to the plane.
As I mentioned before, the first agent I dealt with suggested that the seat I had wasn’t so great. I told him I was flying with a friend so I didn’t want to change anything until I could speak with my friend. Turns out the same guy also handled that check-in and remembered that I had mentioned we were flying together. Again, a little thing, but one that was quite nice.
No arrivals facilities in Singapore upon landing at 6am is a bit rough, but that’s how they roll.
Other bits
A couple other things of note related to the trip. First, it is not at all common to see numbers like these on the flight map data page. More than 18 hours and more than 15,000 km left to fly is insane. The flight actually ended up being nearly 19 hours in the air due to headwinds.
Next up, it is somewhat strange that there is no amenity kit on the flight. All the goodies are stocked in the lavs and it certainly reduces waste, but I was still a bit surprised. They do distribute eye masks and socks to all passengers.
Finally, the pilot put the plane down so hard on arrival in Singapore that we actually bounced off the runway. And when we pulled in to the gate the APU was inoperable. Dunno that the two are definitely related, but it was one of the hardest landings I’ve ever experienced. Of course, the FAs played it down suggesting that it just felt hard because we had been flying 19 hours. But the look on their faces when it actually happened belied that smoothness.
Overall there is very little bad to say about the experience, other than that 19 hours in a plane is a really long time. I’m quite happy I got the opportunity to make the trip and look forward to having this as an option for future award travels.
Tags: Airbus, award, Dining, Flying, Lufthansa, New York City, Newark, review, Singapore, Singapore Air, Trip Report
