Monthly Archive for February, 2009

Landed at IAD!

Howdy from the Gate C17 Red Carpet Club at IAD! The flight from JFK was short and uneventful, and I attempted to pass out for a bit, but mostly spent the time with my eyes closed. Pretty innefective. I’m now with a group of 17 FlyerTalkers, and the wonderful, constant stream of aviation chatter has commenced. We’re heading to the gates for our 99-mile flight to Richmond (I’ve heard it’s a flight with beautiful scenery that usually cruises no higher than 8,000 feet). Let the antics begin, but, first, I need to find some coffee.

I’ll probabaly report next from ORD, because of the short transfer time in Richmond. Remember, in ORD we’ll have the crazy behind the scenes tour, prior to our Captain Flanagan flight to SFO.

Published
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G.Ro
on February 28, 2009
in Mileage Runs
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At JFK – Here we Go!

Reporting in from the JFK Red Carpet Club! I’m here with four other FlyerTalkers, and we’re all waiting for our flight down to Washington, Dulles (IAD). Despite being up at frightening hours of the day, everyone is in quite the chipper mood. Weather is looking a-okay, thus far, except for the potential for some rain in Richmond that weather.com reports may begin at about 12pm, near our scheduled arrival time.

I opted to take the Long Island Railroad from Pennsylvania Station to Jamaica, and catch the AirTrain from there to the terminals. I absolutely love the LIRR to JFK – for about five bucks more, each way, you save about 40 minutes with the almost straight shot from Penn Station to Jamaica. Hope on the AirTrain from Jamaica, and in ten minutes, you’re at the terminal.

BTW: I’ve already been scolded by an AirTrain employee for taking pictures in the AirTrain station. That’s how you know it’s going to be an excellent MR.

I’ll report in next from IAD!

Published
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G.Ro
on February 28, 2009
in Mileage Runs
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Up, and (Sort of) Ready for Action

Ah, a beautiful 6.23am on a Saturday morning. Saturdays, of course, are the students’ savior, when one can slumber in (somewhat) guilt-free glory. Not today, though. And, yes, I’m so tired from the week that I feel as if I’d like shoot myself, but, somehow, beneath this painfully tired exterior, I’m very excited about the mileage run today. I’m about to tie my tie and head to the subway for the arduous trek to JFK. Flights are showing on time, thus far, and the weather seems to be holding, though I have just read of winter storm advisories for the New York, Washington, D.C., and Virginia area. I’ll report next from the Red Carpet Club at JFK.

As well, I can hear the red-eyes from the West Coast on their descent into JFK from my window. That’s how you know you’re up too early. That will be me tomorrow on that early descent.

Published
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G.Ro
on February 28, 2009
in Mileage Runs
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Baby, We Were Born to Run

Mileage run, of course. My apologies to The Boss.

I’ll be up at 6.00am to commence our much ballyhooed mileage run from New York (JFK) to Washington Dulles (IAD), to Richmond, Virginia (RIC) , Chicago O’Hare (ORD), to San Francsico (SFO), and back to JFK. Stay tuned to this blog – I’ll have live updates throughout the day.

I’ll report before leaving for the airport.

Published
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G.Ro
on February 28, 2009
in Mileage Runs
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My, oh My – I Wish I Had a Garment Bag

My lament comes from not having the proper bag with which to travel tomorrow on my crazy mileage run. At the behest of the esteemed Captain Flanagan, I’ll be wearing a suit to commemorate the good ol’ days of flying, when people gave a crap about how they looked when traveling. I’m redeyeing back tomorrow night to JFK, and of course, I’m not going to want to wear the suit on the redeye, and I’ll need another change of clothes. Waking up from a redeye in a suit would make me look like a guy who got drunk at a wedding or corporate affair, passed on in a bus station, and is now stumbling around the morning after, bloodshot and bleary-eyed, trying to find where he parked his car the previous night. Unfortunately, I don’t have a garment bag, which would fit my situation perfectly.

My choices for the extra set of clothes are a backpack or a wheelie/rollerboard type bag. Now, I’m no GQ fashion consultant, but something just feels wrong about wearing a backpack with a suit, like, you shouldn’t really combine the formality of a suit with the bag I use to lug books to school or groceries from Trader Joe’s. Conversely, for a freakin’ one day trip, the rollerboard is just too large. Plus, with three regional jet flights, whose overhead bins are the size of an electron, I’ll have to gate check the rollerboard for each flight, adding extra time, potential delay, and hassle, because the good, hardworking folks of United Express usually leisurely unload the bags and bring them up to the gate, or the cart to the side of the airplane. Don’t worry, guys. It’s not like anyone has connecting flights or anything. Unfortunately, a garment bag could easily fold into the regional jet overhead bins.

At this point, I think the rollerboard is the best option. I’ll easily be able to fit a suit inside it, as opposed to crumpling and shoving the suit into my backpack. I’d rather have the extra space than have backpack that is so tightly packed that it feels as if I’m transporting a 30-pound Thanksgiving turkey. If United Express dawdles with the bags, well, I’ll just have to make sure they know the imminence of my connecting flight.

Hmm, I’m going to ask my roommate if he has some sort of garment bag. Otherwise, it’s the rollerboard for me.

Update: Literally, 30 seconds after this post went live, one of my roommates informed me that he has a duffle bag. That’ll do just fine. Disaster averted.

Published
by
G.Ro
on February 27, 2009
in Mileage Runs and United
. 2 Comments

Who Says You Can't Fly a Carpet?

I thought I would star a semi-regular feature here at WAAP, briefly detailing airlines I would like to fly for whatever whacky reason – be it their name, a particular routing, use of a certain type of aircraft, or some other idiosyncrasy. Hey, part of loving travel is loving to to dream about travel, and dreaming about travel includes creating routings for yourself on some exciting-sounding airline.

For this post, I was won over by the name, and the exotic route network of Flying Carpet Airlines. There isn’t a tremendous amount of information online about Flying Carpet Airlines, but there is a a Wikipedia page with their route network, and types of aircraft flown, and from my search, only very tiny photos of their airplanes (if you squint, really really hard, you can make out the “Flying Carpet” lettering on the fuselage). According to Wikipedia, they fly to four cities in Iraq. Now, I most likely wouldn’t want to try Flying Carpet on one of their Iraq routes at this point in time but, it’d defnitely be interesting to experience commercial air travel in Iraq. Of course, by “interesting,” I mean, I’d like overhear an anecdotal account of what it’s like, and maybe glance at a photo – hopefully, not as tiny as the one featured above. Also according to Wikipedia, their largest airplanes are two 737-200s (now, that is ollllllllllld school), formerly owned by Delta Airlines and, who else, Southwest.

Published
by
G.Ro
on February 27, 2009
in Airlines I'd Like to Fly
. 2 Comments

Fun and Shouting at The Uzbek Consulate – Part I

Think international DMV.

Think international DMV where the temperature is turned up to a sweltering 80 degrees, in a 20 by 20 room, filled with a mass of people, many of whom only speak Russian, many of whom are waving a sheaf of papers ornate with handwritten Cyrillic trying to shove them through one tiny opening in a large piece of, ostensibly bulletproof, plate glass, where one squat man with a tie the color of a mud puddle is leisurely attending to business. Best of all, operating hours are from 10am until 1pm, Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays.

At least the DMV usually has multiple employees working.

I thought my visit to the Consulate of Uzbekistan on Second Avenue in New York City would most likely be short – hand in my visa application, my photos, my passport, and the money order, and be told to come back in ten days to pick up the processed visa. Instead, when I arrived, at 12.02pm, 58 minutes until closing time, I entered the 20th floor foyer to an eerily silent and foreboding scene. It seemed ominiously tranquil. The foyer contained three chairs, two of which were occupied by women sitting quietly, and a door on the right.

I asked one woman if this was the line. Yes, I was informed. Your place in the line is after her,  she said with at thick Russian accent refering to the other woman speaking on her cell phone in Russian, and filling out a paper with Cyrillic letters. Excellent, I thought. It’s must be run like a doctor’s office – they’ll call you when it’s your turn. And what fortune! Only two people in line ahead of me! I pulled out my physics workbook, and began to read. A few people left the door on the right, and a few people entered the foyer. But, despite the traffic of people entering and exiting that mysterious door on the right, no one official ever exited the door on the right to call the next person into the room. When the woman with whom I originally spoke, stood up and entered the door herself, I found myself becoming a mixture of curious and worried about official procedure. I sat for ten minutes after the woman entered the room, becoming ever more worried as to why nothing was happening, with full knowledge that consulate closed at 1pm.

I decided to enter the room myself.

(Stand by for part two, soon!)

Published
by
G.Ro
on February 26, 2009
in General Travel, Story Time, Trips/Ventures/Sojourns and Uncategorized
. 5 Comments

Toronto – the Chilly Way

Did you know that LAN Chile, Chile’s flag carrier, flies nonstop from New York JFK to Toronto? I certainly didn’t. I stumbled upon LAN’s flights by accident when looking for some fares up north. Looks like a generally cheaper option, too, especially because most airlines tend to gouge the soul out of someone for a nonstop from New York or Washington, D.C. to Canada. When the weather gets nicer, I’d love to make a weekend trip to Montreal or Ottawa, one of my favorite cities (Ottawa has a kick-ass national museum), but nonstop flights  usually require one to take out a mortgage or to sell a non-vital organ. (As Homer Simpson said, “Maybe I can just sell one of my livers.”) The only caveat? LAN doesn’t operate their JFK – Toronto (YYZ) service every day of the week, but in some attempt at an estimate, a daytrip from JFK – YYZ on March 6 costs $177 roundtrip.

Published
by
G.Ro
on February 26, 2009
in Advice and LAN Chile
. 0 Comments

Flan the Man

Ben from One Mile at a Time details this weekend’s festivities and provides a link to a Wall Street Journal article on the man who will command our United Airlines flight from Chicago (ORD) to San Francsico (SFO). As about which I wrote  a few days ago, Captain Denny Flanagan is a legendary United captain, known for his superior customer service and welcoming, kind interactions with customers. I’ve never flown with the Flan before, and I am looking forward to the hype. My upgrade to First has cleared on the ORD – SFO flight, so I’ll get a chance to be near the action, with 20 FlyerTalkers on the flight, and plenty of good, nerdy, aviation shmoozing.

Of course, I’m going to post a fullblown trip report with pictures! Stay tuned.

Published
by
G.Ro
on February 26, 2009
in Mileage Runs and United
. 0 Comments

Traveling on Turkish Airlines Next Month

By now, most people have heard about the Turkish Airlines 737-800 that crashed outside of Amsterdam this morning, killing nine of the 135 passengers. I write this post not to reiterate any of the news reports or to speculate on reasons for the crash, but because during my trip to Uzbekistan next month, I’ll travel on three Turkish Airlines (TK) flights, from Istanbul to Tashkent, Tashkent it Istanbul, and Istanbul to Berlin.

Obviously, it’s much too early to know the cause of the crash, and, again, I will not speculate on possible reasons, but, I must admit that the news of the incident has simply heightened my awareness and injected a level of surrealism into my upcoming trip. I won’t lie, it stirs my emotions a bit to know that I will soon fly on airline that had a crash three weeks earlier. I’m sure the feeling will resonate especially on the two Istanbul/Tashkent flights, which are operated by 737s. While I’m not scared of flying TK, who is generally considered an airline with a good onboard product, and who flies modern (though, remember, aircraft age is no inidcator of reliability) and well-maintained fleet,  and I will not attempt to change or cancel my trip, I will simply enter a flight world in which I have never been – on an airline that has a a crash in recent memories. In fact, three weeks from now, when I step aboard a TK airplane, I’m not sure investigators will even have finished compiling a reason for the accident. It’s just a bit harrowing.

Still, as consolation, if I were booked on a Continental Express flight or a US Airways flight after their recent respective accidents, I would most definitely not hesitate to board my US Airways or Continental Express flight. I feel the same way about TK. Aviation accidents, while not without risk, are extremely rare.

I’ll have my first test this weekend. With all the chatter surrounding the safety of small planes following the recent Continental Express Q400 crash, I admit to being just a bit more wary of possible consequences of smaller airplanes. Three of my five flights on my mileage run this weekend will take place on 50 seat Canadair Regional Jets and Embraer ERJ-145s, operated by smaller express airlines Mesa and Trans Sates, contracted for express operations by United. Again, I’m not at all scared to fly, and I know smaller airplanes are just as safe and equipped with all the fancy gadgets as larger commercial airliners, but, I’m sure I’ll just be a bit more sensetive.

Published
by
G.Ro
on February 26, 2009
in News and Turkish Airlines
. 6 Comments

Photo of 787 Line

Even with all the delays, looking at nearly-complete Boeing 787s on the line causes me to salivate a little bit. It’s going to be an absolutely beautiful, modern, streamlined airplane.

(From Seattle PI’s blog On Aerospace by James Wallace).

Published
by
G.Ro
on February 25, 2009
in Aircraft and Photographs
. 0 Comments