RTW TP Run in Jan 2026: Day 5 – New York (JFK) to Dallas (DFW)

My flight to Dallas was scheduled to depart from Gate 5 at 2:30pm, and by this point I was very much looking forward to completing the leg, checking into a hotel room, and finally getting some proper sleep.

The inbound aircraft was running a little late, which had a knock-on effect and delayed our departure by around ten minutes.

That wasn’t going to cause me any issues, so I remained fairly relaxed about it. In fairness to American Airlines, they turned the aircraft around efficiently and soon had us back in the air.

I settled into seat 01B and ordered a cranberry juice as my pre-departure drink. There’s something particularly refreshing about cranberry juice — even if it’s artificially sweetened, the fruit content makes it feel vaguely virtuous.

After take-off, I was offered a bowl of warm nuts along with another cranberry juice. At that point, I decided I was fully committed to cranberries.

For dinner, I chose a linguine pasta dish, which turned out to be hot, rich and very tasty. It came with a basic salad and a rather odd amuse-bouche, neither of which made much of an impression.

Dessert was a small tub of Häagen-Dazs strawberry ice cream, which was very enjoyable. It wasn’t Ben & Jerry’s, but beggars can’t be choosers.

I dozed for much of the remainder of the flight. Being in an aisle seat, I had no control over the window blind, so there wasn’t much opportunity for photos. I also noted that, ignoring the positioning flights, this was the first sector of the trip without a lie-flat bed.

After a smooth landing and a surprisingly long taxi, we arrived at Gate A36 in Terminal A.

Deplaning began quickly, and it didn’t take long to walk through the terminal and out to the kerbside, where I ordered an Uber to take me to my hotel in Irving.

In hindsight, I’d made a slight misjudgement with my hotel booking. I’d opted for the cheapest Hilton option rather than properly factoring in convenience and location.

While still on the aircraft, I briefly toyed with the idea of visiting a Cheesecake Factory near DFW. I could probably have justified another meal, but common sense prevailed. An Uber to the hotel and a long sleep felt like the right decision.

The Uber driver spent much of the twenty-minute journey giving me a whistle-stop tour of Texan history. I, on the other hand, was keen to relax quietly in the back of his enormous truck. You’ve got to love them — big and brash.

Checking in at the Hampton Inn Dallas/Irving–Las Colinas proved to be more effort than expected. I struggled to understand the front desk agent, who clearly didn’t enjoy his job and made little attempt to hide it.

The room itself was classic old-school Hampton Inn — very dated, but at that point I was simply grateful to climb into bed.

Next up: A gallery of photos from Day 5 of my Round The World trip of a lifetime.