Tier Point Run to Hawaii in Nov 2022 – Day 5 – Los Angeles (LAX) to New York (JFK)

By Nige on Mon 14 Nov 2022 at 20:24
Type: Post
Story: Tier Point Run to Hawaii in Nov 2022
Tags: American Airlines | JFK | LAX | Los Angeles | New York | Trips

So my decision to head to TBIT turned into a bit of a nightmare to be honest. Starbucks at TBIT is normally disorganised with a very long queue, but I had never seen it as bad as this before.

Flight: AA0002 Equip: A321T
Sched Depart: 08:30 Actual: 08:24
Sched Arrival: 17:08 Actual: 16:42
Takeoff: 08:45 Landing: 16:31

I jogged to the Flagship Lounge at T4; dropped my bag and jogged off to TBIT. When I arrived at Starbucks, there was a mass of passengers, but they weren’t queuing to order drinks, but to pick up drinks. There must have been 30-40 passengers waiting very impatiently for their drinks, debating whether they would have to abandone their attempt at a caffeine injection so that they could get to their gates on time.

The queue to order was relatively short, so I decided I may as well start queuing. I could always jump ship if it looked like it wasn’t going to work out. I waited 10 mins to order and the Starbucks rep advised it was likely going to be a 25 min wait for my drink. That would still give me 35 mins before the departure time if my next flight. Worth giving it a shot!

I spoke with a number of people waiting for their drinks. It’s interesting how people will open up if they have something in common with you. In this instance the common element was our unhappiness in waiting for our drinks and our need to vent. Apparently, most of the orders were mobile orders and the Starbucks staff simply couldn’t keep up with them.

Once I had finally got my drink I had to jog back to the lounge, grab my bag and then jog up to Gate 47B. Boarding hadn’t quite commenced and I could see the CK rep, but I didn’t get a call to pre-board this time.

On into seat 06F and I was pleased when we pushed back a little ahead of schedule. The captain was confident in suggesting we would arrive early as well.

After abstaining of everything on my flight from Honolulu, I decided I would partake in most things on this flight. I was feeling hungry and I was looking forward to some breakfast. We started off with a drinks service, so I ordered a cup of tea. That tea came as a mug of hot water with a packaged up tea bag. No milk and no stirrer. I managed somehow!

Breakfast was pretty good. Provided with a table cloth (nice touch) and then a plate of fresh fruit to start with and later a separate hot plate of the All American Breakfast, comprising scrambled eggs, bacon and potatoes.

I enjoyed a bit of a sleep as well. Partly on the basis that I couldn’t find anything of interest in the movie selection. Paid for wifi access for the entire flight so I could stay in contact with the Vickster.

Final approach into JFK was a little unusual. We seemed to circle the airport to the west and north, then dropped really low over the Atlantic and came in over the water. The fact that we were so low over the water for so long, does make you wonder what’s going on. I was the only passenger with the blind up, so no one else was probably aware.

We arrived into Gate 47, next to the gate we left from on Fri late on. We were 20 mins or so early, although I didn’t really have any challenges in respect to timings: I had about 4 hours before my flight back to Heathrow.

I headed off to the Air Train. It was chillier in New York compared to Los Angeles and Honolulu. No surprise there!

Follow the whole story here: Tier Point Run to Hawaii in Nov 2022