Tier Point Run to Hawaii/San Juan in Feb 2014: Day 2 – New York EWR to Los Angeles LAX

So I now had the challenge of getting across New York from JFK to Newark. If you look at a map, the two airports are (roughly) equidistant from Manhattan and (roughly) on the same level.

I whizzed through JFK T7 – we arrived as a domestic flight which means no immigration and without any baggage I was through to the AirTrain in no time.

First whoosh of cold air as I walked across from T7 to the AirTrain, but no where near as cold as the last time I did this in the opposite direction, when you couldn’t afford to spend more than 5 mins out in the open air for risk of freezing.

AirTrain to Jamaica was quick enough – it took 20 mins from deboarding the plane and I was fighting to get through the ticket barrier – both metro tickets that Vick had given me from our last trip to New York didn’t have enough cash on them (typical – her one contribution to my trip).

So I wasted 5 mins queuing up at the ticket machines to fill up my pass. Had to pay with credit card – no cash accepted. Topped up with $20.

Then I walked through to the LIRR ticket machines where I couldn’t use my credit card – I had to pay cash.

Got a return for $19. LIRR train was really fast – only took a further 15 mins to get to Penn Station. Why haven’t we used this service before, rather than hacking around on the A subway?

So Penn Station looked a bit mad – people everywhere – signs everywhere. I managed to find a ticket machine to get a ticket to Newark.

Paid for a return, but I only picked up one ticket – I assumed it would work the same as the LIRR ticket (return on one ticket), but I think I should have waited for the second ticket.

Anyway, someone got a free ride to the airport! The ticket cost me $25 return (er, I mean single).

There was an almighty scrum to get to the train. It was running a good 10 mins late anyway, but they don’t announce the platform until the last minute and the stairs down to the platform were really narrow – what an odd arrangement.

Then it was off to get another AirTrain. I asked whether I could use my Metro ticket (well I can at the other AirTrain). No – get a ticket from the machine. Got a return for $11 and waited for both tickets this time.

AirTrain took a further 10 mins or so, and I was finally at Newark Terminal A about 90 mins after getting off BA001 at JFK. So I’m happy with that – consistent with other reports and other than “losing” one ticket, all went according to plan.

So in Terminal A why not provide some directions to the AA gates? I think they must assume everyone checks in first.

Anyway, managed to get a seat and it took about 20 mins or so to get to Newark.

Security queue was really long and there was no fast track access. Took about 20 mins to get through and then the Admiral’s Club at Newark was rubbish.

Minimal food and the bar was chocker with regulars. Anyway wasn’t there that long. Just long enough to upload some updates to the London City-JFK flights.

Priority boarding was fine, but I was disappointed to find a woman and baby in the seat next to me – and I was hoping for some sleep on this flight. Nightmare.

Well first impressions clearly didn’t work in this case, well perhaps they partly did. The child did scream for most of the night, but the woman was charming.

She was a (relatively) well known movie producer famous for 300 and Sin City. She’s currently working on 300 part 2, and Sin City part 2, commuting between Los Angeles and Newark.

She was heading to Los Angeles for the Oscars. I told her that I would be reporting this meeting as my claim to fame. However I subsequently tried to work out her name from IMDB.com and it’s not that obvious. I didn’t want to ask her name for the obvious reason of not appearing to come on to her.

Anyway, the flight was packed – it took an age to load, and we left about 20 mins after we were supposed to. I had the longest conversation I’ve ever had with a stranger on a plane – this producer woman was a very arty, creative type and we talked about all sorts from the various roles in movie production to how crappy TOWIE was which is obviously shown in the US now.

Food was pretty decent. I had the beef which was lovely. Salad served up initially was a lot better than BA’s efforts yesterday on BA001, but I passed on the ice cream. However I couldn’t turn down the warm cookie later on.

Arrival into Los Angeles was delayed a little, but nothing substantial, and I rang the hotel to arrange to be collected. The shuttle bus arrived soon after I got to the correct stand, and within 10 mins I was at the hotel.

Check in was fine – they stuck me on the top floor rather than give me a University Wing room which I was disappointed with, but the hotel is a bog standard Hilton Garden Inn.

Follow the whole story here: Tier Point Run to Hawaii/San Juan in Feb 2014