Waiting at the gate in Shannon
Waiting at the gate in Shannon

Tier Point Run to Hawaii/San Juan in Feb 2014: Day 2 – Shannon SNN to New York JFK

By Nige on February 27, 2014 at 10:47 am
Type: Post
Story: Tier Point Run to Hawaii/San Juan in Feb 2014 Category: Travel
Tags: British Airways | JFK | New York | Shannon | SNN | Trips | USA

Once we got the call to reboard, we were back on the plane within a minute, and it was only another 5 or 10 mins before we were taking off for JFK.

I didn’t notice the time, but it felt like we were about on time.

The waiting area at Shannon
The waiting area at Shannon
The waiting area at Shannon
The waiting area at Shannon

We quickly got our iPads, and salad starter delivered.

The FA noticed that I had a Midland’s accent – it does annoy me how people can read me like a book, and I am clueless with regional accents (other than the obvious ones).

There were a good selection of movies on the iPad including Gravity and Captain Philips, so the latest blockbusters were in evidence.

With no one in 1J, I had the iPad playing Captain Philips, I had my laptop open preparing blog entries, and I had my table laid out for food.

Taxiing at Shannon
Taxiing at Shannon
Taxiing at Shannon
Taxiing at Shannon

We were served with a basic salad with an interesting Apple Balsamic Vinegar dressing. It was nice but nothing special – the salad was a bit too basic to be honest.

This was followed by beautiful New Zealand Lamb – a rack of 3 ribs which was lovely, served with mash, asparagus and a very tangy ratatouille.

Pudding was a lovely mixed berry brioche pudding with vanilla anglaise.

New Zealand lamb served on board the BA flight to New York JFK
New Zealand lamb served on board the BA flight to New York JFK
New Zealand lamb served on board the BA flight to New York JFK
New Zealand lamb served on board the BA flight to New York JFK

It was about this point that I started to feel a little alone, and lost without my other half.

She was working hard back home and she said yesterday that the house felt really big when I wasn’t there. That’s probably because I’m so tall, I block most of her view!

It hit me how long a trip this was. It would be almost 10 hours from London City to New York JFK: just over an hour from London City to Shannon, then another 8 hours (just short of) to get to New York JFK. I was 3 hours in, and I had run out of stuff I want to do.

I needed to be on the net and I didn’t have access.

The contents of my vanity case on board the BA flight to New York JFK
The contents of my vanity case on board the BA flight to New York JFK
The contents of my vanity case on board the BA flight to New York JFK
The contents of my vanity case on board the BA flight to New York JFK

I was keeping on top of work stuff, since my Blackberry was happy to connect through to the OnAir service, so that was great, and unfortunately I couldn’t get on the net from that thing. I was going to have to just suffer in silence.

The captain came out and said hello. He was admiring my snaps taken on the way out of SNN. Nice touch.

Was thoroughly bored at the point I realised there was another 5 hours of flying to do! It was a long old flight this one. Tried texting Vick from my Blackberry, but that wasn’t that easy to start with, and I wondered whether it had actually gone through. She hadn’t responded, and she normally does so fairly quickly. Never mind.

Watched Gravity which was just as good the second time around, although I still don’t think there’s that much of a story line to it. A little too much of Sandra Bullock squealing. For goodness sake she’s a trained astronaut!

The view of the A318 aircraft from the terminal building at JFK
The view of the A318 aircraft from the terminal building at JFK
The view of the A318 aircraft from the terminal building at JFK
The view of the A318 aircraft from the terminal building at JFK

I had some biscuits from the fabulous crew, and then had afternoon tea, and before I knew it we were about to land about 30 mins earlier than I expected.

Landing was very smooth. New York was full of cloud and it looked a bit miserable. However it was above freezing so that was good. What did annoy me though was that we ended waiting on the taxiway for 20 mins whilst aircraft cleared our gate area. You think you have gained time for it to immediately be taken back.

Anyway welcome to New York…


Tier Point Run to Hawaii/San Juan in Feb 2014

Author Bio: About Nige

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Nige is one of the co-founders of The Billingham Blog and works as a freelance management consultant. He loves to fly in his spare time!

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