Tier Point Run to Hawaii/San Juan in Feb 2014: Day 8 – Los Angeles LAX to New York EWR

So, this was my last time in the Flagship Lounge at LAX for a while. I’ve never thought of it as being that special, but it has turned in to my base on this trip – I’ve been in to this lounge/airport 4 times now in just a few days. So I’ve grown a little fond of it.

The chicken/turkey sausage was out again for breakfast. I wasn’t going to indulge – I was going to have the meal on board the LAX-EWR flight. Actually that was an early thought – I couldn’t last that long, so I had to dive into some food with another mini bottle of ketchup.

I was also planning on using GoGo as well – I like to keep up to speed on what’s going on.

I held a tele conference call with the offshore guys at 7am UK time (which was 9pm the previous night in Hawaii) which went very well – the guys seem to have control over delivery which is good.

Got one with the onshore guys at 3pm UK time soon (5am PST) so I was hoping they are in line and all was well.

I hate worrying about work, which is why I at least try and keep in contact and sort issues out before they have time to escalate without anyone to direct resolution to them.

Headed down to the gate with about 35 mins to go before scheduled departure. The flight was leaving from Gate 42B.

Boarding had already started, so I walked straight through and on to the plane. I was booked into 4B which was the second row back on a 737, and as I took everything I needed from my laptop back and stored it in the back pockets of the seat in front, I got another one of those situations – my neighbour says to his mate “Oh are you sitting over there?”

He points to 3D – the bulkhead aisle seat. So considerate, me offers to swap so they could sit together. That left me in a bulkhead seat. Never mind – it would have been a bigger problem if it was a night flight.

Pushed back from the gate 5 mins early, and hit the runway early as well. Was expecting to get to EWR about 30 mins prior to the scheduled arrival. That would increase my connection time – I had plenty of time anyway. I was now thinking I may pop my head out of Penn Station into Manhattan and take in a few sights before continuing on to Jamaica.

Got on line very quickly and was keeping my blog and FT up to date. Was going to try and exchange messages with V later on. Skype seemed to be connected but I understood that calls were not allowed. I might just try…

Breakfast was served – see piccie below. Fruit was nice and fresh; biscuit was warm and soft in the centre, and the granola was really nice (sweet enough for me with honey).

Warm cookie went down nicely, and then a berry sorbet was dished out. Lovely.

Flight seemed to shoot by – GoGo had kept me busy with things going on over the Internet. Landing was relatively smooth – I’ve never landed at EWR before so it was good to experience something new. We arrived about 30 mins early so it’s given me a head start to get across NYC.

Chatted with the CC about the fact that this was the last 2 class LAX-EWR service. Apparently there was another one tomorrow but that was it. AA doesn’t have enough equipment for its requirements apparently hence they are switching planes around. They sounded a tad disappointed that this route was coming to an end.

Anyway headed off to seek out the New Jersey AirTrain, and my trip across NYC had begun…

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