Tuesday, December 13, 2016

The Last Mileage Run of 2016 Part 8: How Did We Get on the Zurich Flight???

Final Approach into MIA
We landed early into Miami, with time enough to hit the Centurion club (yes again, this is how it works) for a shower and massage, before heading out to the next plane to get up to JFK.  The next flight was just one of those flights that seems more entertaining than it should be.  First off, it was an aging 757, however, it was configured for international service, so the Frist cabin was set up with 16 angle-flat seats, rather than the usual 22 recliners.  This was good, however, the lack of an update was showing.  My IFE did this every 10 minutes, and nothing seemed to fix it:



Aside from the service and the destination, how you feel a bout a flight segment generally has to do with the people, or person, sitting next to you.  This one was a real winner.  "Mr. 3F" sat down and immediately started talking loudly on the phone, making sure each person he called knew that he was a- on a plane b- going to New York for some very important meeting, and c- would also be in LA later in the week, presumably for some even more important meetings.  He then took a breather from these calls to aggressively flag down a FA, and insist (twice) that they hang his coat that very instant.  It was at this point that I tried to think of the best way to signal that we weren't together...in any way, shape, or form.

Believe it or not, Mr. 3F wasn't even the most notable passenger in the cabin. 1E had a hair color and style that would have made Cruella DeVil jealous, whilst 3B seemed completely befuddled by the buttons to operate his seat.  He spent a full 15 minutes trying to figure out the 'seat forward' and 'seat back' functions.  Dude.... it's two buttons, and they're well labeled.

Since my IFE was conclusively broken, I pulled out my laptop, and watched some saved shows I have on iTunes.  Mr. 3F then spent the remainder of the flight watching my laptop over my shoulder while he ate his salad.  He didn't even try to hide it....I almost offered my headphone splitters to him...

It was about this time in the flight that I happened to notice that the airplane itself was even having an off night, judging by the monitors in the cabin which appeared to show our final destination as Zurich??


I checked and double checked my memory....but I was pretty sure I hadn't put together THAT good of a mileage running itinerary.  According to 'The Plane" we weren't even making a detour to let passengers off in JFK.

What's unsettling about this is either a- I boarded the wrong flight, or b- the computer system has no clue where we're headed.  The times, and remaining time in the flight screens were likewise completely incorrect.  Since I was in all honestly, reasonably sure the pilots had this in hand, my next thought was how disturbing it is that AA still considers the 757 to be an acceptable choice for TATL flights...

Anyhow, spoiler alert- we did, in fact, touch down in JFK on time, giving us ample time to check out the newly renovated Flagship Lounge (see next post).  Priorities, priorities.

~CruisingAltitude

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