The Last Mileage Run of 2016 Part 9: Over St. Louis

If you're just tuning in:

Part 1- Famous Last Words

Part 2- So...Yeah...Um...

Part 3- Miami Elemental

Parts 4 and 5- Over and Out

Part 6- So..Quito...

Part 7- Early Returns

Part 8- How did we get on the Zurich flight??

And now the conclusion....

Well friends another year, another 100,000 miles.  I'm pretty sure I've just about crossed over St. Louis, which by my calculations means I've gotten to my requalification for the year.  It's proved to have been a long day of flying, but that's pretty much what we're going for here.

When we last caught up, our brave mileage runners were landing in JFK, so let's back up a minute and talk about the new JFK Flagship Lounge.  It's only been open a few weeks at most, so I was excited to check it out.  We had about 3 hours, which as it turned out was still not quite enough time to use the lounge entirely.....but that's just how I feel about it.

The space is redone to make the seating more plentiful, and the décor more modern.  It feels like a real first class lounge.  Maybe not as opulent as JAL's Sakura or Qatar's Al Safwa lounges, but probably the best AA has to offer in the US.  It keeps up with BA's and MH's offerings, and beats some of the others, which is an improvement.

 

There's a certain feeling to getting ready to board the last mileage flight of the year.  Just one more jetbridge, one more seat, one more runway, one more takeoff.  You're finally heading home, and delays or no, it looks like you'll get there.  Of course, there's always room for a few more airplane hiccups.  This one was no exception. 

We boarded pretty much on time, even if we personally were a little late to the gate...possibly on account of a completely reasonable amount of free Tattinger on offer at the lounge.  We got safely to our seats, which by a stroke of good luck in routing, were the very comfortable business class on AA's 321-T. 

Then, just as they're finished boarding and preparing to push back...the lights went out.  I don't mean the quick off and on when the plane changes from ground power to regular...it went black, and for awhile.

Let me just illustrate with a real-time photo, shall I?

This is the actual photo I took.  Yes, I took a photo of this.

 

So...um...yeah.

 

This goes on for the better part of a few minutes, then the lights come back up, and the captain announces we have a mechanical issue.  Cue the collective sigh from the cabin.  We then proceed to wait at the gate for more than an hour getting the issue resolved and the sign offs done.  Honestly though, it didn't seem all that long given the rest of the trip.  They weren't seeming shifty about cancellation, so this plane was getting to LAX tonight, dammit. 

 

Update:  And, eventually, it did.  We touched down more than an hour behind schedule, putting us on the gate close to 1am.  Tired, but accomplished, it was finally time to get out of airports and head for home. 

 

In all honesty, if you set out to fly 5 flights to Quito and back in the course of 3 days, including the Northeast in the winter, and you arrive home safely and only one hour late, I think you can feel pretty successful. 

 

Thanks 2016, it's been a trip.  Literally. I've been the equivalent of around the world 4 times, visited new countries, cities, and of course airports.  I've even made some friends along the way.  Can't wait to see what 2017 has in store.  Spoiler alert- it involves more airplanes.

 

Fly Well & Land Safely,

 

~CruisingAltitude

 



The Last Mileage Run of 2016 Part 7: Early Returns

Three Boarding Passes at once- Bingo?

How did we get to here?

Part 1- Famous Last Words

Part 2- So...Yeah...Um...

Part 3- Miami Elemental

Parts 4 and 5- Over and Out

Part 6- So..Quito...

There’s nothing like an airport in the morning- full of possibility, adventure….and well, fake smiling at customs agents and sitting in plastic chairs.  Bright and early to catch the morning flight out of UIO back up to MIA.  So long, Quito, it’s been real (short).  Overall, I still am thinking this is a good mileage run city.  It hasn’t done anything to offend me just yet, unless you count the 45min ride from the airport into town.  That I could do without.  But if you’re only in town for a night, there’s a Wyhndam right at the airport that looks vaguely like something that touched down in Area 51.  So, you know, there are options.  There also seem to be some smaller hotel/guest house in the region if you feel like going ‘off brand’ (the horror).

As was the case yesterday, the views from the UIO-MIA flight are definitely worth writing home about.  The flight path starts climbing out of the valley, past mountains, crater lakes, and glaciers, then heads north for a view of the Panama Canal, before making the MIA southern approach over the keys.  It definitely makes that 5am wake up time closer to worth it, I keep telling myself with increasing ferocity.

 

On another but pertinent topic, I have a theory about these crazy trips that at some point in each one you must necessarily hit “the wall.”  It can be to varying degrees, but it always happens.  It’s that moment where you are forced to reflect with a sense of dread upon the life choices that have brought you this far.  'The Wall' this time around probably set in about the time I paid the taxi driver and headed back into the UIO airport at 6am local time...3am at home.

Staying on your home timezone is all well and good, but when you also have an early morning to go with the late night your jetlag requires, it all starts to catch up with you.  Plus, the hotel restaurant was a sushi bar...in Quito... and I just had to experience it.

A great way to get past 'The Wall' - Upgraded 767 lie flat seats.

The good thing is that once you get past 'The Wall,' the euphoria (or oxygen deprivation) of hitting 30,000 feet comes back, and all is well again.  It helps of course if your plane is comfortable enough for a nap, which due to AA's recent upgrading of their older 767s, it definitely was.  Once I could drag myself away from the sights out the window, I slept off the early morning until descent into MIA.

I could seriously fly this flightplan every day. 

3 down, 2 to go....

~CruisingAltitude

The Last Mileage Run of 2016 Parts 4 and 5: Over and Out

Sunday, 9am, Miami International Airport:

No, this isn't the MIA airport, but it's the flight to there.  Take what you can get.

The story so far:

Part 1- Famous Last Words

Part 2- So...Yeah...Um...

Part 3- Miami Elemental

Another day, another airport lounge.  I’ve decided Centurion lounges need to multiply.  Yes, they’re head and shoulders above the average Admiral’s Club, they have the food and the cocktails, and the spas, but they also have a chronic lack of seating.  They’re one part four star restaurant, one equal part overcrowded high school cafeteria. 

Anyhow, to catch you up.  I woke up this morning at 6:30 am after a few hours sleep at the Element By Westin (registered trademark) and headed down to catch the shuttle…only to learn they run every half hour, on the half hour….and I’d just missed it.  Story of my life this weekend.

It’s been an interesting impromptu overnight in Miami, complete with a nice dinner out at Bulla in Coral Gables.  It was one of those times when I get reminded that, despite enjoying a good trek around the world in a weekend, I am at a basic level, extremely boring.  To encapsulate, last night the words “will they still be serving at 10pm” came out of my mouth.  And I meant it.

It was good!  Next time you're in MIA, I recommend it.

Spoiler alert- yes, bars and restaurants in Miami on at Saturday do, in fact, remain open past 10pm.  They also have a 45 minute wait for a table. At 10pm.  It made for a late night, but you don’t mileage run to catch up on sleep.  No pain, no gain. 

10 minutes to boarding, the rain is tapering off and there's a rainbow in the sky.  Time to pack up…

~CruisingAltitude

Sunday, 11am, seat 3F:

I’M OKAY NOW!  We’re at Flight Level 31, careening over the Caribbean.  All is well that ends in a surprise upgraded cabin interior.  Yes, that is a sentence that I both wrote AND understood!  I'd heard rumor that AA had been overhauling a select few of their old international 757s and putting in lie-flat seating like they have on their new 321Ts.  As it just so happens, we stumbled upon one of them, and thank God for that.

 

After the misconnect, I'm getting rewarded with one of, if not the most, beautiful flights of my year.  Once we climbed out of the overcast skids around MIA airspace, things have opened up and the views are stunning!  The flight path out of MIA takes you first across the water, including Cuba, and other islands, then goes over Panama, then climbing into the Andes, before dipping down through the valleys of Colombia and Ecuador, into Quito. 

I'm just going to let the pictures do the talking on this one...

 

 

 

 

I think I'll end with strength here.  Seriously, it was a beautiful day to fly. 

Now, to see what Quito is all about...

~CruisingAltitude

Last Mileage Run of 2016 Part 2: So....yeah....um...

"The Plane" At TBIT.  Even it was on time, and it woke up in Sydney this 'morning.'

See part 1 here.

Whelp, welcome to mileage season…. It all started so promisingly, it really did.  I was here on time, American.  Let’s just get that in the official record of this weekend.  I got myself up at the ass crack of dawn, no wait…before dawn this morning, got myself in an Uber, showered at the Admirals Club, all of that.  I was READY to do this thing.

Then, life happened.  Let’s just do a recap here.  We had 1hr 15 to make the connection in MIA.  This seemed doable, well outside of the minimum connection time for this airport.  But I should have known better, let’s face it, I DID know better.  I’ve been up nights about this exact thing.

Let’s stop for a moment here and talk about how mileage runs SHOULD be booked, and why it seems like I’m always in an airport lounge.  I’m always in an airport lounge, because that’s what you do on a long layover.  You have a long layover when you don’t want to risk missing your flight.  You don’t want to risk missing your flight when you on a mileage run, and don’t have much (or any) time in the destination.  So, has the point been made?  Yes…no…maybe?? 

For the record, again, I did book a longer connection but an equipment and schedule change forced my hand here. 

Not a bad place to start the day though...

Anyway, back to reality…

Currently sitting on the tarmac.  On an inert 777, waiting to GO BACK TO the gate for more maintenance.  This is a new one for even me.  We pulled back, rolled to the end of the runaway and then thought….yeah, no, just kidding!

Apparently there’s something wrong with the cargo doors.  This is why you should NEVER check luggage!  Come on, we’ve talked about this.  Seriously, people.

I’ve only had one PDB, and it’s not nearly enough right now.  Hope is fast draining from this run, and we haven’t even hit the first flight level yet.  

Update, it’s not the doors…but some badly stacked cargo?  You had one job, seriously.

We have rolled back to the gate, shut down, got towed in, and now they’re apparently down there playing cargo tetrus with a 777-300.  Fantastic.  Remember when I said I was about to lose a friend by bringing them with me on this madness?? Yep, I’m pretty sure those famous last words are hitting home about right now. 

I feel the plane is on the edge of anarchy.  The passengers are starting to migrate toward the now opened aircraft door, and the FAs are playing interference between them and the lonely gate agent who’s been sent down the jetbridge to deal with this (major) kerfulffle.  The snack baskets are even being broken out now, which is never a good sign, despite the sweet and spicy popcorn, which is just delightful.

Anyhow, just several short calls to the AA EXP desk, and a dalliance with the idea of trying to jump ship (plane?) for the 1pm to Lima on LAN, and we’re re-booked on the 9:50 am out of Miami tomorrow down to Quito.  Roll with it, I think.  Now if this plane could just push back so they can open the service carts and bring me my pre-ordered “breakfast” and a(nother) mimosa, that’d be great.  Mileage runs are judgement free zones.

Onwards (and hopefully upwards) from here.

~CruisingAltitude