From Home to New York

Practice is not making me more patient  on long distance flights. I flew to Sydney on Wednesday afternoon and spent the night in a hotel near the airport. After loitering around the airport on Thursday morning, I was annoyed by an incident at the departure gate.

Previously I had bought an exit row seat. I had chosen 58B – the middle of 3 because I had been frequently bumped last year in the aisle seat and disturbed by the light from the nearby galley. I checked in about 7.15am. At the departure gate I was given a new boarding pass – 58C. ‘No, thank you,” – or words to that effect  I politely said. I was directed to another person who had a cabin seating plan. He said that there was a problem with the tray table mechanism of 58B and that 58C was a good seat too.  I said I had paid specifically for the middle seat and was unhappy about the situation. I did not properly hear his mumbled response. I asked if the fault would mean that the seat would be empty for the whole flight.  He said he would probably put a cabin crew member in it. Odd, I thought.  I could think of no alternative other than to say ‘OK’ and go and sit down. Soon after I arrived at the seat, a couple arrived with boarding passes for 58 A and 58B. They had checked in at about 8am and had firstly been told that there were no 2 empty seats together. Then the person had said that they could sit in 58A and B.   I donot know if either the person who checked them in, or the man I spoke to at the gate knew that I had prepaid for the seat rather than just having requesting it when I checked in. I think it should have been clear from the system. Either way ,the man at the departure gate lied to me. The couple were very pleasant but I was annoyed, and, despite chatting to Chris intermittently through the night was annoyed with the situation, particularly because there was a bunch of teenage girls on the plane on a dance group trip who all made several trips throughout the night to get snacks from the galley and stand in the doorway disregarding the effect the light had on nearby people .  I had very little sleep. I am unsure whether to complain  formally. There was nothing obviously wrong with the tray table mechanism.

After clearing customs at LA, we sat on the ground for ages while the bag for a non-show passenger was removed from the plane.  Half way through the safety demo , the plane stopped taxiing and the captain announced that they had just found out that the passenger had checked in 2 bags, so we had to go back and sit for a while longer while they searched for the 2^nd bag.  Surely someone should have looked at a list to say how many bags he had checked in initially? Ah well, the wait was made easier by chatting to the very pleasant cabin crew seated opposite us.

The very pleasant couple next to me had booked a hotel in NY that was  turned out to be 2 blocks away from  the subway stop where I was due to change subway lines on the way from the airport to my apartment so they came with me and saved themselves a fair bit of money on the taxi ride they were proposing to take.

It was cold and overcast walking the few blocks to the apartment, but the leaves on the trees were just about to open up. I was happy that I would see the trees become green in the time I would be here. It was lovely to be welcomed warmly by Warren and Susan and shown to the charming room.  There is plenty of cupboard and drawer space and I delighted in  finding homes for my meagre pile of belongings. .

When I left Sydney I had a head cold. It was not helped by lack of sleep, and stuffy aircraft air and I snuffled and sneezed my way though last night.