or to arrive as the case might be. In either case, you leave the airport late and arrive even later when you count the time YOU have spent and the wear and tear on your body. Of course, when flying East to West this can be much more easily accomplished than the other way around as the clock time can be significantly less than the travel time.
Trust me – do not go down the road of “it is really….” because it isn’t. The time where you currently are sitting, standing, or sleeping IS the correct time. Even when your body, phone, or computer doesn’t agree.
Anyway – Lyft back to Newark was easy. Checking a bag was easy. Finding out where to print my boarding pass was a bit more challenging as was security. EWR doesn’t have the new machines so it is back to taking everything out of bags that is electronic. Queue in all those who can’t manage to empty pockets or can’t figure out that the leather thing around their waist with a large buckle is actually a belt…
What I also found interesting is that this particular airport, and maybe it is true for other US airports, doesn’t care about your actual flight departure. The good and the bad? There is even more opportunity for the airline to send your luggage on a different flight than you. I am not completely sure that this particular practice meets common sense for security precautions. Are you more likely to check nasty shit if you know that it will be traveling on a plane other than yours?
I checked earlier flights – they were booked solid. The standby list was too long to bother. So imagine me bored, sitting in the airport under a huge A/C blower with a mask on. I am wearing my jeans jacket. It is too cold for almost anyone to sit in the area.
We will not talk about flight delays. At least we took our scheduled plane, even if there were arrival delays, delays due to thunderstorms on the outbound flight path, and, finally, cleaning delays. The new 777’s are not small planes. It takes a dozen people an hour to clean the thing.
At least it looks like our flight crew will still be able to get us to SFO and the flight will go out tonight. Not so for the Salt Lake City passengers. Mechanical issue, plane swap. Smaller plane. 40+ people bumped… and it was obviously the last flight of the night…
