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#953271 by Murraymint
27 Nov 2019, 08:51
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After a fantastic couple of days in NYC during which we had clear blue sky for our visit to the Freedom Tower Observatory and a fantastic meal in the River Cafe at Brooklyn Bridge (not cheap but great food and views over Manhattan), we headed up to Boston for a few days and really enjoyed visiting the city - nice and compact for getting around the sights. We had 1 rainy day so took the 45 min drive to one of the New Hampshire Malls and replaced our iPhones. No sales tax in NH so significant savings to be made over UK/Europe prices.

We flew back to JFK for our UK flight with Delta on their CRJ900. Short 43 minute hop in First with very comfortable seats in a 2-1 configuration. I thought I’d ask if it was possible to check our luggage straight through to MAN even though we had separate tickets and one was in First and the other in PE, fully expecting the answer to be no. However, the Delta check in lady said that this should be OK and went to the next desk to find a code she needed for the system and 2 minutes later it was done. Tried to get into the Sky Lounge but didn’t realise we could only do this if our TATL flight was in Upper or we had status with Delta or VS. No problem though as we only had 30 minutes to wait until boarding. Flight down to JFK was smooth and uneventful.

Once there, we had some time to grab some food and some final shopping before heading over to gate B22 where G-VROM was waiting. Boarding was called around an hour before departure and the gate agent caused a few panics when she mistakenly announced the flight was for LHR.

Pushed back on time for our expected flight time of 5 hours 56 minutes. Dinner was served fairly quickly and we both had the beef stroganoff which was fine. Time for some messaging on the WiFi to let family know where we were. It was a bit patchy at first but settled down after around 30 minutes. Didn’t really manage to sleep much before it was time for breakfast and we landed 30 minutes ahead of schedule.

Had some problems connecting the air bridge and eventually a tug had to be called to push us back a bit- not sure if it was a fault with the bridge or if we had parked too far up but it delayed our disembark for around 15 minutes. As we were at the new pier we then had our 10 mile hike to immigration (or at least that’s how it felt after a sleepless flight) but we were through quickly and the cases were coming through as we arrived at the carousel.

Over to the Hilton for a few hours sleep and freshen up before our EasyJet flight back home to Paphos.

Thanks for reading

PS Yes, MAN security was a disaster again this morning - I overheard 2 agents saying that if any bag had a strap overhanging the tray, it would be diverted at the scanner leading to a 40 minute delay at manual search >-(

PPS - Mrs M had a preorder to pick up at Boots in T1. The staff were just as surly and unhelpful as the security staff. So that’s it - we’ll now connect through the London airports (or GLA for MCO) - MAN is to be avoided in future for us - sorry to those staff that are helpful. Rant over ;-)

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