
So after much eating, now was time to drive back to Boston airport, drop of the car, catch the bus back to the terminal and check in. This time we were on AA again, so to the AA check in desks where we were quickly checked in and given our boarding passes. Fast track security was just that, fast.
Off to the AA Admirals Club, access courtesy of Amex Plats. Again, like at JFK, this lounge was quite basic. And was also busy, we only just managed to find two free seats together! Free WiFi, limited drinks and paid for food.
Down to the gate and boarding announced, first on again, to find a cabin crew member sitting in our seats eating his McDonalds! He apologised and quickly cleaned the area, and we were sat in 1D and 1F on this B737-800. This aircraft had AA’s new domestic First class seats so it was comfortable and clean. We had to wait a while for a pre departure drink as they hadn’t yet loaded the carts. Once they were loaded we got our drinks.
Safety demo on the monitors that didn’t seem to know if they wanted to be up or down, then we were taking off. Drinks offered and again got a full sized can. I was sticking to soft drinks on this apparently 1 hour 20min flight (was under an hour, nearer 40m!), unlike the gentleman in 1C who seemed to be trying to get as much booze as possible. A glass of Baileys before take off, a mini bottle of red wine after take off, a gin and tonic after that and another full glass of Baileys in his hand for landing. I spent the flight looking out the window and it went very fast.
Once on the ground at JFK we had about a 7 minute wait for the gate to be connected as they weren’t ready for us to arrive early. Off the plane, through to baggage claim, where we were met by a woman who helped us with our bags to take to our waiting car. The only problem was that we had to wait about 30 minutes before the belt even started moving! Eventually reunited with our luggage, the woman took us outside and handed us over to our driver to the Mandarin Oriental. Even with rush hour traffic we made it in less than 50 minutes, avoiding the highway.