Thursday, June 29, 2006
The Adventure begins
6/27/06
I started writing this from the American Airlines terminal at Newark Liberty International Airport. Thankfully I had little trouble checking my luggage; the skycap did question me when I said I was permitted to have luggage that weighed up to 70 lbs. because I would be flying on an international flight later today. Within five minutes (probably less) we went into the terminal with the baggage, he asked a ticket agent about the weight restriction … and I was good to go.
But it wouldn’t be a smooth walk down to the gate. Apparently, almost everyone in the tri-state area is fleeing (I think it’s the crumby weather, but that’s only a theory). The lines to go through security were incredibly long and people don’t follow simple directions, which makes it even worse.
Making the adventure even more tortuous (and torturous) was the fact that we sat on the tarmac for more than three hours in Newark. Apparently, all the traffic in the ENTIRE airport had to be rerouted to one runway and just caused havoc on the flow of incoming and departing traffic. While I was pissed off about the great delay – I was supposed to meet my aunt and cousins for lunch during my layover, which didn’t happen due to time constraints – I at least made up for some lost sleep from last night.
What might be even more of a shanda (loosely translated from Yiddish, it means a disgrace or travesty) is that they didn’t serve any food on the plane. Yes, I know you can buy some packaged muffin for $3 or a nasty tuna fish wrap for $4, but one might think the airline would be a little proactive and do something nice for their customers who are basically held captive on the plane while some stressed-out air traffic controller deems which flights go out in which order. Some CSR is going to get a little piece of my mind when I finally get to LA – I pity that person J (Actually, it wasn’t a terrible conversation, because they just “yessed” me to death, which I despise, but that’s what they get paid to do. When I told them that they could have at least offered a snack or something at no cost, the scoffed at the idea. Talk about customer service)/
After grabbing a bite to eat (I was about ready to gnaw off my own arm from starvation) it was then about 3:30 p.m. and time to mull around the airport for a while. Athletes and managers started arriving and we actually had an opportunity to introduce ourselves. Different than last year, where more than 700 athletes, managers, and coaches filled an entire El Al terminal at JFK, our group of about 150 flying to Australia seemed much more manageable and in the time we had to kill before departure people did the “meet and greet” thing. There are a lot of athletes from the northeast and from the California area, and a lot of the athletes are young (high school- and college-age). While I’m not one to feel old around “youngins” I was feeling like an elder statesman of the group. A few people asked where I went to school, I think more out of habit than anything else.
A few beers and a lot of laughs later and we’re finally getting ready to board the plane. I’ve been corrected in my calculations and have found out that the flight is 14-15 hours, rather than the 18 that I was expecting. Still, it’s a long flight no matter how you cut it. We should be arriving in Sydney around 7:30 a.m. local time. More to come from the other side.
I started writing this from the American Airlines terminal at Newark Liberty International Airport. Thankfully I had little trouble checking my luggage; the skycap did question me when I said I was permitted to have luggage that weighed up to 70 lbs. because I would be flying on an international flight later today. Within five minutes (probably less) we went into the terminal with the baggage, he asked a ticket agent about the weight restriction … and I was good to go.
But it wouldn’t be a smooth walk down to the gate. Apparently, almost everyone in the tri-state area is fleeing (I think it’s the crumby weather, but that’s only a theory). The lines to go through security were incredibly long and people don’t follow simple directions, which makes it even worse.
Making the adventure even more tortuous (and torturous) was the fact that we sat on the tarmac for more than three hours in Newark. Apparently, all the traffic in the ENTIRE airport had to be rerouted to one runway and just caused havoc on the flow of incoming and departing traffic. While I was pissed off about the great delay – I was supposed to meet my aunt and cousins for lunch during my layover, which didn’t happen due to time constraints – I at least made up for some lost sleep from last night.
What might be even more of a shanda (loosely translated from Yiddish, it means a disgrace or travesty) is that they didn’t serve any food on the plane. Yes, I know you can buy some packaged muffin for $3 or a nasty tuna fish wrap for $4, but one might think the airline would be a little proactive and do something nice for their customers who are basically held captive on the plane while some stressed-out air traffic controller deems which flights go out in which order. Some CSR is going to get a little piece of my mind when I finally get to LA – I pity that person J (Actually, it wasn’t a terrible conversation, because they just “yessed” me to death, which I despise, but that’s what they get paid to do. When I told them that they could have at least offered a snack or something at no cost, the scoffed at the idea. Talk about customer service)/
After grabbing a bite to eat (I was about ready to gnaw off my own arm from starvation) it was then about 3:30 p.m. and time to mull around the airport for a while. Athletes and managers started arriving and we actually had an opportunity to introduce ourselves. Different than last year, where more than 700 athletes, managers, and coaches filled an entire El Al terminal at JFK, our group of about 150 flying to Australia seemed much more manageable and in the time we had to kill before departure people did the “meet and greet” thing. There are a lot of athletes from the northeast and from the California area, and a lot of the athletes are young (high school- and college-age). While I’m not one to feel old around “youngins” I was feeling like an elder statesman of the group. A few people asked where I went to school, I think more out of habit than anything else.
A few beers and a lot of laughs later and we’re finally getting ready to board the plane. I’ve been corrected in my calculations and have found out that the flight is 14-15 hours, rather than the 18 that I was expecting. Still, it’s a long flight no matter how you cut it. We should be arriving in Sydney around 7:30 a.m. local time. More to come from the other side.
# posted by Matthew Halpern @ 7:59 PM 
