mytbc

To Philadelphia!

This is a rewrite of a FlyerTalk trip report that I posted here after flying from Glasgow to Atlanta via Philadelphia in July/August 2009. I have edited it to make it more interesting to non air-nerds.

I remember sitting with Katie in January 2009, preparing to fly back home after three weeks with her, not knowing when I was going to see her again. I’m man enough to admit there were tears, some of which weren’t hers. I’d practically demanded that she come visit me in July, since it would be my birthday and my graduation. It’s not that I care about either, but they’d make an excellent excuse. There were probably many flaws in that plan, but the biggest is that goodbyes are hard for Katie. Not that they’re easy for me, far from it in fact, but I am at least able to detach myself from her, and make my way through the security checkpoint on my own. When she’d previously said goodbye to me, I honestly don’t think she’d have managed without her parents, pastor and best friend to drag her away from me.

So, then, if she’s not able to leave me, how do we solve this problem? Why, it’s quite simple. She would visit me in July then, as my lease ran out at the end of that month, I would save on a month’s rent payment and fly out to spend some time over there. The saving a month’s rent was how I was able to justify the expense of flying during the summer. My previous trip, three weeks at Christmas with KLM, had cost just £330; flights for the dates I was looking at were about £500. I was a bit cash poor, and wasn’t able to commit to my August visit, while Katie was able to commit to July. At the time she booked, her cheapest flights were with Continental Airlines, via Katie’s favourite airport, Newark Liberty.

While cash poor, I did have an emergency fund available to me. For the past few years I’d been overpaying tax on a number of jobs, always meaning to apply for it back. So, I waited until April and sent Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs a nice letter, explaining that I’d had some work, and believed I’d paid too much tax. They agreed with me, and sent me a nice cheque back for about £650. I immediately paid it into my account, waited the three days for it to clear (which it did, reassuringly Her Majesty is not bankrupt), then went on t’internet to look at flight prices. To fly back on Katie’s flights was going to cost £685. I’m not a huge fan of swearing, but fuck that. I found that US Airways would give me similar flight times for £585. I love Katie, dearly, but not enough to pay £100 to sit next to her for twelve hours, apparently

Now that you’ve had a four paragraph back story, we fast forward to the penultimate day of the month of July (which was an incredible, incredibly month). Katie and I had arrived back in Glasgow on Wednesday night, after five days at Soul Survivor, and would be flying out on Friday morning. This gave us Thursday for laundry, packing, and, for me anyway, wandering around my empty house realising that after three years, I would never enter her ever again. While I was gripped by excitement to be flying to spend five whole weeks with the Fullers, there was some maudlin in among my feelings. Still, we had packing to do. Katie, seeing as she has a vagina, had about four bags of stuff to pack in her two suitcases and giant carry on bag. My penis and I wouldn’t normally pack that much, but I was leaving my house, and finding stuff all over the place I’d forgotten to take to my mum’s house but that I wanted to keep. So, between us, we had 4 suitcases, her giant carry on, and my rucksack stuffed to the seams.

My usual trick of leaving it all to the last minute had meant that I had only finished packing and cleaning the house about twenty minutes before our taxi was due to pick us up. Taxi? I know, my normal mode of transport to the airport is the excellent Glasgow Flyer bus service, but with so many cases, and the bus station a 40 minute walk away, and a very lazy girlfriend, I decided a Taxi was our best bet. Besides, with Hamden cabs it was only £4 more than the bus would have cost for the two of us. Now, when it comes to airport arrival times, I always err on the side of caution. That’s why with my flight departing at 1015, I was at the airport for 0630. Yeah! Not quite as bad as my last trip, when I was at the airport for 2am for a 6am flight, even though none of the check-in counters opened until 4am.

We both got checked in, passing the extra security questions for US bound passengers, in about ten minutes, then we headed upstairs for security. Ever since I’d discovered a cheap pair of safety boots in a shoe shop when I was 17, all my shoes had been steel toe-capped. This gets very annoying when flying, so for this journey I’d bought myself some nice North Face sandals, and security was a breeze. One of the things I love about Glasgow Airport is that the Boots the chemist inside still runs their magical £2.99 meal deal. Even better, I’d bought five of them that month, so I was due a free one. So for £2.99, Katie and I each had an extra meal to consume on the plane, since food in economy is in short measure.

Oh man, my eighth paragraph into this trip report, and I’m not even on the plane yet. After buying the sammiches, we headed for the gates. As Katie’s flight boarded, we said our “See you in eighteen hours or so”s, and I confused her gate agent when I left the queue as she boarded. Explaining to him that I’d decided to fly with someone else, I prepared for the massive trek from her gate, 27C, to mine, 28. Twenty seconds later, I was sitting at my gate, looking out the window in case anything interesting happened. I watched her Continental Boeing 757-200 pull back from the gate, taxi out, and speed down the runway before heading off into the sunset. Some of that might not be accurate, since I couldn’t see the runway, and it was 9am. About twenty minutes after her plane disappeared, my flight started to board. I’d managed to nab a window seat in row 8, only one row behind the door to the plane. I was worried about a short connection in Philadelphia, so wanted to be one of the first off the plane, but not enough to give up my precious window view.

Finally, the plane was loaded, the doors closed, the safety announcements announced, and we headed for the runway. We took off and quickly headed west, passing over the Clyde estuary, and I was able to identify various islands based on my love of maps making me feel quite smug, which I like. It wasn’t long before the islands stopped, and the nearly endless Atlantic Ocean began. Lunch was served not long after take-off, and sitting near the front, I was served pretty quickly. I opted for the disgusting chicken thing with the side of disturbing vegetables. The brownie thing for dessert was nice, though. A quick glass of orange juice to wash the taste of the chicken out of my mouth, and I fell asleep. I was exhausted, after having not slept the night before.

It was a seven and a half hour flight from Glasgow to Philadelphia. Unfortunately, I was flying on US Airways, who seem to believe that Ryanair style flying is what the consumer really, really wants. [airline-nerd-mode=on] US Airways use Boeing 757-200s for the Glasgow to Philadelphia route. They had three different configurations. Two of these were international, one domestic. US Airways went around ripping in flight entertainment systems out of all their domestic planes a few years ago to save on weight, and therefore fuel costs. You can tell when you’re on a domestic 752, because there’s a toilet to your left as you enter the plane. On my plane, there was indeed a toilet to my left.[airline-nerd-mode=off] So, basically, there was no in flight entertainment provided on my plane. Luckily I had brought a book, my mp3 player, and was tired enough to sleep.

My memories of the flight may not be entirely accurate, what with being half asleep and all. About halfway through the flight, the cabin crew came through on a drinks run. I get quite dehydrated on planes, so asked for a bottle of water. The lady said she couldn’t give me the whole bottle, as it was too large, but she could give me as many refills as I liked. I was placated; she left and I didn’t see her again until the pre-landing snack, about two and a half hours later. The snack was a hot turkey and cheese roll, with a kind of tomato sauce. I removed the strip of “cheese”, and the roll was greasy and disgustingly delicious. I also got a full can of orange juice. A full can! Amazing.

Finally my window had stuff in it again, other than eternal ocean. Islands off the coast of America. This time, unfortunately, I couldn’t recognise any of them. I could no longer feel smug. We headed inland, and began descent. Out my window was an excellent view of what appeared to be some sort of naval yard, and we got closer and closer to the river. I was almost convinced that we were going to land in the river itself, until land began to appear in my window shortly before we touched down. I had made it to Philadelphia! I knew, though, that I had 90 minutes for my connection, and that there was a recommended two hours for an international to domestic connection in Philadelphia. I shall leave you, dear reader, in suspense as to what happened next, unless you already know of course, for I have written many, many words so far, and not even gotten to the interesting bit. Until next time then…

No related posts.