Planes, Trains & Automobiles

Never fly through a New York airport.

You may recall, if you followed my March, 2012 adventure, that New Jersey's Liberty Airport was in chaos during my return journey and that I only made it home hours late and to the wrong airport. Well, this time I connected from Boston through JFK for my journey outward...

My trip from Boston to JFK was delayed by almost an hour and a half, and my layover was only a little over two hours - meaning that my plane to Heathrow was boarding already when my first plane pulled into the gate at JFK. The flight attendant made a specific announcement asking passengers to stay seated to allow those with tight connections to deplane first. Well, I guess everyone had a tight connection ....

My luck turned for the better, however, in a pleasantly unexpected way. Sonny, a representative of the Oneworld airline alliance's Global Support team, was waiting specifically for me in the jetway. He handed me a safety-orange ticket jacket that read "Express Connection" and called out over his shoulder as he started to part the crowd like Moses in a bathtub, "follow me - quickly - and you may have a shot at your flight!" 

Sonny and I booked it - and the worst part was that my connection, unbeknownst to me, wasn't even in the same terminal!  That also meant going through a TSA checkpoint, again! Fortunately Sonny's competent leadership, and the magical line-cutting ability of my vorpal orange ticket jacket, got me to the gate while the Heathrow plane was still in final boarding.  I almost French-kissed Sonny, but I offered him a hearty handshake instead. He looked at me, said simply, "your welcome," and handed back the tip I had happily palmed to him during the shake. He said one more thing before he melted back into the shadows of streaming humanity - "if you were happy with the service - tell my boss and American Airlines.  Our job is to keep things smooth between the partner airlines, and they need to hear that we're trying our best!" I intend to do just that. 

I approached the gate agent for the London flight and whimpered, "I know that it's almost time to close the doors, but can I have a minute to go to the bathroom? I just ran halfway across New York to make it here, but my bladder currently exceeds the limit for liquids you can carry on a plane .... It IS my birthday, after all!" I think it was the fact of my birthday that finally cut through to the gate agent's heart. I peed - for probably a minute straight - and I became "that last guy" to board the aircraft before the door is sealed. The looks I got from the other passengers ran the gamut from envious to enraged. 

The second plane landed in Heathrow just about on time. Still had to hustle to change terminals - and go through my third security check of the trip - but I got to my plane to Munich with 5 minutes to spare before boarding began. 

Made it to Munich without incident and breezed through passport control. I hopped the S-Bahn to the Munich Hauptbahnoff and even had time for a hasty lunch before my OBB Railjet (Austrian rail service) to Salzburg.

I'm on the train as I type this, but the scenery is getting really pretty, hilly and pastoral, so I might wrap things up for now and enjoy the view. I'll report again probably tomorrow morning (Friday) briefly about my evening doings in Salzburg, with a full report after my first full day in the City of Mozart! 

Somewhere near the Austrian Alps on the German-Austrian border.