flying to the US

[baratron]

TUESDAY 29 JAN 08 - Virgin Atlantic 3115 (Operated by CONTINENTAL AIRLINES)

DEPART	London Gatwick airport (LGW) Terminal:	11:30	NON-STOP
ARRIVE	Newark Liberty Int'l (EWR) Terminal:	15:05	08HRS 35MINS

FRIDAY 01 FEB 08 - US Airways 473

DEPART	John F Kennedy Intl (JFK) Terminal:	09:40	NON-STOP
ARRIVE	Las Vegas McCarran Intl Airport (LAS) Terminal:	12:42	06HRS 02MINS

MONDAY 04 FEB 08 - Virgin Atlantic 44

DEPART	Las Vegas McCarran Intl Airport (LAS) Terminal:	16:00	NON-STOP
ARRIVE	London Gatwick airport (LGW) Terminal:	09:50	09HRS 50MINS

I copied & pasted the tables from my post for last alt.polycon, and it really is amazing how much of the information was the same. I mean, flying another 8 hour 35 min flight? on 29th of the month? Wow.

This time round I'm going to New York before alt.polycon, which means we get to lug all our shopping with us across the country, hooray! (Or perhaps, common sense will prevail and we'll post it back to ourselves.) I expect arriving at 12:42 on Friday will mean we arrive around the same time as other people, so if anyone wants to share a ride please let me know. I'm hoping also that we'll be leaving at the same time on Monday as other people - we'll have to leave the hotel around 12:30-13:00 to allow enough time to check in for the transAtlantic flight. The other options were seriously non-ideal - leaving at 16:00 on Sunday (which'd mean immediately after the brunch, which Makes Me Sad) OR leaving just before midnight but flying back via New York or somewhere in Arizona (!) or Los Angeles (!!), having to change plane at obnoxious o'clock in the morning, and getting back to London at 8pm. Ugh. To all of that.

I wonder what I have to do to find out my Terminal numbers? Booked via eBookers this time, so don't have a printed-out itinerary.

My mum & I will be in New York from about 6pm on Tuesday 29th January and available for socialising Wednesday or Thursday lunchtimes or evenings. I would very much like to introduce my mum to redbird, and anyone else who's available. My mum is much harder to feed than I am, but I'm sure we can find somewhere suitable. (Italian is fine as long as they can do vegan things that aren't salads - I don't eat salad in January! Also, if it's a lunchtime meal, I know there are several soup & sandwich places in the midtown area that specifically use the word vegan or vegetarian + dairy-free in labelling as I've seen them before - can't remember details of locations, though.)

Once again, I want Americans' phone numbers! Mobile/cellphone if possible, or whichever number is best to get hold of you at 3pm NY time on a Tuesday. I doubt I shall have trouble getting through Immigration when clearly travelling with my mum, but you never know - that side-trip to Las Vegas might mean that I'm running away to marry someone I met on the internet! I shall screen all comments to this post and unscreen any that don't contain a phone number.

Yay! It's really happening! Yay!!

Comments

[redbird]

At the moment, I suspect Wednesday or Thursday lunchtime are the best option; evenings may well be committed to either the gym or my mother (who is arriving from Heathrow on the 20th and staying a fortnight).

[porcinea.livejournal.com]

Wheeeeee!!! I am so excited!

[baratron.livejournal.com]

Is that an "excited to see you at alt.polycon", or "excited that you're coming to New York"?

[mjl]

I don't know if you actually wanted your wondering answered, but... you can find out terminals from the airport websites. So Continental (and Virgin Atlantic) flights out of Gatwick are all from the South terminal, US Airways is at Terminal 7 at JFK, and Virgin Atlantic are in terminal 2 at McCarran.

Good that you found a reasonably timed flight - the journey I did back from Venezuela involved stopovers between 11pm and 6am, and then another stopover from 11am to 4pm, arriving back in London at 6am the following day - that wasn't good...

[baratron.livejournal.com]

I did want to know, yes! Thank you.

The one thing is, you often fly into a different terminal than the one you'll fly out of. (This seems to be especially true at JFK, though I've only been there twice. I don't know if they spend ages taxi-ing planes around, or what.) So your information will be fine for the flying out, but not so much for the flying in. I suppose that's only important if someone wants to come & meet me.

Those stopovers are ARGH. Were you able to get a hotel, or did you just try to sleep on airport seats? (I can't do that. I can barely sleep on planes. With drugzzz!)

[mjl]

I didn't get a hotel - by the time I looked into it, the hotels around the airport were full, and it didn't seem worth the hour or so taxi ride into town and $100 or so on a hotel for having a bed for 4 hours. I slept a bit on the plastic benches in Subway (the sandwich shop, not an underground rail station...), as the airport didn't actually have seats outside of the ones allocated to food/drink places (is that a trend with airports and stations these days? was the same in Lisbon I think...). I can't really sleep on planes either - just doze a bit. So dozing is what I did for the 36 hours...

[okoshun.livejournal.com]

I expect arriving at 12:42 on Friday will mean we arrive around the same time as other people, so if anyone wants to share a ride please let me know.

FYI - the hotel has a shuttle, so once you pick up your luggage, go towards level 0 (right by the information counter), call the hotel (I believe there's one of those walls with all the hotels and a phone to call) and request the shuttle.

[baratron.livejournal.com]

I have NO LUCK with hotel shuttles. Absolutely none.

The hotel shuttle for the hotel in Colorado didn't go as far as the airport (or they couldn't understand my accent, I'm not sure which). The hotel shuttle for the hotel in Baltimore would come out to the airport but was going to be an hour, so I paid for the Supershuttle & ended up riding with another alt.polycon-goer. The hotel shuttle for the hotel in Minneapolis didn't seem to exist - at least, I couldn't find its number anywhere in the airport, and I ended up paying US $40 for a taxi.

With this kind of history, I prefer to make arrangements in advance.

[baratron.livejournal.com]

Money, I can help with. Time, not so much :X

(Seriously, if you want to email me concerning the kind of figure we're talking about, this could be to your advantage.)

[skibbley.livejournal.com]

Have a fantastic time!
I recommend for vegan food: http://www.candlecafe.com/