Arrival

18 December 2017

Emma is here! And here is New York City!

Our flight from New Orleans to JFK was due in half an hour before Emma’s flight from Sydney via Los Angeles. We were arriving at Terminal 4 and Emma at Terminal 7. Our airport transfer to our hotel was arranged for Emma’s flight. 

On our way to New Orleans Airport we were told our flight was delayed half an hour. Could be a problem. We tried to book our seats online and received the message that one or more in our party was on standy. Standby! We booked these flights over six months ago! The USA deliberately overbooks its flights due to the number of no-shows and if, by chance, more people show than there are seats, they bribe people to take a later flight. We did not want any of us to take a later flight.

After a long wait in queue for the Delta counter, we were told we were not on standby and our seats would be allocated at the gate. We were originally in a longer queue which turned out to be the queue for a whole lot of people affected by a blackout at Atlanta International Airport. Glad not to be them.

I received advice that Emma’s flight was delayed half an hour. Phew. 

But then our flight was delayed another half hour.

Qantas kept texting me with different times of Emma’s estimated arrival, jumping forward and backwards. It was tense.

We arrived before Emma. We accidentally found the shuttle bus hardly anyone knows about, that takes people across the tarmac from one end of Terminal 4 to the other, speeding up our arrival to the baggage claim area. Our bags were prompt. We found the AirTrain to Terminal 7. It was fast.

As we arrived at Terminal 7 I received my last text from Qantas, QF11 had landed. We couldn’t find the Arrivals area. Asked questions. Found Arrivals but wasn’t sure if Emma’s flight counted as International or Domestic. Asked more questions. Meanwhile we were looking for our transfer.

Emma arrived!

We phoned the car transfer company. Our ‘greeter’ had apparently been waiting behind us. She took us outside and a few minutes later our car arrived. But a few minutes was all it took for the cold to enter my bones. We had finally found winter in the USA.

Due to traffic congestion on the main roads our driver took the Christmas light tour of Queens and Brooklyn and pointed out the city skyline as we approached Manhattan.

             

We are now in our hotel and fed. Look out New York. Here we come!

PS We watched the movie 'Arrival' on DVD at our hotel in Las Vegas.