(Location: JFK to home)

Before we left JFK we managed to get stop someone missing their plane to Santiago. Their flight had originally been scheduled to go from our gate, but they had a gate change. Aft she asked if we were going to Santiago, we explained no and told her about the gate change, it she didn’t speak English. Andrew pointed to the screen showing the new gate information and she stood up. We thought she had got it, but she didn’t really go anywhere, but wandered around. After a while she sat back down. We tried again. Now my Spanish isn’t great, but I could manage the required numbers, this time we got through and she set off at a run for a new gate…think she will have made it.

After this, we boarded on time and although we pushed back a few minutes late, the flight time was only going to be six hours, so we thought we’d be early. We had not reckoned on yet another long queue on the taxiway to take off, just like last time. Is JFK always this backed up? I counted at least 14 planes in the queue in front of us. So it was that 50 minutes after push back we reached the runway threshold and took off. We did get some glimpses of the New York skyline at night though.

It was a smooth flight, and by the time we had the meal and watched a couple of films the lights were back in for breakfast. In comparison with a Vegas-direct flight, it seemed very quick. The sun starts to rise and there were some lovely colours on approach.

We were wheels down by 0730 and passport and luggage were collected within 40 minutes. The taxi brought us home and despite some rush hour traffic we were home by early morning. Now it’s time to get ourselves back on track for the week ahead and, once I’m less tired, I can reflect on the whole trip.