I flew into Burbank CA at 7pm Monday night February 11 and Son-in-law Kevin picked me up at the airport. I think the Jet Blue Boston-Burbank non-stop route is fairly new. The plane was not 1/2 full, it was like 1/3 full. Everyone had their own row of 3 seats if they wanted it! The flight was uneventful. I had brought a sandwich. I had that with 2 white wines and a couple of beers later. Since Jet Blue has mainly direct TV instead of movies or games, I found a nature channel and along with my normal reading and sleeping, time passed quickly.
Burbank is really a pocket airport! You are over houses and then on the runway. The runway is very short, the plane reverses engines fiercely and it is hard to imagine that they can get the big 747 planes in there. One walks down the ramp and onto the tarmac. After my having done lots of travel out of the US, is funny to see no guards. It looks as if one could really just walk off onto the field instead of following the guide wires to the terminal. I felt that the “beautiful people” of LA were not using this airport. Kevin said that it does a lot of flights to Vagas but again the travelers did not look at all dolled up for a vacation.
The return flight was the same operation. This time a red eye direct to Boston. It left at like 8pm and was scheduled to get in at 4am? I am not a regular Uber user. The last time I took one was in Delhi India and there I was using my “unlocked” iphone. So, I had Kevin and Emily be sure that my Uber App was set up and working. Burbank is an hour from Claremont at the best of times but given LA traffic, it could be a lot longer so I went early at like 4pm. Ride was fine. Once I got to Burbank, I tried to follow Emily’s advise and tip with the App but the App just locked up and did not work until I rebooted the phone back in Boston. Then I was able to rate the ride and tip.
Emily was afraid that there was no food or drink at Burbank but I took the chance and did not bring anything! There was food and drink outside security. There was no one in the TSA pre-check line so I was able to ask the officer and he assured me there was food and drink beyond. I checked out the beers and identified 2 possible bars. Sat at the first and had a beer and chicken burger. I then went and bought my sandwich, and nuts and had another beer with the nuts.
We started boarding. I had an assigned isle seat but was in the last E group. There was a Nazi flight attendant who was constantly announcing about oversize suitcases. She did not seem to be offering to check but just to have you “remove” stuff. Where where you supposed to put it? The man next to me was standing on his suitcase to help it remember that it was small. Luckily, by the time the D group was ending and I was aligned and moving there were so many people in the Nazi bag trap that I was able to walk on with no problems. Again, a trip outside, an attendant asking my seat number and sending me up the front ramp instead of the rear. I ditched the suitcase as soon as I saw an opening in the overheads. Once I reached my seat, I was able to cram my raincoat, fleece and light windbreaker on top of already loaded suitcases. They are constantly announcing to please not put coats or other items in the overhead until all the suitcases are accommodated. My backpack is so jammed that it never fits under the seat in front of me so I carry a plastic bag and dump 1/2 of the backpack contents, mainly the snore machine, its power supply and its tubes into this plastic bag and then try to cram that bag in the overhead. Luckily, it looked to me like the center seat in our row might be open so I was able to take a chance, hold onto the plastic bag and have it ride in the middle seat’s under forward seat opening.
Again, a great flight. Had my sandwich with wines and then later a beer with their free chocolate cookies. I watched some TV, read and dozed. I felt it was the fastest transcontinental flight I had ever been on. We were on the ground before the expected 4am. However, that meant that there was only a skeleton crew on duty at the terminal and they could not get the gangplank connected so we stood for a half hour.
My Uber app was still not working so I got in line for a taxi. It took a little while to come. He used the Ted Williams instead of the Sumner and had to have me type the address into his handheld but we finally arrived at my daughters apartment. The idea was for me to pick up a car and our grand dog and drive to NH. It is a little challenging getting back behind the wheel at 5am after not having driven in a couple weeks but traffic was light, weather good and grand dog Piper and I were home in a little over an hour. Hopefully we will repeat in 2020!