Sunday, May 29, 2005

Newark to Cleveland

The entry into the USA was the first on the extended visa, but there was no difference from any other entry so it was a quick fingerprint and headshot action and I was back in the States. Since there is no flight transfer from any international location, you have to go through baggage collection and Agriculture inspection before you can re-check any baggage (if you have any...). You also have to go through security again before your next connection. Once you've cleared that it's as easy as taking a bus again.

The flight to Cleveland was scheduled to leave from Gate C-93, but got changed to C-85, pretty much the last gate of the pier. I got myself a book and some ice-cream and thanks to the Elite-status I was one of the first ones on-board. That was the easy part...

Once we were on-board and started to push-back the captain informed us of some bad weather. We were to wait for a new route and he would get back to us in about 20mins. He did. With news that we were cleared and going to the runway. Well, there were about 10 planes ahead of us, but at least we were in-line to depart. The captain announced that we were 2nd in-line so flight attendants were to prepare for take-off.

Yeah, right.

About 10secs before take-off Air Traffic Control closed part of our route so we had to wait again. To make matters worse, the winds shifted so we were to depart from the other end of the airport... Great. The good thing was that the flight-deck kept us informed of the events as they happened so a 'thumbs-up' to the crew of flight 125.

Once we were on the other end of the runway we were cleared immediately so finally, after being somewhere on the tarmac for about 45mins we took off for Cleveland. Once in Cleveland it was a quick hop to the car park and I was on my way home.

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