… it is that time of the year again when it gets a little to chilly in New England and we head to one of our favorite places … Hawaii. We start our journey as we always do … the night before …. with a limo to JFK where we stay in a Marriott Courtyard to board the flight the next day. It is a pilgrimage we have done at least 15 times ( shows how old we are ) so it is all very familiar. We pull up to the same hotel we have stayed at dozens of times and jump out of the car in the freezing cold … winds blowing hard from the Atlantic hitting Long Island.

We made a mad dash to the hotel entrance … lots of people are milling around due to delayed flights because of the weather. I am trying to navigate my way to a small desk hidden in the corner to find someone to help us. I was having so much trouble finding anyone when I realized … no wonder … the employees had no uniforms.

I guess they wear whatever they like … in this case the receptionist in jeans and the manager looked like he forgot to get out of his pajamas. They were totally incognito blending in with everyone else. For me it felt like dejavau … when I was a kid driving with my parents to Motel 6 … the owner was the operator and wore whatever they wanted …. Your typical ma/pa operation.

But I was struck that this is a Marriott … a Mormon founded company … with conservative values that set many of the hospitality standards for the hotel industry today.

So we quickly worked our way through the crowds and headed into the outdated elevator to get some shuteye. I knew I would sleep lightly with an early flight the next morning. We planned on getting up at 6:30 …. Tom would be up first. But knowing we had a flight to catch … this time I woke up first and Tom was still fast asleep. ( I could get the bathroom first … having enough time to put on all of the 5 million beauty potions I haul around … each promising to make me look younger than the next. ( You would think my face should look like I was 2).

But that aside … I finished my ritual, lastly putting on my watch and glasses. Finally being able to fully see I realized it was 4:30am. It turned out the hotel clock was on military time … it said 16:30 … and with the angle of the clock the “1” was covered up … I thought it was 6:30 … it was actually 4:30. Since when did all the Marriott hotels move to military time ?? … this was a great start to an already very long 29 hour day …. ( Hawaii is 5 hours behind )

Now what? I thought about going to the gym located in the basement … Tom thought it would be unsafe with “the creatures” walking around … not sure what he meant by that but thought it would be best not to be down there at that time. So back to bed with my creamy face … starting all over again in a couple of hours.

It was finally time to get the show on the road … down stairs to catch the shuttle. For once we had a few extra minutes so I figured I could quickly get a cup of coffee at the coffee bar. The lobby was crowded … everyone ready to catch their flight. ( maybe this is what 7 am looks like everywhere … not a time I like to be up .. let alone dressed. ) Everyone was waiting for the shuttle but no server at the coffee bar. At first I thought they were not open but then realized people were eating …. I waited for what felt like an eternity …. especially with a shuttle coming …. finally asking the manager in the tiny reception corner if anyone was working. She said she would go look for her. ( Did she go for a walk ? …. Sounded so odd that she would go “ looking ” for the server. ) This is 7 am in an airport hotel and the place is packed. Finally someone came out of the kitchen in street clothing and served someone and then disappeared. The manager finally came out but still no server. This is at least 7 minutes … and it felt like an eternity when you are catching a shuttle.

The manager said not very convincingly she would be there shortly … but now the shuttle is pulling up. I asked why she had not come out … as only I would do. She was “cooking someone else’s breakfast.” I guess the Barista is also the chef and the manager is also the Barista. ( The usual cost cutting post COVID excuse. ). I finally got my coffee and she rang me out at $35 … this is one cup of coffee … turns out the register was broken … I had to go … the shuttle was leaving with or without me. Not sure who paid for the coffee. One more time I ended up stealing something because of problematic technology. ( Ask anyone who tried to ring up groceries themselves. )

We head to the airport … the shuttle driver is non-communicative which is fine with me at 7:00 am. He pulls up to one of the many stops at JFK and hops out to unload the luggage from the back. It is still dark and windy and no one on the bus knows what stop it is …. No announcement … nothing …. The shuttle is full with pilots and flight attendants and no one knows what stop we are at. Finally I get out of the van and go to around the back of the shuttle to find out …. It turns out it was not our stop but it was for most of the airline staff. They quickly hop off … but we wondered was the driver going to just leave the luggage in the road and keep right on going if no one got off.

We finally got to our stop … the airport was packed and we navigated through the crowds to check in. We meet the agent who tells us one of the seats assigned to us was broken and stuck in an upright position. They were apologetic but that was it. Now this is a business class ticket … Why did they think we bought the first class ticket … for the TV dinners???? This ticket was 6 x the cost of an economy ticket …. This is a 10 hour flight ….I was having a shit fit so they agreed to “some potential compensation” in the form of a credit that would be handled at a later date. So we took our broken seat and headed to security.

It turns out the flight was delayed …. We are all hanging around since they could not give us a time frame for how long we would be waiting. This was an opportunity for some good people watching. I was surprised when I stopped to really look … how much the world has changed … everyone looks much younger … just the opposite of our experience on the cruise. 😜 I felt like we were the oldest people there … Tom probably is!! Everyone is in the “new” street attire … gym clothes, sneakers, pajamas, slippers …. I felt like I was going to a slumber party. I guess no one gets dressed up anymore …. Except the one trans sitting in the corner. I could relate better to him.

So with the extra time I guess everyone does whatever they want. One old guy was doing some very strange exercise or dance, another woman was on the floor doing yoga, another family was on the floor playing a game.

Since everyone felt they could do whatever they wanted I decided to start walking steps. I came across one guy in shorts and a tank top. We are headed to Hawaii but right then we were in New York and it was less than 15 degrees outside … the rest of us were in jackets, sweaters etc. Most people didn’t notice … they were buried in some electronic device oblivious to the world. ( We wonder why no one paid attention when that girl was on fire in the subway ). Better luck getting some one’s attention by sending them a text then calling their name. I am as guilty as the rest.

Now the airlines staff was no different than the Marriott … the “ticket counter person” is now the “ boarding gate person “ and the “manager of ticketing” is now the “manager of everything.” This is not some tiny airport … this is JFK. The flight is full and perhaps due to the delay, they are continuously calling out totally mispronounced names to come up to the desk … last name first …. As if the last name was the first name …. And for some reason every name to us sounded like “Furey” …. So back and forth to check in. We were told they have another “single seat” in lieu of the broken one … if we didn’t take it that was fine but we would not be given the “ partial” credit. ( Airline credit as we all know is another story anyway …. When you try to use it they don’t apply to anything … this restriction that restriction …. By the time you are done you are headed somewhere you never intended and somehow paying more money for it. )

We tried to be polite as we declined the offer for the seat for one of us to sit somewhere else. I could see by their attitude where this was going … if we said anything or were not nice enough somehow we would be viewed as unruly and kicked off the plane. ( Ironic since we paid $3k for a broken seat. ). We politely passed … took our first class broken seat, no credit, and headed to the plane.

It turns out the broken seat was stuck upright and forward for the duration. It was interesting when they served dinner …. The seat was so far forward they could not get the tray out so they provided a jury rigged tray … a crate they use for dirty dishes. … I assume they cleaned it and they did put a napkin on it.

Don’t get me wrong … I am extremely grateful we can do these things and if this is the worst of our problems … how lucky are we. But as my good friend would say … “Good Grief”. I would say … What a world?…. And now I am sounding really old.

So we will go with the flow and look forward to some warm weather and aloha spirit. The flight itself was great … they were trying to make up time from the delay so they flew at over 600 mph.

a higher altitude than usual, 40,000 feet … I assume this was so we did not bump into anybody going slower.

(-72F Outside) glad to be inside the cabin.

Just another day in the life … 5000 miles later up over Canada and down …. we made up the hour and a half and we landed on time.

as we head for a touch down in beautiful Hawaii.

🌺Aloha Hawaii🌺