N282AK at the gate 9. It departed later in the morning to San Francisco
Alaska 33
New York, NY (JFK) – Seattle, WA (SEA)
Boeing 737-900
N275AK
Seat 32F
Scheduled Departure Time – 7:15am
Actual Departure Time- 7:36am
Scheduled Arrival Time – 10:40am
Actual Arrival Time- 10:17am
5 hours 41 minutes
N931AK at gate 6. It was leaving shortly after my flight to San Francisco
I went to my gate and asked the gate agent if they would be able to list me for the flight. It only took them a few minutes. They said that I wouldn’t have any problem getting a seat, and they hadn’t cleared any standbys yet. A few minutes later boarding started, and about halfway through boarding they made an announcement for all standbys to come up for a seat assignment. They asked if I wanted a window or an aisle seat. They had an aisle towards the front of the plane, or a window with a row to myself in the back which I took.
A pretty incredible view of my plane. It had arrived 2 hours earlier, after flying a redeye from Seattle
Boarding
32F, next to N291BT that was also going to SFO
It was only about half full, and everyone had boarded by 6:50am. We sat for about 15 minutes before the door was actually closed. The captain welcomed everyone aboard for the 5 and a half hour flight, and told us that it was overcast, 30 degrees with light snow in Seattle. The door was closed at 7:05am, and we were pushing a few minutes later
We called up Kennedy Ground approaching Alpha with information Lima. They told us we would be departing 4L, and to turn left on Bravo and hold short of Kilo. By the time we got around to the other side of the airport, there was already a line for 4L. They changed our departure frequency, instructed us to follow a jetBlue E-190 across 31L and to monitor the tower frequency
Alaska 31 wind 060 @ 6 Runway 4L, cleared for takeoff
Taking off as a jetBlue A320 taxies after landing from Denver
We were in the bottoms of the clouds, before we even started the turn to a 100 heading. The Departure controller asked the plane behind us for a bases and tops report. They reported the bases at 400ft, and the tops at 3,800ft
We checked in with NY Departure climbing out of 1,800ft on the 100 heading. The controller cleared us to climb to 17,000ft. We didn’t spend long in the clouds, before we broke out
Once we were on top of the clouds it was a smooth climb to 36,000ft
Not to long after we reached our cruising altitude, the flight attendants started the service. They came through with drinks and snacks. I downloaded a lot of things on my phone to keep my entertained for the flight. About 2 hours into the flight, it got pretty bumpy for a little bit. But other then that it was mainly smooth. I have been on many flights across the country. This was the first one where I did not see the ground for the entire flight at all. It was solid overcast literally the entire flight. From the time we went into the clouds right after takeoff, I didn’t see the ground again until we started descending for Seattle
A little while later in the flight, a woman came rushing back to the bathroom and she didn’t look that good. She came back with another woman. After a few minutes the flight attendant asked if everything was alright, and the woman came stumbling out of the bathroom. I was in the second to last row. The row behind me was empty, and they had her lie down. She said she felt dizzy, had chest pain, felt like she couldn’t breathe and was going to faint. They put her on oxygen, and made an announcement for any passengers who were healthcare workers to come to the back of the plane. The person who was traveling with her gave the flight attendants some other information that they told the pilots. This went on for about 30 minutes before the woman started to feel better. They kept her in the back of the plane for the entire flight
More clouds
Later on in the flight, I tried to take a nap. Right when I was about to fall asleep, I started to hear a loud beeping sound. The flight attendant went up to the lav again. A teenage girl came out. She had been vaping, and set off the smoke detector. The flight attendant said you can’t smoke on the plane, and that it is serious enough that she set off the smoke detector. The flight attendant said the airline requires them to report it. She would be giving her seat assignment to the pilot. The girl seemed very embarrassed and was crying.
After an eventful flight, we were approaching the west coast and it was time to descend
Descending via the GLASR1 Arrival
It got more and more turbulent the lower we got
We checked in outside of FINKA on the ILS 16R
It was pretty gusty the entire way down the approach
Followed by a firm landing
The flight attendant welcomed us to Seattle and thanked two of Alaska’s outstanding pilots for a fabulous landing. We taxied onto November, made a left turn on 16C and taxied onto Mike and then crossed 16R and taxied to the terminal. We parked at gate N13. We taxied past our gate, then turned into the ramp and taxied all the way around the terminal before parking
N305AS getting ready for a flight to Las Vegas
Pulling into the gate next to N935AK preparing for its next flight to Phoenix
The next flight for N275AK was to San Antonio
I got off the plane and the terminal was packed with people. This is where things started to go bad. I hadn’t purchased wifi for the flight, and a lot had chaned since I left New York. I checked my next flight, and saw that it had gone from 20 open seats to oversold by 2. There had been a few cancellations to Portland. I went to the next gate, and there was already another pilot listed for the jumpseat. Between all the cancellations the day before, and the few earlier in the day there was also several revenue standby passengers as well. I waited at the gate, but didn’t make it on the first flight. No nonrev’s did. Only the one jumpseater, and one revenue standby. Alright I figured, there were still plenty of flights. So on to the next gate. I got myself listed for the jumpseat as all the PDX flights were now showing oversold. The gate agent told me there was no one else listed for the jumpseat yet, and it was less then two hours until the flight was leaving. Also in between now and the next flight Alaska had a flight leaving. So once I got myself listed for the jumpseat, it was back to the N gates where I had just came from to see what was going on with the Alaska flight. The situation over there was no better. The gate agent flat out told me there was a 0 % chance I would make it on the flight. The majority of flights that had been cancelled were Alaska flights. She said they had 30 + revenue standby’s and multiple people listed for the jumpseat, but if I wanted she would list me. There really was no point. I thanked her for her time, and back to the Delta gates I went. The next flight came and went also without me on it. The next flight was a little delayed. So I repeated the same process of listing for jumpseat. Just like the previous time, I was the only person listed. I now had about an hour and a half until it was leaving. There was also another Alaska flight. It wouldn’t hurt to see if the flight looked any different. There was a line of several people waiting to talk, or for some people “yell” at the gate agent. Once it was my turn I repeated the same process as earlier. This time she told me she had 10 Alaska pilots listed for the 737 jumpseat. There was a line of people behind me. She quietly whispered to me “Don’t feel to bad. We are about to cancel this flight”. At this point I pretty much ruled Alaska out. While I was waiting for the next flight, I got some lunch and watched some planes
N76517 pulling into gate A10, after arriving from Houston, TX
N62889 pushing back to Denver
C-FNEN after arriving from Calgary. The Horizon Dash -8’s might be gone. But at least there is still some Q-400s left at SEA
N842DN heading to the gate after arriving from Los Angeles
TF-FIN taxiing for a 7 hour flight to Iceland
JA840J starting its 10 hour flight to Narita
N650QX taking off 16R to Missoula, MT
When it was time, I headed to the next gate. By this point several other pilots had listed for the jumpseat, and obviously this flight like all the others were completely full. I was still #1 as I listed first. However shortly before boarding a SkyWest pilot came and wanted the jumpseat. Since it was a SkyWest flight, he had priority. At this point I looked to see how much it would be to rent a car. It was a three and a half hour drive to my sister’s house. I couldn’t find a rental car for less then $500! I also looked at some hotels and all the rooms were $250 or more. At this point I had a decision to make. All the flights the rest of the day looked no better. I looked at flying somewhere else like GEG, YVR or even SFO then to PDX. But the ramp at PDX was covered in ice, as well as a lot of deicing. This meant every flight I looked at was significantly delayed, cancelled or only had 1 or 2 open seats. I didn’t want to risk getting somewhere else. If I had more days to stay I would have just spent the night and gone the next day, or figured something else out. My sister offered to drive up and come get me. But it would have been three and a half hours for her to get there. Plus the drive back would be the same. I had spent several hours in Seattle, and was kind of over it at this point. Also the flights in two days from PDX – New York, were starting to already fill up. I didn’t really feel like dealing with this again a few days later. I decided to see if there were any flights back to NY. I had just missed the Alaska flight, and the only other flight was a Delta flight that was leaving in about 45 minutes. However it was a little delayed. When I checked to see how many seats there were, I was expecting it to be pretty full like everything else. But, when I checked it was showing 35 open seats. I could be back to NY, in less time then if my sister came to get me. I quickly listed myself for the flight, and asked the gate agent if I would have any issues getting on the flight. Since there was a decent standby list, and I was on the bottom. She said no, and asked my preference of seat. She didn’t assign my seat then, but said she would do her best to keep it in mind. With this I decided to give up on trying to get to PDX, and just go back to New York. It wasn’t long before boarding started, and about half way through boarding I got assigned seat 35A
Delta 386
Seattle, WA (SEA) - New York, NY (JFK)
Boeing 737-900
N824DN
Seat 35A
Scheduled Departure Time – 3:45pm
Actual Departure Time- 5:19pm
Scheduled Arrival Time – 11:59pm
Actual Arrival Time- 12:43am
4 hours 24 minutes
The plane had arrived late from Detroit, and several passengers were asking the gate agent about their connections. Since the plane was late, shortly after everyone had deplaned boarding started. I was all the way in the back, but I was glad to just be on a plane, and not stuck in a bad seat. There was a commuting flight attendant in the row behind me. She was saying how she had been planning to take the redeye but it filled up, so she switched to this flight. She had been flying at Delta for 40 years. I ended up with two people next to me. Boarding finished around 4:50pm, and 5 minutes later the door was closed. We didn’t start pushing for almost 10 minutes though
35A, next to N304SY getting ready for a flight to Pasco, WA
Taxiing to 16L
“Delta 386 wind 080 @ 8 Runway 16L, Cleared for takeoff
It was a long takeoff roll
Climbing out of SEA
We went up to 33,000ft, where we spent the entire flight. Not long after leveling off the sun started to set
About 30 minutes into the flight, the flight attendants came through with drinks and snacks
KGEG
Great Falls, MT
Cruising
This flight went by pretty quickly. I watched some shows on my phone, and before long we were about an hour away from New York. The flight attendants did a second service, and by the time this was done we were starting the descent
It started to get a little bumpy in the descent. It was solid overcast. I looked out and could see the clouds below us. We went into the clouds shortly before the gear was lowered. I hadn’t looked at the weather, and didn’t realize how low the clouds were. Until we broke out right at minimums. When we checked in with tower the controller said that the bases were reported at 250ft, the wind was 280 @ 8 and the RVR was more than 6000. The jetBlue airbus ahead of us reported that they got the approach lights in sight, right at minimums
It was a firm touchdown, with heavy braking. We were instructed to taxi via Juliet and hold short of Runway 22R
Once we got closed to 22R, we were cleared to cross
Pulling into the gate next to N718TW, that had arrived earlier in the day from San Francisco
N824DN spent the night at gate B38, before flying to Nassau the next morning
N943AT was doing ATL-HPN. Due to the low visibility they had to divert to Kennedy. It flew JFK-HPN the next afternoon. It was my first time seeing a Delta 717 at JFK in several years. I only flew one Delta 717 into JFK. It was a flight from MSP-JFK 6 years ago
Obviously, this trip hadn’t gone as planned. In over a year of flying standby this was the worst trip I’ve had. Typically I haven’t had any issues whenever I fly early in the morning. But I think this time was the excpetion. Had I decided to go later in the day, I could have seen what was happening in SEA and tried flights later in the day or not gone at all. This was also the first time I have not been able to get on multiple jumpseats in a row. At least I didn’t get stuck in Seattle, and I got to fly on Alaska again after a few years. I ended up flying for 10 hours 5 minutes back and forth across the country totaling 5,046 miles.