A couple of firsts for this trip. Since I wanted a direct flight from O-Town to LaGuardia, my choices were limited, such as in take it or leave it, JetBlue. The CEO had flown JetBlue into DC in December. Since JetBlue was CEO approved I clicked “purchase”.
In 23 years of business travel, a JetBlue flight was a first. The second first was that JetBlue flies out of the new Terminal C at MCO, and I had yet to fly out of Terminal C. After 3 trips around Terminal C, I finally found the entrance to daily parking. Side note my Monday morning through Friday afternoon parking was $120.00
Now Terminal C opened in 2022 and it houses international flights as well as JetBlue, and I was looking forward to seeing what all the hype was all about.
The terminal is beautiful, bright, modern, and well-laid out. Breakfast was at Einstein Bagels where a bacon egg and cheese bagel only set me back $7.00, which is reasonable for an airport breakfast.
As I was sitting at the gate I started thinking how this terminal compares to Terminal B where I fly out of for Southwest. Terminal A and Terminal B share a central common area complete with shops and a food court.
With Terminal A and Terminal B, you have to take the air train from the terminal to the gates. Once at the gates, the whole area is very dated. MCO opened in 1981 and while they’ve replaced the carpet, seats, and gate desks it still throws off 1981 vibes due to the overall architecture and hideous amount of mosaic floor tiles.
My last trip to LaGuardia was in November of 2019 and upon landing I had forgotten how updated and modern their terminals were. The last major airport that opened was Denver International and that was, believe it or not, 1995, almost 20 years ago, Now think about this, if you travel or spend time picking people up at airports every airport is under some sort of construction yet unless it’s a whole new terminal like at MCO with Terminal C, the airports all seem dated, think about it
For my JetBlue flight I was in boarding group B, since I had no status and no way to purchase boarding with group A. However, I had a reserved seat which was nice compared to Southwest’s policy where you get to pick your reserved seat once you sit down in it.
Since I’ve spent the last 7 years flying Southwest, I had forgotten about what I call the “Gate Lice”. Those are the people in boarding group D who crowd the gate area when they call for group A to board. They were in full force in both Orlando as well as LaGuardia. However, the LaGuardia crowd was a bit more aggressive but I attributed that to them being in New York where everything seems to be a grind.
The JetBlue staff was pleasant and welcoming and the flight was uneventful except the seat back entertainment wasn’t working, but the WIFI was and it was free and easy to connect to. Easier to connect to than Southwest's free WIFI. And with Southwest free WIFI watch what they offer, no surfing the web.
The return trip was also uneventful. However, the seatback entertainment worked and offered a plethora of movies, music, and TV shows. In case you’re curious JetBlue gives you a whole can of soda and two snacks.
I’m based out of New Jersey and my last visit was again November 2019. For the last 20+ years, I’ve stayed at the Hampton Inn & Suites Fairfield on route 46. During most of my stays, I was upgraded and the upgraded room usually had a seating area with a larger kitchen area.
The whole lobby area had a complete makeover in the last few years and it looked great. This visit I got the rooms of all rooms, and the desk clerk prepped me for it. When I opened the door I was greeted with a conference room that contained a giant 12-seat conference table and a 70” TV. There was also a kitchen area with a wet bar, fridge, TV, and sofa. The bedroom was typical, but also included yet another fridge and TV.
The best part of this Hampton Inn is that it is connected to Calandra’s Mediterian Grill where the food is amazing. There’s a happy our every evening, and Tuesday night all pizzas are only $11.00. Calandra’s has a side hustle and it’s a bakery, and that bakery provides all the bread for the “free’ daily breakfast.
Other than not being able to pump your gas or make a left-hand turn at an intersection the trip was uneventful.
Since I’m a foodie, and I love road food, let’s open with this from One Mile At A Time - Hilton Toronto Airport makes guest sign waiver for medium burger
While One Mile At A Time this originally came from Reddit where the OP said this.
I ordered my burger medium and the waiter took it with no question or comment. She bought it and it looked great! When I had my first bite she brought me a release form and said we always make our burgers well done but since you wanted it medium now you should sign this!
I’ve been to Canada, and we talked about it in episodes 120 and 121. First, I don’t consider Canada as a food mecca. Maybe poutine, but not when it comes to beef. Second I don’t recall any beef product that I’ve ever ordered was anything above medium rare. Call me a monster, but beef above 140 degrees starts bordering on carbon dating. Third why would you ever serve a patron some sort of a Hilton legal team release after the patron took their first bite? Would I sign the release? Not no, but hell no.
Time for our first Pervy McPervyton story. This comes from OutKick.com.
CBS Sports host Katie Mox posted that all of her bras & underwear were stolen on a recent Delta flight.
Katie Mox arrived in Fort Lauderdale thank you Florida and went straight to her hotel room, and as she started going through her luggage she determined that someone stole all her underwear while on her Delta flight.
Mox took to Instagram and posted “This is going to sound insane,” “I just got to the hotel room, I was unpacking my bag and I noticed it had been opened because I have this compartment that I know I zipped close. It was opened. I checked my jewelry. I checked other things. Everything was fine.”
But then reality kicked in as she went to where her underwear and bras are/were and they were f–king missing.
Mox summed it up with this - “It’s just crazy that my jewelry and my shoes are fine but my underwear is gone,”
Mox then went to Walmart for a restock.
We talk about kinks on almost every episode and the only way to thwart this kink is by putting an AirTag in your clean underwear. If this is your kink there are several sites you can visit.
Time for our second Pervy McPervyton story. And actually it’s an update from a story in September 2023.
From Live and Lets Fly - Here are the CliffsNotes:
A14-year-old girl rose to use the lavatory in economy class on September 2, 2023. There was a line. A male flight attendant approached her and told her she could use the first class lavatory, but he needed to wash his hands first. He remained in the lavatory for approximately one minute. Stepping out of the lavatory, he told her that the toilet seat was broken (not the toilet itself).
When she entered the lavatory, she purportedly observed red tape over the toilet seat, but then noticed a mobile camera taped on the seat. The camera (flash) light was on, suggesting it was recording. I’ll post a picture in the show notes.
Fast forward to January 2024and federal prosecutors have arrested the (former) American Airlines flight attendant, identified as 37-year-old Estes Carter Thompson III one of the three named people who is from Charlotte, North Carolina.
So here’s how calculated and creepy this guy actually is -
When investigators met Thompson in Boston, he had already restored the iPhone to factory settings (Calculated), but in searching his baggage investigators found 11 additional “inoperative catering equipment” stickers identical to what had been used to secure the phone to the toilet seat lid (calculated and creepy).
Upon searching his iCloud account, they found four additional instances from the period of January – August 2023 in which a minor was recorded in the lavatory. Those victims were 7, 9, 11, and 14 years old. Police also found over 50 images of a 9-year-old unaccompanied minor who had flown with Thompson. (Totally creepy)
Thompson has been charged with two counts, including:
Attempted sexual exploitation of children
And possession of child pornography depicting a prepubescent minor
The family, as they should, is now seeking a payday via a lawsuit against American Airlines and the flight attendant.
Against the flight attendant:
invasion of privacy
civil liability for the criminal act of secretly peeping
intentional infliction of emotional distress
Against American Airlines:
negligence
negligent hiring, supervision or retention
Not sure if I agree with suing American Airlines, but they have deeper pockets. This family will hit a payday, as they should.
Time for a second update, about a story we did not report on. Last November, Live And Lets Fly - posted. WOMAN DROPS PANTS AND SQUATS TO PEE ON AISLE FLOOR WHEN FLIGHT ATTENDANT DENIES HER LAVATORY ACCESS ON a THANK YOU FLORIDA FLIGHT. This month Live And Lets Fly posted an update.
To bring you up to speed, in November, a female passenger needed to use the lavatory during the planes decent, and was denied. She held it until the aircraft landed, but then sprung up to use the lavatory when the aircraft touched down in Philadelphia.
After being denied again, the woman was captured on video saying, “I’m ready to pee over here. Sorry everybody!” Then pulled down her pants, exposing herself to the cabin around her, including a little boy right beside her, and then squatting on the aisle floor. Nice.
As passengers yelled in surprise and dismay, she yelled back: “Let me use the lav! I don’t give a f*ck! F*ck you! I gotta go pee!”
But she changed her mind, and quickly stood up, and pulled up her pants. During this time, the woman also threatened to kill other passengers who stood in her way as one should do when their pants are pulled down.
Turns out that woman is Dulce Huertas, 60, and she now faces a number of charges, including:
interference with flight crew members and attendants
simple assault
indecent exposure
On top of all that, she also faces a fine of $355,000 and up to 21 years in prison followed by three years of supervised release. While she is unlikely to be hit with the maximum jail sentence, it is likely that she will face some time behind bars and be hit with the fine.
To top it all off, it has emerged that she. may have been intoxicated and the reason she had to go was because she consumed two cocktails on the flight…what do we say about drinking on a plane?
This next story comes from the “You could’ve should’ve seen this one coming”. Hertz is selling 20,000 of their electric vehicles in order to buy gasoline cars instead. This is roughly ⅓ of Hertz’s electric car fleet. Hertz was the first car rental company to place a major investment into e-vehicles.
For me an EV doesn’t fit into my car theory of not refueling until my 50 mile indicator chimes, but I was and possibly still looking forward to renting a Tesla. The reason that Hertz is willing to take this 245 million loss. It wasn’t that people were turning in cars on an empty battery, or even being stranded because they for got to recharge the battery.
The reason is that EV’s have been hurting Hertz's financials, while EV’s cost less to maintain, they have higher damage-repair costs as well as, higher depreciation.
As EV price declines in the new car market it has pushed down the resale value of Hertz's used EV rental cars.
Remember it’s always about the money.
Finishing up with this, if you thought there would a newer, better version of fight club in the sky with the looming merger of JetBlue and Spirit. Put your movie snacks down, it isn’t going to happen.
Federal judge, William Young, blocked JetBlue’s acquisition of Spirit Airlines citing - “JetBlue’s plan would eliminate the unique competition that Spirit provides—and about half of all ultra-low-cost airline seats in the industry—and leave tens of millions of travelers to face higher fares and fewer options,”
The first visual result of the merger was Spirit Airlines stock shares pluged 60% initially, reducing the airline’s market cap by nearly $1 bn within about five minutes. JetBlue shares jumped around 10% initially before settling back near market open as of this publication.
This will be interesting as it’s doubtful these two airlines will be able to exist on their own stay tuned for an appeal.
Well, there you have it Episode 195 the first flight of 2024 mixed with some January crazy travel..
If you want detailed show notes, links, and pictures head over to podpage.com/travel-stories/
Or visit us at Substack at travelstories.substack.com/
You can also leave me a message on Anchor, or shoot me an email at TravelFrick@gmail.com.
As I always say, travel safe, stay safe, and thanks for listening.
The First Flight of 2024 - Travel Stories, Episode 195