Last Saturday my husband and I braved the 20-degree weather of Boston at 5am to head to Logan Airport for our 18-hour trip to my home country, Venezuela (South America). See map:
I got a free ticket by using my American Airlines miles, but Brian’s ticket would have cost nearly $1400 if he had traveled with me, so he went on Delta instead, flying via Atlanta, to Caracas. At 5am, at the airport, we said our goodbyes and embarked on the trip separately.
If you got good flights, you would be able to make it to Venezuela in 6 or 7 short hours, and even make it there by 2pm (I have done it before), but only American Airlines schedules can make this happen, and my award ticket did not have that itinerary as an option, so Brian and I both had a 3-5 hour layover between flights, and that’s what made it so long a trip.
As soon as I landed, at 12 noon, I found my usual travel restaurant: Chili’s. It was right outside my arriving gate! I swear, every time I walk into an airport my mouth starts salivating like Pavlov’s dog, already preparing for a Chili’s feast.
I had the chicken fajitas, and took half of it to-go. I figured I’d get hungry later, with such a long layover and all.
12:45pm. My flight to Caracas was scheduled to depart at 3:30pm. What to do with my time for 3 whole hours? Sit at the gate reading a book until it was time to sit on a plane for 5 more hours… reading a book? It was just not an option. I was already missing going to the gym, I couldn’t in full consciousness decide to sit on my bum for 8 hours straight.
On my way to my gate, I noticed that the airport had a peculiar triple-ring (closed loop) shape. I wondered how long it would take to walk the entire perimeter of the airport on foot (meaning no escalators or moving sidewalks). And so, my adventure began.
The starting point was gate D27. I’ll cut to the chase and tell you that Terminal D was my favorite. Close to my gate I started noticing the interesting artwork. This castle reminded me of the Wizard of Oz for some reason:
Then, just around the corner, I saw this blue “crystaly” structure. Then I REALLY started to see the reference to Oz (remember the green crystals of Emerald City?).
The contraption was actually a sort of human harmonica. If you walked between the layers of blue walls, you could hear sounds made by your own walking. A kid-crowd pleaser.
I don’t know how many Auntie Anne’s Pretzel stands I passed along the way, but every time I saw them I’d droooool. I LOVE their cinnamon sugar pretzels, but I didn’t have any. I had a banana and Special K crackers in my bag (I was so good, dietwise). About 2 terminals into my walk, I started taking pictures of the stands, in case you didn’t believe me when I told you about the number of these I saw along the way. I did buy a water in one of them, just to support their wonderful cinnamon-sugary cause.
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| Auntie Anne’s in every corner. I ♥ Texas!! | |
I was really enjoying my walk. Did I mention I was hauling my carry-on luggage on one hand, and carrying my left-over fajitas on the other? Remember the “no escalators” rule?
Deep breath in, and out. I took each step in a deliberate and constant rhythm. My calves were BURNING. When I got to the top, an airport worker pointed out to me that that was 84 steps. Good to know!
I enjoyed finding cool things to take pictures of. Here are some of them:
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I know, The Finish Line was a bit anti-climatic, but it was a great walk and I would recommend it to anyone with a layover in a large airport! Total time: 1 hour, 30 minutes.
By the time I got back to my gate, my flight had been delayed and the gate had been changed to D16. I didn’t end up taking off until 4:30pm, which made my landing time 11pm (an hour later than scheduled). I had Chili’s fajitas left-overs in lieu of the who-knows-what’s-in-that-chicken-dinner plane food, and I think I would do it again! Quite satisfying to have had a choice in my meal.
I compared notes with Brian after our trips. His Delta flight was equipped with individual TV monitors for him to pick any movie he wanted to see, while my flight had those CRT monitors hanging from the ceiling every 9 rows or so. Made me feel like I was still living in the 1990s.
Also, his flight time was shorter over all. His flight back will get him to Boston by 5pm, while I will be arriving at 10pm. We’ll be spending Valentine’s Day apart 🙁 Boo.
So, in conclusion, I love American Airlines because of the miles, but there are better and cheaper ways to fly out there. I recently signed up to get miles every time I use my (regular, non-AA) credit card in any of the featured restaurants, and I’ve earned about 400 miles in the past month just by having lunch in places that are convenient to me. THAT is a nifty feature that anybody who uses a credit card (ANY card) can take advantage of. If getting free flights is more important to you than having a good flying experience, then American Airlines is the airline for you 🙂
Stay tuned for more pictures and videos of my trip. We’ve only just begun!
ina