Today is the Centennial of Grand Central Station. I am a distant Vanderbuilt discendent and was trying to become part of the one descendent that was honored during the main dignitaries ceremony but that fell through. I still though had to stop by Grand Central today and have lunch for 20 cents through throughback to 1913 specials, and just see how the red carpets at all the entrances would look. I also (before I realized it was the day of Grand Central’s Centennial) booked a flight out to Denver to see friends before taking the California Zephyr to Salt Lake City to go skiing. Luckily I booked this flight on Southwest Airlines for just $89. Last week, during a week of limbo waiting to hear back about the possiblity of being able to participate the early evening Delta Flight was open for only $104 so I canceled the Southwest Flight (Southwest automatically gives you a credit good for the next year) and got to visit a New York Transportation Landmark for Aviation, the Pan Am WorldPort, Delta’s current terminal that will be closed this May and torn down. The day before I open the app and try and check in. I wasn’t able to get a seat assignment because all the seats except for one reserved for Eliete status were taken when I bought my ticket ten days before. I get assigned the window seat in the second to the front row in Coach, a seat Delta in the moment wants $40 for. It’s not even a seat with extra legroom, just the privilege of sitting towards the front of the plane.
The day begins on the last M98 Bus at 9:40 with a friendly driver saying “morning” to everyone. I need to stop at a Fairway to buy bagels as a hostess present for the friend I’m staying with in Denver. This trip was the usualy slowness on 178th Street before we zoomed down the FDR Drive.
Going down Lex I realized this friendly driver was also the least agressive bus driver who kept letting lights change, we barely passed an M103 local bus that we were trailing because of this. If I had an Unlimted in my pocket I would have just hopped on the 4 train but it expired on Wednesday and no reason to buy another one since I’m gone for a week.
At 10:20 I get off at 86th and Lex where a bolt bus from the new Long Island routes, started last month is blocking the stop. I notice it is operated by Long Island Ventures: Bohemia New York, not Greyhound, to grab bangels
At 10:41 on the 4 train with my free transfer to GCT. I get to Grand Central at 10:51 to total zoo. The East entrances to the Great Hall are blocked off because of the podium, this forces everyone to walk to the main west entrance (the train gates are closed as well) along the Metro-North platforms to enter the Great Hall. I go to the opposite side of the hall and wend my way through the crowd. I notice the fully corded off area for the VIPs and realize that it’s impossible to hear any of the speeches because the hall is so echoing and the amplification isn’t all that good. I end up going into the Apple Store, which requires going up a staircase behind the podium where a cop is making sure no one stands. In the Apple Store barricades keep people a foot away from the edges of the balcony which hampers photos. The one good thing I find neat are all the Centennial Banners, for Grand Central’s Centennial and also 30 years of Metro-North. The numbers forming 100 are also on the tall windows on the sides of the Great Hall that allow natural light in.
At that point its time to wander downstairs and see if I can find any of the Centennial Throughback food venders and prices. I first get in line at a place selling 10 cent French Fries. It is a nightmare, the place is insisting on ringing up every order separately, requiring you to give your name, like you’re getting a full order before finally serving you a container of decent fries. The most ridiculous moment is when the line is held up for five minutes because the staff needs to get new receipt paper for the machine that tells the ‘kitchen’ (five feet away from the cash register) what you’ve ordered. It takes twenty minutes to get my 10 cent fries. I then head over to the other throughback prices place in the food court for gelato. Here, there is virtually no line and I get my scoop of delicious mocha gelato. I sit down for about ten minutes to eat. Then I’m off to try and find 6 cents for a loaf of Rye Bread. The two branches of the bakery that supposedly are selling the bread have signs saying “Sold out, more bread by 2:30.” A fish shop with a similar promotion has a similar come back later sign. There is a line outside for 25 cents pieces of fudge. I join it and it moves quite a bit better, maybe ten minutes. I then find a line for the giveaway table, I want my centennial luggage tag. This takes another ten minutes before I get a Target Brand (well not actually on the front but the back) Granola bar and trail mix plus a GCT bookmark, pamphlet about the centennial and that all important luggage tag that goes straight on my backpack. I wander through the Great Hall one more time before I decide I’ve had enough.
With more than two hours to get to the JFK Airport, I decide it’s time to take the one route to JFK that I’ve never gone before; the 3 to Zoo Lots to the B15 bus. At 12:49 I’m on the 4 train. 1:00 — Futon street, 1:08 — Borough Hall, 1:12 — Atlantic-Barclays
I’m walking across the platform at 1:20 at Utica Avenue, a 3 train comes in 3 minutes later but we wait for another 4 train. We leave at 1:26 and then encounter track work on the elevated structure. The friend who I’m staying with in Denver calls me to offer to barrow her roommates car and pick me up at the Airport. I accept, SkyRide is such an expensive pain and I would be stuck for 50 minutes because the timing of the hourly buses to my flight is so awful.
At 1:38 we get to New Lots and I can see the B15 bus stop across the street. People are waiting. I leisurely get a few photos before descending the el and going across the street. The bus is crowded and I’m off on the one route I haven’t taken to JFK. I’m defiantly the only one heading to the airport as a passenger there is no one else with any sort of luggage. There are plenty of employees. Two are discussing deicing and talking about how little deicers get paid. It’s a ride by projects with poor New Yorkers, the reason I travel by public transportation to the US Gateway to World. The route is ‘via Postal’ as the sign says, a postal service facility. We get there at 1:53. This requires backtracking about 4 blocks, nothing compared to many bus rides in other cities.
At 2:00 I’m stepping off the bus in front of the Lefferts Blvd AirTrain Station. AirTrain now runs only every 10 minutes on the branches. I miss one getting my photo essay and the station gets quite crowded.
I’m on AirTrain at 2:12. I need a bathroom and decide to try Federal Circle also for a few more photos. I end up end up in Hertz for customers only restrooms. At 2:30 I’m at t3 outside the flying saucer roof of the 1960 Pan Am World Port Delta now uses but is about to abandon. The first sign is the overpass to it from AirTrain is closed with signs saying ‘Closed due to Storm Damage.’ I guess there is no reason to replace something that would only be in service for six to seven months.
I pretend I’m visiting a railroad station and start doing a photo essay. I first stop by 1960 original building, which requires walking up the driveway to the departures level to see its crowded check in counter and single checkpoint. I leave and do one of the most unique walks I know of at any airport anywhere. It requires following a driveway to the 1972 addition. What is unique about this driveway is that the Jetways for the first few gates have to cross above the driveway! The 1972 addition was designed before modern security standards and even has a closed parking lot on its roof. It’s from the era of shortest walk from car to gate. The upper departures level has two separate, small lobby check-in areas each with a totally separate checkpoint at each end (giving a total of four check points). The lobbies are all quite empty and the checkpoints not all that crowded. I wander over to each and find the only one that lacks a BackScanner strip search machine and just has an old fashioned metal detector. The screening is one of the fastest I’ve experienced, no line! Then Planeside I start snapping away. I start by walking over to Gate 4 and slowly do the long (no longer circular after 9/11 and more security checkpoints) circuit of the 1972 addition. I eventually end up in the original 1960s portion with the flying saucer roof and realize I’m hearing chirping noises. This building is nicknamed the aviary and I think they now play fake predatory bird noises to keep real ones out. I head upstairs to get photos of the odd chandeliers and the roof. My plane is actually departing from Terminal 4 (an addition to that Delta will move into, combined with terminal 2). This requires a shuttle bus that can be boarded at either Terminal 3 or Terminal 2. I could have just gone through security at Terminal 4 directly but that’s no fun! I end up going through the moving walkways walkway to Terminal 2. At an intermediate landing is odd little display and ad for BusinessElite.
The Shuttle Bus ride is the clusterfuck. There is a long line of people and no clear time that buses will be boarded to leave. I end up heading to the windows to snap a few photos of T3 off in the distance. At 3:18 I’m on the Tarmac at T2 waiting for the shuttle bus. There is the surliest Delta employee checking everyone’s Ids for the ride. I thought checking ID’s was TSAs job? What a strange and totally inefficient place. One bus is jammed a transit bus with one door, the other has six doors (3 on each side) and I wait for the six door bus, leaving the packed transit bus to leave first. I snap a few photos on the tarmac before getting on my shuttle bus. There is an odd piece of glass in the front and huge divider (where the front wheels are) before the driver’s cabin. The shuttle finally leaves at 3:20 for a long, neat ride around the Tarmac. We take this odd route by going straight up the middle (not by the gates) of the area between terminals 2 and 3 before reaching the main airport vehicle road that is on the outside of the terminals. We pass the Shuttle Bus stop for Terminal 3 (basically on the vehicle road) and head straight down the middle, between the two separate piers of Terminal 4. There a Delta employee greats us and screams at all the passengers heading to Fort Lauderdale to hurry up (I’m tempted to tell her that one reason the bus ride was so inefficient is the ID checking employee back at Terminal 2).
I walk by my gate where pre boarding is beginning and decide its time for some quick T3 photos from the windows of T4. At 3:40 I board and find a line of people on the long the ramp that doubles back and takes us down to a lower level past the entrance to customs for arriving international passengers also is. I also realize that this gate is has a second Jetway. At 3:54 we get an announcement that overhead bin space is out and the usual put under your seat. I take my seat and forget how little legroom delta has compared to JetBlue. Happy my backpack is in the overhead bin and there is no bag in front of me for foot space. The man on the aisle soon is bumped up to first class. The man in the middle seat moves over to the asile, giving us the middle seat free!
We’re 2 minutes late leaving the because of gate checked bags. We then get the usual long wait slowly moving about JFK and getting in line for Take-Off. We’re sitting on the plane waiting for takeoff for a good 30 minutes before we finally get our turn on the runway. We finally reach 10,000 feet at 4:45.
The flight is uneventful. I read quite a bit and decide to watch the movie on the terrible echy sound system. It’s “Trouble With the Curve.” The crew does two services with the cart including Delta’s free snacks, pretzels, peanuts or the Biscoff Cookies. I have the same order each time “all three snacks, ginger ale and water.” I do one walk back to the plane and am surprised at how many empty seats. Having the free seat in between us doesn’t put us in the minority. There tons of empty seats I wonder then why I couldn’t select a seat on line. I also wonder if we left a bunch of people in line at the clusterfuck shuttle bus situation.
We land at 6:20 Mountain Standard Time and have a 20 minutes taxi before reaching the gate at 6:40. My friend is running late so I decide if I can get myself into one of the two United Clubs with my AGR Select+ status. I take the Underground Train from Concourse C to B and walk into the United Club. The agent can’t seem to scan my old Select Card but accepts my temporary Select+ print out, typing in my Select number. This takes five minutes. Inside the club I try its bathroom and am disappointed that it is no different than those in the airport. I then grab some shortbread cookies, salty yogurt pretzels, goldfish, and sesame sticks. I debate going to the bar to shotgun a free beer but decide to make hot chocolate instead. My friend calls me and I ask her if she wants tea and says yes. I then have a total hot liquid adventure out of the terminal, first going down the escalators with two hot beverages in my hands and balancing them on the crowded underground train. On the escalator up the man behind me says: “Your doing a very good job with those drinks, unless I hit you!” I then head out to the curb and find my friend for the drive into Denver. I can’t wait until I arrive at this Airport once the East Rail Line opens in 2016, the construction is definitely going on.