I had prepared everything the night before, since the alarm would go off at 03:30. Passport, wallet, all luggage, clothes, everything was laid out to minimize the risk of forgetting anything in the middle of the night.
When the alarm went off, I got up right away, tired but excited! Took a shower, got dressed, and then hugged my cats before grabbing the bags and heading out. The cab arrived shortly after, and it was his first fare for the day. He lives just across Kista, so it was a nice start for him. Nice guy, and the ride was smooth, not that much traffic at four in the morning.
Since I was flying to the USA, I didn’t think I would be able to use the bag drop, but I went to the machine, got a boarding card and a luggage tag without any objections. I got held up at the bag drop because my bag weighed 22 kg and they needed to attach a “heavy” label to it. No queue to security, but they wanted to check my bag of cables in my backpack.
I found a Panini Internazionale and bought some breakfast, about 40 minutes after I left my apartment, having about two hours until boarding. Some might call me a time pessimist, but I choose to say I’m traveling with margins.
I read the last chapters of Skolplattformen by Olle Lidbom. Quite upsetting how our tax money has been wasted. Boarding the SAS flight SK525 to London was smooth, and I got to my emergency exit seat (11F), which didn’t have any more leg room, which was quite disappointing. I watched my bag get loaded and then slept through most of the three-hour flight listening to podcasts.
We landed on time, and then I started to make my way to Terminal 2, where my next flight was leaving from. I read the instructions carefully so I wouldn’t repeat my mistake from 2017 when I ended up in the baggage claim area after passing a passport-control I shouldn’t have. (I had three hours then, so I just had to exit, get up one level, and go through security again, nemas problemas).
The transfer involved some escalators, a bus ride, and a security checkpoint, which didn’t require my plastic bottles to be emptied, which was nice since I still had an unopened Coke from Sweden with me. This security also wanted to look at my cables and the power bank. He approved of the brand, Anker, and we had a discussion about Pluto missing from my t-shirt.
Made my way through the terminal to find the Virgin Atlantic lounge called Clubhouse. When I entered, the staff asked me if I was here earlier this morning. Apparently, some other guy had the exact same t-shirt as me. Later on, a second staffer asked the same question. T-shirt-bros!
I found myself a seat and scanned the QR code on the table to order myself some (second) breakfast. This is clearly the way to spend hours between flights! It’s quite a large lounge with a bunch of different seating options, shower possibilities, and lots of staff bringing food and drinks, and clearing tables.
When boarding was closing in, I took a lap around the terminal to see what it offered. I think I’ve only been flying to and from Terminal 2 (The Queens Terminal) before. This seemed smaller. I got to the gate and watched them unload and load cargo. Pretty cool with these large pallets, they are used to easily transport cargo in bulk. The bags, however, seemed to be loaded “loose”.
We boarded the plane that would take us to Miami, and I found my seat 5A. This is when my Eurobonus points pay off, since I’m flying in Virgin Atlantic Upper Class. Now I can’t complain about the leg room 🙂
Here is a video describing Upper Class.
If I heard the announcement correctly, we were 13 crew and 225 passengers onboard. We took off at 14:20 (according to Flightradar24). Soon they started to serve the meal, which consisted of three courses. I had chicken as a starter, duck as the main course, and gingerbread as dessert, while watching The Pickup.
During the flight, I realized that my water bottle I’ve had for years, must have gotten a hit at some point, cause I found a crack in the bottom and hence it was leaking. Too bad 🙁 At one point, I dropped a charging cable to my Bose headphones, about ten centimeters long. Since the seats are quite advanced with a bunch of moving parts, I didn’t dare to touch the controls. Equipped with my phone as a flashlight and camera, I managed to locate it by lifting the seat cushion, and with a toothbrush that I got with the amenities kit, I could pull it out from beneath the seat.
The plane was equipped with wifi, which you could actually use for free if you watched a 30-second ad per 20 minutes of online time. I used it a few times and it worked pretty well. But about halfway through the flight, it said there were no ads available, not sure if they had a quota, and it had run out.
I managed to sleep for an hour, didn’t want to sleep too much since I would arrive quite late and probably just wanna go to bed at the hotel. Spent the rest of the flight watching TV series and playing games. 90 minutes before arrival, they served “afternoon tea”. A small sandwich, a scone, and some juice.
We landed at 18:30, local time, about an hour before schedule. I was a bit nervous about the Customs and Border Patrol checkpoint, since they can just say no, and you have to turn back. Not that they had any reason to do that to me. It was a serious but nice woman who asked relevant and fairly simple questions. She looked a bit sceptical when I laid out my plan for my stay in the USA, but after the picture and fingerprints, she said Welcome and have a nice stay.
My bag came fairly quickly, and I started to look for the complimentary shuttle to the hotel. There were a couple of signs stating that hotel shuttles stopped at like doors 5, 7, 17, 24, and 25. No information about which shuttle stopped at what door. So I stepped out and started to look at the doors, but they didn’t have any information either. I saw buses passing by with different hotel names on them, but not the one I was looking for. I found one that had a similar name, so I waved him down. But when I asked him if it was the correct one, he said no and explained that I had done it correctly, look for the bus, and wave. So I walked to the beginning of the terminal and waited. It took longer for the bus to arrive than for me to leave the plane and get my bag 🙂 I started to look up an Über, but I thought I could save those $10.
The bus came, I jumped on, and a few minutes later, I stepped into the reception at Holiday Inn Express & Suites Miami Airport East. Kaleb, the receptionist, started to count the planets on my t-shirt, and I told him that Pluto was missing. This t-shirt has made much more impact than I expected 🙂
Made my way to room 403, realizing that the downside of staying at a relatively cheap airport hotel is that you can hear the planes taking off. Hopefully, I’m tired enough not to care. I went to the gas station across the street, which happened to have a Subway, which became my dinner before taking a shower, finishing this post, and then getting to bed at 21:00, roughly 23½ hours after the alarm went off in Kista.