So on your next vacation, get up early on a Sunday morning and go walking.  Let us know how it was.

There was someone sitting in my seat when I got there, so I offered a trade.  It was funny as the ladies were really very friendly and I told her that I would not get up all night so she said I could sit in the window.  I would not have minded sitting in the aisle, but they insisted as she said she may get up during the night.  They were perhaps the best seatmates I’ve had in ages.

We soon pushed back and headed out in the cool night skies.  My best thing about Las Vegas is taking off at night and seeing all the lights below.  There is really nothing like it.  We took off with the Strip on the right and then making a right turn so we could see the Strip from the other end as we gained altitude on this wingleted Boeing 757-300.  I had noticed the winglets until we pushed back.  This is the first Boeing 757-300 in revenue service with winglets.

I was way tired so sleep came really quickly as I covered up with the plastic wrapped provided blanket.  A pretzel and beverage service passed through, but I was full from the barbecue at the Hilton so I declined anything.  Landing seemed to come quickly on this 4:15 flight touching down at 5:22a.  I don’t think I will make the connection flight I thought.

As I was in the back of the plane and we got to the gate at 5:30a, I missed the 5:45a which was in the other finger of Terminal C at rainy Newark airport.  The agents moved me over to the next flight, a Boeing 777-200ER at 7:45a.  I then went to find a place to take a photo of the wingleted bird which was now heading for Orlando, FL (MCO) at 7:00a.  I could not find a place though due to its gate assignment at 102.

I did however find a spot in the Presidents Club that would give me great pictures.  And so at 7:00a when it pushed back, I got a few pictures in the rainy dawn.  I also had some breakfast of cereal and mini muffins.  I left almost right after the pushback as I did not want to lose my place on this flight.

At the gate I collected my middle seat boarding pass and headed onboard.  It was freezing in the jetway, I thought these things had heat.  As I waited onboard, a guy came for the aisle seat, but no one showed for the window.  Once the doors were closed, the guy asked if he could take the window as I was about to move over.  He said he wanted to sleep; I guess I did not look sleepy.  I obliged him anyway and he was thankful.  I was psyched about having that empty seat as I believe it was the only one on the plane.

We pushed back a few minutes late and made the long trek to the runway and took off  into the rainy morning skies.  I reclined my seat and the guy behind me protested that he was tall, annoyed I un-reclined and tried to fall asleep.  Maybe I should have complained about the noise his little girl was making…The flight attendants did come by with a breakfast offering of cereal and bananas; At this point, I kind of wished the offering was a bit different, oh well.

This airplane has power at the seats which I utilized and audio/video on demand which I did not use as I could hardly keep my eyes open.  I did hear the Captain come on and say that due to the winds we would have to fly past the airport and then come back which would cause us to arrive at the gate a few minutes late.

As we descended, the guy’s daughter kept kicking my seat back and tapping it with her hands.  Her father never once told her to stop it or apologize for her behavior and I never said anything to him.  Some people can be really selfish it seems.

We landed without incident and headed to the gate arriving about five minutes behind schedule.  I then called Metro and was advised the next bus was at 10:51a, good deal I had enough time.  This was a pretty good trip.

How are you spending your weekend?

Las Vegas Convention Center

After finding the South Hall as the driver dropped me at the Hilton Hotel (they are not allowed to drop off people at the Convention Center) I picked up my registration information and was able to see Anthony Edwards and Jermaine Dupri greeting attendees at the end of the keynote .  They were two of the four keynote speakers.  I then found @sseagraves, met some new people (@chrispian and @ifroggy) and wandered around.  I was pumped!

It was interesting meeting @ifroggy as I had started to use his discount code to get the 20% saving on the registration fee, but I also had one from BlogWorld.  Thinking that I could use them both I entered the BlogWorld one and it overwrote the @ifroggy one  as you can only use one.  By then I had forgotten what the @ifroggy code was.  It made a funny icebreaker when I met him face to face.  By the way BlogWorld, I think you should have a Saturday only rate for those who canonly make it on Saturday.  Just a thought.

I talked to a guy, @remco, from the Netherlands at a booth for www.yubby.com, a new video aggregation site.  You should definitely check that out.  You can see what I did with it at http://www.yubby.com/i/cruisinaltitudecom/channel/player/8490/first. I will be playing with for a bit to see how it can showcase our videos.  He also has a site at http://www.dik.nl and he had stickers saying “I (love sign) DIK)”, freaking hilarious.  He said “dik” means “fat” in Dutch.

I also attended a travel panel with folks from an Advertising agency, Disney Parks and Fairmont hotels.  It was great to get the perspective from their end.  I learned a lot here.  Mike Taylor of Fairmont Hotels seems to have a good handle on how to use social media in the travel space.  Disney was concentrating on mom bloggers, but I think they are missing out on the other bloggers out there who can bring an audience to Disney.  The guy from the agency, Tom Martin, seemed a little harsh, you can read his thoughts on his blog.  Overall, it was a good presentation on how to get in touch with the players in the travel space.

I did two sessions on video editing, but they were both disappointing as I expected a more hands on approach as opposed to just telling me Web sites and application names.  I wanted a, here is a video and this is exactly how to get it on your site, adding tags, etc. and it works.  Don’t do this, do this type of approach.  Hopefully that will be better next year.

I unfortunately, missed the session with the top bloggers (Brian Clark [never heard of Brian before], John Chow and Darren Rowse and Zac Johnson [I'd never heard of him before today either]), but I’m hoping to find a link to it somewhere.  If you find it, please let me know.  I did get to talk with Darren after so that was good as I did sign up for his 31 Days to Blogging free e-course which was fantastic.  He knows his stuff.  I did meet John Chow too; a super nice down to earth guy. 

One of the weird things is that there were a few good sessions (titled anyways), but they occurred at the same time, so I had to pick one.  I did see recording equipment, so I’m expecting a link from BlogWorld directing me to them very soon, hint, hint…  I did get a book, “The Worst-case scenario Business Survival Guide”  from an author called Mark Joyner from Auckland, New Zealand.  As soon as I read it, I will blog about it.  It looks like a good read.

My last session was the “How to Make 60K A Month With A Membership Program?  with Timothy Sykes and Adarsh Pallian.  These guys were pretty good and did give some good pointers although Tim was like Simon from American Idol and shot down a bunch of membership site ideas.  But he is somewhat of an authority as he is quite successful at what he does.  I did wonder if the 11:30a session called “The Money Making potential of Continuity Programs” with Tim Kerber and Ryan Lee was better?  Did anyone attend that session? or BlogWorld is recorded somewhere?  Would love to have attended, but the Travel session clashed with it and being a travel blogger, I had to attend that one. 

About 15 minutes later was the final keynote with Guy Kawaskai hosting Kevin Pollak, Chad Vader (Aaron Yonda and Matt Sloan) and a very funny/raunchy female comedian of whom I’d never heard of called, The Blogess.  It was a great session with Pollak doing his famed impressions of Christoper Walken and William Shatner.  These were priceless.  The Blogess also had this funny recount of a twitter incident with William Shatner.  Pollak talked about how he makes people imitate Larry King on his online show at.  Try as he could though, he could not get @guykawasaki to do an impression to the dismay of the audience.

One insanely funny thing was that The Blogess drank white wine from a bottle given to her by @guykawasaki, then she passed it to the other three guests who drank from it too.  Then Kevin Pollak passed it to an audience member who took a swag and passed it along.  I refrained when it got to me, but that bottle made it to the back of the room to resounding cheers; that was totally awesome!  I’m not sure if this is what a closing keynote should be like, but whatever.  I did ask one guy in a nearby hotel elevator what he thought of the show and he mentioned that he hated the closing keynote as there was too much cursing from Pollak, oh well.

Oh, I did meet @crimpshoes, Qiana Markham who makes her own shoes and blog about them.  One of the bloggers, Tim Skykes, thought this was not a good idea to be a continuity model, but you be the judge, go check out her stuff.

After the keynote was wrapped, we headed to the closing barbecue party at the Hilton poolside.  Lots of food and beverages.  Oddly enough, local beer was complimentary, but anything else was paid including 4.00 USD for water.  We all though that was odd.

After a quick dinner and drinks, I bade goodbyes and headed for the taxi rank.  It was 8:22p and a taxi was the only way to ensure that I got to the airport ontime for the 9:45p to Newark connecting to the 5:45a for Houston.

I got a cab right away and enjoyed talking to the cab driver who is originally from Ethiopia.  He even slowed down to allow me to take pictures as I kept snapping away as we continued our journey.  Once at the airport, the fare read 14.70 USD, I added a 2.30 USD tip and was surprised by a 3.00 USD service fee.  Ridiculous I thought, but I had to pay it.  I did and bade goodbye and headed into the terminal.

How was your BlogWorld Experience?

Houston, TX 17 Oct. 2009

The flight was quite full and I was only able to get an aisle seat, but I was happy.  I always prefer a window seat going out there as the American topography is spectacular.  It changes from flat lands, to snow capped mountains to green pastures to desert and lakes, just fantastic.

This pleasure was bestowed upon a Brazilian guy and his friend who were in the U.S. for ten days for a conference in Las Vegas.  They had just arrived on the red eye flight from Sao Paulo, Brazil so were pretty exhausted.  We chatted for quite a bit before takeoff and during the flight though.

We pushed back ontime and then had a clear path to the runway so we were off in no time.  It is a 2:45 flight this morning and we would arrive ontime the crew advised.  Soon after takeoff, we were served cereal with a banana and non-alcoholic complimentary beverage of choice.  Alcoholic beverages were 6 USD which can be paid with cash or debit/credit cards.  Headsets were 1 USD for the animated Disney movie UP, being shown.

I had a chance to get some zees as did other passengers including the Brazilians.  These early flights are brutal!  As we flew along, the Captain did come on and pointed out cool stuff. I love it when they do that.   It was soon time for landing so we all prepared for it.  You could see the mountains and brown desert floor outside as we descended into “Sin City.”  It was 8:31a when we pulled up to the gate a few minutes late on this Boeing 737-800.

I headed for the Presidents Club which is fun to find if you’ve never visited it, where a similar breakfast as the Club in Houston and the airplane was being served.  I got online and finished registering for the event, contact @sseagraves as he was attending and then headed out taking the train into the main terminal as Continental is in Terminal D at Las Vegas-McCarran.  Sadly, I would miss the keynote address scheduled for 9:30a.

I found a waiting shuttle for 6 USD, paid and waited.  Shuttles also cost 6.50 USD or 36.00 USD for a limousine and I assumed about 20 USD for a cab.  At about 9:55a, we left for the Hilton from where I would walk over to the Las Vegas Convention Center South Hall.  I arrived there at 10:45a after dropping passengers off at Koval Resort, the Venetian, the Mirage, Treasure Island and the Riviera.  It was a good tour but I was annoyed.  I should have taken a cab.

1. Iguasu Falls, Argentina (IGR)
2. Las Vegas, NV (LAS) for Blogworld
3. London, England (LHR)

I got to the airport with plenty of time to spare as I needed to get some tickets for the journey.  Just before doing that I went up to the roof of the parking and off in the distance I saw Air Force One; yup, the President of the United States, Barack Obama was in town for a benefit.  I think this was my first time taking a photo of this majestic Boeing 747 derivative.

I entered the airport without any incident, got my tickets and then headed to the Presidents Club for eats and a drink or two. I did notice that the airplane was not at the gate and thought that was strange.  Anyway, at about 8:00p, it was disclosed that the airplane would show in about twenty minutes so we should stay seated.  Well, this soon changed to a 9:30p departure, then a the airplane should be at the gate at 9:30p and finally to a set departure time of 12:30a.

This new time meant I could not make the journey as I would not be able to connect with the intended flights from Buenos Aires’ downtown airport to Iguasu.  With that I closed the door on heading south tonight.

Option 3 was no longer available as the London flight had departed at 6:25p, so Las Vegas it is.  Except that the last flight was at 9:30p.  No worries, I’ll take the 7:35a tomorrow.  See you then.

These flights have been made possible with advancement in aviation and primarily two airplanes: The Boeing 777-200LR (LR is for Longer Range) and the Airbus A340-500.  The Airbus Web site states that there are 29 of these airplanes in operation and a total of 35 have been ordered.  It has a range of 9,000 nautical miles.  On the other hand, the Boeing Company says that the 777-200LR has a range of 9,395 nautical miles with a full passenger load of 301.  They’ve delivered 36 of the 56 airplanes that’s been ordered.  Don’t let these numbers fool you as the airlines can configure the airplanes differently so they can increase the range and they have.

Oh, I would be remiss if I did not mention the Boeing 777-300ER which is used by one of the airlines on the list.  Boeing has delivered 206 of the 408 on order.  The Boeing 777-200ER, the workhorse 777 is also on the list and allows these routes to be possible.  But enough of the numbers and planes, let’s get to the list.

I’ve compiled what is today’s top 10 longest flights by distance flown along with the airlines flying them plus some more details.  Some routes which have been flown in the past are currently not being flown, such as Bangkok, Thailand (BKK) to New York’s JFK which was flown by Thai Airways (TG) on an Airbus A340-500 so it was not included.

Enjoy and please add your comment below.  I’d love to hear if you’ve flown any of these routes, airlines and/or airplanes. I’ve flown #1, #9 and #10.  #6 continues to elude me in either direction.  I’ve flown the #3 route, but made a stop in Sal Island using a South African Airways (SA) Boeing 747-400.  Flown #2, but made a stop in Tokyo-Narita using a Singapore Airlines (SQ) Boeing 747-400.

I got ready, called down to check on a shuttle then headed downstairs to checkout and have a quick breakfast before heading to the airport.  The ride to the airport was short as the airport is across the street.  I had a good talk with the driver who was from Dallas, TX and says he misses his son who lives there.

At the airport, Robert checked me in after waiting about ten minutes behind five people.  He only checked me in for that leg though.  I asked for the other leg, but he said I had to do it at JFK.  I then headed to the TSA and cleared without any incident.

I remembered that the last time I was here, there was a US Airways Club.  I am a Presidents Club member with Continental Airlines and I know that as a new Star Alliance member on Oct. 27, 2009, Presidents Club members can use the US Airways Club come October 27, 2009.  I popped into the Club and the nice lady there said I could use it early.  Cool .

The Club is pretty nice with some muffins, juices, a bar and a Flavia coffee/tea machine and the usual airport Lounge stuff.  Wi-Fi is provided by T-Mobile at a charge.  I stayed there for a while and chilled just before the flight. I headed out at 7:44a just before brewing some lemon tea, but not before taking this picture.

At the gate, everyone was getting ready for the flight.  At 7:48a, a guy came running up to the gate for his flight to Boston at 8:00a.  Only that flight had the jetbridge pulled already.  He was none too happy.  When the agents came up from the jetway, I could see him trying to get onboard.  It was kind of fun to watch.  They did eventually re-book him on my flight at 8:20a via JFK.

I boarded late and took my seat after saying hello to the flight attendant who looked very familiar.  I got settled in on N763JB, an Airbus A320 called “Unforgettably Blue.”

Before we left the gate, Captain Tom told us that our flying time was 1:03 and that we should make it to JFK early.  I was skeptical though as arriving at JFK does not really happens.  He continued to introduce his co-pilot Jason and the cabin crew, Anthony, Nick and Susan.  They were the same ones from my flight from Orlando to Buffalo yesterday.  He concluded by saying that we would cruise at 21,000′.

The Verrazano-Narrows Bridge joining Staten Island, NY to Brooklyn, NY

We pushed back at ontime at 8:20a and was airborne by 8:31a.  It was absolutely beautiful while heading down to JFK.  We passed right over the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge which connects Staten Island with Brooklyn, then we passed over Far Rockaway and came in for a landing into JFK at 9:36a.

As we taxied up to the gate, I noticed sixteen airplanes waiting for takeoff; good grief.  Our Captain had said that JFK was experiencing fog, but it should not affect us on landing.  Although I did get a tweet from @wanderingarmean saying that his flight was taking on extra fuel in case of delays coming into JFK from Houston-Hobby.  Unfortunately, he would arrive after I departed, so we would miss each other. I told him I’d wave to him as we passed each other.

A Cathay Pacific (CX) Boeing 777-300ER at the gate in JFK

We got to our gate at 9:49a, eight minutes late as we had to wait for an airplane to get pushed back.  The final leg of this All you can jet venture is at hand in less than two hours.

How is your Sunday morning going?

Follow me on twitter at http://www.twitter.com/mskonfa1990 for constant updates.  Also, you read what others are saying about All you can jet on twitter at http://twitter.com/#search?q=aycj.

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I checked twitter and e-mail and then got dressed via the noise of airplane engines climbing out of Orlando Airport right on cue at 6:00a.  This hotel needs soundproof walls.  I enjoy the noise, but I’m sure others do not.  So no “10″ rating for you La Quinta.  Another point deduction is for false advertising.  You said, you have Hi-speed Wireless Internet, but you neglected to say it was only in the Lobby.  You need a cable for the rooms.  The devil is in the details.  Other than that, it was a great stay.

I checked out and had a quick complimentary breakfast of a bagel, a muffin and grabbed a small tub of yogurt.  It was time to go to the airport via the 6:30a shuttle.  We pulled out making our first stop five minutes later at Alaska Airlines.  A couple was heading to Idaho on Alaska, the lady mentioned via Washington D.C.  Cheap fare I guess.  There is no easy way to get to Idaho really.

I chose to check-in via a person and was ushered to the much shorter Bag Drop line.  The agent, Robert greeted me, asked my destination, checked my driver’s license and then produced a boarding pass.  I told him that I did not get the return (as you remember, this happened in Austin last weekend as well).  I guess something is amuck with jetBlue’s system as the agents have to do something extra for connecting flights to be checked in in one entry.

He took back the boarding pass, checked it for the confirmation number and a few seconds later produced the two other passes for the return journey as well as the Orlando to Buffalo portion.  I then went off happily to the gate.

Security was not too bad and I breezed through it without incident then taking the waiting train to the 100s gates where I plugged in and connected and to the Internet.  It is time to start blogging.

As I waited at the airport for my flight, the David Letterman news is all over the TV.  How many different aspects can there be?  There is even a twitter reference, geez.

Boarding started about 7:42a.  I was almost the last to board and as I did, the gate agent noticed my #AYCJ button and gave me a woohoo!  Onboard, I said hello to Joe the flight attendant at the door.  It took a while to get to my seat as people were getting their acts together.  Just a note, don’t put your seatbelt on if the window seat is empty and boarding is not yet complete.  More than likely someone is coming for that seat.  This was the case in a few rows including mine.

We soon pushed back early at 8:06a and headed out to runway 17R-35L.  We were #3 for takeoff behind a jetBlue Embraer 190 and a Southwest Boeing 737-700.  A8:16a, we were off for Aguadilla, PR (BQN).

The folks next to me never said a word to me the entire flight, they just watched TV the whole time.  As a matter of fact, they never said anything to each other and they were traveling together.

Speaking of TV, they showed three free movies, well two Ice Age was shown in Spanish and English plus Year One.  Breakfast came soon after takeoff; the usual animal crackers, potato chips, cashew, etc. and drink of choice.  There were also offerings for a pillow and a blanket for  7 USD and headsets for those who did not get them outside for 2 USD.

I was checking out the flap positions on the wings and took some pictures.  Yes, that kind of stuff is fascinating.  It was interesting to see all the positions and imagine the pilots initiating the command in the cockpit.

It was great to see the first sight of Aguadilla, PR (BQN) perched atop the cliff off in the distance.  We negotiated our way in and landed nice and sweet at 10:45a.  I did notice the jetBlue Airbus A320 that came in from New York-JFK waiting for take off at the threshold to the runway.  I think it was a little delayed leaving.

Aguadilla, PR 03Oct., 2009.  We pulled up to the jetway-less terminal building which is basically just a hangar at 10:46a; but a beautiful hangar though that is 212′ above sea level.  I deplaned and asked permission to take pictures from the Officer nearby.  It was granted happily.  I thought I could just go to the gate, but alas the two areas were separate.  So I went outside.  I figured since I was already outside of security I should just say hello to the ticket counter agents.  They were very pleasant and even agreed to take the picture you see here.

They printed my boarding pass after which I ran outside to take a picture of the airport.  This airport is really small. Actually, it is an old hangar which is 212′ above sea level.  I then came back inside and cleared security which was a breeze since I was the last person to come through.  After the TSA, I went through Immigration who asked me where I’m from.  I told him and he said go ahead.  Puerto Rico is kind of odd with that.  You don’t need a proof of citizenship to travel there, but they ensure that when you are going to the U.S. mainland you have the legal rights to do so.

I then went and sat in the departure gate area which is just this huge room.  Off to one side is a tax free shop serving mostly alcohol; another odd thing about traveling to Puerto Rico.

In front of me are the gates for Spirit Airlines, jetBlue and Continental.  I did see that headsets were free, similar to Puerta Plata, Dominican Republic; they were the old headsets.

Boarding started in a few minutes and was split between the front and the rear stairs.  I had a chance to take the rear stairs, which was really cool.  As I walked out I saw the jetBlue Airbus A320 that was heading to New York-JFK take off.  I’m not sure why it was waiting so long for takeoff clearance as I had seen it on landing.

I boarded through the rear stairs and the two flight attendants there recognized me from before and asked if I had a good time and where was I headed next.  I said yes and advised I was heading to Buffalo, NY.  I made my way to my seat as the cold air condensed throughout the aircraft.  People were really fascinated by all that and took lots of pictures.

The door closed at 11:27a and we pushed back at 11:30a.  Hector, Luis and Joe took care of the safety demonstrations as we took a short taxi out to runway 8 then taking off at 11:38a.  It was beautiful you could clearly see that the airport was at the top of a cliff with the beautiful beaches below.

After takeoff, the flight attendants announced that headsets were 2.00 USD and pillow and blankets was 7.00 USD.  The movies were again free since we were out of range of the entertainment satellite.  The movies today were Ice Age – Dawn of the Dinosaurs, State of Play with Ben Afleck and Year One with Michael Cera and Jack Black.  I chose to watch Year One.

Our service was a bit delayed due to some turbulence, but once it started I was ready for the animal cookies and cashew nuts, my all time favorite.

The descent started a while later and I could get a good view of the airport and downtown Orlando on the way in.  The Orlando area is like Houston is goes forever and a day.

N505JB, “Blue Skies” landed at 2:07p and taxied into our gate by 2:11p.  Fantastic.  I guess I could have caught the other flights I was thinking of such as the 2:40p to Newark, NJ (EWR).  But I did not want any anxiety today so I just took the easy way out, Buffalo, NY (BUF) for wings.

How have your Saturday been going?  Did I mention how much I loved the Aguadilla, PR area?  I have to go back and soon.

You can always follow me on twitter at http://www.twitter.com/mskonfa1990 as I continue to fly the world one weekend at a time.  Also, you read what others are saying about All you can jet on twitter at http://twitter.com/#search?q=aycj.

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jetBlue’s schedule does not work so well when you live in the great state of Texas sadly. I wanted to do Bridgetown, Barbados (BGI), but that means a day off as the return flight does not connect well with my flight back home. I did however come up with an itinerary that takes me back to Buffalo, NY early enough to take the local bus downtown to have some Buffalo wings at the famous Anchor Bar.

Here is what I came up with, lame I know, but the real goal is to log Aguadilla, PR (BQN). If I could have made it back to Houston after that I would, but on Saturdays there is no late flight, only the 11:00a:

1. 03OCT Orlando, FL (MCO) to Aguadilla, PR (BQN)
2. 03OCT BQN to MCO
3. 03OCT MCO to Buffalo, NY (BUF)
4. 04OCT BUF to New York-John F. Kennedy, NY (JFK)
5. 04OCT JFK to Houston-Hobby (HOU)

Usually the e-mails come right away with the details of the flight information, but not today. I’d feel more comfortable if I could ensure that it is correct.  If it is, they will just have to fix it at no charge.

The agent gave me crap about my routing saying I cannot depart twice from Orlando in the same day.  I told her I was connecting through Orlando, so it was fine.  She then fixed it and continued.  Oh and this weekend I did change my existing flight home, so unless I misconnect or something, no $100 fee.

So while I’m flying around the Caribbean and the U.S. this weekend, what are you up to?

Follow me on twitter at http://www.twitter.com/mskonfa1990 for constant updates.  Also, you read what others are saying about All you can jet on twitter at http://twitter.com/#search?q=aycj.

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