Sigh, I only had 10 mins from arrival time from my first flight to the boarding time of my second flight. Luckily it is not too far away – just 10 gates away. 

My second flight is flying off earlier by 5 mins and the first flight was slightly delayed by the time I got out of the plane. So I literally walk straight from gate to gate with no chance to go to the toilet at the airport at all. By the time I walked to the gate, it is already boarding group 3 or 4 while I am boarding group 6.

I feel like I am running around airports in this trip so far. First it was my SFO – PHX journey, now it is my PHX – DTW – LGA journey. It is as though running in my airport is my nee cardio workout.

Now the plane is not moving because there is 1 guy who is like drunk or on drugs. He is like seated 1 row in front of me but on the other side of the plane. He kept talking and disturbing other female passengers. The air stewardess first moved the lady in the same row as him to a different seat. The guy next to him then move to the aisle seat and have a distance away from him. 

Then he started disturbing the female passenger in front of him and the air stewardess moved her to another seat and he started shouting. Shrugs. It’s like delayed by 1 hr which is like the total flight duration to New York from Detroit if we had depart on time. Other passengers are filming the commotion as well. 

In the end, all of us have to deplane with all our hand carry luggage and let the guy deplane last. I even saw police with guns when I exited the plane. Oh my. What a life drama. Luckily he caused the commotion before we fly. The downside? It’s like 1 hr delay now and I am still in Detroit. The flight time from Detroit to New York is 1 hr. Lol. Luckily it happened before takeoff or I am not sure how it will be during flight…

I’m now on my first domestic flight to New York. It’s my first time going to New York and I am there for vacation. It’s pretty exciting yet scary for me at the same time.

My flight was at 6am MST and I managed to finish packing earlier and checkout earlier as well. Fortunately my scheduled Uber ride came earlier as well so I ended up reaching at 3:45am. The baggage drop off counter was not even open at that time even though I slowly take my own sweet time to print the baggage tags and join in the queue for baggage drop off point. I heard that someone said the counter will open 2 hrs before the first flight. In the end the counter open close to 4am. I guess I am taking the first flight after all.

No wonder my colleague said that the airport will be quite empty after hearing that my flight is at 6am. No wonder my Uber driver is telling me that the first flight out of the airport is at 5am. No wonder when we drove past Terminal 4, it is nearly empty. I was shocked as I have never seen such an empty domestic airport in US before…

I even had time to finish drinking my fruit juice smoothies (2 packs as I did not want to throw them away) and half a bottle of water before heading to the security checks.

Wow, I just realised that my expected flight landing time in the transit airport is just 10 mins before the boarding start time for my next flight. 😮 Oh my gosh. Do I have to run again? 🙁 

I wanted to blog about my flight experience when I had a 1h 50min layover at SFO airport. It was my third flight journey. My second flight (NRT – SFO) was delayed and I had to run to catch my third flight (SFO – PHX). I literally ran with my hand carry luggage to clear customs (25mins queue for a 30 secs check). Then ran to baggage claim to collect both of my checkin luggage. Then ran to drop off my checkin luggage followed by to the boarding gate. I made it just in time when the boarding starts.

Moral of the story: Try to book at least 2.5hrs layover for international to domestic flights next time.

I almost messed up… I took free shuttle bus to go Fashion Square shopping mall at Scottsdale and scheduled a return trip back to hotel at the same point. However, the exit was closed because Dillard was closed so I couldn’t exit from there. Luckily I found another way back and was able to find my way out.

I was trying to find my way and remembered my way back in case it was wrong way. All these while trying to come up with plan B to book Uber ride from Fashion Square to the hotel. Then I was struggling to set the pick up point on the Uber app.

Then while walking out and hoping it is the right way, the shuttle bus came and I ran after it and made it in time. Luckily the driver saw me… Otherwise it could be quite scary. Somehow I was able to keep myself calm at that time given that the path is quite dark. Fortunately, there was a group of ladies walking the same path or it will be even scarier to walk alone in that path which is just next to a carpark. It could be quite dangerous for me to walk alone…

I was wide awake after sleeping for 1.5 hrs. It’s quite an achievement given that I usually cannot sleep much on flights. This time I have a goal – to sleep as much as I can without trying to match my destination timezone. Can fall asleep already very good liao haha. I shall not give myself too much pressure. 

I was able to sleep for 1 hr for my first flight (SIN – NRT) and 1.5 hrs so far for my second flight (NRT – SFO). I doubt I can sleep for the third flight (SFO – PHX) as it will be quite shaky since it is a smaller aircraft for domestic short distance flights. 

I hope jet lag won’t be too bad for me and I hope to achieve more than 4 hrs of sleep daily. Last year was especially tough with just 4 hrs of sleep a day during my entire US journey. Even Gulabi got worried for me because I hardly sleep… She knows I can really sleep and will keep snoozing my alarm usually. So she was quite worried why I can sometimes wake up before my alarm.

For my first flight, I was sitting at the front row seats for Premium Economy so there was quite a bit of leg room. Unfortunately I was seated next to a guy who decided to put his feet on the board in front of us. Then he was snoring as well. I can smell a bit of his smelly feet even though I was wearing a mask. I also can hear his snoring when I removed my headset. So I just keep wearing my headset (Bose NC 700) which simply cancels out his entire snoring noise. Definitely can trust Bose when it comes to Active Noise Cancellation. 🙂 

For my second flight, I was seated next to a rather judgemental white lady. She kept looking at what I am doing – using wet wipes to clean my seat, then my bracelets, etc. I was also munching on snacks during take off.

Actually I got a bit of blocked nose and sinus back flow before my flights so I was worried that the same issue that happened in my Hong Kong flights will happen. I realised I haven’t finished uploading my Hong Kong photos so the post about my flight experience is not out yet. 

Luckily so far so good so may it remain this way until the end of my entire trip.