I took a cruise during the Pandemic! Part 7

 Part 7 - Flight to Athens

Once I finally boarded the aircraft, and handed off my crew gifts of a couple giant bags of chocolates and about 24 little travel hand sanitizers (from Bath & Body works.  I think they're 5 for $8 bucks, and I sometimes stock up. I buy a variety of scents too.  Somehow, I think this may have been helpful, stay tuned.), I stored my bags (both in the overhead since I was in a bulkhead/exit row seat) I settled into my squishy economy seat, 26A.  Note that on this configuration of an AA 777-200, 26A is missing a window.  Actually, it's misaligned, just behind the seat.  I was able to 'rent' the window for my GoPro to make a take-off video.  The people behind me were also sailing on Celebrity Apex but I never ran into them again. The seat is a bit more narrow due to the tray table being in the arm, but I had legroom for miles.

You'll see a blue pillow in the images below.  I usually don't use travel pillows (as it's something ELSE to carry) but since I was in economy, and thinking MAYBE I wanted one, I looked at reviews of the best ones.  The one I ordered is Jensens Innovations J-Pillow and I got it from Amazon. It's PERFECT if you have a window seat as you put it between the wall and your head.  The J part goes under your chin.  It looks ridiculous but I really liked it, though I only used it on the flight home since I ended up in an aisle seat. (I'm not sponsored by nor is this an ad so that link is just an FYI)

26A

Yes, there was an outlet

My GoPro on my 'rented' window

"Private" exit door

            Contents of amenity kit

Amenity kit








                                                  

Row 26, and my J Pillow

One of the FAs brought me a couple of amenity kits as a thanks for the goodies.  He said "they're not all that great, so have two.) LOL.  That was very nice of him.  After the usual pre-flight videos and announcements (where, of course everyone was  reminded of the mask rules), someone was relocated to an open seat in my row.  (Bummer, but we had a seat between us to put our crap on, although she was a crap-seat space hog.  AND a shoe-taker offer which REALLY annoys me, but I digress).  I endeavored to raise the In Flight Entertainment (IFE) screen.  There was no knob or button present, so I tried to pull it up, to no avail.  One of the FAs came by and tried too, and had no luck.  I don't carry actual tools with me but I did have a thumbscrew from my GoPro so I poked around where the button was evidently missing in an effort to raise the screen.

Not happening.  At this point, a second FA came by and they both looked at their phones or handheld scanners to see what seats were open.  I was offered another extra legroom seat but it was not a bulkhead nor an aisle so I said that I'd stay put and just watch stuff on my phone.  Then one FA said, well, I have a seat you might like up in like row 15.  As a side note, I'm OCD about aircraft and I knew that the first row of economy or extra legroom economy was row 17. I also had a 99% suspicion that row 15 MIGHT actually be premium economy. He said, let's go take a look and if you like the space, it's yours.

DID I LIKE THE SPACE???  Hell to the yes!  I was right and it WAS premium economy. BOOM! Free upgrade to a seat that would have cost me $1600 more bucks (one way) for the small price of $30 bucks worth of candy and hand sanitizer.  Coincidence?  I don't think so.  I ALSO think that, since I had a pee-pee room AND a pee-pee car ride, the travel angels decided to throw a dog a bone. 

My new seat, 15C

Nice AA headphones

IFE controls, but it's also a touch screen, way easier

Tray table

I moved some of my stuff up with me, and eventually walked back shortly before breakfast to grab my other carry on out of the bin.  I was reseated in time for dinner which, in PE, was PROBABLY a lot better than in coach.  The beef was really good and while I am not 100% sure what the pinkish sauce was, it had a good taste.  Somewhere between ginger and pink peppercorn maybe.  Some of you may remember that the last couple times I was on an airplane, I felt dizzy.  I really watched my alcohol intake on the plane and in the lounge, and stayed hydrated with water and ginger ale.  I felt great this time. I think I had 2 glasses of wine in the lounge, diluted with a soda and water, and 2 on the plane, with water and soda in between. 

My seatmate was perfect too.  They wore their mask the whole time, except when eating, had the noise cancelling headphones on watching Dreamgirls and other movies, did NOT take off their shoes (well they had on the slipper socks given to us) and wasn't one to make me get up 80 times for restroom breaks.  They actually went after I went so that I wasn't all settled in and inconvenienced.  (TBH, I was so happy to be in PE for free that I didn't care but the fact that this traveler has obviously traveled a lot and knows basic airplane etiquette made me extra happy).  For the record, I switched into a pair of slippers for the flight, which I promptly placed in a plastic bag when we landed, and blasted with LYSOL when I to the hotel.

I later found out that my seatmate was off to Mykonos to party with their friends after a couple nights in Athens.  Frankly I wished that we weren't both so engrossed in our IFE screens as I think we'd have had a great chat.  Sometimes you want your seatmate to shut up, but in this case, I think I missed out on some fun convos.  They'd been to Greece before and travel quite a bit, so I probably could have picked up some tips.

As usual, I didn't sleep, I was too excited.  I watched a lot of episodes of a show called "All Rise" which was a CBS courtroom show a few seasons back. I thought it was a great show to distract me from the long flight. Pro Tip:  Do NOT watch the display of the route!  LOL, makes the trip seem a LOT longer.  Just kidding, but the less I looked at it, the farther we got.  At one point, the tail wind was around 100 MPH or the equivalent. I guess one of my #avgeek friends will let me know if that's possible BUT our flight time was just 8 hours and 11 minutes and we landed early!

There was plenty on the IFE to keep passengers occupied.  Movies, TV shows, music-LOTS of choices so don't worry! There's something for everyone.  I will say that may people did nap but lots of people had their faces in the IFE the whole time.

The route map

Dinner: beef & potatoes, key lime pie, roll and salad w/chicken

The partly unwrapped version.  And I had wine too.

Breakfast was a continental breakfast and it was good but the croissants should have been taken out of the fridge somewhere over London.  They were kind of cold but a quick dunk in the decent coffee helped a lot.  We did not park at a jetbridge, rather we were at a hard stand when they roll up a couple staircases, you walk down hauling your crap, walk across the tarmac and get onto a bus.  That sucked but a nice man carried one bag down for me. We piled into a rather hot bus (they actually didn't over pack the bus-Covid you know) and rode to the terminal.

Breakfast, also had OJ and coffee

The fruit was really good

I could not believe I was actually THERE!  In ATHENS!  During a pandemic!  

Next up, getting through the airport, finding my ride and the drive to my hotel.