I joined a couple of my colleagues at the ONUG Fall 2023 event so that we could talk to people about the Networking 2.0 stuff we’re building at Atsign.

For the trip to New York I was pleased to find that I could get there and back from Gatwick (and at a reasonable price).

Travel

jetBlue LGW-JFK

I remember friends in the US raving about jetBlue, but I’ve never flown with them myself. They now do transatlantic flights, and things are a bit different from other carriers:

• They’re using a narrow body Airbus 321LR rather than the wide bodied aircraft that usually ply the transatlantic routes.
  • Roughly half the cabin is ‘Mint’ business class pods, which look very nice. With the rest being economy, including a few rows of “Even More Space” extra legroom seats.
• They offer (very reasonable) one way fares, which makes it possible to avoid the usual silly prices unless you stay over Saturday rigmarole from the traditional carriers.
• Flights from Gatwick, which for me avoids a 1-1.5hr £100 taxi ride (that takes me right past Gatwick).

My flight was somewhat marred by one of the two toilets in the ‘core experience’ (economy class) being out of action, but apart from that it was pretty decent. I liked that they had free WiFi, though it was a bit patchy, and blocked SSH got in the way of some work stuff I’d wanted to do. Lunch was decent, though sadly they follow the typical US pattern of having no soft drinks without caffeine and/or high fructose corn syrup :(

We arrived a little early, and the tiny international arrivals part of their terminal got me on my way pretty promptly.

Sonder Henri on 24

Finding a hotel near the venue at a reasonable price was the usual NYC challenge, and having had a good experience with Sonder in Chicago I thought I’d try them again. Henri on 24 was within walking distance of the event, and also just a block away from one of my favourite haunts – Barcade Chelsea.

My little studio had everything I needed for a few days, and it was great to be able to use wired Ethernet during my All Day DevOps presentation (which I’d signed up for when I still expected to be in the UK).

Norse JFK-LGW

Norse are a new airline with a familiar feel. It’s the rebadged Norwegian 787s from their transatlantic fleet, flying the same routes, with the same execs running the show, and some of the same silly rules :(

• 10kg limit on carry on (they even impose this on ‘Premium’ tickets now, which used to allow a much more sensible 15kg).
• No online check-in – you have to go to the desk (so that they can check carry on is within limits).
• No TSA Pre, as they’re not yet integrated with the programme.

But… they beat jetBlue on price for my return leg, and they also fly to Gatwick. I took some comfort in knowing what to expect from previous experiences flying Norwegian.

They fly from JFK Terminal 7, which is BAs old terminal, and perhaps even more grim now than it was in the BA days. The only lounge is the Aer Lingus one, which has stopped doing day passes. Though it was possible to find somewhere comfortable to sit, and the free WiFi worked well enough.

Check-in was a bit of a zoo (even in the premium line) with lots of time consuming friction around carry-on and “personal item” size and weight limits. Though when it was my turn the process was quick and efficient enough (it was just slow for everybody else that showed up with too much stuff in the wrong sort of bags). Boarding seemed pretty smooth though, and the onboard experience was exactly what I expected from previous Norwegian flights.

They got me to Gatwick ahead of schedule, and I was home within an hour of wheels down, which was great, as I’d be lucky to be getting into a taxi at that point on a Heathrow flight (only to then contend with the M25 at rush hour). Despite previous reservations about using Norwegian for business travel, I’d probably go with Norse again based on this experience. For one thing they seem to have sorted out punctuality :)

Bags

Threading the needle of the different rules for the two airlines meant some changes from my usual US loadout.

jetBlue’s dimensions of 22x14x9″ for a carry on are too small for my 22″ roller (even though I’m pretty sure it would have easily fit on its side)[1]. And I’ve been caught out before by Norwegian’s Norse’s ridiculous 10kg limit. So the roller stayed at home, and I used the Lowe Alpine Pioneer 26 I bought in August for the far East trip as my carry on. But it’s not big enough for everything I wanted to take, and for the Norse leg I needed something I could put the heavy (but small) stuff in to keep below the weight limit.

Enter the Aerolite 40x30x15cm, a bag that’s specifically designed for the size limit for a ‘personal item’ that’s been imposed by most European carriers post Covid; a limit that’s also used by Norse.

There’s room for the gadget bag I keep handy when flying, my cables bag, my power bank, my iPad, my toiletries, my hydroflask and my laptop; which is all the heavier stuff, and also all the things that need pulling out when going through security. So it’s a pretty handy way of organising everything. I could see it being sufficient for a business daytrip, or even a weekend if I was travelling tech light.

Patagonia make a bag they call the MLC for Maximum Legal Carry-on. This is maybe an MLP, for Maximum Legal Personal-item. For comparison the MLC is 45 litres, whilst the MLP is 18.

Trtl Travel ‘Pillow’

I came across Trtl last year, and put one on my Christmas list. This was my first time trying it (as it was my first overnight flight that wasn’t business class). It’s not a pillow at all, but rather a plastic neck brace covered in some soft fabric. It worked really well, and I managed a few hours of decent sleep. Given that it packed into my hand luggage easily I’ll be happy to give it room on future trips.

Note

[1] It was good to see the carry on rules being well enforced by jetBlue during boarding, which meant we didn’t end up with any silliness of people with bags far from their seats, or having to gate check stuff. There was even room in the overheads for some of those ‘personal items’ to go up after takeoff.