Leaving on a jet plane

Sometimes when flying nonrevenue stand-by, you have to be creative.  In this case, the flights to New York were all pretty much full.  I don't know what was going on there that weekend, but then again isn't there always something going on in NYC?  

We left on Thursday morning from Indianapolis to Washington DC on a Delta Connection CRJ and then connected to another Delta Connection CRJ to New York-JFK.  That is the creativity we had to use in order to make it to NY that day.  It was about a four hour wait at JFK so we sat down at a Chilis for lunch.  The Madrid flight was wide open, with 40 seats open in coach and 30 open in business.  We cleared for business class about 30 minutes before departure and soon were off to Madrid!  We were welcomed on board into seats 10A, 10B, and 10C and given our drinks.

  My wife and I had some sparkling wine and Grace had some OJ.  This was Delta flight 126, a Boeing 777 aircraft.  The Captain announced that we would have a good tailwind and so it would be a quick 6 hour flight.  The flight was smooth on all parts except the few minutes when we entered the jetstream.  The meal was fantastic!  We started out with some hummus, Thai chicken and coconut soup, and a spinach salad.  For the main course, I chose the crab cakes, which were the best I have eaten.  It is rare that you can say that about an airline meal.  I washed it all down with a few gin and tonics and then had the ice cream sundae for dessert.  During the meal, I watched Night at the Museum part 2.

Later on, I reclined the seat to the flat sleeping position, turned on my cd mix of ABBA and Depeche Mode, and went to sleep for a few hours.

  I slept well with the down comforter and large pillow. 

When the light breakfast was served, I did not feel like eating so I just continued to sleep.  The plane was really hot and I did not feel well due to that.  I felt better after drinking some water and a splash of cold water to the face.  It was still dark out when we began our approach to Madrid's Barajas Internatonal Airport.  After landing, it was quite a long taxi to the terminal.  Once off the plane, we cleared customs and immigration within minutes and started the long walk to the Metro.