One of the joys of traveling for work every week is going to places you would probably never go too on your own. One of the downsides of traveling every week for work is going to places you would probably never go on your own. And one of the downsides of traveling every week for work is the occasional flight delays or cancellations you encounter. More on that in a moment.
On Monday morning I flew up to Allentown Pennsylvania Airport (ABE) via Charlotte (CLT) on American Airlines. With the two and a half hour layover in CLT, I didn’t arrive into ABE until 3:30pm.
I rented car at National Car Rental, and unlike the bigger airports where you pick out your own car, I was assigned a black Chevrolet Impala. Not a bad car, but this one was scarcely equipped, and did not have a phone/blue tooth option, nor backup camera, both of which I like.
I then had an hour drive to my hotel amid the road construction and afternoon traffic. I stayed at the Holiday Inn in Clinton New Jersey, which was actually quite nice. I was working a short drive away in the rural countryside and there were only a couple hotels in town; this and the Hampton Inn. You know you’re in a rural area when you can’t find a fast food place, but fortunately the hotel had a restaurant.
I had a 10 minute drive each day to work, along a hilly, country road, in this rural but picturesque community.
I worked some long hours this week so didn’t have time to explore the countryside, or the mill area of Clinton. The hotel sat up high on the hill, and had a mill replica at the entranceway.
I had my meals each night at the hotel after work, and the staff was friendly, and the food was good. Trying to eat healthier, I had the pineapple-planked salmon which was very tasty. Instead of served on a cedar plank, it was served on a large slice of pineapple, which added great flavors to it.
On Thursday I checked out of the Holiday Inn, and after working all day, drove back to my hotel near ABE airport, as I had a flight out of ABE at 8:45m on Friday. I worked a really long day on Thursday (8am – 8pm) and still had an hour drive to the hotel. I usually look up hotels on Trip Advisor (where I have an account and review hotels as well), but figured Hyatt Place Hotel’s are pretty standard, which inside the property they are. The issue I had with this property, however, was its location in downtown Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. While I’m sure there are some nice areas (maybe) in Bethlehem, I sure didn’t see them arriving after 9pm, and wasn’t about to out out and explore the town. The area seemed a bit seedy to me, set amongst row houses in an inner-city downtown area. Here are some pics as I left the next day.
I wasn’t planning on parking in a parking garage across the street, which was a pain with my luggage and laptop, and didn’t exactly feel safe with the bus-system depot right by the garage, which some questionable looking people. Anyway, I got checked in ok, and for one night i could handle it; it just wasn’t what I expected from an airport area hotel. Usually an airport hotel is in a business like setting with restaurants, fast-food, gas stations and other hotels etc with easy access to the airport. This location was not what I had in mind, and while distance-wise was only a few miles, the GPS said 20 minutes away, plus you needed additional time to walk to the garage with your luggage and exit.
After getting to my room, I ordered food from the lobby cafe. Hyatt Place offers a limited selection of food 24/7, and ha a small lobby bar open usually until 11pm or so. While they don’t deliver the food to your room, they will call you when it’s ready, and you pick up and pay for it in the lobby. I ordered a chef’s salad and a turkey club.I ate my food while Face-timing with DOS, and relaxed a few moments on the sofa. I was too tired to take pics of the room.
Just as I was going to bed and luck would have it, I got a text from American Airlines that my 8:45am flight from Allentown to Philadelphia was canceled! I knew American only two flights a day out of Allentown so this was not good, especially coming at 11pm when I was exhausted from the day. I did a quick Google search, and realized Philadelphia was only an hour and a half away by car, so I immediately made a couple calls to National and American. Fortunately, I could drop the car off at the Philadelphia airport, and American hadn’t rescheduled my flight yet when I called them. The drop fee for the car was an extra $125, and the flight was reissued via the American agent over the phone. Of course I don’t get a $200 change fee like they would charge me had I changed my flight! This is the second flight cancelation for me in a month where I had to drive to switch airports (other was on Long Island where I had to drive to Laguardia.) Both cancelations were mechanical (not weather related), and I think the airlines should be required to compensate passengers the same $200 change fee they charge them, when the airline cancels and/or changes your flight. It’s definitely a love/hate relationship with traveling. You love it when it’s good (generally) but hate it when it’s bad.
Fortunately this flight cancelation was actually better for me as I had a long layover in Philadelphia, and I could leave my hotel at 8am instead of 6:45am for the airport. Also I was glad I found out about the cancelation the night before, rather than arriving at the airport and already dropping my car off.
In the morning I drove to Philadelphia International Airport and dropped my rental car off, then took the shuttle to the American Airlines terminal. Although flying out of B12, I asked to be dropped off at the nicer A terminal as I knew this time of day the international terminal wouldn’t be very busy, and I could get some good walking steps in while I waited for my 11:30am flight.
Like Washington Dulles Airport, the morning hours of A terminal in Philly are quite slow as the international flights come in mostly in the afternoon, and the terminal is fairly deserted at this hour. I walked up and down the lengthy corridor, before stopping by the food court, and heading for my flight.
My two hour flight home was on an American Airlines 321 jet. This was one of the few times this year I didn’t get upgraded to First Class, but I had a nice exit row seat 10F, with no seat in front of me, and nice views out the window.
I got in to Orlando on time, and as always enjoy taking the tram back to the terminal.
DOS was there waiting for me, and we headed back to the house, glad that I didn’t get delayed until tonight with the early morning flight cancelation. Once home I noticed the pool was still being filed up with water. I had a leak in the pool, and the guys repaired it last week, but needed to do a followup cleaning this week which required draining and refilling the pool. He started it on Thursday, and it was still be filled up on Friday afternoon. I told him I was out of town, so he installed a cutoff switch when it got to a certain level, however it wasn’t even close to that until Saturday morning. Anyway, another work week is history. T.G.I.F!
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