Remember back in 2008 'The Trip 2008'? 

Well just as an addendum with some other information... 

For the past 4 years and a few months my lovely wife has been an employee of Delta Airlines so we again are flying Non- Rev Space Available (NRSA) whenever possible. 

We have had some lovely flights around the continent and into Hawaii. But the most interesting are the ones VIA Delta One service into and out of Amsterdam (all the way to and from Salt Lake City) and just the other day into and out of Dublin, Ireland (thru JFK) with associated flights to and from SLC. 

When going to Ireland we landed at JFK and used Gate B39. 

A few hours later to go from JFK to Ireland with again used Gate B39. 

Upon arriving back at JFK from Ireland we again used Gate B39. 

However, when it was time to fly back to SLC from JFK we were to use Gate C65... 

Something felt ominous and familiar about Gate C65... something kinda eerie... 

When suddenly I realized that Gate C65 was the new designation of Gate 25 after it had been somewhat remodeled in the past 10 years... 

We did not get a chance to study this gates operations as when we were watching to see if we were going to be able to leave we were almost downtrodden as there were 4 comfort seats and we were number 5 and 6 on that list and the normal list for other seats on the flight were way overbooked and we would most likely be bumped to a later flight or have to look for other routing to get home... the curse of Gate 25 seemed to be overshadowing our return... 

Something (karma like?) happened... maybe it was because of the original 'The Trip 2008' and all but we were called to the gate counter and were told there were 2 seats in comfort but they were separated and not together in fact they were also middle seats (as opposed to being window or isle) and we jumped on them... no problem... we were going to get home as we had planned without any other delays ...yay.... 

It appeared that the curse of 'Gate 25' had been broken...  

The seating on the aircraft for those 2 comfort seats had us at the most forward area of the comfort zone which meant (to my seat) no seat back tray in front me ... and the tray came out of the armrest... I have come to refer to these as the squeeze seats ... tight to get into, and totally defined boundary area between seat mates... I also had 2 normal large gentlemen in the window and isle seats and we were able to all fit ok. 

The seating for my lovely wife was a little different. She had a window occupying young lady that seemed to have to have her way in how she was served by the flight attendants and getting her snacks just the way she wants them and could you please drop everything and bring her a water since she missed out of the cups being served (for hydration) but no she wanted it in a bottle anyway and also to bring her the correct snacks she wanted... the Flight Attendant held his own and kept to himself but I think he was trying to figure out a way to make the ejections seat work for this young lady when she went to use the facilities... 

Her isle seat mate was a gentleman that was of middle stature. However, he late in the flight (about 2-3 hours in) opened a takeout container that was full of sushi... not just some leftovers but a full serving and it had been away from cooktops or refrigeration for at least 3 hours... she said it reeked ... and she almost gagged and on... 

But other than that we made it home and 'Gate 25' no longer exists and 'Gate C65' which replaced it holds no ill for us to travel thru it for now...