Newark

I have flown this route every other month for the last 4 months and Newark, New Jersey has become my first and last stop in the United States. Luckily for me, the Newark Airport is better equipped that Newark itself and is not my least favorite airport through which to pass. The best part is that it is Continental's hub, so there are plenty of President's lounges scattered throughout the airport.

Outgoing is not really an issue, since you arrive in the middle of the afternoon and everything in the airport is at full speed. All the restaurants, shops and lounges are open and the place is abuzz with commerce and activity. It also makes for excellent people watching as it is the combination of two great inputs: ignorant travelers and people from New Jersey. It is like being surrounded by thousands of Janices from Friends. Ohhh Myyy Gawd!

The inbound trip is a little less exciting and a lot more challenging. There are several terminals at Newark Airport which are not actually connected to each other. My flight from Delhi arrives at Terminal C around 4:00am. I am usually one of the first off the plane, so add another 15 minutes for customs clearance and then another 10 to 20 for baggage claim. After retrieving your bags, you must then re-check them after passing through baggage inspection. This adds another 10 minutes. So now it is 4:45am.

My flight to Minneapolis leaves from Terminal A at 9:00am. Terminal A is a long way from Terminal C, especially since after you pass through the aforementioned customs and baggage process, you are outside of security. As well, the lounge at terminal A does not open until 7:00am. This leaves 2 hours to mill about an empty airport - or so I thought.

My first pass through Newark, I did exactly what logic would dictate. I went through the arrival procedure and diligently hopped on the train between terminal C and terminal A. I arrived at terminal A at about 5:20am, pass through security and sat in an empty gate area for 2 hours awaiting lounge service. There needed to be a better way.

Before the next trip, I did a little research on the airport and found that the lounge in Terminal C actually opens at 5:00am. The pickle seemed to be that I would need to clear terminal C security with a terminal A ticket, sit in the lounge for 2 hours, exit security, travel to terminal A and re-clear security. Seemed awfully complicated.

On trip #2, I gave it a whirl. There was a little bit of hassle at security as I explained to the English as a second language TSA employee that I just wanted to use the lounge. Eventually he got it and let me through. The lounge opened at 5:00am as billed and my diabolical plan was working.

As I was exiting the lounge, I thought I would ask the question about getting to Terminal A just to make sure I had not missed anything. Sure enough, there was a shuttle bus! Yep, a bus that kept you this side of security and took you directly to the terminal. I was all a flutter with the excitement that I had enhanced my already brilliant plan.

As I deplaned this morning, I had my plan all set. I re-checked the bag, passed through terminal C security, enjoyed a bagel and a decaf coffee at the Terminal C lounge, hopped the Terminal A bus and resettle in the Terminal A lounge. I write this from the Terminal C lounge at 7:45am and can report that the plan is perfect!

Although this may seem like I put in a great deal of effort on this, I do get that tingle of satisfaction for solving something that actually never really needed solved in the first place.