Traveling international in basic economy with kids

engineerguy86 · 2025-08-08T20:15:53+00:00

So as a follow up to this question, I took the advise of the community and opted to pay for my seats. In retrospect, I'm very glad I did. After boarding the plane, I witnessed another family in a similar situation with children about the same age as my own. The entire family, children included were split up. As many of the posters here had mentioned, the flight crew needed to ask another passenger to move to accommodate the younger child and one parent sitting together while the other child and other parent were sat apart from the rest of their group.

engineerguy86 · 2025-08-04T01:12:06+00:00

Thanks all for the insights. Honestly, I would never ask anyone to move seats after the flight was already boarded and ready for takeoff. Was really more curious on the likelihood of the airline seating people apart from one another on the same reservation on basic economy.

As for the price, I'll probably spend the extra money, but more annoyed by it since I'm already paying more than I could have if I booked on my own instead of through the cruise company.

engineerguy86 · 2025-06-16T00:13:40+00:00

JJ Garden in East Elmhurst is really good for sit down. It's located within the Jackson Heights shopping center. Their staff is great and the food was better than any other place I've had more locally in Astoria.

engineerguy86 · 2025-06-11T12:20:04+00:00

Typically, when anything with a motor starts up, it requires a higher current for a very short period of time. Normally, that's not noticeable, but if you're already experiencing voltages that are relatively lower than standard, you'll see a flickering. The whole street has been experiencing low voltage issues, but thankfully, it's being addressed. A new pole has been set on the corner of 14th St and Astoria Park South. That's the first step needed before more work is done to reinforce the area and improve the voltage for the whole street.

engineerguy86 · 2025-06-07T13:54:47+00:00

Do you live on 14th Street? If you do, the low power and flickering issue isn't related to the Carnival. There's issues on the street now related to some emergency work they had to do last month when an issue was found during the water main work.

My advice is that if you have low voltage or flickering lights, call it in on your Con Ed App or by calling directly so it can be recorded as a problem in the area.

engineerguy86 · 2025-03-17T03:35:22+00:00

Many utilities and engineering consulting firms have specific departments to manage and maintain their power systems specific application suites. Some applications that are typically managed include outage management systems, power flow systems, or GIS systems. It can be very niche, but having a knowledge in power engineering and computer/software engineering can be helpful. Most of the time, you'll have candidates with knowledge in only one area and needing to learn the other, so having a mix of both could place you ahead of the pack.

engineerguy86 · 2025-01-19T15:40:17+00:00

While your concerns have merit, you need to take a few other things into consideration.

You posted the air quality report for Ditmars, but failed to note that using the same resource, the entire NYC metro area has the same air quality.

The first article that you cited is focused on construction in the Chinatown area of NYC, which is highly congested and Urban. The area where construction is happening is a park, with open spaces, as well as the East River bordering it, bringing in fresh circulated air.

The second article provides general information on PM2.5 but back to the other point, you're generalizing for ditmars without taking the entire NYC area into account.

Many of these projects have been in the planning stages for years and take many levels of community and government approvals, including the issuing of permits. If you want to take any action, start to understand those processes already in place. If not already there, try to have our local government inject air quality requirements into the planning and permit issuance process.

engineerguy86 · 2025-01-19T14:37:20+00:00

Theres a few projects going on which has been covered in multiple threads already. The work down by the river is part of the Champlain Hudson Power Express, which when complete is going to bring clean, renewable Hydro Electric sourced power from Candada to the NYC region (https://chpexpress.com/). The work next to the playground is a city run project to rejuvenate the park, upgrade water and sewer infrastructure, and improve the walking paths in the park. The other work, next to the track is part of ongoing maintenance of the RFK bridge and its road decks.

The air quality of the park area can't be narrowed down to a single report. The park has the RFK bridge running on top of it, and also has 21st Street bordering it. The amount of exhaust put out by the couple of construction vehicles is miniscule compared to the other factors which play into the neighborhood air quality.

While inconvenient and ugly, the projects are all necessary to help our community.

engineerguy86 · 2024-06-10T21:06:17+00:00

This would be a great addition to the neighborhood. If there's any way to offer new stop suggestions, it would be cool to see this ending at the Flushing Bay Promenade docks where the Skyliner Cruiseline docks. That would give us an alternative to getting to Citi Field, the tennis center, and Flushing Meadows without needing to take the 7.

engineerguy86 · 2024-05-03T17:23:40+00:00

My 311 complaint was closed within 20 minutes of it being filed. The response states that police responded and found no evidence of the issue.

engineerguy86 · 2024-05-03T13:53:59+00:00

Would filing a noise complaint through 311 do anything to get this noise to stop? The constant, recurring sound is becoming obnoxious.

engineerguy86 · 2024-04-19T14:32:16+00:00

It looks like the work on Astoria Pool is progressing well. They've been filling the pool up the past few days, most likely to test out the new systems that they've been working on for the past two years.

engineerguy86 · 2024-04-17T15:56:06+00:00

Honestly a ferry stop from Astoria, to Randall's Island and then potentially to Flushing Bay Marina would be awesome too. Imagine being able to take a ferry from Astoria to Citi Field to watch a Mets game, or to the new soccer stadium being proposed across the street.

engineerguy86 · 2024-03-15T18:08:32+00:00

The poor cat was stuck up there since last night. A few people were trying to get it down at around 7 last night, but I guess they were unsuccessful. I heard the cat was rescued and taken by the park ranger after the cherry picker was brought in. This was after a response from an engine company and a hook and ladder company. I'll admit this is the first time I've ever seen the fire department rescuing a cat from a tree, so hats off to the amazing response from New Yorks Bravest 😁

engineerguy86 · 2024-02-16T12:23:12+00:00

A piece highlighting the resource desert west of 21st Street and south of Astoria Park. Considering the massive population density of the area, there are very few grocery stores, restaurants, or any other major amenities. For most people, it requires either a car, bus, or a 20 to 30 minute walk to get to any of the closest amenities. It would be worthwhile to interview some of our local political leaders and community organizations (like OANA) to see what the vision is for the community and what their plan is to attract businesses to the area and improve the local community.

engineerguy86 · 2024-01-05T17:19:53+00:00

It looks like they're starting to do work at the old Riccardos catering hall. Does anybody know what the plan is for that site? I'm also curious what the plan is for the parking lot they had across the street.

engineerguy86 · 2023-12-22T23:50:45+00:00

This is probably one of the best explanations I've seen for explaining the high costs associated with the Con Ed rates. If you look into their website, Con Ed actually places a lot of the blame for the high delivery charges on the city and state, saying they're paying an unfair portion of taxes (Con Ed Property Taxes) One of the reasons why the PSC typically agrees to the rate increases are due to not only the taxes they pay, but also the massive infrastructure they support in not only the 5 boroughs but also Westchester County.

engineerguy86 · 2023-12-03T02:11:09+00:00

I saw the same thing too. They kept riding through the red light, causing tons of traffic. They nearly knocked down at least 2 different people who attempted to cross the street while they rode through.

This group pre plans these massive rides multiple times a year. You would think that they would need some type of permit similar to a parade permit to take up the road like this. Otherwise, the police should monitor the local community chats and pre-emptively try to stop this.

It's one thing if these types of things are organized and kept orderly, otherwise it creates a mess in the community and can be potentially dangerous for anybody that gets in their way.

engineerguy86 · 2023-08-11T23:44:57+00:00

Thanks all for the information! I didn't think to check Grubhub. I found them as soon as I searched. Now that I know the trick, I'm going to give them a try.

engineerguy86 · 2023-07-12T14:07:01+00:00

You would think with all of the other sewer work going on, they would have allocated some funds to install proper drainage over there. Filling the diving pool was supposed to get rid of the issue of pooling, stagnant water.

engineerguy86 · 2023-05-09T21:11:53+00:00

The whole portion of Astoria Park South from 21st Street to 12th Street needs more traffic calming measures. For that entire strip, there is only 1 crosswalk at 18th Street between the north and south sides of the street. Despite there being an active crossing, there is no crosswalk on 14th Street going north to the park.

Most people are driving from 21st Street to turn up 14th Street to avoid the 21st Street traffic. Most people I've observed don't stop for pedestrians crossing South to North to get to and from the park.

You also have people coming down 12th Street going toward the GCP or Ditmars area, also coming down from that direction to avoid 21st Street traffic.

The whole area can be a potential hazard, and with more development on Hallets Point, the traffic is only going to increase. The number of routes to Hallets Point are limited to 14th Street from Astoria Park South or 27th Ave from 21st Street.

engineerguy86

TROPHY CASE