Confused by ATC Instructions

Hello! Earlier today I loaded into JFK to start a flight. Looking at the ATIS, the departure runways were 13R and 22R. After pushback I requested taxi to 13R, but I was instructed to taxi to 13L. I was a little bit confused as to why I was given 13L as no one else was departing off this runway. Regardless, I acknowledged and taxied to 13L. Upon reaching 13L I was told to taxi to 22R. This wasn’t a big deal, just a bit of an inconvenience having to taxi all the way down 13L and back. I’m wondering if I could have done something to avoid this, like request to taxi to 13R again after I had been told to taxi to 13L? I didn’t do this because I didn’t want to be reported for sending duplicate messages and ATC is almost always right. Thanks!

Side note: I saw @DeerCrusher take off in front of me, I was honored

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I have no knowledge of the real scenario at that moment, so it’s hard for me to say anything; so I recommend you send a DM to the controller so that he can explain what happened and the reason for the apparently meaningless instructions.

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You can contact the controller who gave you the instructions to inquire about the situation, as far as I can see the situation, is a clear mistake by the ATC.

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Here are the screenshots from ATC. In between, there seemed to be a controller change so this may have had something to do with it.


I will try and get in contact with the controller, thanks!

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