Yes – it’s another redux trip report!  This trip report originally was posted on FlyerTalk  in October 2008 (before this blog even was a blink in my mind). Once again – I’ve tarted it up a bit, and added some more supporting content that wasn’t there last time and just made it a bit more readable. I’m still working through the rest of the archive 

Yes – it’s another economy report. And yes, I suppose I could had merged it into the previous report. Meh is my response to that

If you’re too used to sitting at the front of the plane, its an insight into how life is down the back of the bus. If life in the back is pleasant enough, you’ll understand where I’m coming from. Again, I’m going to try and keep it more “trip” report as opposed to “flight” report. Moans, complaints, compliments and certifications of madness to the usual box below

And to begin… (Introduction, Preamble, Prologue, oh heck, if you’ve read one of my trip reports before, its the beginning bit with some very flimsy excuse for the journey)

Sometimes I hate FlyerTalk. It gives me WAY too many ideas! In particular was the SFO Mega DO.

On and off this year, I’ve been thinking of doing a mileage run to push for Star Alliance Gold, and in reality, I have been looking for the most flimsiness of feeble excuses to actually get my hind end in gear and actually fly (Singapore and Tokyo was in contention at an early point). The Mega-Do seemed like a good idea at the time (I’m blaming my coffee at work), and after a bit of math, it would go a *long* way to hitting Gold this year.

A mixture of good company and a city I’ve never been to seemed far too tempting…

Planning

Meanwhile, in another thread, I had worked out that in some cases, booking code shares was cheaper than actually booking on the originating carrier. In this case it was BMI vs United, with BMI charging £355.50 and United charging £450.50 for the same flights (and then there’s BA charging a whopping £531. Sorry HIDDY… I’m sure you’ll understand !).

That’s a whopping £95 price difference. And £95 is plenty of drinkies or even a hotel room in SFO (actually, 2 nights… but I’m getting ahead of myself).

Flights were booked on the BMI engine, and a PNR issued, and then the task of assigning seats begun.

This is another joy of code-sharing as BD says ring UA, UA says ring BD… Nothing like a joined up system here kids . After a bit of minor hair pulling and speaking in phonetics to the UA call centre, I had a PNR in my greasy hands.

Since this journey was starting pretty much after I got home, I thought there might be a visa waiver issue. Turns out I was as usual panicking over nothing.

As it was a 4 day journey (and nothing more) I decided this time that travelling light was the order of the day. So out went the 100ltr rucksack and it was down to a little rollaboard with a few polo-shirts and t-shirts, a pair of trousers and enough light stuff for a few days.

If you can’t tell where SFO and LHR are…
Map provided by the most wonderful Great Circle Mapper – http://gc.kls2.com

So it begins… again…

National Express
Birmingham Digbeth Coach Station -> London Heathrow

It doesn’t seem like 3 weeks I was standing in this exact same spot. Oh wait a second. It was (well, 2 weeks, 6 days and 22 hours – but who’s counting)

As most of you know, the most UK public transport infrastructure shuts down at 10pmish, and it doesn’t wake up until 6am. Considering I need to be sitting in a plane at 10:05, a nice lay-in wasn’t going to happen.

Yes it’s Digbeth Coach station again.

Therefore it was a 04:15 coach… Again this was a trip down the M40, weaving our way through the black British countryside until we reached London Heathrow Airport.

Changing times – where Concorde one sat, there’s now an EK A380…

London Heathrow Terminal 1
Ah yes, the bright spectre of hope and illusion, that jewel of the United Kingdom’s aviation crown commonly known as the hell of London Heathrow Terminal 1.

Terminal 1 – For once it actually looks pretty.

Oh who am I kidding? It’s a retail outlet with some airbridges built into it.

After getting off the coach and rolling my way around to check in, I decided some fresh air was needed, so obviously I went outside and joined the smokers who were polluting the atmosphere for a bit before dealing with the hell of check-in.

Since moving into T1, United seems to have taken an awful big chunk of the terminal for itself, with Zone C being quiet large. I had a look at the Economy queue, which was… getting long. Thankfully, the beloved Silver card was whipped out and I was diverted away from Mr Chicken to a real live agent. After location my reservation and printing me a zone 1 pass, I asked if there was any chance of an E+ seat. This was confirmed as a window seat on the exit row (35K) after parting with £56

My brain was fried at that moment since being up from since midnight and not even adjusting back to UK time correctly, so I didn’t realise the exit slide would be next to me. I only realised this when actually boarding. Oops.

Security was a breeze, with practically no one around. It was then through to departures and the big hunt for the day – a working power plug and a semi working Internet connection. After realising one of the phones I had has the battery endurance of a firecracker, power became more urgent. Except none of the sockets I was finding were working.

Grrr.

Remember I said Heathrow sends people to sleep? Point

As I was wandering, I saw that Skype were doing free 10-minute calls. This was abused to a small effect as I needed to contact two important persons before I disappeared out of the country, (My mother and father). Alas no working power sockets near by there.

With about an hour to go before boarding, I decided to try my luck at the BMI Diamond Club, fully expecting to refuse me entry as a BD*S on a code share ticket with UA. However, the agents took pity on me (be it my charming demeanour, my honesty, the lack of people in there or the Flyertalk tags on the top of the rollaboard) and let me in. it was then off for a double espresso and a working main socket to charge both the iPhone and the laptop for a bit, keeping very quiet and out of the way. The lounge itself was very empty with most of the long haul flights going or gone, so it was very quiet with the telly mumbling away to itself.

Charging at the now defunct Gate 14 lounge

Gate 14 Diamond Club

After getting a reasonable charge level out of the mains for both the phone and the laptop, it was time to commence boarding, so the hike over to gate 46 begun. As I was hyper on the coffee shot, I was there in no time at all, all bright and breezy. Boarding had already commenced, and so I went in the queue to be processed and boarded.

United 747 looking pretty in the morning sun.

United Airlines 955/BD4495 London Heathrow – San Francisco International
Boeing 747-400 V1 Configuration – Old Colours
Seat 35K (exit row), Channel 9 Enabled

The Boeing 747 is one of the queens of the sky, with its distinctive body and forward humped front. However this queen’s crown is severely tarnished with United. As opposed to some airlines decking them up to the nines (AVOD, New seats in Y – BA, Qantas, Singapore Air, JAL to name a few), United has taken the decision to do nothing bar the bar basics to theirs. In honesty, this is a reminder of what an AI 747 looked like in 1989 (when I did a very long haul journey to SYD).

The cabin itself was clean, but was showing sights of wear and tear, with the old-fashioned red/blue/orange/grey seats still in position, with C not looking much better to be honest. A shame as the fundamental plane is sound.

I was greeted aboard and turned right to find the middle seat occupied, and the crammed up exit row window seat next to the slide. Oh dear. Not a total failure, but still not great. It was still better that row 59 down the back of the plane! After a bit of shifting around, I found a semi-comfortable position that would be used for the flight

I got chatting to the flight attendant who was greeting the side of the plane I was sat in, and asking about her wrist band (not a Get Tilton out one), but she was not Tilton friendly – I reminded her that a lot of frequent flyers would help push him off any cliff…

Speaking of the flight crew, it was a fairly senior crew running the ship with a smattering few young people – it looks like one of their more popular routes for seniors.

After a bit of a taxi round Heathrow, we finally took off. Take off was a bit bumpy, but after clearing the cloud, it was turning into a smoothish flight until about 2 hours in where the transatlantic turbulence hit in – AGAIN.

A combined lunch and drinks service was carried out about an hour into the flight; Lunch was Chicken with a mushroom sauce with sautéed potatoes, with a green salad, roll and chocolate cake thing.

Lunch

The salad was fresh and crisp; the roll would have only done minor concussion to other people if thrown.

And the chicken?

Tough as old boots. When I was trying to slice it, the fork snapped. I promptly gave up at that point, stowing the cake for later. Clear up followed shortly after, and even through there was coffee on the trolley – it was not offered. Oh dear – little things in customer service…

However, after all the espresso, the diet cokes, the mixed diet Pepsi/coke (Diet Pitr Cola for User Friendly readers), the exhaustion finally got to me and I pretty much zonked out for the next 4-5 hours. So much for using TylenolPM

I came around as the “snack” service was carried out.

I tried to get back to sleep again, without much success, so I decided it was time to annoy people with music (or in particular, my taste in music as the IFE wasn’t exactly stellar). For fun I tried the UA supplied mini-ear bud headphones (the first pair was cracked – the second pair’s performance was less than great), but the iPhone wasn’t connecting.

And proof size does matter – the UA headphone jack is slightly smaller than the normal one. Cheap and nasty that be…

Saying that, I walked around the plane. Ducktape seems to be popular these days…

Ducktape maintenance

Pretty sky though when I could find an open window…

Another water run was done, but the crew mainly hide themselves in the galley unless they were required to carry out service.

I haven’t done a “quite” long haul service for some time, but sitting in the flight with darkness although conducive to sleep wasn’t practically. In the end, I was doing a few loops of the Y cabin just to keep myself active and my legs going .

Darkness in front

Lightness Down in back!

The flight was a lot less turbulent than I expected – certainly better than the two recent TATL’s I’ve done in the past three weeks. There was a nasty bit over West Canada, but really, it was a pretty clear flight. As the flight neared its conclusion, there was a few more water runs (plus an addition bottle that was “obtained” from the Diamond Club earlier on)

For flights as long as this, I really feel an amenity kit would be so beneficial, if anything for a pen that you can fill in the beloved INS/CBP stuff with, as not all of us carry pens these days. An eye mask would help people sleep, and socks – well its good to have more cheap socks that fall apart after wearing once.

About an hour and a half before landing, the final service of the day commences in Y with a snack pack of a Turkey and Swiss cheese roll (edible), crisps, chocolate and drinks.

About an hour later, we were lining up for SFO and touched down. However, as we were early and the return London flight hadn’t pushed back, we were penalty boxed for 20 minutes. Eventually the plane trundled into the gate, with First/Business disembarking initially, then economy. Interestingly, both 1L and 2L doors were used to disembark to speed up the process .

Now the real race – how long to get to the food court? There were prizes on this… After being told get get my backside to door 1L in disembarkation, I walked briskly to immigration. There I found no queue at all and was seen to by a comparative friendly INS agent. He looked at me oddly when I explained the cost part of the journey, but when I said the magic words “Mileage run” there was a nice thud and stamp sound into my passport, and within 10 minutes I was through. However, I took a wrong turn and ended up in the UA domestic terminal when everyone was in the International Food court.

Drat!

After heading back again on the train, I found them all, with a time of 26 minutes and 13 seconds. If i had done it right, it would had been 15 minutes tops.

A few minutes to settle down and be snowed under with peanut butter Oreo’s , it was time to go to Gate Gourmet.

Part II – The Gate Gourmet Tour

So most of us have attempted to eat airplane food, or try and consume it… but what goes on in the background? Do workers make up straws and cherry tomatoes as cannonballs (bonus points for the reference)? What is in that deluxe mix or don’t we really want to know? Could Lucky9876coins pry himself from the hot nuts? How do you clean up a plane? What happens to broken carts? What airline demands what drinks?

These and more were answered with a tour of the Gate Gourmet factory. If you’ve done any flying it’s interesting and not a really automated process – but very labour intensive, with many workflows to the work.

We arrived and initially had our UA International C Class meal (which was appreciated at this point) and was a choice of chicken or fish (I went for the fish – not overcooked – just nicely done)

FlyerTalkers noshing

Pretty soon it was time to don hairnets, and wander around.

The warm supplies area is where each airline that GG serves has it own pen (for example there was a UA, DL, NW and BA pen that I could see), so for example in the BA pen there was Sunpride juices and 150ml cans of coke, whist the UA pen had international supplies for the TPAC routes

The Pen.

BA Supplies

Your map to where to find things in UA land

After this walk, it was downstairs to the food preperation area, where all washed hands and cleaned before proceeding further.

Food layouts

We were guided around the areas, from cold prep, to frozen storage, past the cooking areas, the snack boxes and a few other wonders, with explanations and thoughts.

Fruit platters

I don’t care what anyone says – that’s a lot of coke!

Flyertalkers and Drinks – says it all really

Projectiles! I mean rolls

C Class patters.

The work schedule.

There were explanations about the site, how it linked in with SFO, the security ideas, and how staff were looked after.

Overall a very interesting day – certainly has opened my eyes to how things are done and the sheer work that goes into it.

Hotel: Union Square Plaza

Whilst most of the FT’ers are swanning off to Meridians, IC’s and every other chain hotel, some of us are of course, stuck paying bottom coin. Therefore my home for the next few days will be The Union Square Plaza Hotel. For 3 nights for $237 (£113), I’m not in a position to argue (like I said, £95 saved on airfare almost paid for the hotel). The room had a real key!

Union Plaza Hotel – Reception

Union Plaza Hotel – The room

It’s a room. there’s a bed. And there’s Wolf Blitzer on CNN. Yup. This is the USA Remember Flyertalk has the best frequent flying talk from the best flyertalking team!

What’s the term: you pay for what you get. 2* my cute backside… more like 1* which is in need of polishing urgently.

Meal – Buca di Beppo

This place is across from the new InterContiental from where a lot of the FT people were staying. Very noisy, but with very generous food portions, it was a chance to get to know my hosts for the weekend.

Cheesecake – generous

MiniBar Party #1

It was fun

Do I need to say much more? Other than we were loud!

But there is one thing the IC has at the club suites – Great views of the city.

However at midnight I bailed – too many time zones, too little sleep and I really needed to crash.

Next: The Deck Party!

Part IV – KalKat’s Deck Party

Thanks to the kind generosity of KalKat, it was time to cross the bay to Larkspur. With a 12:40 start however, this meant I had some of the morning to 1) wake up, 2) sightseeing and 3) stock up on bits.

As 1 happened quite early, I though I’d do 2 the walk from Market street down to the ferry building. However, I miscalculated how many blocks it was, thus negating 3.

However, walking from Union Square down to the Ferry building was pleasant, and a chance for me to grab a few sights.

After catching up with the Flyertalkers in the terminal, and after a short wait, our ferry arrived.

When we arrived, there was a Balloon Reception

Of course, as at any party, someone ended up in the water…

And the Mr KalKat’s Poker trophy was on display for all to admire

All to soon, it was time to head back across the bay, with some Flyertalkers driving, and some of us taking the boat back

Thank you again KalKat
Part V – Lulu and anohter Minibar Party, and a few other bits and bobs.

There was food, speeches, a mess-up by the restaurant, and then there was drinks… do I need to say much more?

Other than the view from lucky9876coin’s room was amazing…

as were the drinks that were consumed

—

The next day, I abandoned the Dim Sum morning special (alas, I had to clear the memory cards) for Folsom Street Fair.

For the sanity of most, and as FlyerTalk and Ghetto IFE is a family community (and for that matter, most of Photoblog is – but that’s another discussion, and also to protect all the conservatives in the world who think anything more than a roll in the dark is all there is to life and procreation), I’ve decided not to publish the Folsom stuff here. You’ll have to visit the Photoblog or ask VERY nicely for them! All I’m going to say is that it’s an experience I would recommend.

The evening was spent on the cable cars and generally snapping shots of San Fran life., and snapping bits of SFO life.

For the second time in my 3 weeks on and off in the states – the skies were grey in the morning with a massive temperature falloff that made it nice and comfortable to walk around Union Square and do a few bits and bobs before heading home.

Still not on any time zone in particular, it was time to head home. After checking out of the hotel, a minibus transfer for a reasonable $15 was booked, and picked up from the hotel, which after a short drive around the market street area zoomed off to the airport.

I was originally aiming to go back on the later flight (merely to catch a 777 and give me a few extra hours in SanFran, however, prices for that jumped a silly £200. And to be honest, I’d prefer the £200 in my pocket and not in BMI/UA’s.

Besides, I’ll be back one day again. So the laptop was charged up, the iPhone was charged too, and off I went.

At SFO

Drop off was outside the United area and after sorting myself out, I headed off to check in. Star Silver was recognised with a priority line which was 1) short and 2) moving a hell load faster than the main economy queue. Reason enough to keep *S at least. An United employee said “Camera – ooh nice, but banned by George W Bush”, to which I responded “And fully supported by Kip Hawley?” to a bit of laughter.

Check in was quick, with the agent failing to find any spare seats in E+, so I was consigned it 61B unless I could VDB. She expressed surprise I couldn’t get a cheap seat on the 777 flight, and I tried to switch for the later flight with no successes.

Silver/Gold Check-in

vs Y Check-in

I had laid a couple of surprises in as usual (a few snow globes, and some leftovers of Folsom in the bag) but alas they just waived it through. I was really looking forward to debating if a snow globe was a WMD.

That this point, there was an hour to go before departure, so it was a short walk around the shopping area (note Chicago O’Hare – an international terminal with ACTUAL SHOPPING INSIDE),before parking up at the gate for a bit and take pictures if planes. Alas, there was no chance to VBD so I was stuck aboard.

My 747 – Note the shades
Pretty soon the boarding calls were made, with boarding through 2L for economy passengers, and duty free pickup beyond the boarding card gate. No requests for passport check was made.

I think that’s the London service arriving…

Up in the air again

Over Larkspur

After we reached a reasonable altitude, there were various attempts to boot the IFE. These met with various failures with the front portion of Y’s system collapsing entirely, with skykits being distributed. Of course, at my end of the cabin – everything was working

After a few enquires, it was obvious by the dead static from Channel 9 that today’s captain didn’t want to share his musings on the world. I know its “at captains discretion”, but it does provide entertainment for those of us who don’t want what’s on the IFE. In addition, Air-show was down too. Perhaps this was the most “annoying” part of IFE (hey – haven’t I been here before?)

61B is of course in one of the final rows of a 747, and the row behind is the FA’s seat. The advantage of these seats is that they are in pairs, meaning that a window seat has lots of storage to the side, and there is only person to climb over on the way out.

The seat

Storage space

A lunch and drink service commences after the flight attendants gave up trying to fix the IFE. This was a Beef Hotpot special. Now with some of the insight GateGourmet gave, I could see how the entire menu was built to a design and price.

The roll was actually soft this time for a change (although the corn oil “butter” was awful), the salad was semi crisp (beat my late night snack salad I had by a mile). The hotpot itself was fine, and about the right size for a lunch time meal. At least this time

Oh and Oreos? Soft as heck – the stuffing wasn’t particularly solid – but cheap for a desert option. The cabin was cleared down after, and only minimal lighting on, with none of the crew paying attention if a programme had finished or not.

In flight

Pretty soon, I zoned out for abit. Hopefully Id get some more along the way. We hit a bad patch of turbinate so the meeting area behind me cleared as the sign went no – not that a flight attendant could be bothered to do a seatbelt walk.

Day turned into night – and into a red eye flight. Midway, the snack run was done, again consisting of the usual drink and the pack of red pretzels, with Lay’s Stax (read – knock off Pringles) and other things for sale – people passed on those.

Any chance we can have something else one day please? (chocolate bar, peanuts, Japanese crackers – anything than pretzels PLEASE!

As soon as the clear up begun, we ran into some serious turbulence over the northern tip of Canada. It was defiantly not the 1 minute stuff – the heavier turbulence lasted for a good 10 minutes – it was coke lapping over the cup turbulence. After which it dropped off a bit, then back to big bounces. This was defiantly going to be a rollercoaster ride across the pond. Of course, the fasten seatbelt signs mean nothing these days, and people were up and about in the cabin being a royal pain – in fact I was waiting for a nasty bump or two to make sure they were reminded the sign was on for a reason (yes I am a cruel person – and?)

The final service of the flight – a ham and cheese …. Roll? Croissant? God knows – something bready like was served with fruit was served. Whilst its near impossible to mess up fruit, this bready thing could be used to pelt bad flight attendants with. It was delivered with all the dripping sarcasm so we knew what to expect (emphasis on “Delicious” roll).

The “Snack”

Our plane took the path over Scotland and down to London. The plane was not stacked, and thus landed pretty much on the money, passing over Twickenham rugby ground

The flight deck was itself pretty quiet (apart from the welcoming speech, a few buckle up orders and the landing speech)

The plane was cleared down, and finally Miss 60B who had her seat reclined since before takeoff at SFO finally worked out how to bring her seat into the upright position.

We made our landing 30 minutes early, and after a taxi past T3 and T2, we were held for 5 minutes for local traffic to clear, before finally pulled into 53 (153) and parked up. A single jetbridge was attached, and disembarkation was through 1L.

Obligatory A380 Shot.

Come to think of it, a lot of big planes have been parking at T1 using 1L for boarding/disembarkation – surely this stamps all over the semi-exclusivity of business – or is business the new economy and is economy bucket seating only?

At LHR

Again for the second time in a row, IRIS was closed down, but the immigration queue again had 2 people in it. After being question where I arrived from, I made my way slowly down to Luggage collection, and then after I had picked up my emails to customs – where again I was asked where I came in from (a South African flight had arrived before us), and I was cleared to exit.

As my coach was not for some time, I decided to start finishing up this trip report before rushing around and have a price of overpriced coffee – this must be Heathrow – everything is overpriced! I wandered over to the Central Bus station, and managed to jump an earlier service back to Birmingham.

National Express Coach 210
Heathrow Central -> Birmingham Digbeth Station

Oh it’s a coach journey on the M40 stopping at Banbury and BHX – is there really that much more to say? Suffice to say it was back to reality, on time and grey.

And as I walked back to the number 87 bus stop (and if you REALLY think I’m reporting on that – you’ve got another think coming), past the Bull ring centre – I couldn’t help humming “California Dreaming.. like the below…

All the leaves are brown…. And the sky is grey… I’ve been for a walk… on a winters day…

Home.

Wrapping Up.

On the ground, BMI came through again, both with ground support and the lovely staff at the Diamond Club lounge – a credit to the London team who both 1) know the rules and 2) can understand when to bend them UA check-in (especially sans chicken machine) was very much appreciated, as was the E+ seat offer. Ground services seemed semi organised at least and much more understanding of elites (even mere silver within the same alliance)

On the plane it was pretty much as expected – pay bottom coin, get bottom coin. The service itself was fine (with more water services to end the of the flight), but there was something missing – Not the friendliness nor service… and I think I can point it at the IFE and the general need of a cabin refresh.

I know for those up the front, this is a small matter, but for those like me who earn down the back on long haul, with 3 hours or so laptop life, every single thing that can relive the boredom is welcome, and I can’t help feeling that UA has missed a serious trick with the 747 fleet refurbishment by introducing IFE and refreshing the cabin, instead of changing United from a “Wordwide Service”, to a “World Class Service”. However with some of the mistakes United is making (over hedging on fuel, service cutbacks, and cutting everything even in the premium cabins, I wonder what is next for this carrier. Certainly, its in a better position that US Airways (which to be blunt, I was dreading going bankrupt before I arrived back in the UK on my last trip). I think when Continental comes to the Star Alliance party, United will have no choice but to buck its ideas up and do some serious work improving services.

Well, we can but hope.

I’d like to thank everyone who I met at the DO for making me feel welcome, and special thanks to lucky9876coins, Wireless for organising and KalKat for being such a gracious hosts.

Next up: I’ve got 3155 miles to fly before the 28th of Jan 2009. I smell a mileage run coming on

Come and be scared with US! US Airways – LHR-PHL-SEA-PHX-ORD-PHL-LHR

It seems that the publish button went off when I was editing this for keywords. Oh well.  Same rules as all the redux trip reports – a bit of tidying, spell checking and some extra images…

As per usual, this trip report is filled with photos, insightful (and not so insightful), witty (and completely sarcastic) comment, and of course, the little details that as travellers, we come to know, notice and laugh/cry/go ballistic at. I’m travelling in Y… I’m allowed one luxury at least!

I’ll be updating this as the trip progresses, and of course will happily natter on about things that are completely irrelevant . Standard Photos rules apply (ie, the best of will be featured here – everything else on my Photoblog – which of course, I encourage you to visit ).

Preamble:

Well its time for me to travel again, and alas, I’m being completely original in my destinations (have a look at my flight memory… yes the same cities again). With a standing invite in Seattle, and a bit of catching up to do in Chicago just after, this seemed like the perfect late summer break I need after doing my normal work for “mother service”.

This time, as well as the flights, I’ll be doing more “trip” aspects of the report (as opposed to a flight report)- so public transport, hotels, what I didn’t do, etc will be factored in to round off the report). Well I can try at least can’t I people?

Booking

Normally I’m a loyal BMI supporter. I’ll happily pay a bit more to fly with them and abuse lounge facilities etc etc. At £100 more to fly them, however much I love BMI, its not worth £100 ($200) more (or is it? I’ll work that question out by the end of this report).

So off to Kayak and co, and route research was done. At one point I considers BA/AA (nice direct flights, but £620, UA (with routing’s to SFO) for £580 and even Northwest for £580 (Tempting, but still in the 25% mileage land) Of course CO’s BHX-EWR hop was tempting, but the thought of crossing the pond in a 757 still doesn’t exactly make me happy.

However, a little digging on Kayak, followed by a bit of delving into the US Airways website gave an attractive price of £484 at peak season (not too wallet crunching), with a nice 12+k of status mileage too (and we mustn’t moan at status miles)

After using the Amadeus-like booking engine that’s available to the UK users of US Airways website, the following convoluted routing was booked:

London Heathrow > Philadelphia > Seattle Tacoma > Phoenix Sky-Harbour > Chicago O’Hare International >  Philadelphia > London Heathrow

Map provided by the most wonderful Great Circle Mapper – http://gc.kls2.com

For those of you who aren’t map readers:
Far Right – LHR (London Hellhole)
Where everything comes together – PHL (Philly)
Top Left – SEA (Seattle)
Bottom Left – PHX (Phoenix)
The chink in the link back to PHL from PHX – ORD (Chicago O’Hell).

A lot of new firsts for me, including 2 new airports, NOT going through Chicago T5 International (- Those who know know why are invited to look back at my constant blathering about ORD T5 in previous reports and its complete and utter uselessness) and risking US Airways.

And an Open Skies flight (and no I’m not talking about the BA mini-me airline ), this is one of the new routes that have appeared since Open Skies finally opened up LHR a bit more. So as NW, AF, DL and US moved into Heathrow thinking of easy pickings and to “lower fares”, so I’ll be looking at if they provide value in comparison to my normal routing’s.

A check in June proved to be interesting as US decided to schedule change a few things – thankfully just times (with a few more precious minutes at PHX)

So there’s the planning done. I mean to say – How bad could it be? (apart from the little gun incident, the lack of pretzels, lack of IFE on the domestic legs, charges for everything – do I now have to tip even??? – maybe I should had spent that extra £100…)

So onwards!

Off to LHR!

National Express
Birmingham Digbeth (Oxford Road) – Heathrow Central Bus Station

Being based in heart of the country (Birmingham) of course, its a choice of rail or coach to get to London (as London is the centre of the UK and there is no other life beyond London so some say, and to send an aircraft 100 miles to LHR is considered a bit silly by others). So once again like most of my adventures I booked a coach journey. £29 later for a 06:15 departure from Birmingham, to arrive at LHR for 8:55. The next departure might had got in for 10:30… but knowing Heathrow traffic, that would had left the times dangerously close for my liking (and yes – I’m one of these people who insist on arriving 3 hours at least before a flight).

As i had been up packing and repacking (you try lugging a studio around – it gets on your nerves very quickly) a 2hour doze was the best I was going to get. I called my local cab company which after they relived me of £5, I was at Digbeth station.

The coach arrived as I did thus, not a lot of time was wasted, and u was quickly aboard and then let the coach and weave its way down to LHR via BHX, Banbury and finally Heathrow 3 ours later. Enough time for a few z’s, but not enough for a full kip.

The coach finally pulled into Heathrow Central bus station, where I was disgorged out of the coach and I collected the ski bag and rucksack.

Tradition states that I go inside and wait for a bit with check in not due to open for a while. This was the perfect time to grab a coffee to attempt to stay awake until my friend arrived

Heathrow T1

After I caught up with my friend who would be my travel companion for this little jaunt, we proceeded to check in , which was thankfully uneventful, with of course the fun of negotiating luggage prices.

There are some little blessings for being a *A Silver (and these are little ones). As most of you are aware, a lot of the US Airlines are doing impressions of RyanAir (sans Michel O’Leary’s charm and wit) and charging for every little thing. Thankfully they 1) haven’t tried it on Long Haul international routes and 2) my silver spared me the indignity of extra luggage charges, as well as my friend as we’re on international legs.

After a quick cigarette break for my friend (the last one for a good 12 hours for her), it was time to pass through security and the rat run known as Terminal 1.

As per normal, it was the standard LHR shoe shuffle, but the laptop remaining “in bag” (thanks for the introduction of 3D scanners), and we were clear into the Heathrow Mall… I mean Terminal 1, but not before registering for IRIS

IRIS seemed to be busy with use today, and with building contractors coming to take a peek at the office, they closed it after I had re-enrolled into IRIS.

LHR sends people to sleep – FACT!

Alas being a Silver, no free hopping into the BMI lounge to get a hit of coffee, so it was stuck in the public zones awaiting the departure call. This being BAA of course and to maximise your time shopping at their shops, no calls are made until about 45 minutes of your flight (with the lights changing from Boarding to Last Call as fast as you can blink).

After the long hike to gate 40, and another APIS check, I was finally through, with boarding commencing by class then two grouped zones.

Obligatorily A380 photo

My A330 in the distance.

US Airways US729 LHR > PHL,
Airbus A330-300, Seat 16H, Economy
Booked Departure time: 13:05 BST, Booked Arrival Time: 16:10 EST, 12th Sept.

Boarding was completed in zones, with Envoy, then economy seating in groups. We were seated later as we were “closer to the front” in row 16. A good thing really as these seats have an inch or so extra room so it didn’t feel like a total sardine can.

Boarding was through 1L, stampeding the exclusivity of Envoy and through to Economy.

Safety demo was done manually – surprising as the unit had AVOD screens.

Lets see how cheap we are then. Headphones. $5, alcoholic drinks $7 . Since I hadn’t brought my United ones, it was back to the cheap over the ear jobs that get sore after 10 minutes. I really need to invest in a pair of noise-cancelling ones one year.

The aircraft pushed back on time, and after a chug around Heathrow, we turned onto the runway, and strgiht up in the the big blue.

Off again!

After takeoff, it was a a it turbulent and cloudy – a nice start. What didn’t help was the seat wasn’t exactly behaving. If I lent back too much the seat started leaning back of it’s own accord.

After a while, the IFE started (AVOD), however, where is the airshow function? Didn’t seem to be one . The addition of an old edition of Click, Fast Track, and How I met your mother

IFE Boots!

Service began after 30 minutes , with a sales pitch for the headphones (Guilty), and then lunch and drink service (alcohol declined) and a “meal” service.

Lunch – of sorts.

Hmm. Ok, taking this apart – it was Chargrilled chicken with mash with peas in a Spanish sauce (main – although to be honest, I’m not sure if the sauce would have been anywhere near spain), Bean Salad (side), Chibatta bread (Rock level). The portions were a bit small, but as far as TATL Y food goes, it was edible. That’s’ all you can ask for in Y I suppose.

The seat itself. A bit worn, and a bit narrow I think, and with a few cables here and there… this A330 has seen better days.

How bad can it get…?

Even Envoy looked a bit tired – think BMI Premium Economy for those who have seen my previous reports. Personally, I’m not sure if I would pay for the extra – especially for a 7 hour 39 minute hop. I’ll think about that on the return leg.

Why in the blue…

Drink runs were reasonable, with FULL cans of Diet Coke served *hint hint*, with softs remaining free for me, not a bad thing as that what I mostly drink

AVOD selection was reasonable ie – not great, but I’ve had worse selections in the past

The flight itself started soothing out after crossing into the Atlantic, but it was sill heavily cloud covered. After 3 hours – the llghts finally went down.

The flight itself was quite choppy with cloud cover from end to end for all practical purposes – a shame as I was looking forward to Greenland as usual.

Mid-route, there was a pretzel and orange juice water run. Standard Pretzel fare, small, nibbable and overdone with salt, where as the orange juice came from a can. Oh the fun.

Midflight.

Towards the end of the flight, there was a snack run with turkey ham and cheese herb bread warm snack.

Yes, it was completely artificial. But at this point of the game, it tasted *good*.

Little did I know that this snack would have fuel me…

At PHL

The A330 pulled into PHL on scheduled… but then the chaos commenced. It seemed that every other long haul flight had pulled in at the same time, thus the queues were horrendous. As the time ticked on, we moved forward slowly. 60 minutes later we finally got seen to.

The INS agent was firm but friendly, digging deeper with each probe. Amazingly, they can’t fathom the concept of people visiting the USA for fun. Oh well.

A quick run to the belt, and the luggage was already offloaded. Rather than pay PHL a cent more, we headed to Customs where they were practicing their Eric Cartman impressions today (You WILL respect my authoritah!). This didn’t help, as it was 17:20 and our bird was pushing back in 25 minutes. We made it through, and through to recheck the luggage.

It was then a straight run for the plane, after clearing TSA. Of course the queue I was pushed into had the scanner break down. So after going into another queue, I was screened, and my friend and I rushed to the gate, where boarding had been pretty much completed, and the door pretty much closed behind me.

US Airways US753 PHL > SEA
Boeing 757-200WL, Seat 14F
Booked Departure Time: 17:55 EDT, Booked Arrival Time: 20:53 WDT

In June, the first equipment change came out from a A321 to a B757 (with a slightly more advantageous arrival time)

The last time I was aboard on of these was an ORD-SEA-ORD leg on UA in E+. This of course being US Airways, no E+ seating, thus it was time to be squished all the way for the next 6 hours (and it didn’t help that the person in front of me reclined her seat after take off)

Of course, now everything is chargeable, it makes that journey slightly more hellish. And with no time to get anything, I was held captive to US Airways random demands for drinks and snacks.

Sigh.

The equipment that we were booked on today was a complete surprise of a Wingletted Boeing 757. Pam Ann would had been happy.

Although boarding was probably done in zones, by the time I got to the gate with my friend, boarding was mostly compete.

After boarding completed, the aircraft did a taxi around PHL as the runways reversed, and it was back off into the cloud.

Safety demo was done on the overhead CRT monitors.

The grey of Philly…

The adverts played, then some movie was also put on. As I couldn’t be bothered to get the headphones out, I just typed for a bit.

Food run was done and we both went for the turkey sandwich option. At $7, overpriced, but I wasn’t in a position to argue. To be fair, it wasn’t that bad – the bread was drying slowly and the turkey lacked some moisture, but I’ve made worse at home. The crisps and cookie were passable and the coffee… at a buck a cup, it wasn’t that bad, but did lack some umph.

Buy on Board…

The flight itself wasn’t that bad, but deeply could covered, so for the first 4 hours, it was seatbelts on at all time. Quite a choppy ride for a lot of the journey.

Clear at last…

757 Cabin

The crew seemed to be pretty good for the first 3 hours, before disappearing off to hide fir a bite but they made regular walkthroughs the cabin.

Warning – beauty shots ahead

Obligatory winglet shot

On approach to SEA

Landing in Seattle was quick, and after a short taxi, the plane pulled into the gate. After the aircraft shut down (and the lights went off too), we deplaned.

Luggage delivery – was slow to put it blunt. The CLT service had arrived before us , so was occupying the belt for some time. I was half expecting the luggage still be in PHL, but then 2 suitcases and a very familiar rucksack spat out of the belt, and an almighty rumble from oversized luggage.

Everything arrived

A short trolly push to the link bridge, a queue for a taxi and about an hour after we touched down and got luggage and at the hotel – we had arrived.

Thanks fudge for that.

I was expecting worse, but at the end of the day, it was a pair of good flights, but with US immigration being more useless than normal. Nothing outstanding, yet nothing that was completely below the belt. The US Domestic leg was actually pretty good with the amount of walkthroughs the crew were doing.

Hotel: Ramada Hotel, 5th Avenue, Downtown Seattle

The Ramada Inn in Seattle is in one of those nice positions where it’s 6 blocks to the needle, 5 blocks to the centre and 6 blocks to the waterfront. Of course having lazy people with me meant we were taxi’ing it most of the way.

The room itself wasn’t bad – telly, bath, two doubles. Booked on a expedia special rate so comparatively cheap. The staff were very friendly and good, except for the final night where the power went out in the room except for one plug. This was a pain. Alas no compensation offered. Overall, it’s a comparatively cheap hotel with reasonable rates and normally good service. Recommended mostly, if cheap for the heart of Seattle.

Part II – The American Odyssey (Or will my luggage make it???)

For this leg, its pure internal flights, so we get see US Airways in all its wonderful glory. But first – the check-in.

After pootling back to SeaTac, the joy of check-in was carried out. This was interesting as 1) the agent confused Las Vegas, NV for Phoneix AZ. Then it got better. A bag was overweight. This would be fine, except the tar weight on the scale was pre-set at 5.5lb. Grumble.

After convincing an agent to reset and reweigh it (which amazingly then met the luggage regs), it was time to head over to security.

Now the grand Pooh-Bah of the TSA, His Kipness Kip Hawley the first (as some might call him – the idiot) deemed that the should be 3 sorts of lanes for different passengers – Family, Casual and Expert. Fine in theory. Except when they’re NOT Implemented and everyone just ignores them anyway!

As per usual, a metal detector lane was shut, followed by and kid running around and annoying the X-ray agents. Ah the joy of the TSA carnival. Then of course, it was unpack and give the TSA Shoe fetishists their fix of smelly shoes. Polite enough, but I suspect there could had been a lot better organization of the security lanes and the management of the lanes.

They call it art…

With about 40 minutes to go, we made it past security and after a short walk to gate A2 for our A320 that would take us to Phoenix.

Boarding was conducted in zones, and seemed to be managed well.

US Airways US143 SEA > PHX, 5F
11:20WDT, ETA, 2:12 Mountain Daylight time
Airbus A320-200.

Boarding was the usual chaos even though it was zoned as there was a full flight, so the usual carnival of “where do I stick my bag in the overhead” was in full swing. I just went for under the seat option.

As this was an ex America West aircraft, it was of course tight as possible seat pitch.

Once loaded, the fight deck were feeling a bit chatty and gave us what to expect, before the safety demo was done (video on drop down screens). The aircraft itself had signs of age, but was clean and seemed to be in a reasonable state. Take off was quick, and we were up in the air in no time.

Climbing out 

After a while, it was possible to use electronics as the adverts rolled. A drink and snack trolley then ran, with a low take-up rate on drinks and an even lower rate on snackboxes. After the service, the crew again went into hiding, apart to do a few rubbish runs.

Landing at Phoenix was bumpy, but after a couple of minutes we were taxiing to the gate, and the exit scrum began

At PHX

Welcome to Phoenix Skyharbour International in Tempe. Arizona. Home of US Scareways. Land of the lost

For an “international” (and I’m using that in the lowest possible sense – ONE international a flight a day to London), it .. errm… an odd airport. For a fortress hub, it was very busy, people rushing from point to point – well at the A gates where the flight we took landed . Immediately, the priority was lunch, as to be honest, neither of us were looking forward to a US Airways snackbox. Thankfully from the gate exit, there was an ASAP California Pizza shop. This was used to the full effect, although I doubt the pizza has been to as many times to California as I have.

Pretty soon (a 52 minute gate to gate connection), it was time to board. Only a short stop today as we were due to jump on the next plane to Chicago.

US Airways US007 PHX > ORD 5F
EDT 15:04, ETA 20:22
Airbus A320-200

Another flight, another Airbus A320. Again, when looked after they’re nice aircraft. This being US Airways of course “looking after the cabin” seems not to be in dictionary (this is another ex American West aircraft), with the fabric seats seeing better days (and looking like they’re falling apart). Again another solid flight for this 3 hour hop. During boarding, the advertisements were at full volume so another minor annoyance.

Cabin Shot

Push back was on schedule, and after a taxi around the airport, the plane took off up into the ski again.

Take off was a bit choppy and pockety, but once up high enough the flight smoothed out nicely.

Once a safe altitude was declared, pizza with everything was consumed. And then the world was right again.

Pizza! 

Again the drink and snackbox service did the rounds, with a few people taking part in it – the majority not. And at this point Miss 4F decided this would be as gooder time to invade my personal space as any, and recline fully back into my laptop.

Sigh. For those of us with Macbooks, we all know there is a limited amount of openness and tilt. After aiming the hinge correctly, I finally had a comfortable typing position.

More Beauty shots

Sunset

Again, the staff did a couple of rubbish runs, but hid in the galley mainly. The flight turned mainly from day to night and the bright grid of Chicago was visible. After looping over the lake we made our approach and landed.

Of course – we pulled into the “wrong” gate and had to wait for a ground crew to drive the bridge over. Normally not concerning – except I took a look at my luggage and saw my tripod bag wrapped in TSA tape.

At this point, I went into minor panic mode – what had those goons done now?

My worst fears were confirmed when I made it to the belt and saw that the TSA had indeed opened up the bag, and failed to repack it correctly – with damage to the contents inside. Which is nice as I needed the contents for some photographic work.

GRRRRR

I wonder if I can sue the TSA $800 for damages to equipment and projected income? It’s worth a thought I think.

Thank you agents of Kip Hawley at Seattle – next time LEARN to repack luggage. Of course I emailed a complaint which I suspect will be completely ignored.

Overall: A pair of normal flights within the USA. Service was neither stellar or lazy, however, the TSA need a firm kick up the sensitive bits over handling of luggage.

Hotel: Travelodge, Chicago.

For the first part of the stay, a downtown location was picked, thanks to a special offer care of Formula 1 and Expedia.

On East Harrison, its not a bad hotel. The Green/Orange line is a bit annoying, but the rooms are clean comfortable and reasonably sized . I’m not arguing much there. In addition there is a little Thai restaurant downstairs and a Dunkin donuts over the road.

My planning may suck sometimes, but this is one of those few times where it came all together.

Internet access was quite frankly so up and down it resembled me having one too many hot curries.

Not bad for par for course. Put in some double glazing into the room, and I’d be REALLY be happy to cut the noise down a bit.

Hotel: Crown Plaza, O’Hare (well Rosemont – close enough the same difference)

You’ll forgive me if i don’t write too much about this hotel as I was stuck in a corner shooting pictures all weekend of people. Ah the joy of being a jobbing portrait photographer (and holding a special Sunday Sale entitled “The Kip Hawley Fire Sale” – I have nothing if a sense of irony)

As a Priority club member, I had my free internet access, although I was annoyed at the jammers in the ballroom areas which prevented access to the room WiFi networks. This was a royal pain up the backside.

The room itself was fine, but like all the rooms, the aircon were handling cold, but not the humidity. Sunday dinner was at the hotel bar, and oh dear. They forgot our food order totally, and after profuse apolgies with provision for desert and extra drinks, a Rack of Ribs and Salad appeared. Nicely cooked, but the service was lousy. However, they 1) apolgised and 2) Made up for the error. This scored some extra brownie points.

Hotel: Red Roof Inn, E Ontario Ave, Downtown Chicago

My friend insisted we spend an extra day shopping in Chicago, and I wasn’t prepared to pay the extortionate rates that the Crown Plaza wanted. Nor was happy stuck in Rosemont (it’s a conference and hotel dump – with as many things to do as I have Gold memberships on all my programmes – none), so it as back downtown – this time into the heart of the city. My friend was very happy with me as this was one of the few smoking rooms I found in Chicago. The room itself was a bit pokey, but again was clean, plenty of power sockets, and the bed was comfy for the job, Good enough for me!

Now for a couple of special reviews – FOOD!

Cheesecake Factory, under the John Hancock building (My Evil Empire HQ) .

It’s dark, with odd accents, but the service was reasonably quick. I went for a “tons of fun burger with fries”.

Lets put it like this – its one of the few burgers I’ve ever used a knife and fork to dissect. Very tasty and filling – and a steal at $10.95.

Pizzeria Due, East Ontario

It is said by that ask 10 Chicago people what their favourite pizza joint is, you’ll get 10 different answers. Here’s my answer to that question

This is one pizzeria I do use as it really feels like a bit of Chicago hidden away, with real people who enjoy their city. We went for a Medium Sized Numbero Uno Pizza with pepperoni, sausage, tomato and cheese – DEEP.

The term “mmmm” applies here. And for two people with drinks and ice cream for under $35, defiantly worth it (with two slices left over – enough for breakfast for both of us the next day.

Ok enough of food and hotels – Back to flying

Part III – The Voyage Home

Parting Chicago is sometimes a sad affair alas. Good friends and good times had by all… as well as some business. But now the serious business of getting home now comes to the fore.

Trips via Chicago have one important diversion. The ORD Shop. Yes, I am sad and I collect aircraft models of what I’ve flown or been on. However, shock and horror, it’s closed. Not good. How the heck am I meant to geek with someone about model planes before I go home any more?

Check-in

After popping back upstairs check in completed, with bags tagged to London and one bag marks “Heavy – 52Lb” and both baths tagged with priority tags (for the first time this journey). After making sure the TSA didn’t wreck the bag again at the baggage screening point, it was time for my friend to have one last smoke, and through to the TSA shoe fetish carnival. Again, priority lanes were completely ignored.

After a short wait (well for Chicago), we were through and at the gate 50 minutes before flying. With the luggage carnival, that’s not bad going at all.

US Airways US1571 , ORD-PHL, 6C, 16:25CST Departure, 19:20EST Arrival
Boeing 737-400

The 737-400 at the gate

And boy this little tin can showing its age. Normally I’m one to loosen my seat-belt once the plane seat-belt sign goes off. Not on this old tin can. (I would had actually pushed for a nice EMB-195 or another ‘bus… but instead, we get this pile of plane).

The plane was painted up in US airways white, and looking all pristine on the outside. However, if first impressions ever counted, this plane would defiantly be left at the bar all evening. The seats were worn, and the plane had definite throwbacks to when it was last refurbished, and the old onboard phones plated up . Load factor was 100% (something that was pretty common with all the internal flights), and boarding was quick.

Safety demonstration was done by hand as there were no monitors.

Hey – Aren’t I meant to be aboard the BMI plane back home???

After a short taxi past the international terminal, we were dumped into the Penalty box for 15 minutes, with the captain being quite chatty, explaining what had happened . It was then a nice roll down the runway and up for the journey to PHL.

Up and away!

Service was reasonable, with no adverts, and just a drinks service that I did not partake in, after which the crew disappeared, with the first class attendant working her herself well through the curtain.

See you Chicago!

After passing into Michigan, I zonked out until 30 minutes to PHL. At this point, the sun was setting, and the work was looking wonderful.

Sunset behind the wing.

As dusk fell, we landed in PHL to be put into the penalty taxiway, with again the captain giving updates from the flight deck. After a 10 minute wait and with flights stacking behind us, we pulled into out gate on the C concourse for the long hike to A West concourse.

Waiting to cross the active at PHL

An Unexpected Club visit to the Envoy Lounge.

I had resigned myself to hanging around in the public terminal for the next hour and 15 minutes by the time I had dropped my friend off at the club. Then my mobile phone went off with an invite.

So here’s a quick Envoy club review!

Located in the back of beyond (or near gate A16), the envoy club is on a mezzanine level above this. Initially an offer was made for Envoy Sleeper for both of us if I upgraded, but I declined.

The lounge

The club itself had a selection of pasta based snacks and salads, a very good coffee machine and of course, a bar, where I partook of my usual flight/pre-flight tipple – Double Voddy and Diet Coke. With Absoult vodka. Urp.

Urp

A very relaxed lounge with big comfortable seats, and quiet work areas. The lounge itself was very quiet as the LHR flight is one of the last out of the evening. At just before 10pm, the flight was called from the lounge, and my friend and I slowly meandered to gate A23 for our connection. Boarding again was zoned, with pre-boarding, then zone 1 and Envoy, then zone 2 and 3 (where I entered the plane).

US Airways US728 PHL-LHR , 34A : 22:45EST Departure, 10:15 arrival BST
Airbus A330-300

The plane home.

At this point, my friend and I parted ways – after a bit of chatting to US, I secured her a GoEnovy upgrade. I wasn’t really prepared to waste $500 (£280) to jump up to a business product for a short flight, and decided to be happy by myself down the back.

Now why all the way back in Row 34 you might ask? Before I checked in at ORD, I made the effort to check the seat map… and half of the plane was empty at the back. So after a bit a cajoling the agent at ORD, I shifted towards the back of the plane with the option of a spare seat next to me (and that’s how it remained for the flight – bonus! )

The Two Seater Relaxyvous option

I did a little bag check, and low and behold, I discovered the TSA made a mistake – I had left a OPENED BOTTLE of WATER over 100ml/3fl ounces in my bag! Great screening TSA ORD T2 !

Oh agents of Kip!

After a short pushback we were guided to the runways which was quiet, lights were dimmed and it was up into the big black sky.

This wasn’t alcohol induced. Honest.

PHL at night.

Service was sluggish but was done by hand at the back of the cabin which was a nice personal touch.

Food

Ok – From what I could work out, it was softish bread (throwing it would had only caused minor injuries to people), a green salad (it was fresh), Carrot cake (A square of cake) and from what I could taste, it tasted like beef in a black bean sauce with rice. Diet coke was served at the same time.

Although the portions were smallish, they were sized ok for a late night snack. The Beef was edible, but was the poor cow was defiantly hung, and quartered and sliced into lots of little quarters.

A coffee and drink service was done, with another shot of coffee to help get over the earlier double voddy, followed again 30 minutes later with another coffee (with one getting the joke that when turbulence hits – it is of course time for the HOT STEAMING COFFEE service ) .

After an hour of flight, it got quite choppy, and the Captain switched on the fasten seatbelt light, where it remained on for the majority of the flight. As Night turned into day if anything the chop got a lot worse, leading for the crew to remind people more than once that the seatbelt light was on, and that return to your seat was the order of the day.

Dawn

If anything, both TATL legs have been the choppiest I’ve been on – normally there’s only a little bit of chop each way – these two have had fairly solid chop both ways.

The crew was responsive to requests for drinks and the like – although no walkthroughs, they were amenable

Over the southern tip of Ireland, Breakfast was a single Apple Danish Pastry, served after with a drink. Oh dear oh dear oh dear. Definitely a reheat job (granted it was hot) but not that large and to be honest – not that filling! In addition the drink cart was running a bit slow as people were waking up.

As we passed Southern Ireland, the plane begun it’s descent. Considering that we were due to stand at 11:05am, there was a very high chance that we would be in UK land/airspace by 9:35 and down by 10:15 (depending on LHR). Again, the ride of the Irish sea was very choppy.

Windsor Castle

After looping twice in one of the stacks, we passed over Windsor Castle, and touched down on the same runway this adventure begun on, and near enough the same gate we departed from. It was then a long hike through to immigration. At this point IRIS was closed, but the UK/EU citizen queue was… empty bar 1 person. Within seconds, I was through border control.

Over the M25 – Almost down.

After a quick break, it was off to luggage claim, where the LHR luggage handlers are as good as most of them ignoring any priority tags.

Once past Her Majesties Custom and Excise agents, I was “free” and back in the United Kingdom.

After bidding my friend farewell, it was time to me to make the long slog back to BHX. Normally at this point, I would be heading to a coach. But with an 10:15am arrival, plus I *really* wanted to stretch my legs, it would be better to catch a train….

Heathrow Connect (HEC)
Heathrow Central -> London Paddington
Class 334 EMU

HEC’s are cheap in comparison to the Heathrow express (£6.90 vs £15 for an extra 10 minutes on a train – it’s a saving I’m happy to bear. As I have enough luggage to sink a small ship, I decided HEC over my normal mode of transport – the underground. Purchasing a ticket is relatively easy enough from a machine, and the journey itself wasn’t a problem. What I hadn’t realised is that I needed a ticket to exit Paddington. After playing hunt the ticket, it was found and after making odd faces, I was let through.

After getting off the HEC, it was a quick hop into a Cab to Marlyebone for the final leg of the journey

Chiltern Railways
London Marlyebone -> Birmingham Snow Hill
Class 168 DMU (£5 E-fare)

I normally use this route out of London on the grounds 1) its a cheap route and 2) although it takes slightly longer, its a pleasant enough journey. That tied with a £5 ($10) fare really sums it up. I had arrived an hour early for the train, and rather risk penalty fares or change fees, I just sat it out for an hour waiting for the train.

After nearly twisting my ankle and amazing people with how much its possible to carry, I secured a table which was shared with another person, plugged the laptop in and promptly closed my eyes until about half an hour from home.

Almost there

Home!

Closing comments

Well I made it home. Intact with everything.

Was I right to be scared with US Airways with all the nickel and diming that’s been going on? I think to a point I was, especially with the contents on the Buy on Board and $2 here and there for diet cokes to keep me going. The fact that we were buying food at airports (with equal variability) says a lot and US needs to improve its BOB product. With Star Silver recognised once, I think agents need to reminded that *S’s are people too.

Little things like amenity kits always help in Y, but again, nothing offered. Granted a cheap cutback, but anything to save the pennies – like the headphones it seems.

Another and geeky kind of moan is the distinct lack of Airshow. They have the Rockwell system and no AirShow? That is again, a bit cheap, but as I like track progress, very annoying when I’m try to work out where the hell I am…

The A330 LHR-PHL/PHL-LHR legs – I don’t honestly know if this service works really. The timings of it quite frankly are odd. Whilst they may work as a last minute East Coast > EU connection, I don’t think it works the other way, and maybe they should reconsider retiming the service so it runs slightly earlier and returns as such to give more of a day for people, and more. As US seems to be reducing Gatwicks role (ie closure of the club, some services going 757), US must work on a better plan for Heathrow and either introduce a Charlotte service or introduce more fortress hub links, otherwise the Heathrow plan will be left in disarray, and with almost nothing to fall back on in Gatwick.

The domestic legs – again, like any flight it was crew dependent – get a good crew or a good captain makes up for the odd nickel here and there. Get a crew that hides behind the curtain at every possible time and it goes sour and quiet quickly.

The biggest let down and annoyance was the TSA. Unsurprisingly, the TSA never got back to me with the complaint about what they trashed at Seattle, without so much as apology for the inconvenience caused. Disappointing so say the least and a right total annoyance.

The TSA needs to learn again how to 1) treat people with respect, 2) stick to the own regulations they make up, 3) enforce the priority lanes and management of them, 4) stick to their own silly rules and 5) RESEPCT PEOPLE’S LUGGAGE AND PUT IT BACK AS THEY FIND IT (and if Chicago TSA can do it right, so can the Seattle lot!) .

Right. One day at work, and the flying doesn’t stop here. Its off to San Francisco with me!

BMI ORD – MAN in Premium Economy: How hard can a PE product drop? (also random moans)

Yes, we’re heading FURTHER back in time. A lot of this is now moot as BMI has got shot of most of its long haul fleet and is concentrating on it’s BMED routes, but as 1) I want a lot of this transferred to GhettoIFE.com and 2) A little memorial to how things were aren’t bad things. I’ve expanded this with a few more images. Looking back on this – I was in a right royal mood when I was typing this – and seemingly with justification in the end.

Photoblog link with all the pretty pictures:http://www.photoblog.com/kevincm/2008/03/04/

Last year I did a trip in Premium Economy (have a look here) How much can a product change over 4 months? Here’s an answer wrapped up in a Trip Report…

Comments, Insults and general moaning welcome
——

After a 66% successful trip (business was crappier than last time…) I still was in the mood to go home in style (or some sort of style anyway).

So here is the homeward bound leg of the Chicago trip.
O’Hare… O’Hare… O’Hell…

Hello and Goodbye Chicago!


I’m fast coming to hate this airport with a vengeance. Specifically the international terminal is finally getting to me with the lack of facilities in it both land-side and air side. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

After making sure all my friends checked in (one was off to LGW via CLT, the other off to Nashville) I made check in stupendously early. So to kill some more time, I made a trip to the ORD Shoppie (which if you like your plane models, I can recommend…), plus it allowed me to grumble about the elevators (i.e. the ATS system elevators are 1) mostly slow and 2) non functional at T2).

I made Check in about 2:30. This was then mostly useless as well. The SAS staff allowed me to check in early , but as I presented 3 bags, I was told I would have to pay for the 3rd (as a silver)

No no no no NO! Even mere BMI silvers have a 3rd bag right (to which the outstations are obvious to..) After 5 minutes they agreed that as per DC rules, a 3rd bag within limits were allowed (Praise the lord and pass the salt!!!!). I then managed to buy an upgrade into a PE Cabin (now $400 instead of $350 .., BMI are money-spinning that now it seems )

After a few minutes, my new boarding pass was spat out and I as cleared into the PE cabin.

Luggage was taken and placed directly on the belt – it seems that the big scanning machines have gone away for now… (alas even as a silver, no *A Priority tags)

The Hall of flags. One of the few nicer things at ORD T5

Of course, as a mere silver, one cannot access the lounge at ORD as it’s a SAS lounge (thus Star Alliance Gold or Business Pax only). As a result, I started to look forward to the very long wait before boarding begins. And as nearly nothing is near O’Hare you can’t exactly escape to anything (well maybe to Dominicks near Cumberland Avenue to pick up some Oreos, but that’s besides the point … the luggage is in already…). So I did what I normally do – flip the camera out and take pictures for a bit before I got bored, froze, or the batteries expired.

Unsurprisingly, the cold win that battle (within 10 minutes)

Security at O’Hare was the usual (shoe shuffle, laptop out, boarding card out… ) then a person pushed in on a Alitalia flight to MXP, asking to cut in (I almost exploded at that point)

I’m going to be very nasty here. IF YOU BOOK A FLIGHT, THERE ARE LITTLE GUIDELINES TO OBEY. ONE OF THOSE IS GETTING TO GATE ON TIME AND ALLOWING YOURSELF ENOUGH TIME. PUSHING THROUGH THE QUEUE IN A WHINY TONE SAYING YOUR FLIGHT IS LEAVING IN 10 MINUTES IS NOT MY PROBLEM . NEXT TIME GET TO THE AIRPORT EARLY ENOUGH!!!

(and before anyone asks, yes, I make sure I’m within plenty of time for my flights). After clearing security, I found a power point to charge up the laptop, and connected to the local WiFi for a bit.

De Plane Boss! De Plane!

The usual wait occurred (which at O’Hare can get very boring, lounge pass or not). The plane was tugged in, and the plane was prepped for flight. After a short while, pre-boarding begun, and as a BMI *S, I had one of the first options to board after pre-boarding was completed .

Ready for boarding

BD706 – ORD-MAN
Seat 14A, Premium Economy cabin, 50% load.
BMI Airbus A330-200, G-WMBB.

My home for the next 7 hours – taken near MAN 

After boarding I was asked if I liked roller-coaster rides. Translation, a lot of turbulence due (the Captain rated it an 8). My initial thought.. buckle up!

As boarding continued, this was the lovely sight that was outside…

If you don’t like this, I believe souls are available one eBay

The plane slowly filled, with a lot of late arrivals, and I suspect, a lot of people who mis-connected as the cabin wasn’t filling up hard. Initially I was sharing my space with someone, but as the doors went to close, my seat-mate moved to the seat in front, giving me a lovely load of space (double seats with 49″ pitch… sounds good to me for the next 6 hours and 40 minutes).

Seat pitch: Oxon Flyer and co.. please note: clean trousers

The plane then pushed back, safety demo ran, and after a short taxi,

Over the roads

and await thanks to the “world’s favourite airline”

Waiting for a BA 777 to take off

and off we went into the black coloured air.

IL/Wisconsin/Lake Michigan – more on the photoblog

Service started with a proper pre-emptive top-up regime in full progress, even in Premium Economy. Lots of Chardonnay into the glass! (ok, I’m a simple person with simple pleasures).As usual, the pretzel things did their rounds.

Burp

After as shot while, it was time for dinner:

Chicken Risotto – BMI style, in another foil box

Yet again, it’s the foil tin… nothing changes. The food quality from the US end is still pretty good in comparison to the Manchester centre which always ruins the rice.

The ice cream for a change was not Choccie chip or Cookie Dough… it was Vanilla or Strawberry Cheesecake Ice Cream . Of course, Strawberry cheesecake it was. A quick coffee round and 1½ hour later, it was lights down in PE. (with the lights still on in Y as the crew were finishing up the service.

Lights down..

Duty free was done in the dark. Again, I asked for a model A330 again (I do this out of the challenge rather than getting the aircraft now). Surprise Surprise, none in stock! Oh well. Nothing changes there.

A water bottle service was then made, and the crew made occasional walk-through, checking things were fine as the seat belt sign was on for the majority of the night section of the flight (and rightly so – it was very bumpy). At this point, I noticed no-one had an amenity kit loaded. Surprisingly, they weren’t loaded for PE

About 1 hour 30 from landing, a breakfast snack service was made of a Cinnamon and apple muffin (tastier than the blueberry one) and the pot of fruit. The on-board team managed again to do a pre-emptive topup on coffee for a round or two before cleaning up the cabin and preparing for landing at Manchester, which was on the far runway, towards the terminal (odd I thought).

Sunrise in the air

We then had a leisurely taxi to Gate 44 (where this journey started nearly 12 days ago).

This was in the way before going to the gate….

There was a short delay as the air bridge was attached, and business passengers were let off first, then the rest of us.

Passport control was quick, and the passport was scanned and just waived through with minimal inspection. Luggage delivery was reasonably slow, with a good 10 minutes before the first batch appeared, with my luggage delivered within 15 minutes. I then made my way through the maze of the airport and out onto the cool Manchester Airport morning air to the Train station for the long slog home with a rucksack, suitcase and a ski bag full of Tripods…

OUCH

Thoughts:
I’ve taken quite some time writing this report up, trying to be fair and removing some of the “get out of my way you annoying person who couldn’t be bothered to check in” anger.. but its been a bit hard writing this one up.

O’Hare International Terminal: I honestly am trying to find nice things about the International Terminal. The fact I can’t says a lot. Bare facilities before departures and barer facilities AFTER departures (although a few more booths have magically appeared. Its just a poor “International” Airport all round (even the Domestic terminals are better served! Dread the thought that people might actually want to SPEND MONEY at the airport!!!). I’ve noticed one of the newsagents is now stocking salads and rolls (and vastly overpriced priced) and that there are 2 bars to purchase alcoholic drinks (with big plastic buckets with the words TIPS on – noticeably empty)

SAS Ground Handling: Oh dear. Someone needs to bring them up to speed on Diamond Club Rules regarding the 3rd bag for Silvers. Perhaps a quick refresher from base would help. The lack of priority tags for ANYONE also shows up that base shows its under-supplied and under informed (and don’t bother asking about the fragile tags – you won’t get them!)

Security: Pretty respectful. The TSA have a bad enough reputation. At least this lot were warning you there was not food options after security. This is an improvement at least.

Boarding: Nice and quick, No questions asked, BP was checked, and my BMI *S confirmed.

On Board team: very good as usual, with good service all round. Very humorous, with a couple of the staff recognising me from a flight ago.

The Onboard product: this is unfortunately starting to suffer. It can be seen in little things, like the lack of amenity kits, and the continued use of tinfoil tins for dinner. And these little things add up to a very big difference

Miles Awarded: Only Base Miles as the flight is an upgrade so 3814 Miles (which means another 2 flights to hit Silver for next year)

I’m normally very positive about the BMI experience, and I would still recommend them, if for the on-board staff alone. However, the cost cutting HAS to stop.

United and US Airways are having a wonderful race to the bottom as it is. There is no point in BMI joining them, nor would it serve any real purpose other than a little ding at the bottom line. If BMI wanted to do that, it would be better to rip out the old business seats, plop in a few rows of UA 38″ seats and just charge more at the gate for them (And I for one would be sad if they did that).

By having a quality product, and providing the product is pushed well and successfully, it will drive revenue to them. At the moment, I’d have to think twice about paying up for PE again unless the product as a whole was much more improved. Either that, or I’d better get used to saying hello to LHR T3 (or T1 when they move) and begging for an E+ seat on a UA flight…