It’s that time of the week again – it’s Airplane p0rn time!

We’re still at LAX, with a United 757-200 taking off.

More Airplane p0rn – of course – next week!

Time for some airplane p0rn – this time a BA 757 taking off from Heathrow

Picture (c) Kevin Marshall, The Raven Archive.

More next week from the T4 spotting run….

Time for some more airplane p0rn – this time from within an actual airplane

A United 757-200 in reflection, cruising between Seattle and Chicago.

Welcome to GhettoIFE.com!

I’m your host – Kevin – and I’ll be here to guide you through the maze of modern travel, and hopefully add some insightful comment and humour.

With GhettoIFE getting on for 2 years old, I’ve had a bit of a design refresh, and tidied up, so for older viewers who make it here – yes, it’s the same content will all the usual sarcasm as always.

As well as random posts on the days events, my trip reports and a few other bits, there will be a few “regular” slots including:

• The News – Commercial aviation news in a bite size ripped to bits segments.
• Trip Reports – When I actually go swanning off to explore the world.
• The Soapbox – Where I get to rant and moan about things – Signed Annoyed of Birmingham.
• Airplane p0rn – Yes it’s my photography lovefest of air planes All clean for work. Published every Sunday.
• How to save money … so far on telephone calls and how to get money on flights back via cashback
  
• And analysis on IFE and what’s happening in the world of IFE

GhettoIFE.com is updated once or twice a day depending on what’s going on in the world when I’m at my base, and a lot less frequently when I’m away travelling.

All the posts have a slightly twisted and humours bent, and of course comments are open. Please feel free to drop your thoughts in.

I don’t Twitter, nor do Facebook – so it’s traditional email through the comment boxes or direct at blog@ghettoife.com

Thank you for choosing Kevin’s Ghetto IFE. We know you have a choice in blogs.

Welcome to Gold Run – Mr Kevincm goes to Washington with EI and US Airways. 


Again – this trip report is a “republished” report from FlyerTalk.com (it’s original home), and in the spirit of GhettoIFE (where this trip actually originated the term), I’ve gone back over this Trip Trip report, tidying it up, cleaning it, correcting some spellings – and adding new photos that you haven’t seen before. So even if you have read this one before, spin through it – there’s “new content!”

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But first – a message from our sponsor!


Yes, it’s muggins again. Unlike the passionately addicted Moomba who’s forgotten what a Y tray meal looks like or Kiwi Flyer who does more miles than I can dream of, it is yet another trip in steerage for me. Some of course query the value of a Y class trip report – others just laugh at me idly for subjecting myself to this madness. I like to appeal to those who need comedy.


My normal rules apply to my trip reports – in other words, sarcasm abound, bad Brit humour, amusing anecdotes, random moans and YouTube videos that make no sense to anyone (well … someone with a bad sense of humour). Comments welcome in the box below


Of course I should plug my photoblog which has the pictures for this trip, split into bite sized segments for you to enjoy

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So where were we last time…

Ah yes – the lack of 3155 miles to hit the magic BMI Diamond Club Gold to hit Star Gold.

As a lot of us on the European continent know, mileage running in the EU is 1) expensive thanks to taxes every 5 meters and 2) mileage earning is pants in the lower fare buckets, thus to get decent mileage, you have to fly J or C… with the cash needed to do those s0ort of runs.

So the aim of this run was threefold, yet simple:
1) Get me to gold
2) Get me on a flying start for gold next year
3) Try and do it with the minimal possible spend

See? I don’t do complex

Choices, Choices…

The choice… SWISS or US Airways? Do I do a J class special and minimise the pain, or go for the full on masochistic experience that is a 757 across the pond with a few extra segments?

I was all set for a J class overnight in Barcelona when US Airways started throwing silly fares flying from Dublin to Washington Regan National. Combine that with an easy start from my home airport (BHX), the struggling pound anywhere, and the math doesn’t lie. It was US Airways or bust!

After a bit of fiddling with the booking engine, I was getting multi-segment returns for $71 each way+ tax and the usuals.

Now leaving me with a booking engine can be dangerous…. as I discovered some segment hops were very good value. Modifying the segments proved to be … a dangerous mistake for my sanity (as good as my sanity is at 4am in the morning)

So the mile earning itinerary is:
DUB-PHL – US Airways
PHL-LGA – US Airways Express
LGA-DCA – US Airways Shuttle
DCA-BOS – US Airways Shuttle
BOS-PHL – US Airways Express
PHL-DUB – US Airways

An interesting note for doing these: Segments in the BMI Diamond Club program score 600 miles a pop. Therefore with 1 segment priced up the same as 2, it was mad not to take them up on the extra hops.

Alas, I don’t live in DUB… I’m nearer BHX. I could haul my backside down to LHR, but I’m not in the mood. Thankfully Aer Lingus have handy little BHX to DUB hop (yes – there is Ryanair route there that arrives a whole 5 minutes early, but even I have some limits) so its 8 segments over 3 days. I think that’s a new record even by my standards.

Map generated by the wonderful Great Circle Mapper http://gc.kls2.com

Ok .. this is difficult to work out, but on the left is the muddle that is LGA, BOS, GhPHL and DCA. On the right is the muddle that’s BHX and DUB. Easy? Whadaya mean no? Sigh.. you can have some maps too on each leg. Aren’t I nice?

To cut down costs, again I’ll be travelling with the small backpack only (as EI charges for checked luggage, so one bag it is – the one that I’ve managed to mangle at Chicago O’Hare a few trips ago), with the poor Macbook (the keyboard top is not wearing well), some lenses, a couple of cameras and a couple of clothing changes.

Of course visiting the USA requires filling in of an ESTA form which of course… actually, no – I won’t go into this. It’s just hassle to visit the land of the free(tm)

So… what can possibly go wrong? . Lets do the “Gold Run” (where’s Bob Holness presenting BlockBusters when you need him?) to Super Obama Land!

A tonal change before we go any further

This trip took place the day after the US Airways 1549′s bird strike incident at La Guardia. My compliments and kudos to the Captain and crew involved for landing the plane, getting everyone off safely. May those involved have a speedy recovery. As part of this trip report goes through LGA… so I’ll report there too..

To BHX

5am in the morning. Argh. Why didn’t I do a simple Swiss run? After packing out what was needed, it was a stroll to the nearest bus stop, and within a few minutes (even at 5:40 in the morning) the 82 turned up on scheduled. As its dead ‘clock, there’s near enough no-one on the bus, and it was a normal sluggish ride to New Street station.

5:30… on a Birmingham morning.

There was the option of reducing my costs further and taking the 900 bus from the city centre to BHX, but even I have limits.

Of course for taking the train – this means transiting through the dark bowels of Mordor Hauptbahnhof (also know as Birmingham New Street Station). A ticket machine swallowed £3.10 and spat out a ticket at me. Thankfully, with it being first thing on a Friday morning, there was next to no queues or a wait for a train, and off I went

London Midland Birmingham New Street – Birmingham international airport
Class 350 “Desiro”

6am – Nutters need only apply at this time of morning

Nothing out of the ordinary for a morning train service – mostly empty, but there wee enough people for a ticket inspection to be carried out (one of the few times it’s paid to be me. Within 10 minutes, I had pulled in to Birmingham International Train station, and proceeded upwards to the Air-Rail link.

BHX is however an oddball of an airport, partially due to its location halfway between London and Manchester and the shortish runway, Therefore, with a mixed population it gets a fair mix of long haul airlines (Emirates, Air India (when they want to run a service), Continental, PIA, Turkmenistan and US Airways in the summer). However, it contains a lot of charter, holiday traffic and of course the low cost carriers that the UK seems to be enamoured with. Thus it seems that although it is semi aircraft nerd friendly with an observation lounge pre security, but the full on shopping experience post security, with no natural light, no… nothing really apart from a BAA style shopping experience. Of course attempting to find a plug in this airport is akin to asking for the moon on the stick – it doesn’t happen.

There are a few little things I like about BHX, one of them being a bit of joined up thinking of how to link the terminal and the train station together.

After getting to EI’s check-in desks (I’m old fashioned – I don’t do this newfangled OLCI thing unless I have to) I found no queue, and was checked in with no bags, with a question asked of window or isle I’d like to be assigned into. I was issued my boarding pass and went through security. Again there were practically no queues for security and I was straight through, however I have to ding the airport for charging for ziplock bags (aka Kippy bags) at 4 for a £1… defiantly an expensive mistake if you haven’t prepared…

And then it was just a wait. And also scanning the press for US1549 little swim…

Papers with the news of the day.

Soon enough it was time to head to the gate.

My ride – Ryanair users might notice the odd things attached to the airport are called is an Airbridges… it means you don’t have to go outside

Leg 1 of 8 16-01
Aer Lingus Ei463, Birmingham International Airport – Dublin Airport
Airbus A320-200, Seat 15F
200 miles flown, 0 miles earned

The Photos

Map generated by the wonderful Great Circle Mapper http://gc.kls2.com

Amazingly, I had kept my new years resolution number, and successfully avoided yet another RyanAir flight (alas, I cannot be bothered, nor do I have the energy to engage in the RyanAir game of pay by Electron card, print your own boarding pass, pay for oxygen, etc. I’d rather pay the extras in the first place and be happy… which worked out to as massive… 96p.)

Boarding was a split affair, with the rear half of the plane called, then the forward half. Load factor was a about 66% – I couldn’t see a middle seat occupied at all. Crewed with 4 Flight attendants, service was split over 3 carts , so pretty good brisk service for those who wanted it before the crew went into a huddle for duty free (surprisingly for once – yes I did take part, and brought myself another model – yes. I’m sad enough to collect them ; ) – all done within 15 minutes of take off. They then split into a 3 at the back, 1 at the front, with one roving up and down the plane every now and again.

Off again!

Captain came on the over loudspeaker, with flight stats (20,000ft) and a specified early arrival at DUB (from 1 hour to 45 minutes – a short hop)

There are some reassuring things in the world. Aer Lingus’s BOB is of them. Unfortunately, as the pound has crashed against the Euro, this idea went out of the window fast.

I’m sad. And?

The flight itself was a mildly choppy affair – considering the cloud level, about right for the weather we’ve been having.

Morning skies

On landing, there was a short taxi to the gate – and a hold to clear some luggage off a taxiway before meeting the stairs for disembarkation at the D Piers

D2 Coming along nicely

My next ride..

Disembarkation was of course by Steps in the D Pier.

One down.. 7 to go..

Thoughts : EI are best handled in small doses – certainly not the stellar carrier they once were. From what I could see, they offered a quick and good service on in the air that has been no worse than other carriers over such a short distance. But then again, it is pretty hard to balls up a 45 minute flight….

At Dublin Airport

After arriving at the far D gates, I made my way into Ireland cursing the person who designed this pier, through Irish immigration (hand over passport, smile, go through), through baggage, and turned left and up – straight into US Airways check-in area. A delightful mix of paperwork was issued, with a data collection form for APIS, a wavier form to remind me to get over to customs queue by 9:30, as well as the I-94(W) (so much for ESTA) and customs form., and then over to US airways check-in.

After all the boarding passes were spat out, it was through security and off to the B pier for pre-clearance (after raiding Duty free for some cigarettes for my friend ).

Of course, there was a queue for pre-clearance that took about 10 minutes to the pre-check, and 15 minutes of hard queuing to see an immigration agent. After some gentle probing, I was asked for my fingers, thumbs, and face – and stamped into the USA. At this point, there was nearly an hour before departure… and to be honest- there’s not a lot to do in the pre-clearance area apart from wait, maybe drink something or eat something, and go to the toilet. Basic, but sufficient.

Boarding was of course the usual shambles with just family pre-boarding, even every man/woman/flyer for themselves, however, with just a rucksack, I wasn’t in a rush to get aboard as it was going to live at my feet

Leg 2 – US723, Dublin Airport – Philadelphia International Airport 16-01
US Airways, Boeing 757-200 (ETOPS), Seat 30K
Miles Flown: 3273, Miles Earned:3274
The Photos

Map generated by the wonderful Great Circle Mapper http://gc.kls2.com

The economics for a narrow body jet have always made me think that it’s great they can run thin and long services that otherwise were un-viable, yet as a cabin … a narrow body over the pond? Up until now I’ve always preferred wide body aircraft for these hops (least of all the for the on-board ambiance and feeling of room). Lets find out if I can remove my prejudices against the 757 on a long-haul run over the pond…

At the gate

I have been actively checking the seat map, only a few days before this flight for everything to be zero’d out. In act, looking through the cabin, there was only 5 seats I could see in Y that weren’t sold. Luckily, one of those seats happened to be next to me and the other seats were behind me. Some small luck I suppose.

Seats.. US Airways blue leather…

After a short taxi and a hold to let a few movements occurred, we took off, and had one of the bumpiest takeoffs I can remember (I’m sure that the unsecured US Airways pretzels that were in a bag behind me were happy bouncing as we took off), with a lot of chop whilst airborn for first 20 minutes before things settled down.

Take off

Unsecured Pretzels/Fiesta Mix :rolleyes

Of course, in-flight entertainment and US Airways seems to be an oxymoron with some very bad movie on the overhead screens that aren’t visible at a window, and the ghaul to charge $5/4€ for a headset, so I was prepared this time with the iPhone, loaded up with some proper IFE.

And lo. Ghetto IFE systems were born.

How to make a sick bag iPhone/iPod Touch holder (Ghetto IFE System – V1)
- ensure bag isn’t used
- rip hole in baggie
- rip hole large enough for screen
- rip hole in side so you can plug your headset in
- mount onto seat back
- enjoy entertainment

I didn’t realise this at the time, but I had actually stumbled upon one hell of a good idea which suits the iPhone/iPod Touch perfectly - a simple media system that could hold the content I have, which in economy is reasonably sized for purpose. The fact that I’m using an 8GB device is really my own fault – but it’s enough for a TATL run if you fill it with the right content and size it correctly.  Remembering the bag is just a holder means that you can actually size any portable media device into a Ghetto IFE system, whilst actually it installed correctly and safely. 

Cabin crew were very slow off the mark to be completely blunt, finally making their way to my seat with nearly 1½ hours gone. Alas, in meal terms, I was very restricted, and had the pasta choice. Lets just say I should really have had a irish breakfast or something in BHX as it was god awful. The bean salad was passable, as was the brownie (this time I was hungry enough to eat it at that moment in time).

Eww

To be honest, service was not great at all. Being in the second to last row, I seemed to be forgotten about more than once when it came to drinks or rubbish pick-up.

Over the pond

Which brings me onto the state of the aircraft – the seat pitch was thankfully not too bad – but this can be attributed to the clear middle seat for where junk can be stored. The seats themselves are leather, without adjustable headrests. It honestly feels like the aircraft has been taken out of domestic service, some Envoy seats added at the front of the plane, ETOPS certificate added with some winglets and shoved back into service. As a result, the aircraft was clean, but seats were looking worn, with the one in front of me trying to loose its cover at times. Nothing that a total refurbishment couldn’t fix…

Once the first batch of chop cleared, it was a nice flight, heading towards Greenland, where upon it chopped up again, not clearing until into the ice wastes of Canada.

A mid-flight service of orange juice from a can and unsecured pretzels from earlier were served, with water and pretzel mix available near the toilets – a nice touch if people wanted a nibble or 2 in-flight.

Towards the end of the flight the traditional US Ham and cheese bread thing that is totally plastic, but surprisingly edible was made available. This was welcomed and tasted how it looked – considering that lunch was a let down.

The US Ham and Cheese Chibatta – new teeth an optional extra…

Service was cleared down and the cabin was prepared for arrival.

Coming in over Philadelphia

The service landed into Philadelphia early – too early alas. From a 45 minute early to a fast arrival at the gate, we were then forced to wait 35 minutes or so whilst the jetbridge team were working out how to dock the plane to the airport

Overall: Not a stunning US Airways flight by any stretch of the imagination. The extra seat was pretty much core to a good journey, and thus it paid off well. The food was probably the worst I’ve had on a plane for a long time, so Kevin’s top tip: Avoid the Macaroni cheese . The 757 is still in my opinion a bit narrow and does feel a bit claustrophobic after a while, but considering the length of flight… it could had been a lot worse…

At PHL

After disembarkation, it was a walk from A6 to Immigration, where the pass-through was arranged for Dublin pre-cleared passengers. A saunter through customs, and I was within the United States of America. One of the joys of travelling without luggage is that its possible to move quickly and keep moving.

To make life a bit more painful my onward connections would be from the Express Commuter terminal – in other words I shelped over to the F gates. Whist nice enough, it lacks a lot of the main facilities of the A/B/C terminals at PHL, its just that – a commuter terminal. In other words, a fancy name for a bus station.

Alas, I tried to standby for the earlier La Guardia flights to no success (the first flight was delayed – the second flight was just as bad and they still wanted $50 to list for it). However, after hanging round the gate waiting for everyone else to board, I was asked I was boarding… and was issued a scribble pass.

Leg 3 – US4222 – Philadelphia International Airport – New York La Guardia Airport
US Airways Express operated by Piedmont Airlines, Dash-8-100 (37 Seat), Seat 5D
Miles Flown: 91, Miles Earned: 600

Map generated by the wonderful Great Circle Mapper http://gc.kls2.com

My ride at LGA

My first flight on a Dash-Trash (amazingly I’ve avoided them for so long, judging how many of them fill my local airport) , and my second trip to Urban New York.

Preparing for the off…

I boarded the plane without having to gatecheck anything and took my seat (being the last person to board the flight). After a few minutes, the doors went to close and off the little Dash went a-trundling around PHL before queuing up for take-off.

Up and away!

I suppose I’m not used to Prop aircraft at all (the last time I was aboard a prop, I was a lot younger, but the vibrations as well as the sensitivity to air pockets made it a fun flight. I’d say the most fun flight of the trip. As a such, it was a low level flight, so the whole landscape was before you.

Service was brisk, but there was a fair amount of drinks sold (I didn’t partake this time – I had a gallon of coffee before boarding the flight). Leg room for a small place was also very good for what it is.

Alas, I was assigned in the wrong side of the airplane , no pictures of Manhattan, but it was a very choppy and bouncy landing.

Still, it’s the most fun I’ve had in a plane for sometime. Could do with a pair of earplugs though…

At La Guardia

Looking at my arrival time, I had a choice – either hang around and check out the place – or head straight to gate 17 to see what space was aboard the flight..

It seems I’ve set a new record for the amount of time I spend in the NY/NJ area … 45 minutes. An improvement on the 5 minutes I spent last time at Newark, but one day, I’m going to have to actually visit the city

And if pigs will fly

Once the boarding had mostly been completed, I asked what was available – and took a middle seat (for that was what left).

Of course, there was a queue down the jetway, with a pilot and a few of us talking about US1549, and some of the glaring oversights (the lack of people wearing life-jackets, how long luggage takes to dry out and what Doggie will do with a slightly soggy A320. Personally, I think it would make a great museum piece… but that’s me…

Leg 4 – US2183 – New York La Guardia Airport – Washington Regan National
US Airways Shuttle, Airbus A319-100 (EOW), Seat 12E
Miles Flown: 214, Miles earned: 600

Map generated by the wonderful Great Circle Mapper http://gc.kls2.com

My ride at LGA

There’s always something reassuring getting back to an old friend. The A319 is one example – the relative shortness of it with the capacity and the design of it makes for a low chance of design mess-ups, and it shows. The aircraft was in very good condition, clean and the seat covers were all in place and not falling off. Rather good for US Airways actually.

After a short wait, it was a case of queue up, climb into the air, and begin the slow slog over to Regan National.

Whilst the rest of US Airways (US Domestic) seems to have abandoned free drinks, Shuttle has maintained it. And it seems everyone likes a freebie, with everyone partaking of drinks. Pretty soon there was a rubbish collection, and a lovely night-time approach to DCA… which I failed to catch at all thanks to the middle seat.

Is a 1 hours wait worth a middle seat? I’d say so.

After making my off the plane, it was time for a walk to the kerb and to find a transfer for the hotel.


Hotel – Hilton Crystal City

For this little trip, it was a matter of finding a bed for the night – pure and simple. Not much of a challenge when it’s the weekend before the inauguration.  By some magic means, I scored a cheap Expedia rate for £50 for a Hilton in Crystal City.  Considering I just needed it as a crash pad for the night , it met all my requirements for being cheap, well located, and easy to get in and out of.

The Bed and Room itself were well sized, and the facilities there were good – although like most Expeida rooms, you tend to hike halfway back and forth anywhere.

Lets put it like this: I’ve paid more for less in hotel rooms. This was one of the better bargains I’ve had.

Washington DC… T -4 Days to O-Day.

To make the best of the day as my departure wasn’t until 15:30, I decided to be a tourist and do some sightseeing, and focused my efforts on the National Mall. I was out of the hotel by 8am and hiking for most of the day, watching the Coverage vans trundle everywhere, and taking pics of anything that as randomly interesting.

I did however, make a special stop to the Smithsonian – National Air and Space Museum (and as this is an airgeeks blog, I think we can all appreciate that ). So lets have some images from that…

 

Soon enough, I wandered back out into the cold, and down to a convenient subway station – It was time to turn around and head for home… indirectly of course…

Back to Regan National

A nice simple transit system…. I’ve actually found one that exists in the USA! (Excluding the Chicago L… but that’s another matter completely – I understand it – not many others do ). After catching a metro back from Le Enants to Regan National, I made my way around the architecturally nice terminal that is Regan National. Check in of course was unmitigated disasters – I made my way into the E-ticket queue to be mistaken for a non-rev (I have to do International check-in for all legs). After sighing for 5 minutes, I queued in the First class queue (which technically I can now), and got checked in for all legs to Dublin.

The TSA… it seems the TSA at Regan have had some lessons in manners and were treating people nicely. My request for a manual scan of film was met without compliant and I passed through successfully, and took up a waiting perch for a bit as I couldn’t standby for the 14:30 flight without ponying out some more cash to US Airways.

Another nice feature (apart from the pretzel shop and the obvious Obama tat that people are selling) is laptop charging points – a useful pit-stop to charge before today’s fun and games of flights begin properly.

Boarding was done by rows – unusual I thought until I boarded…

Leg 5 – US2038 – Washington Regan National – Boston Logan International Airport
US Airways Shuttle, Airbus A319-100, Seat 8A
Miles Flown: 399, Miles Earned: 600

The Photos

Map generated by the wonderful Great Circle Mapper http://gc.kls2.com

This flight is yet another segment on my mileage run – and in fact the longest internal flight out of the collection – and helped give me the most possible time in Washington DC by some mad reason.

After boarding, it was obvious this flight was lightly loaded with most people having half a row to themselves – a lot of space to stretch out in. Whilst in the row before the exit row and having no recline, I made my own recline once airborne.

Yup. airborne again.


Take off was reverse to landing – taking off away fro Washington DC before swinging around and flying off to Boston.

Downtown DC

Dulles

Another signs loads were light – drinks service was done by hand. Again – a free service on Shuttle services, so it was appreciated.

The flight itself was smooth, and tracked the east coast to Boston, with a cleanup of items, and where after a few fancy turns, we landed, and after a short taxi, docked and the doors were opened. By the time I was in the terminal building, it was night.

Overall: US Airways Shuttle is perhaps its strongest Y class product – it’s constant, delivered well, and delivered at the same level. For a Y class flight, you cannot ask for much more…

At Boston Logan International

Wha.. you can have illegal sea foods?

One of those “little facts we don’t really care about” is that the retail side of Boston Airport is run by a Spanish airport group who have a monopoly in London (but not for much longer). Gotta admit – it shows with the in-airport music with advertising every few minutes .

A slow move from the Shuttle gates to the Express gates, and an hour and a half wait. Time to do some writing whilst the plane is being prepared…

Boarding was called in zones, with practically no one paying attention as normal…

EMB-175 at the gate

Leg 6 – US3160 – Boston Logan International Airport – Philadelphia International Airport US Airways Express operated by Republic Airways, Embraer 175, Seat 18A Miles Flown: 280, Miles Earned: 600

Map generated by the wonderful Great Circle Mapper http://gc.kls2.com

The Photos

But enough BAA bashing and their lack of retail management. Time for a new aircraft type. This time, Embraer 175. As this will be my first time aboard one of the little E-Jets, I’ll try and positive.

Seating is 2 x 2, so it feels a little tighter than a 737 or A319, and yes – in classic US Airways Express configuration (so the windows are misaligned, but on the positive sides, the seating was comfortable (even in slimline configuration) and even though it was a 31” pitch, it felt a bit more than that.

The seat

Cabin

By amazing luck again, I had a clear seat next to me on my flight (although there was a fair load on the plane with only a few seats at the rear of the plane – enough to justify this class of aircraft on this route)

Taxing was a bit of a trek, but take off was quick, powerful and fast, pushing into the air very quickly.

Taxiing

Up and away again

After a few turns and an appropriate climb level, the electronics light was extinguished.

The ride was choppy only on landing, but otherwise was very smooth. In addition, I found the ambient noise levels to be very low (I was playing some music on the iPhone (Elbow – On a Day like this) to the point where the volume was at 40% – considering I’ve been needing 60/70% on the Airbus’s and nearly 80% on the 757, there is some real work done on accousitc the design this plane.

A service run was done again, with a brisk trade in drinks being done. This was one run, with 2 clean-up runs. The cockpit crew were nice and cheerful, however the cabin crew didn’t really want to doing this flight tonight, and thus service was passable (even though I’ve found in the past that Republic group airlines are the better regional outfits…).

On approach

On approach to PHL, a departure list was given of where to connect to – a very nice touch.

Landing

Again on landing at PHL, it was a quick landing and taxi to the gate – for where was a 5 minute wait get an airbridge driver, then a 15 minute mess around to initially try to get the gate onto the plane. In the end, a tug dragged the plane forward a foot, and the airbridge docked successfully.

At PHL (Again)

After the 2nd minor incident with a jetbridge (twice in 2 days – I’m lucky), it was straight off the plane, and the shelp to A22 West.

A Liberty Bell on the way to A22W

Art. Allegedly.

Although I am starting to warm to PHL as an airport, it is a bit expansive., which can mean great fun when trying to get from gate to gate in time.

Thankfully, by the time the Dublin flight was called, I was well within the A-West Part of the terminal, and when I got to the gate, it was empty – flight had boarded quiet early.

Leg 7 – US722 – PHL-DUB (Philadelphia International Airport – Dublin Airport
US Airways, Boeing 767-200 (Equipment Swap from Boeing 757-200WL) Seat 27A
Miles Flown: 3273, Miles Earned:3724

The Photos

Map generated by the wonderful Great Circle Mapper http://gc.kls2.com

At this point, please understand that I’m getting knackered. More than normal. Some small part of me was hoping that I would misconduct here and have to divert to Heathrow (which had saved on the final Aer Lingus leg and instead would had been a Tube and a Train home). Alas, my luck doesn’t run THAT good.

Normally, I would expecting a queue and all the palaver that went with it when I board an aircraft. It was empty, then I noticed 2 isles upon boarding! Had I lucked out on a A330? Nope. It was a 767 instead! (alas the bashed up interior gave it away without trying). This mean overhead telly and TFT/LCD/Plasma screens at the front, however faster service throughout. In addition, the spare seat next to me when I checked in the morning had held, so a two-seater relaxayvous option was in full effect.

Waiting for pushback at PHL

Boarding was completed on schedule, and we pushed back. After the video died once, the classic US 767 safety video was put on. A short taxi later, the plane took off into a very cloudy Philadelphia sky and away.

Accelerating away

I must be picking the crappy flights recently on TATL runs as I seem to get nothing but chop these days on TATL runs. This flight was no difference with chop all the way with the seatbelt sign on nearly all the time.

Climbing out

After electronic use was ok’d, the immigration card run were distributed (one advantage of heading “home” to an EU country – no landing cards to fill in

Getto IFE system… installed

I hinted at the 767 disrepair… where to begin. Seats were not reclining that well, the seat pocket in front of me was broken, and the plane just didn’t feel looked after and loved unlike the Shuttle A319s, the E175 or to a point – the 757 I came in over in.

From what I glanced – the Envoy space refit had been done, and they actually looked better business class seats than the old style ones that are installed on the A330’s, but the seating in the back is once again blue leather seats.

Dinner was Chicken and Rice with sweetcorn and beans – I’d go as far as to say Cajun Chicken, with the usual salad and a square of carrot cake.

The chicken – dryish, but better than nothing. The rice – soggy as heck, the sweetcorn… I didn’t know it was impossible to mess up sweetcorn. The only things that weren’t’ messed up were the salad and the carrot cake. The roll was only low level damage capable, so not that bad. The service was lights down all the way from PHL to DUB, and as far as I could tell, there was also no pastry/breakfast coffee service as well.

Soon enough the skies lightened a bit, as it was coming up the 7:30, the cabin lights came on for final clean-up, then dimming for landing

Coming over Dublin

Turning

Landing was powerful, and after taxing back, there was a delay on hooking up the airbridge (again – I’m having all the luck with them this trip), and the plane slowly emptied out.

At the gate

My ride at DUB (It was best I could do )

Back at Dublin

After a quick clearance at passport control back into the EU, I made the mistake of leaving the secure area to see what was what heading back to BHX.

Alas, I forgot that the first flight was at 06:30… with the next at 13:45 and no check in before 10:45

To say I was mildly annoyed at myself would be an understatement . After confirming this, I wandered back to Arrivals (ground side) and had breakfast (A Chicken Creaser salad I picked up in PHL) and a can of coke obtained from US Airways. Then it was a case of hooking up to a spare power port and time to charge the laptop and camera after some quiet heavy work.

With a 5 hour connection, normally that’s plenty of time to go into Dublin’s fair city – but for once, I honestly felt like I should be curled up somewhere and not on a cold bus going into a cold city. After a good 2 hours it was time to fight with the Self Checkin Machine, which unhappy spat out a boarding pass at me.

Security was… to put it lightly, I thought the TSA had took over. Started loading up the trays… and all of a sudden, one was pushed off by an agent as he pushed a set of trays back off the rollers. The tray that just happened my laptop and thus landed happily.., on a nice concrete floor. After a half hearted apology, and the equipment was checked, thankfully no short term damage was found. Long term damage on the other hand … give it time.

One final raid of duty free for my friend (she’s done well out of me), and it was off on the long hike to the A-Pier, which is in an absolute state (I remember the A pier being nice and bearable… it’s now low cost semi-hell with metal benches, with some of the facilities that used to be there ripped out. A shame.

After finding an empty beach, it was time to just rest for a bit as I didn’t have any euros to go shopping with, plus I’m a bit tired for some odd reason

Eventually I woke up and queued near the gate, with boarding begun at 13:20 for the flight.

Leg 8 – Ei473 Dublin Airport – Birmingham International Airport
Aer Lingus Airbus A320-200 Seat 8A
Miles flow: 200, Miles earned: 0

Map generated by the wonderful Great Circle Mapper http://gc.kls2.com

A quick climb out and a few turns, it was a quick 45 minute flight back to Birmingham. Standard service (drinks and food), with no one taking part in Duty free this time.

After remembering that I had a camera and I had woken up a bit, I started taking a few pics.

Landing was on schedule, and after taxing towards gate 58, the plane stopped short of the airbridge, and we were all bussed off.

15 minutes later I was through security, luggage pick, the little shuttle train and on the train home.

Impressions:
Aer Lingus: I wonder about EI and it’s place in the airline world these days. I can see what it’s tried to do (ala BMI’s modularisation) with short haul cheapness and long haul service… but with the way the industry is consolidating and contracting… is there a place for EI? Or will it ultimately be doomed to O’Leary’s “charms”? I suppose the biggest praise of EI I will give of it is this: It isn’t Ryanair. That alone scores points for me.

US Airways long haul: Ok, I knew exactly what I was letting myself in for. A crapped out 757 with tight as hell seat pitch. But US has to realise that its competitors are biting at its heels – even those who use 757′s (paging Continental and American). Much as I think a full internal refit with slimline seats, AVOD and a few more toilets would really help the aircraft, I don’t honestly think Douggie and those in Tempe AZ actually care as long as they see the $$$ roll in. A shame, as there is real potential for these routes to make serious money if advertised as an “alternative to London” and “An easier way to fly into the USA”. It’s fine running an aeroplane that distance, but please match a quality of service that is to go with it. The 767 service with due respect is very much a missed opportunity – a chance to really pull out the stops and make a product that people would use. Alas, they’ve just decked out Envoy and put a couple of new TFT screen on the plane (better than UA’s 747′s… but still). UA has proven you CAN do something good with a 767… so there’s really no excuse…

US Express: Ok – whilst not 100% relevant, the DashTrash flight was a lot of fun – probably my highlight of a trip. I won’t go out of my way to catch one again, but if the price was right. The ERJ-175 was another good highlight of a modern, well looked after aircraft, and if this is what BA is buying for their fleet, I can see a lot of happy flyers. It’s comfortable, low ambient noise and its a nifty little mover. Just a shame I had the most depressed Republic crew I’ve come across….

US Shuttle: I actually am impressed with US Shuttle – it seems they load some of their better employees on these shuttle flights, and maintained a level of service throughout. The planes were in good condition, and looked well cared for.

Right. That’s it for another two months. Next up is a March report on UA. After being abandoned by BMI it’s a choice of UA or US. And I’ve had enough US for a few months at least… so guess who my next trip report is about

Where to I hear you ask? … you’ll know soon enough..

Oh… and finally.. .what was this all for?

Earned the HARD way

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!