Airlines From the Inside Out
April 18
Meant to post these a while back. Various airlines in random locations. Enjoy
united airlines departure from LHR to LAX
moving map on monitor- inside lufthansa a380- FRA-NRT
windy BOS landing on jet blue
united regional jet leaving albany, ny
delta 747 departing manila; shot from upper deck
It’s not your typical lounge; airline or otherwise. Unless you frequent Tijuana. Delta Business Elite customers can access the Delta Airlines Arrival Lounge, aka the Yotel, with their boarding pass (that’s all I needed) or an invitation received from the FA towards the end of the flight. As mentioned, the Yotel is a transit hotel but also serves as Delta’s arrival lounge.
At first, you may mistake it for a brothel based on the black-light lit narrow hallways and porthole windows. The “room”, at 100 square feet, (roughly; no ruler) I can’t say I would stay here overnight, but to lay down and have a shower… perfecto! The shower and toilet area is 1 space. The toilet and sink are in the shower stall… similar to some (the ones I have stayed at) some hotels in Asia.
There is one towel and one soap dispenser in the shower area. There is no shampoo. Unless you want to call what’s in the dispenser shampoo… but then there’s no soap. All ancillary items are available for charge at the front desk. Enjoy!
a look into a “suite”
My guess is, that for inaugural flights, crews are hand selected. We had some real pros from Miami to London Heathrow. No, they didn’t pay me (or even pay for my flight) to say that. It seemed like there were 6 flight attendants working the Business Elite cabin, leaving no chance that someone would be unattended to. They conversed and interacted with passengers in a subtle, but confident manner.
I mentioned to the purser that I had an extremely tight connection. She assured me that as soon as we landed, before anyone de-planed, she would inform the agents meeting our flight of my situation. I have the purser to thank for the service I then received.
I didn’t take many pictures of the seats. I have flown the 767 with flatbed seats and posted the pictures here. Sleeping was easy on these fully flat seats, but your feet will be in a pretty tight space when in the fully flat position.
There is a significant difference between the seats in the Business Elite Cabin. I think the key is getting a seat that has the bulkhead between you and the aisle. It provides much more privacy and you will not get bumped into. The seats that feature this include 1A, 3A, 5A and so on. Or in the center section 2B, 4B, 6B or on the other side of the middle aisle 1C, 3C, 5C. The far side (starboard) 1D, 3D…
Regarding the seats in the center section, the space where your legs rest seem to be tighter than in the A or D aisles. There is barely enough room to sleep on your side and have your legs on top of one another.
The flight, on a 767-400 was scheduled for 10 hours, however, the actual flying time was 8 hours 20 minutes + circling Heathrow a few times. I actually fell asleep between my salad and main course. That was not a reflection of the service, I was just tired. I am not a huge fan of duck, but it was tasty and the steak and shrimp were fine. Thanks to the crew for a memorable experience. Next up: Delta’s arrival “lounge” at Heathrow.
Big fan of going on inaugural flights. There is extra pep in everyone’s step; ground staff, flight crew, even the passengers. Well, the passenger pep may be a result of the complimentary champagne, but none-the-less. As if flying wasn’t entertaining enough on its own, inaugurals always seem to produce interesting fodder.
As soon as I checked in at the Business Elite desk, the agent said:
“You can’t do this…. You can just stay in London and come back Monday”
I stared at him, smiled and said nothing. What he mentioned was not an option.
“… you will not make it”
I stared at him, chuckled and said nothing
“…you can try” he then said
He was referring to my mere 70 minute connection before returning to Miami.
Then a 2nd check-in agent and the supervisor were hailed. They were both astounded at 2 things:
1) That Delta let me book the itinerary
2) That I was going and coming right back
The 4 of us shared a good laugh over the whole thing and I re-assured them I was going to do my damnedest to make the connection.
To be sure, yes it was a significant amount of travel in a short period of time, but what’s tougher: a quick turn between 2 long flights or 1 ultra-long haul like LAX-Bangkok???
After a few pops in the Sky Club, I was off to the gate to evaluate the pomp and circumstance. There were balloons, decorations, cakes, champagne and a ribbon cutting ceremony. Similar to the Air France A380 inaugural, but less crowded. Present were many Delta employees beyond the the crew who helped celebrate Delta’s new Trans-Atlantic route. They were all quite proud to be part of the event and the flight crew wore red corsages. We departed at bit late, but the entire gound crew and water cannons sent us off (see pictures below).
Part 2 of the trip, the actual flight, will be posted tomorrow morning. Thanks!
af 744
our plane to lhr pulling into gate
March 28
If you saw the last couple of posts,you know I booked a round-trip international flight with a 70 minute connection at London Heathrow. I didn’t make the connection. I was not even really close as our incoming flight from Miami was about an hour late. My return flight had already left. The 2nd question, how would I be re-accommodated, if at all.
I was more than impressed. The agent greeting my flight promptly presented with me with my options for flying back to Miami. Basically a connection through Atlanta, Minneapolis or JFK. She then booked me, in Business Class, through Atlanta and on to Miami. She then handed me off to a godsend. A ground staff member by the name of Cara Willis from Cobalt Staffing. Cara escorted me through customs via a “staff only” line. She the walked me to Delta departures and checked me in.
Continuing her streak of going beyond the call of duty, she then showed me to Delta’s arrival “lounge,” the Yotel and made sure I was admitted promptly. Thank you Cara, for making my potential disaster connection into a seamless and stress free process. Report of the inaugural flight from Miami and photos of the Yotel coming right up. Thanks.
March 26
Today, Delta launches their Miami-London Heathrow non-stop service. Yours truly decided he would join them. The only hitch is that I have a total of 70 minutes between when I land and when my return flight leaves. I mentioned this potential debacle here.
The fare could not be beat so, hey, another excuse to fly. Wish me luck on the connection. I will let you know how I feel when I step of the return flight. If you are on the flight tonight or the return tomorrow, I will buy you a drink… in the Business Class cabin of course. Cheers!
June 11
A few quick notes from the return portion of my flight to London with United Airlines. The bulk of my commentary is here, but below are the highlights of the LHR-LAX leg. The service was better despite many of the crew being the same as on the outbound flight. They all seemed to be more visible throughout the flight; going to the first class cabin to find beer that was requested and actually offering the mid-flight snacks that were on the menu. Overall, food was better, but I question the choices for pre-arrival meal: tea sandwiches or cheese with fruit (?) BUT the warm, soft scones were impressive.
As I mentioned, a real power souce would be nice. The FA gave me an adapter (pictured below) to use although the device got disturbingly hot and the power flickered on and off when my laptop was plugged in.
The streaming movies were different going West. I attempted to watch Sherlock Holmes, but just did not gte into it-rather listen to Channel 9!
A very special shout out to my seat mate James who takes the concept of Ryan Bingham to a another level. We had great conversation, kept the FA’s on their toes and poked fun at everything air travel. I will leave you with the quote James emailed me last week:
“Thus, the task is not so much to see what no one yet has seen, but to think what nobody yet has thought about that which everybody sees.”
-Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860)
takeoff video
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power adapter
rear galley
economy class
June 10
I was like a kid in a candy store here. I had half of a day to kill and knew I could get some pictures at Heathrow, but where? It was raining and windy so I called over to the Renaissance Hotel to see if I could rent a day room as I was staying at The Novotel. The gal at the desk said the Renaissance offers access to their club room which faces the runway for a flat fee. Done!
When I got into the club room, I was bummed that the windows were a hazy mess due to the wind driven rain and condesation. But then it cleared up and the party started. Hope you enjoy.
titan airways
astraeus airlines
ghana international airlines
Good day from London Gatwick. At Gatwick, writing about Heathrow; now I’m getting confused. Let me take a take step back, if I may, to last week when I was at Heathrow awaiting my United flight back to Los Angeles. I checked out the Star Alliance lounge in Terminal 1 and true to my hypothesis, lounges, regardless of airline or alliance, are always better outside the United States-even if it’s a US based airline.
The Star Alliance Lounge at Heathrow provides plenty of room to spread out and relax as well as some more private areas to work. There is free wi-fi with the a code that is provided, although I was unable to locate any power outlets where I was seated. Shower rooms were available, but I did not use them. There were a plethora of magazines, dated US newspapers and the day’s locals too.
Food, while seemingly basic, can make or break a lounge for me. (What did you expect… my last name starts with “eat”) There was plenty of it at the Star Alliance Lounge-Heathrow. Sausages, sausages on rolls, bacon on rolls, cereal, yogurt, bagels, fruit, croissants and at least 2 dozen beverage choices not including the hard stuff (booze). You would be hard-pressed to go hungry there.
Best Bet: When you enter the lounge, veer off to the left and head towards the back of the lounge. This area seems to be the most spacious and there is alot of natural light provided by floor to ceiling windows.
May 28
Oh the sites: Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, London Eye, Tower of London…. I can’t wait until tomorrow… when I can go watch some planes at Heathrow. I won’t see any of the above attractions and that is fine. Nothing against London, just not my cup of tea… pun intended. I mean, I am interested, it’s just not on the agenda this time around, but airplanes are.
I arrived this morning from LAX, courtesy of United Airlines (more on United later). Flying from Atlanta to LAX to catch a flight to London takes a toll physically, but there was some weird psychology going on there too. Being on East Coast time, my flight, with a 12:45 departure from LAX (3:45pm EST), was basically a giant all nighter, with the exception of a 90 minute port and cheese induced stooper. Needless to say I was out of sorts when I came through customs at 8am London time (3 am EST) and the agent was quizzing me on my website. For the star struck types I thought I would let you know that the customs agent informed me that David Beckham flies Air New Zealand when he comes to London. After the agent noticed my lack-luster reaction, she let me into England.
Of course hotel check-in wasn’t until noon, so I camped out in the lobby for a few hours and they eventually found me a room.
I am gathering my thoughts and uploading pictures so stay tuned.
May 3
Here is my weekly installment of WTGFA (Where the Good Fares Are) A.K.A. where I am seeing some good business class airfares. For the details of how this came about, what it is meant to be (and not be) click HERE. Unless otherwise noted, I found the fares on Orbitz, one of many sites I use in researching fares for my trips. Business Class, round-trip, for around the last week of July. Use the flexible date search on Orbitz.
