Long Way Home - The Spring Commute (LHR-IAD-ORD-CMH-IAD-EWR-LHR)
Yet another Y Class spectacular with United and Continental.
Previously...
LHR-BRU-LHR ... or "How do you burn a £50 BMI voucher without too much pain?"
MAN-ORD on BMI (29/10 ... or Did Kevin Make it to ORD?)
Kevin goes for a little mileage run on UA - ORD/CHM/IAD/EWR/ORD
ORD-MAN in BMI Premium Economy (with Pictures)
Kevin’s American Adventure – MAN-ORD-SEA-ORD-MAN (4 flights, 2 weeks) in Y..
ORD - MAN in BMI Premium Economy: How hard can a PE product drop? (also random moans)
LHR-PHL-SEA, SEA-PHX-ORD, ORD-PHL-LHR - In Y, Come and be scared with US!
LHR-SFO-LHR - If you're going to San Francisco - SFO MegaDO Trip report
Gold Run - Mr Kevincm goes to Washington with EI and US (Also on
GhettoIFE.com - Expanded)
Long Haul Commuter Run - LHR-IAD-ORD and back with UA (Also on
GhettoIFE.com - Expanded)
Saying Goodbye to a Friend - Travelling for the wrong reasons - LHR-PHL with UA (Also on
GhettoIFE.com - Expanded)
The BA Y+/Y Class Long Haul Experience LHR-BKK/SIN-SYD and back on a bargain fare (Also on
GhettoIFE.com - Expanded)
The Autumn Run - Mixing Business with Pleasure (C/F/Y adventures with UA and US) (Also on
GhettoIFE.com - Expanded)
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Well after FAR too long on the ground, I'm up in the air at long last (but not as good looking as George Clooney alas).
For those who aren't familiar with my trip reports, this is my Spring "audit" of the state of travel in Economy on a comparatively fixed route for me - London to Chicago and back which allows me to measure how good things are... or how bad things have dived.
As usual, I will be filling in my report with pictures, commentary bad humour and Ghetto IFE systems.
Comments are always welcome, as well as questions of my sanity.
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So - how do you milk the miles between London and Chicago? (Yes, it's the introduction)
(and I'm cheating slightly here as I wrote some of this in a couple of blog entries - See here and here)
London Heathrow to Chicago O'Hare. 3942 miles on the Great Circle as it flies.
LHR-ORD - Map by Great Circle Mapper - http://gc.kls2.com
There are four main hopping points into the USA for Star Alliance for the East Coast and the Mid-West - Chicago itself, Washington Dulles, Newark and Philadelphia (there's also Charlotte as well if we're being pedantic - but that's besides the point).
Adding the hops can introduce some interesting mileage runs hitting up 4000 qualifying miles per direction - but you really have to spend time with the fare engines to get 1) sense and 2) that I'm not being dinged too much when it comes to cost.
Once again, rather than risk the wonder that is US Airways, I decided to have a look at the United site, with the aim of a nice afternoon in Washington DC. Then the split segments started appearing, firstly to Chicago-Dulles (with a stop in Port Columbus).
I was almost going to book it there and then - and then for an interesting joke - I added a hop onto EWR and then onto LHR with Continental.
And it priced exactly the same as the LHR-IAD-ORD-CMH-IAD-LHR. The hammer quickly went down on that - and thus this journey became "booked" (and thus the name of this run - Long way home.)
LHR-IAD-ORD-CMH-IAD-EWR-LHR - Map by Great Circle Mapper - http://gc.kls2.com
Remember I said a base of 3942 (x2 = 7884)? This route maxs this into 9542. However, I get this nagging feeling my backside and legs may regret this...
In terms of firsts, a few couple of new ones - I get to try out Continentals product over the pond, and I get to try a CRJ-700. How bad can they be?
- but otherwise it's very familiar territory for me - least of all this mostly replicates my
first segment run in most respects - and most importantly, I still find Port Columbus's IATA code impossible to remember correctly
.
So as the Tenth Doctor would say...
Allons-y! (An 11th Doctor reference will appear in the next trip report!
)