United Club, BusinessFirst EWR-LHR & T2 Arrivals Lounge
So the routing and running around was kind of hectic because my plans had changed a few times. Originally, I thought I would be spending 3-4 days in London now, instead of just the afternoon because I am now coming back later this month.
So I decided to keep a lunch meeting with someone and then just take the train to Paris (again train travel is something I don't get to do often).
Seems for the summer they have made the last EWR-LHR flight on the 3 class sUA 763 which pushes the departure to 9:40pm and arrive 10:10am+1. The weeks before it has been a sCO 752 that leaves about 35 in earlier.
I was bored at home and had little to do. With the time and the tunnel traffic I was planning on taking the train anyways to Newark so I ended up leaving my place in the East Village around 5:45pm.
No problems with the train, pretty easy. I did Uber to Penn Station because I didn't want to deal with my bags going to take the NR up to 34th and then walk over.
Check in was empty, PreCheck and all the other lines were almost empty, sailed right on through...as seems to be the case on Tuesdays.
I wanted to try one of the new Terminal C dining spots. I went to the brasserie last time, now I checked out the sushi place next door. Including tip walked out paying $60 which was a little over priced, $16 of it was for 1.5 glasses of sake though. The food was decent, was nice to be able to get freshly prepared sushi in the airport after the years of food court crap.
The Club was pretty sleepy as well. The new offerings haven't rolled out to EWR yet. So I spent the time re-watching Game of Thrones to prep for the new season. Also watched a couple try to sneak out snack mix and drop a whole cup of it on the floor and leave it.
I was a little nervous. Watched the flights earlier this week which had some of the evening ones delayed going to LHR. My plane arrived at Noon from ZRH so hopefully any issues were fixed in that time.
Made my way to the gate at 8:45 for the 8:50 boarding and happened easy enough.
Sat down.
Settled in.
Had to tell the man next to me I wouldn't swap with his wife in the window seat because I wanted aisle access. The woman next to her moved next to me and then I mentioned something to her about now no one has to climb over her and she said "Hey...this was a good deal then!"
The new kits are PGA co-branded and come in a shoe bag with golf tees, argyle socks and 2 golf balls in addition to the normal stuff. Nice change, I'll give it to my step dad who is a golfer.
Captain came out to the J cabin and let us all know the flight time, that some fog may make us slow down 2/3 of the way through, the weather and that everything seemed good to go. Sigh of relief...my backup thoughts of which other trains could I take if we were delayed hours/CXL'd or even which flights I could hop on dissipated as at 9:25 they closed the doors and we pushed back and were wheels up at 9:43.
A predictable menu, having had some food before and wanting to get some sleep on the flight I just dug through the first two courses, skipped cheese/desert and asked not to be woken up for breakfast.
Peppercorn dressing was good, the app was okay/standard. The salmon dish was nicely cooked, had good flavor and a nice mix of things with the greens, grains and little bit of crab meat.
I finally woke up while people were having breakfast. Went to use the lav to freshen up, one was broken, which also then had a lot of people from Y lined up to the use the other one so the FA serving my side just pulled me up to the GF bathroom once the pilot was out of it.
She brought over a table cloth and asked about breakfast and I said no thanks I'm fine. I turned back on the TV to finish Taken 3 and noticed the flight time was listed as 17 min. Wow she was gonna just shovel that in my mouth lickity split!
We touched down and were at the gate about 45 min early...this gave me plenty of leisurely time to get to London, do my things and make the 15:31 train to Paris. Thanks to LH4116 here he mentioned the UA Arrivals Lounge...I only thought they had the new Clubs in T2 so I was excited to check it out. They also came around to BF/GF and gave us fast track cards and info on the arrivals lounge.
After walking a good 7-8 min at a decent pace through the bowels of LHR I got to passport control. Not many people in line and I was the only one in Fast Track.
When he looked at my arrivals card that said I wasn't staying in London he asked what I was doing I said just taking the train later to Paris and he quipped that was a good idea since the flights were mess (I had no idea about the ATC strike).
After waiting a few minutes for bags, I made my way out, to the lounge and had a shower and sat down for breakfast by 10:10am which was my listed arrival time.
The lounge attendants were LOVE-UH-LEE! Asked if I needed anything pressed, if I wanted to valet my bags. There seemed to be at least 20 shower rooms, I was the first one through from my plane so I walked right into a shower, I doubt there would be much of a wait unless you are maybe on the 3rd of the 5 flights in from EWR.
Presented with a menu...a menu! Hot food! Where am I!?
I just opted to help myself, had some yogurt and fruit and tea. Used the Wifi to check out a few things, I had bought my Heathrow Express ticket in the arrivals hall and just went outside and down the stairs and was able to hop right on the train 40 seconds before the doors closed.
