ElmhurstNick
Sep 10, 01, 6:24 pm
Part 1 - Getting there is half the fun.
Last January, I used all my FT-generated wisdom to make EXP on AA, get the Hilton 50k Gold challenge, and move UA and Amex points into Hilton. Then, I snared award F tickets for my parents on AA ORD-LHR, a VIPOW upgrade for myself on a revenue ticket (which I didn't buy until May during a 4-day fare sale tipped off by a post on the BA FT board), and a pair of 6-night award stays at the Hilton Green Park. My parents were astounded that the travel/lodging portion of the trip ended up under $1100 for three people - $800 for my ticket, $46 each for their award tickets, less than $150 for two Hilton stays, and $66 to park the car at ORD.
Finally, the magic day arrived, and we were off to London....
AA 66 ORD-LHR Sep 2 1900-0835+1
I had actually packed 90% of my stuff a week before the trip, and taken my luggage to my parents house so they could pack their stuff at their leisure. In good FT fashion, we travel lightly, only one checked Delsey hardsider, a duffel and a 22" rollaboard for three people. My parents put an empty backpack in the Delsey to use while sightseeing and to carry home a small number of gifts.
We left at 3:45pm and drove over to ORD. There is a lot of construction at the departure level of T3, so instead of dropping my parents off at the door I drove straight to remote lot F. I parked in my usual spot in the back by row V1 next to pickup #3, where nobody thinks to go park. The lot was very full, since it was the Labor Day holiday, but I found a space.
The ride to the monorail station and the monorail in were very quick, and we were in front of the F checkin at 4:30pm. A very nice agent checked us in, took my VIPOW, and carefully explained everything to us. She reminded us about the Flagship Lounge at K19, and verified that the plane was still a Flagship Suite plane. I asked if J was overbooked, and she laughed knowingly and said that unfortunately there weren't going to be any opportunities for me to move forward tonight.
I was amazed at how dead O'Hare was. Granted it was the Sunday night of the Labor Day holiday, but I expected it to be reasonably busy at 5pm. It was pretty desolate. We whizzed through security, and stopped at the Admirals Club to get our free bottles of water for the flight. The front desk clerk tried mightily to discourage us and send us to the Flagship Lounge, and I insisted. She finally relented, gave me 5 drink coupons instead of 6, and we went upstairs to get our water.
At the bar, the rudest bartender I've ever had at the AC gave me five tiny bottles of Evian. When I asked what happened to the 16 oz. Aquafinas, I was told "we ran out, these are the waters." When I asked for more bottles of water to total 80 oz., I was told that she couldn't do that because she'd be audited. My blood pressure went through the roof, I remembered that I was on vacation, instead of telling her what she could do with her bottles we just left for the Flagship Lounge.
The Flagship Lounge was as nice as I had remembered it in the past. There is a very nice agent at the desk that helped me out of a tight situation about a year ago, and she remembered me because I had given her an AA Someone Special recognition certifiate. She checked the seating for me and verified that I wasn't going to do any better - J was not full, and all the aisles were taken next to the two empty middle seats. It was a shame, since F was not going to go out full either.
We took over a corner and my dad and I had some light appetizers. No fresh shrimp today, but a mix of hot appetizers (including some good kielbasa), a mix of cheeses and crackers, and some sushi (which none of us eat). Also, an open bar with reasonably good free liquor, but nothing out of the ordinary. We found more little bottles of Evian, and my dad found some cranberry juice. Finally, the agent called the boarding, and we went out the club's back door to gate K16.
The scene was a zoo, as always. We fought our way into the front of the line, and I boarded with my parents when they called F. I helped my parents get settled into their Flagship Suite. They were pretty astounding - by far the nicest seats I had encountered on a plane. The seats were at a perfect 90 degree angle for my mom's bad disc in her back, and they had to be 24" wide. There was only about 70" of pitch because there is a bench at the other end of the seat which doubles as the end of the bed. There is a 12" monitor, super 8 video (why not DVD?), a 10-way seat, a power supply, and a fold-out tabletop that's twice the size of a J tray table and far more sturdy.
I bid my parents goodbye, and went back to my seat 11B. There, I started to play the "let's seat the married couples together" game. I was first asked if I'd take 13H, so I did. Then, when the occupants of 12H/13J arrived, I was asked to take 12H, so I did. Of course, 13H had a good lumbar support, and 12H's support wouldn't deflate more than 90% of the way. I was really annoyed at first, but I found that the deflation was acceptable when I reclined the seat so I didn't ask for 12H back.
The flight had the expanded pitch "MRTB" business class, and it was a big improvement. I flew the older 777 J class in March and with a window seat it was hard to get out if everybody reclined their seats. Now, with about 65 inches of pitch (what they used to have on the old fuzzy F seats) I could really stretch out my 6'4" frame and the person in the window seat could still get out rather easily.
The FAs were cheery and brought around the standard OJ/champagne/water in plastic glasses. They also passed out menus - our amenity kits were on our seats already. Departure was on time, and we were off the ground very quickly. I had a chatty seat opponent, a lady in her 50s going on a cruise with some friends that were in Coach. She stopped being chatty when the Bose headseats came around. At least I think she stopped, because I immediately reclined, tested it against the IFE, and closed my eyes and pretended to nap.
After about 30 minutes, the FA brought nuts, took drink orders, and asked for our dinner orders. The choices were pretty much the same as my March flight: veal, lamb, filet, chicken, and "vegetarian" which is just all the side dishes of the other meals. The FA was strongly discouraging the filet, but fortunately she hadn't given away all the veal so I took it. The starter was a silly looking crab piece on a tomato, and the salad had a choice of a oil/vinegar bottle or a creamy dressing - I took the latter because I know the oil/vinegar choice is rather bland. Dessert was cheese or ice cream sundaes with chocolate chunks - I took the cheese with some port because I didn't want the sugar/caffiene hit. No blue cheese, so I was disappointed.
My parents reported that they had the same choices plus another beef choice. They also took the veal, and it was the same but just bigger portions. They had the option of lobster claws for an appetizer but passed for some inexplicable reason. They devoured their gigantic sundaes, however.
After dinner, I reclined my seat out to about 120 degrees and went straight to sleep for four hours. Just before I went to sleep, the FAs came around and passed out 16 oz bottles of Evian. I woke up just before breakfast. My seat opponent kind of glared at me and stated "wow, you were really out. I got up three times and you never even came close to waking up." She said that she didn't sleep, and I suspect that she was distracted by my prodigeous snoring. But hey, that's what the Bose headsets are for, right?
My parents never sleep on flights. My dad still didn't, although he did enjoy lying perfectly flat. My mom asked the FA how to flatten her seat, and none of the FAs knew how to do it. My dad was appalled, and came over and in his own inimitable way taught the FAs how to operate the seat. My mom then slept for about as long as I did.
Breakfast was served about 90 minutes out. In both classes, it was granola with milk, muffins, fruit, juice, coffee. I wandered up to the front and checked on my parents, and was appalled to find out that F went out only 12/16.
I sat on the little bench across from my mom's seat for a while, then we hit a patch of turbulence so I went back and prepared for landing. We landed on time in a cloudy but dry London morning.
Our consensus was that the service on the flight was ok, but nothing special, but that both the upgraded J pitch and the Flagship Suite were both excellent.
We took our time getting off the plane because we had Fast Track passes, and we made the long walk from Gate 15 to immigration. Surprisingly, there was only a minimal line in either queue, but we went through the Fast Track anyway. From there it was off to baggage, and AA had corraled all the premium-tagged luggage and had it waiting next to the carousel. We were out in a jiffy and into the very humid airport.
We found the elevator bank for the arrivals lounges, and one of the two elevators was broken. Finally the other one came and we went up to the AA Arrivals Lounge to regroup. I went and cleaned up while my parents unpacked their backpack from the luggage and started filling it with the stuff they'd need for the day. We spent about 45 minutes in the arrivals lounge then headed into the city.
Because we were staying at Green Park, we decided to take the Picadilly line of the Underground since there were no transfers. We bought our one-day zone 1-6 passes using a credit card (just under 7 pounds each), and made our way to the train. The trip to Green Park took 55 minutes, but we were in no hurry since our first tour wasn't until 1:45pm.
My dad was happy to see that the Green Park stop had escalators (in fact, almost every Tube stop had escalators, in comparison to Paris' subway the year before), and we walked the three short blocks to our home for the next week.
Upcoming when I get a chance this week:
- Hilton Green Park
- Sightseeing highlights
- Flight home
Last January, I used all my FT-generated wisdom to make EXP on AA, get the Hilton 50k Gold challenge, and move UA and Amex points into Hilton. Then, I snared award F tickets for my parents on AA ORD-LHR, a VIPOW upgrade for myself on a revenue ticket (which I didn't buy until May during a 4-day fare sale tipped off by a post on the BA FT board), and a pair of 6-night award stays at the Hilton Green Park. My parents were astounded that the travel/lodging portion of the trip ended up under $1100 for three people - $800 for my ticket, $46 each for their award tickets, less than $150 for two Hilton stays, and $66 to park the car at ORD.
Finally, the magic day arrived, and we were off to London....
AA 66 ORD-LHR Sep 2 1900-0835+1
I had actually packed 90% of my stuff a week before the trip, and taken my luggage to my parents house so they could pack their stuff at their leisure. In good FT fashion, we travel lightly, only one checked Delsey hardsider, a duffel and a 22" rollaboard for three people. My parents put an empty backpack in the Delsey to use while sightseeing and to carry home a small number of gifts.
We left at 3:45pm and drove over to ORD. There is a lot of construction at the departure level of T3, so instead of dropping my parents off at the door I drove straight to remote lot F. I parked in my usual spot in the back by row V1 next to pickup #3, where nobody thinks to go park. The lot was very full, since it was the Labor Day holiday, but I found a space.
The ride to the monorail station and the monorail in were very quick, and we were in front of the F checkin at 4:30pm. A very nice agent checked us in, took my VIPOW, and carefully explained everything to us. She reminded us about the Flagship Lounge at K19, and verified that the plane was still a Flagship Suite plane. I asked if J was overbooked, and she laughed knowingly and said that unfortunately there weren't going to be any opportunities for me to move forward tonight.
I was amazed at how dead O'Hare was. Granted it was the Sunday night of the Labor Day holiday, but I expected it to be reasonably busy at 5pm. It was pretty desolate. We whizzed through security, and stopped at the Admirals Club to get our free bottles of water for the flight. The front desk clerk tried mightily to discourage us and send us to the Flagship Lounge, and I insisted. She finally relented, gave me 5 drink coupons instead of 6, and we went upstairs to get our water.
At the bar, the rudest bartender I've ever had at the AC gave me five tiny bottles of Evian. When I asked what happened to the 16 oz. Aquafinas, I was told "we ran out, these are the waters." When I asked for more bottles of water to total 80 oz., I was told that she couldn't do that because she'd be audited. My blood pressure went through the roof, I remembered that I was on vacation, instead of telling her what she could do with her bottles we just left for the Flagship Lounge.
The Flagship Lounge was as nice as I had remembered it in the past. There is a very nice agent at the desk that helped me out of a tight situation about a year ago, and she remembered me because I had given her an AA Someone Special recognition certifiate. She checked the seating for me and verified that I wasn't going to do any better - J was not full, and all the aisles were taken next to the two empty middle seats. It was a shame, since F was not going to go out full either.
We took over a corner and my dad and I had some light appetizers. No fresh shrimp today, but a mix of hot appetizers (including some good kielbasa), a mix of cheeses and crackers, and some sushi (which none of us eat). Also, an open bar with reasonably good free liquor, but nothing out of the ordinary. We found more little bottles of Evian, and my dad found some cranberry juice. Finally, the agent called the boarding, and we went out the club's back door to gate K16.
The scene was a zoo, as always. We fought our way into the front of the line, and I boarded with my parents when they called F. I helped my parents get settled into their Flagship Suite. They were pretty astounding - by far the nicest seats I had encountered on a plane. The seats were at a perfect 90 degree angle for my mom's bad disc in her back, and they had to be 24" wide. There was only about 70" of pitch because there is a bench at the other end of the seat which doubles as the end of the bed. There is a 12" monitor, super 8 video (why not DVD?), a 10-way seat, a power supply, and a fold-out tabletop that's twice the size of a J tray table and far more sturdy.
I bid my parents goodbye, and went back to my seat 11B. There, I started to play the "let's seat the married couples together" game. I was first asked if I'd take 13H, so I did. Then, when the occupants of 12H/13J arrived, I was asked to take 12H, so I did. Of course, 13H had a good lumbar support, and 12H's support wouldn't deflate more than 90% of the way. I was really annoyed at first, but I found that the deflation was acceptable when I reclined the seat so I didn't ask for 12H back.
The flight had the expanded pitch "MRTB" business class, and it was a big improvement. I flew the older 777 J class in March and with a window seat it was hard to get out if everybody reclined their seats. Now, with about 65 inches of pitch (what they used to have on the old fuzzy F seats) I could really stretch out my 6'4" frame and the person in the window seat could still get out rather easily.
The FAs were cheery and brought around the standard OJ/champagne/water in plastic glasses. They also passed out menus - our amenity kits were on our seats already. Departure was on time, and we were off the ground very quickly. I had a chatty seat opponent, a lady in her 50s going on a cruise with some friends that were in Coach. She stopped being chatty when the Bose headseats came around. At least I think she stopped, because I immediately reclined, tested it against the IFE, and closed my eyes and pretended to nap.
After about 30 minutes, the FA brought nuts, took drink orders, and asked for our dinner orders. The choices were pretty much the same as my March flight: veal, lamb, filet, chicken, and "vegetarian" which is just all the side dishes of the other meals. The FA was strongly discouraging the filet, but fortunately she hadn't given away all the veal so I took it. The starter was a silly looking crab piece on a tomato, and the salad had a choice of a oil/vinegar bottle or a creamy dressing - I took the latter because I know the oil/vinegar choice is rather bland. Dessert was cheese or ice cream sundaes with chocolate chunks - I took the cheese with some port because I didn't want the sugar/caffiene hit. No blue cheese, so I was disappointed.
My parents reported that they had the same choices plus another beef choice. They also took the veal, and it was the same but just bigger portions. They had the option of lobster claws for an appetizer but passed for some inexplicable reason. They devoured their gigantic sundaes, however.
After dinner, I reclined my seat out to about 120 degrees and went straight to sleep for four hours. Just before I went to sleep, the FAs came around and passed out 16 oz bottles of Evian. I woke up just before breakfast. My seat opponent kind of glared at me and stated "wow, you were really out. I got up three times and you never even came close to waking up." She said that she didn't sleep, and I suspect that she was distracted by my prodigeous snoring. But hey, that's what the Bose headsets are for, right?
My parents never sleep on flights. My dad still didn't, although he did enjoy lying perfectly flat. My mom asked the FA how to flatten her seat, and none of the FAs knew how to do it. My dad was appalled, and came over and in his own inimitable way taught the FAs how to operate the seat. My mom then slept for about as long as I did.
Breakfast was served about 90 minutes out. In both classes, it was granola with milk, muffins, fruit, juice, coffee. I wandered up to the front and checked on my parents, and was appalled to find out that F went out only 12/16.
I sat on the little bench across from my mom's seat for a while, then we hit a patch of turbulence so I went back and prepared for landing. We landed on time in a cloudy but dry London morning.
Our consensus was that the service on the flight was ok, but nothing special, but that both the upgraded J pitch and the Flagship Suite were both excellent.
We took our time getting off the plane because we had Fast Track passes, and we made the long walk from Gate 15 to immigration. Surprisingly, there was only a minimal line in either queue, but we went through the Fast Track anyway. From there it was off to baggage, and AA had corraled all the premium-tagged luggage and had it waiting next to the carousel. We were out in a jiffy and into the very humid airport.
We found the elevator bank for the arrivals lounges, and one of the two elevators was broken. Finally the other one came and we went up to the AA Arrivals Lounge to regroup. I went and cleaned up while my parents unpacked their backpack from the luggage and started filling it with the stuff they'd need for the day. We spent about 45 minutes in the arrivals lounge then headed into the city.
Because we were staying at Green Park, we decided to take the Picadilly line of the Underground since there were no transfers. We bought our one-day zone 1-6 passes using a credit card (just under 7 pounds each), and made our way to the train. The trip to Green Park took 55 minutes, but we were in no hurry since our first tour wasn't until 1:45pm.
My dad was happy to see that the Green Park stop had escalators (in fact, almost every Tube stop had escalators, in comparison to Paris' subway the year before), and we walked the three short blocks to our home for the next week.
Upcoming when I get a chance this week:
- Hilton Green Park
- Sightseeing highlights
- Flight home