First trip in World Traveller Plus - trip report
Dec 29, 2009, 8:26 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Jul 2008
Programs: I am a lowly ant
Posts: 1,751
First trip in World Traveller Plus - trip report
(A follow up on my Club World trip report.)
Planned to check-in 24 hours before, to bag row 16, front of WTP with a little extra leg room (the bassinet seats in the middle of 16 are blocked until T-24).
Realised with a start, 10 minutes late, that check-in was open, so logged-on.
Doesn't seem to be much activity, cabin is wide open, and row 16 still available.
Duly bagged.
Next day we drive down through North Carolina and Georgia to get to ATL. Frustrating experience with the petrol station, which wants a zip code to pay at pump with card, or else demands pre-payment by cash/card inside. End up making three visits to the cashier, first to pay, then to pay again because the first one wasn't enough, then to get my $2 change.
Stop off at http://www.tallulahpoint.com/ overlooking Tallulah Gorge, one of those distinctively American roadside stops with free toilets, free view, and a variety of souvenirs. I try the grape soda, which is made from sugar rather than corn syrup, which is a big deal in the US. Too sweet for my taste.
Have to return the rental car to Avis, and get to checkin no later than 7pm. We were planning to stop off on Buford Highway in Atlanta, which has several Mexican supermarkets, most also operating simple restaurants, a stop planned because it is essentially impossible to get authentic Mexican food and produce in the UK.
The address I'd got from Avis was Aviation Circle, and the GPS tells me it is only 6 minutes from Buford Highway to that address. Pull off the interstate at about 5:45pm, but then double-check the GPS choosing 'Atlanta-Hartsfield airport' as our destination, seems we still have 25 miles to go. Oops, stop cancelled, get back on the interstate, cruise in the HOV lane, but get stuck in traffic around downtown. We get through the traffic in about 20 minutes, and are eventually in the giant rental car facility at the airport at 6:30pm.
Excessive amounts of luggage retrieved from the car, we proceed to the airport via the train - unlike some airports there's no waiting for a bus, it's a fairly quick process. All-in-all, it's 10 minutes or so before we get to the BA check-in area, which is the furthest from the entrance, and therefore closest to security. There are about three other parties checking in, looks like we are last.
Hand over passports, get our five items tagged, plus our pushchair, which the check-in lady closes her terminal (nobody left to check-in) and comes out to tag. She hands us our boarding passes, says that the flight is delayed 1 hour, and adds something I don't quite catch, something about 'upgraded' and walks off, presumably heading home.
I look at the boarding pass carefully, row 14, I couldn't quite remember what row we'd checked into, it was similar to that, so I look closely for something that says the class. Ah yes, over on the right 'Class: J'.
Fab. I wonder why though? Did pax with an infant need our seats?
We go through security, it doesn't take long to get there, I guess it's a quiet time of night - the process of screening our stuff takes a fair time, so it could be a pretty unpleasant process if the queues were longer.
We head off for Concourse E on the train, and then to the lounge (we were going there anyway, as Silvers, so the upgrade made no difference to that). There are two sections, to the left for First and to the right for Club. There's a small spread of sandwiches, quite a selection of biscuits for cheese, though the cheese is sadly of the American variety, two kinds of crisps, wine, beer, soft drinks, liquor, and some low-fat chocolate muesli bars.
I pour a large glass of Baileys, finishing the bottle. It tastes like it has been around a while, it wasn't entirely fresh, so I guess I was doing subsequent pax a favour.
After we've had our sandwiches, having missed out on the Mexican feast and knowing the flight is delayed, we head out to walk around the terminal. It's very dull, the structure of 5 separate concourses means there's no proper shopping area in each, just a few small shops plus the obligatory duty free with some very off-putting notices about having to buy an hour before departure and things being delivered to the gate - I wonder how many sales they lose because of this.
We wander around some more, then head to the gate. Not quite ready to board, so we look at the contraband on display nearby - an elephant's footstool with zebraskin on top is particularly grotesque.
One of the boarding staff announces that they will take the pushchairs. We go forward and another says that boarding is not starting just yet, so I say we are here because of the pushchair announcement. Oh right, he says.
Some pax opt to take theirs on board, but we check ours. With pushchairs taken (or not), the parents with small children are in position for boarding, the staff confer among themselves and decide that they will board these pax first.
On we get, first on to an empty plane, quite nice not having my daughter crushed under foot. A small child running ahead of her parents comes and darts into the aisle seats opposite - empty CW is a nice playground. She is retrieved by the parents, who know that economy doesn't look like this.....
Besides our two, a couple, she heavily pregnant, boards with a large lap child, and are seated the row in front of us on the left. Argh, I hope he keeps quiet.
In contrast with our boarding experience from Heathrow on the accursed bus from gate A10, the use of a proper jetway means the FAs have plenty of time to come around with a tray of champagne, juice and water. Champagne in hand, we soon receive our amenity kits.
We take off shortly after, and upon reaching cruising altitude, I put my daughter's seat in bed mode. She falls asleep almost immediately.
The crew come around with a drink trolley service, which is nice, and hand out menus. The couple with the lap child are offered the move to the middle seats, so they are facing the same way to make it easier to look after the lap child. They do this, and subsequently expand into three seats.
The choices are, as before, limited for starters and dessert, but plentiful for main courses. I am asked what I would look for starter, and decided that the caramelized pears with mozarella would be interesting. 'Actually only the tuna tataki is left'. It's rather tasty, and comes with a salad alongside with a tiny bottle of balsamic dressing. Hmm, I much preferred the spicy lemon dressing.
One of the crew offers me some wine; I ask for red - 'We have the bottom two', he says. I opt for the Bordeaux, which is a little cold, I guess due to it being winter, but quite pleasant.
The main courses are served by the crew who walk down the aisles with about five items in their hands asking us what we want. My choice, the Asian short rib of beef is not one of the ones the FA on my side is holding, so he returns to bring me it. Personally I think they would give a better impression by serving from the trolley, but maybe it's because the cabin is so empty that they are doing it this way.
The beef is quite disappointing, rather bland and it has been in the microwave too long, the vegetables are very soggy and it's too hot in a 'too long in the microwave' kind of way.
My wife's mahi-mahi and my son's chicken korma with paneer both seem tastier choices, though I wonder if the chilled option might be a wiser choice, to eliminate the microwave from the equation.
Dessert is a summer fruits cake (or cheese), which I would probably place at the 'Tesco' level of quality, although it perhaps matches up to Sainsburys, it may be hard to judge at 30,000 feet.
The FA who served my wine is very obliging about refills, offering to 'top off' for those who had barely drunk any of it. I've had my fill after two glasses.
The IFE had been started prior to the meal, we are VOD-less as on the outbound leg, so you have to watch while you eat on these night flights, if you want any sleep. The video acquisition process definitely needs improvement, as there are picture quality differences between different channels, and 'Prince Caspian' only has sound in one channel. I suspect this is a combination of sourcing from unofficial channels (e.g., youtube) and no consistent standards for bitrates, resolutions, etc., on input materials. The BA IT department should make an effort to improve this, as scan lines and sound problems are easy to eliminate if they would source only from DVD and use standard output parameters.
I watched a formula Las Vegas comedy, The Hangover, and then went to investigate the economy cabins, to find why we'd been upgraded. Seems that WT is full, and so is WTP (no infants in there, so that wasn't why we were bumped up), my guess is WT was heavily overbooked, so pax were bumped to WTP (which seemed to be quite empty before check-in), and we were the beneficiaries, into a very empty CW. Oddly when we booked, there was no availability in CW for MFU from WTP on ATL-LHR (night flight), but plenty for LHR-ATL (day flight). Presumably the premium cabins were quiet because of the post-xmas, pre-new-year hiatus. Seems like BA missed a trick by blocking these cabins for upgrades, as they ended up giving us the upgrade for free.
Slept fairly easily, but was woken by babbling from the child in front. What timezone is he on? Seems that the parents must have him on England time, as it wasn't a time anyone in the US would be waking up.....
Go and get some juice, the club kitchen has some juice, but it's from concentrate and tepid. Not particularly nice.
Try to get some more sleep but it's fitful, and then the crew prepare for breakfast. 'Would you like some breakfast sir?' What is it? 'Just a continential breakfast' (bacon rolls are on the menu, so I am a little disappointed). I am offered a bread basket and given a small plate with butter and jam. I take an item, a fruity bread and the FA waits expectantly, so I take another, a chocolate muffin. I eat the muffin, but it seems to be made to American specifications, sickly sweet, so I don't finish it.
I notice the 'Land o Lakes' logo on the butter, which I eye suspiciously, having sampled one of their dairy products in the US - Waitrose organic it is not. My suspicions were jusitified 'Spread product with 41% oil and 4% sweet butter'. Main ingredient is water, plus a load of chemicals. Ick. I don't eat it.
At least the juice is Tropicana - seems they do have a supply - so having eaten my bread, I go for a walk in search of juice. As I make my way up the aisle, an FA comes down with bacon rolls. I scamper back to my seat and get my bacon roll.
Sadly it's not tasty, microwaved again, the bacon is not crispy and the whole thing is slightly soggy due to microwaved bread. Not good. My wife and children are sleeping and miss it all.
We land without incident, and disembark. My daughter is still asleep, so I carry her off, she wakes up at this point. We make our way to baggage swiftly, there is no queue at immigration, and all our luggage arrives almosy immediately. Unfortunately the pushchair does not, so we're waiting there for about 15 minutes for that, which rather spoils the 'priority luggage' effect.
We head out, stop off at M&S to get some juice (3 for £5 for not-from-concentrate - perhaps they could use it to stock up in Club?), and wife goes to the Giraffe cafe outside to grab a bacon roll to go - hauling baggage and selves up to the arrivals lounge doesn't appeal. Outside we go, the taxis operate differently from how BA says - "Journeys within 20 miles of the airport, are priced using the taxi meter" - in fact they will only go within a mile or two of the M4 or in Greater London. There's a chart up explaining this, they want £5/mile, which is a rip-off, so we call for a minicab instead.
Conclusions?
Catering is poor, I would rather have the 'classic economy breakfast' in a foil tray of scrambled egg, a little sausage, some shrivelled mushrooms and some potatoes than what they served us. Service was good, IFE was poor (but this varies by plane), getting some sleep was nice, I guess best bet is to get CW for the night flight, as there's really nothing to stay awake for, while OTOH the seat is pretty good for sleeping in.
Planned to check-in 24 hours before, to bag row 16, front of WTP with a little extra leg room (the bassinet seats in the middle of 16 are blocked until T-24).
Realised with a start, 10 minutes late, that check-in was open, so logged-on.
Doesn't seem to be much activity, cabin is wide open, and row 16 still available.
Duly bagged.
Next day we drive down through North Carolina and Georgia to get to ATL. Frustrating experience with the petrol station, which wants a zip code to pay at pump with card, or else demands pre-payment by cash/card inside. End up making three visits to the cashier, first to pay, then to pay again because the first one wasn't enough, then to get my $2 change.
Stop off at http://www.tallulahpoint.com/ overlooking Tallulah Gorge, one of those distinctively American roadside stops with free toilets, free view, and a variety of souvenirs. I try the grape soda, which is made from sugar rather than corn syrup, which is a big deal in the US. Too sweet for my taste.
Have to return the rental car to Avis, and get to checkin no later than 7pm. We were planning to stop off on Buford Highway in Atlanta, which has several Mexican supermarkets, most also operating simple restaurants, a stop planned because it is essentially impossible to get authentic Mexican food and produce in the UK.
The address I'd got from Avis was Aviation Circle, and the GPS tells me it is only 6 minutes from Buford Highway to that address. Pull off the interstate at about 5:45pm, but then double-check the GPS choosing 'Atlanta-Hartsfield airport' as our destination, seems we still have 25 miles to go. Oops, stop cancelled, get back on the interstate, cruise in the HOV lane, but get stuck in traffic around downtown. We get through the traffic in about 20 minutes, and are eventually in the giant rental car facility at the airport at 6:30pm.
Excessive amounts of luggage retrieved from the car, we proceed to the airport via the train - unlike some airports there's no waiting for a bus, it's a fairly quick process. All-in-all, it's 10 minutes or so before we get to the BA check-in area, which is the furthest from the entrance, and therefore closest to security. There are about three other parties checking in, looks like we are last.
Hand over passports, get our five items tagged, plus our pushchair, which the check-in lady closes her terminal (nobody left to check-in) and comes out to tag. She hands us our boarding passes, says that the flight is delayed 1 hour, and adds something I don't quite catch, something about 'upgraded' and walks off, presumably heading home.
I look at the boarding pass carefully, row 14, I couldn't quite remember what row we'd checked into, it was similar to that, so I look closely for something that says the class. Ah yes, over on the right 'Class: J'.
Fab. I wonder why though? Did pax with an infant need our seats?
We go through security, it doesn't take long to get there, I guess it's a quiet time of night - the process of screening our stuff takes a fair time, so it could be a pretty unpleasant process if the queues were longer.
We head off for Concourse E on the train, and then to the lounge (we were going there anyway, as Silvers, so the upgrade made no difference to that). There are two sections, to the left for First and to the right for Club. There's a small spread of sandwiches, quite a selection of biscuits for cheese, though the cheese is sadly of the American variety, two kinds of crisps, wine, beer, soft drinks, liquor, and some low-fat chocolate muesli bars.
I pour a large glass of Baileys, finishing the bottle. It tastes like it has been around a while, it wasn't entirely fresh, so I guess I was doing subsequent pax a favour.
After we've had our sandwiches, having missed out on the Mexican feast and knowing the flight is delayed, we head out to walk around the terminal. It's very dull, the structure of 5 separate concourses means there's no proper shopping area in each, just a few small shops plus the obligatory duty free with some very off-putting notices about having to buy an hour before departure and things being delivered to the gate - I wonder how many sales they lose because of this.
We wander around some more, then head to the gate. Not quite ready to board, so we look at the contraband on display nearby - an elephant's footstool with zebraskin on top is particularly grotesque.
One of the boarding staff announces that they will take the pushchairs. We go forward and another says that boarding is not starting just yet, so I say we are here because of the pushchair announcement. Oh right, he says.
Some pax opt to take theirs on board, but we check ours. With pushchairs taken (or not), the parents with small children are in position for boarding, the staff confer among themselves and decide that they will board these pax first.
On we get, first on to an empty plane, quite nice not having my daughter crushed under foot. A small child running ahead of her parents comes and darts into the aisle seats opposite - empty CW is a nice playground. She is retrieved by the parents, who know that economy doesn't look like this.....
Besides our two, a couple, she heavily pregnant, boards with a large lap child, and are seated the row in front of us on the left. Argh, I hope he keeps quiet.
In contrast with our boarding experience from Heathrow on the accursed bus from gate A10, the use of a proper jetway means the FAs have plenty of time to come around with a tray of champagne, juice and water. Champagne in hand, we soon receive our amenity kits.
We take off shortly after, and upon reaching cruising altitude, I put my daughter's seat in bed mode. She falls asleep almost immediately.
The crew come around with a drink trolley service, which is nice, and hand out menus. The couple with the lap child are offered the move to the middle seats, so they are facing the same way to make it easier to look after the lap child. They do this, and subsequently expand into three seats.
The choices are, as before, limited for starters and dessert, but plentiful for main courses. I am asked what I would look for starter, and decided that the caramelized pears with mozarella would be interesting. 'Actually only the tuna tataki is left'. It's rather tasty, and comes with a salad alongside with a tiny bottle of balsamic dressing. Hmm, I much preferred the spicy lemon dressing.
One of the crew offers me some wine; I ask for red - 'We have the bottom two', he says. I opt for the Bordeaux, which is a little cold, I guess due to it being winter, but quite pleasant.
The main courses are served by the crew who walk down the aisles with about five items in their hands asking us what we want. My choice, the Asian short rib of beef is not one of the ones the FA on my side is holding, so he returns to bring me it. Personally I think they would give a better impression by serving from the trolley, but maybe it's because the cabin is so empty that they are doing it this way.
The beef is quite disappointing, rather bland and it has been in the microwave too long, the vegetables are very soggy and it's too hot in a 'too long in the microwave' kind of way.
My wife's mahi-mahi and my son's chicken korma with paneer both seem tastier choices, though I wonder if the chilled option might be a wiser choice, to eliminate the microwave from the equation.
Dessert is a summer fruits cake (or cheese), which I would probably place at the 'Tesco' level of quality, although it perhaps matches up to Sainsburys, it may be hard to judge at 30,000 feet.
The FA who served my wine is very obliging about refills, offering to 'top off' for those who had barely drunk any of it. I've had my fill after two glasses.
The IFE had been started prior to the meal, we are VOD-less as on the outbound leg, so you have to watch while you eat on these night flights, if you want any sleep. The video acquisition process definitely needs improvement, as there are picture quality differences between different channels, and 'Prince Caspian' only has sound in one channel. I suspect this is a combination of sourcing from unofficial channels (e.g., youtube) and no consistent standards for bitrates, resolutions, etc., on input materials. The BA IT department should make an effort to improve this, as scan lines and sound problems are easy to eliminate if they would source only from DVD and use standard output parameters.
I watched a formula Las Vegas comedy, The Hangover, and then went to investigate the economy cabins, to find why we'd been upgraded. Seems that WT is full, and so is WTP (no infants in there, so that wasn't why we were bumped up), my guess is WT was heavily overbooked, so pax were bumped to WTP (which seemed to be quite empty before check-in), and we were the beneficiaries, into a very empty CW. Oddly when we booked, there was no availability in CW for MFU from WTP on ATL-LHR (night flight), but plenty for LHR-ATL (day flight). Presumably the premium cabins were quiet because of the post-xmas, pre-new-year hiatus. Seems like BA missed a trick by blocking these cabins for upgrades, as they ended up giving us the upgrade for free.
Slept fairly easily, but was woken by babbling from the child in front. What timezone is he on? Seems that the parents must have him on England time, as it wasn't a time anyone in the US would be waking up.....
Go and get some juice, the club kitchen has some juice, but it's from concentrate and tepid. Not particularly nice.
Try to get some more sleep but it's fitful, and then the crew prepare for breakfast. 'Would you like some breakfast sir?' What is it? 'Just a continential breakfast' (bacon rolls are on the menu, so I am a little disappointed). I am offered a bread basket and given a small plate with butter and jam. I take an item, a fruity bread and the FA waits expectantly, so I take another, a chocolate muffin. I eat the muffin, but it seems to be made to American specifications, sickly sweet, so I don't finish it.
I notice the 'Land o Lakes' logo on the butter, which I eye suspiciously, having sampled one of their dairy products in the US - Waitrose organic it is not. My suspicions were jusitified 'Spread product with 41% oil and 4% sweet butter'. Main ingredient is water, plus a load of chemicals. Ick. I don't eat it.
At least the juice is Tropicana - seems they do have a supply - so having eaten my bread, I go for a walk in search of juice. As I make my way up the aisle, an FA comes down with bacon rolls. I scamper back to my seat and get my bacon roll.
Sadly it's not tasty, microwaved again, the bacon is not crispy and the whole thing is slightly soggy due to microwaved bread. Not good. My wife and children are sleeping and miss it all.
We land without incident, and disembark. My daughter is still asleep, so I carry her off, she wakes up at this point. We make our way to baggage swiftly, there is no queue at immigration, and all our luggage arrives almosy immediately. Unfortunately the pushchair does not, so we're waiting there for about 15 minutes for that, which rather spoils the 'priority luggage' effect.
We head out, stop off at M&S to get some juice (3 for £5 for not-from-concentrate - perhaps they could use it to stock up in Club?), and wife goes to the Giraffe cafe outside to grab a bacon roll to go - hauling baggage and selves up to the arrivals lounge doesn't appeal. Outside we go, the taxis operate differently from how BA says - "Journeys within 20 miles of the airport, are priced using the taxi meter" - in fact they will only go within a mile or two of the M4 or in Greater London. There's a chart up explaining this, they want £5/mile, which is a rip-off, so we call for a minicab instead.
Conclusions?
Catering is poor, I would rather have the 'classic economy breakfast' in a foil tray of scrambled egg, a little sausage, some shrivelled mushrooms and some potatoes than what they served us. Service was good, IFE was poor (but this varies by plane), getting some sleep was nice, I guess best bet is to get CW for the night flight, as there's really nothing to stay awake for, while OTOH the seat is pretty good for sleeping in.
Last edited by meester69; Dec 29, 2009 at 10:43 am
Dec 29, 2009, 9:52 am
#4
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: England
Programs: Mucci! (and BA Gold, HH Dia etc.)
Posts: 427
great report...
great to hear about your trip. Congratulations on the upgrade - that's a really big win when the whole family gets op-upped. Shame about not getting a second breakfast in the arrivals lounge to improve on the first one on the plane but I get your point about lugging bags up there.
Pleased for you !!!^
Pleased for you !!!^
Dec 29, 2009, 9:57 am
#5
Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: Glasgow-ish, UK
Programs: BA Silver
Posts: 297
Not on a TATL Y or W flight. Muffin or yoghurt bar, yoghurt and an orange juice cuplet. I think you did rather well with your upgrade and wouldn't be complaining :-)
Dec 29, 2009, 10:40 am
#6
Original Poster
Join Date: Jul 2008
Programs: I am a lowly ant
Posts: 1,751
yes it is, but it was supposed to be WT+......
Oh well, this is what they serve on Asian airlines at least. I assume BA too, in the past.
Actually I was considering complaining about my outbound leg, which was in CW, but as a MFU rather than an op-up, but won't bother now.
is the arrivals breakfast good? or would you be better off with a McDonalds?
Actually I was considering complaining about my outbound leg, which was in CW, but as a MFU rather than an op-up, but won't bother now.
great to hear about your trip. Congratulations on the upgrade - that's a really big win when the whole family gets op-upped. Shame about not getting a second breakfast in the arrivals lounge to improve on the first one on the plane but I get your point about lugging bags up there.
Pleased for you !!!^
Pleased for you !!!^
Dec 29, 2009, 10:46 am
#7
Original Poster
Join Date: Jul 2008
Programs: I am a lowly ant
Posts: 1,751
one thing I forgot to mention, but I could have sworn we had moving-map on the 12-channel IFE outbound (to the US, pre Xmas day Delta attack), but it definitely wasn't there on the return......
Dec 29, 2009, 10:48 am
#8
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: NYC, FLL
Programs: UA PP 1MM, Marriott Bonvoy LTTE, BA Gold
Posts: 6,322
Dec 29, 2009, 11:00 am
#10
Original Poster
Join Date: Jul 2008
Programs: I am a lowly ant
Posts: 1,751
)....although I have to add an arrivals lounge doesn't appeal when I'm tired from a flight and just want to get home ASAP
Dec 29, 2009, 11:31 am
#11
Join Date: Jan 2002
Posts: 1,257
I don't mean to be a pedant, but this does keep coming up from time to time. The hot components of the meal services are not microwaved, but reheated from chilled (sometimes frozen) in electric convection ovens in the galley. There is one microwave onboard now, mean't for certain club kitchen items only.
Dec 29, 2009, 11:35 am
#12
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: England
Programs: Mucci! (and BA Gold, HH Dia etc.)
Posts: 427
With focus, I can get from my seat on the plane to my car in the short stay, via IRIS, baggage reclaim, lounge, shower/shave, breakfast, 2 coffees, scan of the paper and parking ticket validated in under the hour. I have a three to four hour drive home from there so I'd never miss the chance to wake up properly after getting off the plane with that hour between being seated for ages and being seated for ages
Dec 29, 2009, 2:45 pm
#13
Suspended
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Earth
Programs: Proud owner of 3 Mucci's (yes, 3!) the latest being Chevaliere des Bains Chauds, BA Silver (6 yrs)
Posts: 10,985
The Op-Up was as a result of full cabin further back and as a silver card holder you would have been considered before blues and other non card holding pax.
Dec 29, 2009, 3:06 pm
#15
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: EDI
Programs: BAEC Blue; HHonours Silver; Hertz Gold
Posts: 169
[QUOTE=meester69;13073214](A follow up on my Club World trip report.)
Frustrating experience with the petrol station, which wants a zip code to pay at pump with card, or else demands pre-payment by cash/card inside. End up making three visits to the cashier, first to pay, then to pay again because the first one wasn't enough, then to get my $2 change.
IME if you over-pre-pay at a US petrol station you automatically get the un-drawn amount refunded to your credit card, e.g. last month in Florida I asked for $35 and the tank of my Jeep Commander hire car would only take $33. As it was after midnight I couldn't be bothered going back for the refund but when I checked my CC statement only $33 had been charged.
Frustrating experience with the petrol station, which wants a zip code to pay at pump with card, or else demands pre-payment by cash/card inside. End up making three visits to the cashier, first to pay, then to pay again because the first one wasn't enough, then to get my $2 change.
IME if you over-pre-pay at a US petrol station you automatically get the un-drawn amount refunded to your credit card, e.g. last month in Florida I asked for $35 and the tank of my Jeep Commander hire car would only take $33. As it was after midnight I couldn't be bothered going back for the refund but when I checked my CC statement only $33 had been charged.