Gatwick Alan

UA6520 LAX - PHX
Seats 10a and 10b (eventually)
CRJ200

Oh dear. After leaving the farce that is flying in the UK these days, and being treated decently and sensibly in other countries, i'd forgotten what flying in the U.S was like. Well i know now and i'm $100 worse off for the privelege.
Lets start with check-in, due to the fact that i'm US silver, or on a business class round the world ticket, or both i was allowed to use the premium check in area. That seemed to be a disorganised scrum, with people pushing in as and when they chose, so eventually i did the same and got a "senior" agent. Well god knows what the junior ones are like. I handed him our paper tickets and the machine spewed out 3 boarding passes. So he asks me why the computer had done that, i resisted the temptation to give a sarcastic response and suggested he check that he didnt have another passenger called GatwickAlan also flying, he didnt.
At this stage we have boarding passes for seats 2c, 6c and 6d printed out. So what does he do, tears up 6c and hands the others to me. I tell him we'd like to sit together, so this time he prints out 10a and 10b.
Now for the luggage, on the whole trip my luggage has been within the business weight allowance, but not on United it seems. Now on this flight there is only economy seating, but my understanding was that business class allowances would still apply. Now before you have a go at me, i know its my fault that i didnt check Uniteds rules but i falsely assumed they would be the same on a Star Alliance ticket, a costly error on my part. So i paid my 2 overweight allowances of $50 each for the suitcase weighing over 50lbs. What really pissed me off was not so much paying out the $100 but the almost Ryanair type glee when they realised they could make me cough up some money.
Next on to security, which at LAX terminal 7 was mercifully short. I showed our boarding passes to a girl and then proceeded to fill some trays up with laptop, shoes etc. A security guy shouted at my companion for putting her shoes in the same tray as mine and told her to get another. The security guy by the x-ray machine shouted that everyone had to push their own bags into the machine. The woman in front of me had already gone through the people x-ray so in the interest of expediency i pushed her stuff through. As soon as i went through the people x-ray i had to present my boarding pass to a man no more than 6 feet from the girl who had just checked it - madness.
The flight itself was fine arriving a few minutes early with a flight time of about an hour.
Phoenix have a new "state of the art" car rental centre, and i have to say i was amazed at how many shuttle buses were running, we were 4th in a queue to drop off at the centre. Only downside for me was i'd learnt my way from the old centre and this one is in an entirely different place, still i managed to find my way ok, even if it wasnt the quickest.
Its a 2 week stay in Arizona now, details on the next post

TrayflowInUK

I stayed in the Ivory Towers and it was an absolute dump. Does anyone know of any decent place to stay in Fox Glacier?

Gatwick Alan

Sorry for the lack of update but ive been chilling out.
The hire car turned out to be a virtually new Ford Taurus, a pretty bog standard car.
Ive hired a house for a fortnight in Carefree, which is northeast of Phoenix. The place is lovely. Ive hired a place in the Scottsdale area for the last 6 years (well except one when i went to Palm Springs). It always pisses me off that the price of a 3 bed detached house with swimming pool and spa is about the same as a 2 bedroom terrace house in the south east of england.
For the first week just relaxed with a few short trips and some sunbathing in the unseasonably warm weather here. Its been in the 80's and sunny every day. During the second week will be heading to North East Arizona, details will follow.

BEYFlyer

So you were following me around... I was in Phoenix from the 2nd to the 7th... Who knows, we might have bumped into each other somewhere in Scottsdale... Back in Beirut now...

I'm so glad I ended up taking America West (HP - now US Airways) out of LAX to LAS and out of LAS to PHX. Seems those UA CRJ flights are a pain in the behind. Enjoy the rest of your trip Gatwick Alan.

Gatwick Alan

I was here too, shame we didnt plan a meet.
Im on HP/US next, so i'll see what i think of them.
Hope you will be posting a report, if people are reading this then yours will surely attract attention, give it a go !!

Alan

Gatwick Alan

We did a side trip up country and based ourselves in Holbrook for 2 nights. We drove up the backroads and went through places with wonderful names like Sunflower and Strawberry. One thing i noticed is how different filling the car with petrol is out of the big cities. If you try and pay cash in Phoenix, they look at you as if you are quite mad. Using the credit card is fine unless you get one of those pumps that asks for a zip code which of course i dont have. Out of town on the other hand they actually welcome cash, and since on the backroads petrol stations can be 50 miles apart, i was happy to give them my business. Funnily enough the prices werent a rip off, a few cents more than downtown Phoenix, but these gas stations need to be kept in business. The rip off petrol stations are the first ones you find when driving off the I 40, $2.49 a gallon, when the backroad garage i used was charging $2.17 a gallon. Petrol prices have really dropped here, crazy prices compared to the U.K. might as well give it away !!

In Holbrook we stayed at the Holiday Inn Express, the hotel had been very recently refurbished in the new "Stay Smart" style and i have to say ive stayed in much worse higher grade hotels, the hotel had an indoor pool and spa, friendly staff and nice rooms. My only complaint would be the santa fe railroad nearby, where the trains blasted their horns right through the night.

We, as usual were up early and were out and about before the national parks opened. We firstly hapened across the Petrified Forest Dinosaur Park, and for a fleeting moment thought that they had put the dinosaurs in to attract more tourists, luckily we realised the real entrance was a few miles further on.
We decided to drive the backroads and headed north 60 miles and found a little town called Keams Canyon, which turned out to be a little town nestling in a canyon. From there we realised we could get to the Canyon de Chelly, so we headed there. Stopping at a shopping mall nearby to use the restrooms, i found out what a panhandler was, after all the signs advised us not to support them. A Navajo indian came up to me and started spinning a tale, within moments a cop appeared out of nowhere and got rid of him, i wasnt threatened by the panhandler in any way, but i guess they must be a problem.
We finally headed back to our original destination, the Petrified forest, by the time we got there, we only had 2 hours before it closed, but that was probably enough. To see the wood turned into stone is pretty amazing, its a shame they lose a ton of the stuff every month to theft.
Did the drive back to Carefree the quick way on the Interstates, the I17 through the hills is a most enjoyable drive.

A few more days relaxing in Carefree, then its off to Florida, but it will not include the British outpost of Orlando.

Gatwick Alan

US578 PHX - TPA
Seats 19a and 19b
A320
An early start to drop the car off at the new Rental centre, even at 6.30 in the morning there were 8 buses to take you back to the various terminals, very efficient wonder if they will keep the high level of service up.
At terminal 4 we checked in with US Airways, my travelling companion said she was dreading check in after the negative experience with United, but the older Gentleman agent could not have been more helpful and gets a thumbs up from me. The queue at 7.15 in the morning for Phoenix security was pretty long and it took us 35 minutes to reach the X ray machine. I posted a comment on the security forum about our experience with the bag search. Suffice to say if all TSA screeners were as good as this one, we would all complain a lot less.
I wasnt particularly looking forward to this flight, but my fears were unfounded, we had 3 drinks runs in a 4 hour flight, with the first one being full can. The flight landed half hour late, due to routing north of Memphis to avoid the severe weather thats been hitting the southern states this week.
At Tampa the priority tagged bags came out first, and my miles posted within 24 hours, unlike those useless people at United who failed to post my miles at all.
Picked up another Dollar rental car at the airport, which fortunately is right across from baggage reclaim, had another Ford Taurus despite the very best efforts of the agent to get me to upgrade. As i told her , for us Brits its far more cost effective to pay for everything before you leave the UK, including the grade of car that you want.
Drove off to Bradenton for a week long driving tour.

Gotta Requalify

Been great reading this, so please keep it up.

How come on the PHX-TPA flight you weren't in First Class? A RTW ticket should have booked into A class which is first? The US airways A320's have first seats.

Gatwick Alan

Thats a very good question and one i asked both my ticket agent and the girls on the customer services desk at LGW. The answers i got were that the seats were already sold out, hard to believe when the seats were booked 10 months ahead and from the girls at LGW that my booking code didnt entitle me to First Class. Why then was i able to book first class on the next flight from TPA to PHL. I will take this up with US when i get back home in sadly less than 2 weeks from now.

Gatwick Alan

In Bradenton we stayed at the Holiday Inn Express for an overnight, it was ok, not as god as the one in Holbrook, but it served its purpose.
From there we drove down the Tamiami trail to Naples where we stayed at the Staybridge Suites. Ive got mixed feelings about this hotel, the decorations were not up to scratch, they had been making good the walls in the rooms, but not bothered to paint the filler over. Also the hotel is a U shape with the bar and swimming pool in the middle, i think its a bit much to have people partying at the top of their voices at 2.30 in the morning without the hotel doing anything about it.
It was at this hotel that i had my first bout of illness of the whole holiday so far. I blame it on the take away chinese that i had on top of 5 pints of beer, but ive not had a stomach upset like that for years.

Some of the Naples houses, or should that be mansions, are just amazing and well worth a drive around to see them.

My last complaint with the hotel occured at checkout, where thet tried to charge me another $49, for a prepaid advanced purchase rate. They couldnt explain why, but did remove the charge.

Next stop was Key West and carried on driving down the Tamiami trail, linking to the florida turnpike then Highway 1 into Key West, whilst still feeling rather groggy from the still delicate stomach.
Ive always wondered why hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent linking up a few tiny islands, i mean one of the bridges is called 7 mile bridge and it is indeed 7 miles long. Guess im going to have to do a bit of reading up on the history of the area.
As for Key West itself, i found it a mixture of nice old buildings and tacky tee shirt shops, particularly near the cruise terminal where every shop seemed to sell tee shirts with F*** on them. I probably didnt see the place at its best as it was mainly cloudy and it took me a couple of days to get over my bug which drained the energy out of me. I'm one of those people who try to avoid taking medicines, but eventually went to Walgreens and that cleared me up within 24 hours.

Stayed at the Holiday Inn, no complaints, nice pool area and a typical resort hotel.

Drove back to Bonita Springs and after driving the roads around Miami, feel like i can tackle LA !!
Stayed at the Holiday Inn Express in Bonita Springs for an overnight, happy with the place. One thing you can say about HIX's is that the product is pretty consistent across the various hotels and ideal for overnight stops. Found a great little restaurant called the Neon Grill tucked in the back of the shopping centre oposite the hotel. Not so easy getting back to the hotel after a good meal and a few pints, trying to get across Highway 41.

The next day was a drive to the Isle of Palms, St Petes where i have a house hired for the last week of the holiday, the prime purpose being to ensure i've got a bit of colour, to annoy my friends back home !!

The last report will be on the 2 flights home.

Gatwick Alan

Wed 29th Nov
US 1412 TPA - PHL
Seats 5A and 6F

Tampa Airport you should be ashamed of yourselves, $3 for a luggage trolley is unacceptable to me, you can even pay by credit card. Would they rather see people struggling without a trolley, clogging the place up ?, i guess they would. That apart i like Tampa airport, easy to get around and security failed to spot my lighter which was in my jacket pocket.
Check in was pleasant although for some reason i'd been kicked out of seats 1A and B for the PHL-LGW flight, but i got myself kicked right back in again. Also on the TPA-PHL flight they couldnt get us seats together.
The lounge in Tampa is ok, with great views over the tarmac. I was watching our plane being unloaded and loaded and saw our luggage go on, i was surprised at the care the baggage handlers took, perhaps i'm jaundiced by seeing the BA handlers at Gatwick.
The flight itself was fine, but for a flight of less than 2 hours why do people bother to pay for domestic first, ok you get a bigger seat but otherwise its free booze and better quality snack basket and thats it. I wouldnt pay extra for that.

At PHL i went outside for a smoke, even knowing i'd have to go through security again, last time i was here security at A west was quiet and so it was this time, nobody else there in fact. They too failed to spot my lighter.
The US Envoy lounge is good, with a good food and drink selection.

Wed 29th Nov
US 774 PHL - LGW
Seats 1A and 1B

Boarding was orderly and on time and we pushed back on schedule, some 50 minutes later we actually made it into the air. One thing i have to say about US Air is whilst their product is nothing special, all of the staff ive dealt with have been friendly and helpful. Our flight attendant was excellent. If you are going to fly envoy class, get row 1. Im told 3 of the seats are held back for people with status, but the other 3 can be snagged by anyone. As these are the old 1st class seats they go completely flat and i slept well for 3 hours.
The food was average, and do we have to have the cheesecake and the cheese and biscuits served on the same plate.

Dinner
For Starters
Antipasto Roma
Fresh Ciligiente mozzarella combined with roasted red and yellow peppers and artichoke hearts tossed in extra virgin olive oil, garlic and fresh basil, served with lolla rosa, frissee lettuce and kalamata olives.

Entrees
East Shore crab cakes
Fresh Maryland crab subtly seasoned and prepared with the Chefs award winning recipe, served with three mustard creme fraiche, sugar snap peas, tangy corn and pickled okra succotash

Texas cowboy Chilli spiced Filet Mignon
Southwestern chilli spiced filet of beef, served with cheese enchilada, roasted chilli and stewed pinto beans accompanied by an Ancho chilli guava barbeque sauce

Mason Dixon Pecan crusted Chicken
Pan fried pecan crusted chicken breast served with a bourbon maple butter saucepresented with a sweet potato tartlet and sauteed brussel sprouts.

In Closing
A selection of cheeses, a little fresh fruit and something sweet.

A small but adequate breakfast was also served on this 6 and a half hour flight.

We arrived at LGW bang on the dot and the immigration hall was quiet. Surprise, surprise the priority labelled luggage came out first, whats happened to the baggage handlers whilst ive been away. My ex picked us up at the airport and its back to work on Monday.

Gonna have to do this again, but when?

ANstar

Wow... back already!

Sounds like you had an amazing trip.... thanks for keeping us up to date... It's been a great ride!


Have you got any pics online from this trip?

BDLORD

Chili on a flight? PU
Nice report, i enjoyed it.