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OSL-HNL-OSL TP run, 10 legs and 20k miles in 4 days, or "Look ma, no hotel expenses!"

OSL-HNL-OSL TP run, 10 legs and 20k miles in 4 days, or "Look ma, no hotel expenses!"

Old Apr 18, 2014, 6:29 am
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OSL-HNL-OSL TP run, 10 legs and 20k miles in 4 days, or "Look ma, no hotel expenses!"

Disclaimer: This is my first TR, so be gentle. I'm not big on taking endless pictures of food and aircraft cabin interiors, so the visual aids are limited to a few random shots, which I decided to combine into three collages to avoid breaking up the text too much. A star icon (:- in the text indicates there's a picture to be found below of whatever I just described.

Background
Having qualified for BAEC GGL halfway through last year, and having enjoyed the perks, I knew I wanted to requalify this year. But I also knew that I'd be doing quite a bit less long haul business travel this year, so I would need to find time for at least one fairly major TP run. Normally this would involve a purely domestic AA itinerary while already stateside, and I already had one semi-planned for the summer, but then a BA sales fare showed up that would allow me to do a run originating at my home base while staying at a reasonable /TP ratio. The IL7SALE fare covered OSL-HNL return in J for 1674, with two connections permitted on either side of the atlantic, for a maximum TP earning of 1500 if you routed through HEL and LCY and EWR.

The fare was only valid for two weeks in the middle of April, so my challenge became to fit this within an already-hectic April schedule. I also wanted to avoid spending a fortune on hotels along the way, since that would bump the price per TP up far beyond what I could justify when comparing to domestic AA runs. In the end I booked OSL-HEL-LHR-JFK-LAX-HNL-LAX-EWR/JFK-LCY/LHR-HEL-OSL, which meant forgoing a total of 140 TP on the outbound, 70 by going from LHR instead of LCY to JFK, and another 70 by going with the three-class transcon from JFK instead of EWR to LAX. The advantage, in addition to fitting within my schedule, was a more comfortable journey on the outbound - on the return I'd twice be footing it all the way across a major city, EWR to JFK in New York and LCY to LHR in London.

The total TP haul would thus be 1360, which at the 1674 price means 1.23/TP, which really isn't bad for a run originating in Europe.

AA schedule changes to the rescue
In the past I've had travel plans seriously disrupted by AA's eagerness to play around with their schedule, and this time it happened without even an email warning - a few weeks after making the booking I suddenly realized my itinerary had changed. AA had decided to completely cancel their flights between LAX and EWR, so my return had been rerouted - I was now going HNL-DFW-ORD-EWR instead of HNL-LAX-EWR. Despite involving an extra leg, this would actually cost me 90TP, because DFW-ORD-EWR is 2x60=120TP instead of the 210TP of LAX-EWR. The end result was excellent, however: A quick call to AA let me re-reroute to HNL-LAX-JFK, saving me a trek across New York and putting me in F on the new A321T on the transcon leg, ensuring the full 210TP.

I was now looking forward to a trip that would involve about 50 hours of flying time over 91 hours of real time, and 8 different hard products, 5 of which I had never tried before. It would also involve zero hotel expenses along the way.

Leg 1: OSL-HEL in Business, AY2656, Apr 12 1:15pm
After parking my car, I discovered the big perk of flying Finnair from OSL: Finnair offers priority security here, which BA is apparently too cheap to do. Priority security was a god-send, as this was the first day of the Norwegian Easter vacation, during which the entire country takes a full week off, so regular security was chock full of holidaymakers. Not being sure of the security situation I had left myself plenty of time, so I spent almost an hour in the "OSLounge", looking out through dirty windows at the dreary rainy weather I was about to leave behind:-:.

The flight was the first instance of a hard product that was new to me, operated by FlyBe on an Embraer 190, and easily the worst "business" product I've ever seen. The J cabin layout is 2-2, with no extra space or empty seat between the two seats, and it feels no more roomy than most Y products. Service was sullen and abrupt, and the food offering consisted of... a baked potato. Absolutely no adornments, just a baked potato wrapped in foil, with a small tub of some sort of mayo-based goop on the side. Yuck.

Leg 2: HEL-LHR in Club Europe, BA799, Apr 12 5:15pm
This was actually my first time at HEL, and I was struck by how cramped and dark the airport felt as I negotiated the long walk from the far end of the Schengen gates to the non-Schengen area. Once I got close to the non-Schengen area, however, things opened up into a shopping area which was much nicer, and the entire non-Schengen area is significantly more roomy and bright. I probably could have used the larger Finnair lounge as a OWE, but the first lounge I came across was the "Almost@Home" lounge, which was actually very nice for a short sit-down and a drink. This lounge is clearly decorated to imitate a typical Finnish home, and I found a very comfortable chair which appeared to be an Alvar Aalto original:-:.

The flight was marketed and operated by BA, meaning Club Europe, which I normally don't value very highly, but it was certainly a big step up from the previous flight. On the way into LHR we passed directly over LCY, giving me a nice view of the runway I'd be landing at roughly 60 hours later on my way back home:-:.

Leg 3: LHR-JFK in Club World, BA183, Apr 12 8:05pm
I actually hadn't realized the flight from HEL would arrive at T3 rather than T5, so this was the first (and only, as it turned out) instance of a small amount of stress on this trip, as we landed a few minutes late and I only had 90 minutes to connect from T3 to T5B. As it turned out, my fears were unfounded - the entirety of LHR seemed almost deserted this Saturday evening, and I breezed through the bus connection and fast track conformance/security without even a single person in front of me in line at any point.

The flight to JFK was uneventful - I was in my usual seat, 64K, and enjoyed a quick dinner (main course salad) before sleeping through the rest of the flight, helped along by a couple of glasses of an excellent Sauvignon Blanc.

Interlude - a night at JFK
As part of my plan to avoid hotel expenses, I was going to spend the night at the airport itself. This may sound harsh, since there are no 24-hour lounges at JFK, but I had less than 6 hours to kill before the AA Flagship Lounge opened at 4:30am, and with my next flight departing at 6am it would have felt like a huge waste to pay for a hotel room. Particularly since I wasn't tired at all, having slept soundly throughout most of the previous flight.

After a very long wait to get through immigration and customs, it was past midnight by the time I emerged at T7 arrivals, so I only had about 4 hours to kill before going to T8. My laptop was with me and I had plenty of work to do, so all I needed was a chair and a free internet connection - and I found both landside at JetBlue's Terminal 5, which must be one of the cleanest and newest terminals at JFK:-:. By about 3am I was starting to wish I hadn't slept through the sandwich offering on the previous flight, but I resisted the temptation of the nearby Dunkin' Donuts and decided to aim for a (slightly) healthier breakfast in the lounge.



Leg 4: JFK-LAX in Business, AA171, Apr 13 6:00am
I left T5 around 4am and took the AirTrain around to T8. I had no boarding pass at this stage - I could easily check-in online and get mobile boarding passes for the first three flights in this itinerary, but not these upcoming AA flights, which I found slightly odd considering the booking was made with AA. But I got my next two boarding passes printed at a self-service check-in kiosk without a hitch, and after arriving in a deserted Flagship Lounge at 4:30am, I had time for a long warm shower and a leisurely breakfast before heading for the gate.

The flight was on one of AA's new A321T aircraft, which meant it was the second time this trip I got to try a hard product I had never tried before. Even the J seats go fully flat, which was very nice, and led me to sleep away most of the flight after eating a quick breakfast. (This wasn't entirely planned - I had paid for wi-fi for the entire flight and was planning to get more work done, but I'm sure the extra rest paid dividends for the rest of the trip.)

Leg 5: LAX-HNL in First, AA283, Apr 13 10:35am
I've spent quite a lot of time in the LAX Flagship Lounge over the years, and I've always enjoyed it - it never seems too crowded or cramped, despite being a relatively small space, and the chairs are very comfortable. This time around I only had about half an hour there, as the HNL flight was leaving from a remote stand, meaning I had to go to the gate early to board the bus. The remote stand turned out to be quite an enormous distance from the actual terminal - I think we rode the bus for a solid ten minutes, past numerous hangars and parked planes until we got to remote stand 210, a small white two-story building with a tiny waiting room, wide ramps and a jetway.

Despite being designated "First", the frontmost cabin in the old 757 I would be spending the next six hours in was a far cry from the "Business" cabin I had just flown in on the A321T. This incongruity really highlights the increasing confusion of AA's system of cabin classes as their fleet continues to fragment between old and new products. The flight itself was pleasant enough, though, and my inability to lie flat (along with the lack of wi-fi) was a good excuse to get some more work done.

Interlude - a day at HNL
Having about 7 hours before my flight back to the mainland, I had actually laid some tentative plans to spend some of this time doing touristy things, with my main goal being Diamond Head. But when I flew into HNL, the city was covered in clouds and fog, and the weather forecast said rain. Having not really packed for any sort of adverse weather, and being a bit put off by the idea of an hour long bus ride in either direction just to hike through fog and rain, I decided to simply stay at the airport.

There's something rather unique about HNL, which I haven't seen in any other airport - it has a large outdoor garden area airside, with big trees and lots of water and other greenery:-:. The garden area has a few distinct themed parts - the Japanese garden has a lovely Koi pond:-: and a pagoda-style gazebo. I settled on a bench in the Hawaiian garden - several times being forced to seek cover from rain showers, but also enjoying the sun which peeked out between the showers. I even got wi-fi via a nearby lounge from my bench, and stayed there long enough to meet several instances of local wildlife - birds:-: and lizards:-:.



Leg 6: HNL-LAX in First, AA298, Apr 13 8:50pm
When it started to get dark, I headed inside and found a table at the Kona Brewing Company, which seemed like the only real restaurant in the airport, though after having tried it I hesitate to call it a real restaurant. The service was extremely rushed, and the burger I ordered was quite possibly the worst burger I've ever had. This was the only time I spent any money on food during the entire trip, and I'm really wishing I had just skipped it and made do with the pizza AA serves on redeyes out of HNL.

As it turned out I never tried the pizza, and I can't tell you much about the actual flight - because I astonished myself by sleeping soundly for the entire duration. That's something I'm usually not able to do in a seat that doesn't go flat, but I suppose it was my body telling me it was 9am back home and I'd just gone a whole "night" without sleeping. So it turned out that after the part of the trip that I had dreaded - a long day with no hotel at HNL, bracketed by two long flights in 757 seats - I was actually feeling quite rested.

Leg 7: LAX-JFK in First, AA34, Apr 14 8:10am
Arriving at 5am, I had to wait in the AC for a few minutes, waiting for the Flagship Lounge to open at 5:15am. (Why they feel the need to do it this way instead of just opening both lounges at 4:30am like they do at JFK, I don't really understand.) Once I did get into the Flagship Lounge I repeated the routine from JFK, with a long warm shower:-: followed by a big breakfast, which, when added to the amount of sleep I had gotten on the previous flight, left me feeling very comfortable at this point.

The flight itself was also supremely comfortable, as I was now trying the third new hard product of the trip, again the A321T but this time in the First cabin. The seats are every bit as good as BA F, the service was top notch, and the wi-fi enabled me to catch up on work-related communication before I settled down to watch a movie on the IFE. The screens are really quite excellent, as is the Bose noise-cancelling headset they provide you with.

Leg 8: JFK-LCY in Club World, BA04, Apr 14 9:45pm
At JFK T7, my Concorde Room card gave me access to the JFK CCR, and I spent 4 and a half hours there, which actually ended up being the only time during the entire trip that I got bored, since I was running out of steam to be productive with work by this point. To kill time I made sure to sample as much of their pre-flight dining menu as possible, and may have overeaten - I felt a bit ill by the time I finished off the cheesecake. The steak was excellent, though, as was the wine.

The flight was my first time on the Club World London City service, and while it was an excellent flight with an excellent crew, I once again "wasted" the experience by being asleep for the entire duration. (I certainly didn't need any dinner on board after my indulgences in the CCR, and I slept straight through any and all breakfast offers.) I woke up just in time to see Buckingham Palace and Hyde Park out of the window from my seat in 2A:-:.

Leg 9: LHR-HEL in Business, BA6080, Apr 15 4:10pm
After a very efficient arrival process at LCY, followed by DLR/tube/tube/HEX to LHR T3, I was very hungry and decided to try the burger in the Galleries First lounge. I've heard various things on FT about the burger BA offers in the various lounges at LHR, much of it negative, but I found this one quite excellent, particularly when compared to the terrible burger I had had at HNL. Maybe the burger BA makes at T5 is worse somehow?

The flight was another first for me, as it was operated by Finnair, whose Business product I had never tried. The hard product seems very similar to BA CE, but I found the food significantly better than what CE tends to offer - an extremely tasty appetizer with duck breast and parmesan, followed by a generous portion of some sort of pasta dish. As we approached HEL, I looked out the window to catch the tail end of a very lovely sunset over just a couple of Finland's many lakes:-:.

Wrap-up
In order to end this trip report on a high note, I'm going to skip the final leg back to OSL, as it was identical to, and just as bad as, the first leg - Finnair operated by FlyBe on a cramped Embraer 190. Observant readers will also have noticed that there's not actually time for a return to Oslo on April 15th, as my arrival into HEL was at 9pm, and there are no flights to OSL that late. This is where I cheated slightly by staying the night at the Hilton at HEL and returning on the 7:10am flight the next morning - still no hotel expenses though, as I paid for the room with HHonors points

I really felt like I had come full circle when I walked into the hotel room and plonked my bag down on a table next to a chair of the same Alvar Aalto design as the one I had sat in about 80 hours earlier in the Almost@Home lounge. I think this one was a knock-off though:-:.



Once I got back to OSL, I got in my car and drove for 3 hours to a cabin in the mountains, to join my family for a skiing holiday. Despite having been continuously traveling for the past 96 hours, I arrived feeling fresh and rested, and had gotten enough work done to feel comfortable taking the next five days entirely off. Definitely a success in my book.

Last edited by JonV; Apr 19, 2014 at 7:53 am
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Old Apr 18, 2014, 7:53 am
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Excellent report from an experienced traveler. Seems like you stayed productive throughout your trip.
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Old Apr 18, 2014, 8:10 am
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Photogrid much?
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Old Apr 18, 2014, 8:30 am
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Thanks, excellent TR and I hope the first of more to come over the years JonV.
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Old Apr 18, 2014, 8:58 am
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Thanks for the TR I really enjoyed it
John
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Old Apr 19, 2014, 3:24 am
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Great report! Remembers me to the good old days when I needed around 40k LH HON miles and I got them with an all Eco tripMUC-FRA-SFO-HNL-LAX-JFK-SFO-HNL-DEN-MUC within four days
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Old Apr 19, 2014, 7:50 am
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Originally Posted by agp423
Photogrid much?
I've actually never heard of Photogrid - the tool I used is called Fotor.
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Old Apr 20, 2014, 7:53 am
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Nice and fun report you've made! Must've ben very exhausting to spend 4 days on planes with no proper sleep. And while it certainly is a feat of accomplishment I would probably have taken at least a few hotel nights between the flights at least since I would prefer to enjoy the flights rather than sleep through them. Too bad you didn't spend more time in Hawaii.

Thanks for sharing!
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Old Apr 20, 2014, 2:50 pm
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Wirelessly posted (Nexus 5: Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; Android 4.4.2; Nexus 5 Build/KOT49H) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/34.0.1847.114 Mobile Safari/537.36)

Honestly, I meant it when I said I felt comfortable the whole way and arrived back home feeling fresh and rested. I definitely felt like I got "proper" sleep on several of these flights, particularly the two CW segments.

I do wish I had been able to fit a proper holiday with several days in Hawaii into my schedule - but on the other hand, if I had, my family would have wanted to join me, and then I wouldn't have been able to route the trip so creatively

I take comfort in the fact that the status and avios resulting from this trip will enable me to take the family on some great holidays in the future.

Last edited by JonV; Apr 20, 2014 at 2:50 pm
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Old Apr 21, 2014, 7:30 am
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Originally Posted by JonV
Wirelessly posted (Nexus 5: Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; Android 4.4.2; Nexus 5 Build/KOT49H) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/34.0.1847.114 Mobile Safari/537.36)

Honestly, I meant it when I said I felt comfortable the whole way and arrived back home feeling fresh and rested. I definitely felt like I got "proper" sleep on several of these flights, particularly the two CW segments.

I do wish I had been able to fit a proper holiday with several days in Hawaii into my schedule - but on the other hand, if I had, my family would have wanted to join me, and then I wouldn't have been able to route the trip so creatively

I take comfort in the fact that the status and avios resulting from this trip will enable me to take the family on some great holidays in the future.
Spoken like a true FTer!
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Old Apr 22, 2014, 7:37 am
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Tier points and avios for all of these flights posted within a few days, and the 10 legs fit nicely within the "10 last transactions" view, so I'm posting it here for completeness:

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Old Apr 28, 2014, 12:44 pm
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Thumbs up Awesomeeeee!!!

Originally Posted by JonV
Tier points and avios for all of these flights posted within a few days, and the 10 legs fit nicely within the "10 last transactions" view, so I'm posting it here for completeness:

THIS.....IS.......AWEEESSSSSOOOOOMMEEEEENNNEEEESSS ....coated with peanut-butter-chocolate!!!!

I'm a BA base, now, and have to find some way to get 1500 TP in one-shot, so that I get the Gold, in one go!!! Nice TR, btw!! Keep 'em coming!!
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