Previous Reports:
LHR-BRU-LHR ... or "How do you burn a £50 BMI voucher without too much pain?"
MAN-ORD on BMI (29/10 ... or Did Kevin Make it to ORD?)
Kevin goes for a little mileage run on UA - ORD/CMH/IAD/EWR/ORD
ORD-MAN in BMI Premium Economy (with Pictures)
Kevin’s American Adventure – MAN-ORD-SEA-ORD-MAN (4 flights, 2 weeks) in Y..
BMI ORD - MAN in Premium Economy: How hard can a PE product drop? (also random moans)
LHR-PHL-SEA, SEA-PHX-ORD, ORD-PHL-LHR - In Y, Be scared with US! (This Report!)
As per usual, this trip report is filled with photos, insightful (and not so insightful), witty (and completely sarcastic) comment, and of course, the little details that as travellers, we come to know, notice and laugh/cry/go ballistic at. I'm travelling in Y... I'm allowed one luxury at least!
I'll be updating this as the trip progresses, and of course will happily natter on about things that are completely irrelevant 
. Standard Photos rules apply (ie, the best of will be featured here - everything else on my Photoblog - which of course, I encourage you to visit ).
Preamble:
Well its time for me to travel again, and alas, I'm being completely original in my destinations (have a look at my flight memory... yes the same cities again). With a standing invite in Seattle, and a bit of catching up to do in Chicago just after, this seemed like the perfect late summer break I need after doing my normal work for "mother service".
This time, as well as the flights, I'll be doing more "trip" aspects of the report (as opposed to a flight report)- so public transport, hotels, what I didn't do, etc will be factored in to round off the report). Well I can try at least can't I people?
Booking
Normally I'm a loyal BMI supporter. I'll happily pay a bit more to fly with them and abuse lounge facilities etc etc. At £100 more to fly them, however much I love BMI, its not worth £100 ($200) more (or is it? I'll work that question out by the end of this report).
So off to Kayak and co, and route research was done. At one point I considers BA/AA (nice direct flights, but £620, UA (with routing's to SFO) for £580 and even Northwest for £580 (Tempting, but still in the 25% mileage land) Of course CO's BHX-EWR hop was tempting, but the thought of crossing the pond in a 757 still doesn't exactly make me happy.
However, a little digging on Kayak, followed by a bit of delving into the US Airways website gave an attractive price of £484 at peak season (not too wallet crunching), with a nice 12+k of status mileage too (and we mustn't moan at status miles)
After using the Amadeus-like booking engine that's available to the UK users of US Airways website, the following convoluted routing was booked:
London Heathrow > Philadelphia > Seattle Tacoma > Phoenix Sky-Harbour > Chicago O'Hare International > Philadelphia > London Heathrow
Map provided by the most wonderful Great Circle Mapper -
http://gc.kls2.com
For those of you who aren't map readers:
Far Right - LHR (London Hellhole)
Where everything comes together - PHL (Philly)
Top Left - SEA (Seattle)
Bottom Left - PHX (Phoenix)
The chink in the link back to PHL from PHX - ORD (Chicago O'Hell).
A lot of new firsts for me, including 2 new airports, NOT going through Chicago T5 International
(- Those who know know why are invited to look back at my constant blathering about ORD T5 in previous reports and its complete and utter uselessness) and risking US Airways.
And an Open Skies flight (and no I'm not talking about the BA mini-me airline
), this is one of the new routes that have appeared since Open Skies finally opened up LHR a bit more. So as NW, AF, DL and US moved into Heathrow thinking of easy pickings and to "lower fares", so I'll be looking at if they provide value in comparison to my normal routing's.
A check in June proved to be interesting as US decided to schedule change a few things - thankfully just times (with a few more precious minutes at PHX)
So there's the planning done. I mean to say - How bad could it be?
(apart from the little gun incident, the lack of pretzels, lack of IFE on the domestic legs, charges for everything - do I now have to tip even??? - maybe I should had spent that extra £100...)
So onwards!
Off to LHR!
National Express
Birmingham Digbeth (Oxford Road) - Heathrow Central Bus Station
Being based in heart of the country (Birmingham) of course, its a choice of rail or coach to get to London (as London is the centre of the UK and there is no other life beyond London so some say, and to send an aircraft 100 miles to LHR is considered a bit silly by others). So once again like most of my adventures I booked a coach journey. £29 later for a 06:15 departure from Birmingham, to arrive at LHR for 8:55. The next departure might had got in for 10:30... but knowing Heathrow traffic, that would had left the times dangerously close for my liking (and yes - I'm one of these people who insist on arriving 3 hours at least before a flight).
As i had been up packing and repacking (you try lugging a studio around - it gets on your nerves very quickly) a 2hour doze was the best I was going to get. I called my local cab company which after they relived me of £5, I was at Digbeth station.
The coach arrived as I did thus, not a lot of time was wasted, and u was quickly aboard and then let the coach and weave its way down to LHR via BHX, Banbury and finally Heathrow 3 ours later. Enough time for a few z's, but not enough for a full kip.
The coach finally pulled into Heathrow Central bus station, where I was disgorged out of the coach and I collected the ski bag and rucksack.
Tradition states that I go inside and wait for a bit with check in not due to open for a while. This was the perfect time to grab a coffee to attempt to stay awake until my friend arrived
Heathrow T1
After I caught up with my friend who would be my travel companion for this little jaunt, we proceeded to check in , which was thankfully uneventful, with of course the fun of negotiating luggage prices.
There are some little blessings for being a *A Silver (and these are little ones). As most of you are aware, a lot of the US Airlines are doing impressions of RyanAir (sans Michel O'Leary's charm and wit) and charging for every little thing. Thankfully they 1) haven't tried it on Long Haul international routes and 2) my silver spared me the indignity of extra luggage charges, as well as my friend as we're on international legs.
After a quick cigarette break for my friend (the last one for a good 12 hours for her), it was time to pass through security and the rat run known as Terminal 1.
As per normal, it was the standard LHR shoe shuffle, but the laptop remaining "in bag" (thanks for the introduction of 3D scanners), and we were clear into the Heathrow Mall... I mean Terminal 1, but not before registering for IRIS
IRIS seemed to be busy with use today, and with building contractors coming to take a peek at the office, they closed it after I had re-enrolled into IRIS.
LHR sends people to sleep - FACT!
Alas being a Silver, no free hopping into the BMI lounge to get a hit of coffee, so it was stuck in the public zones awaiting the departure call. This being BAA of course and to maximise your time shopping at their shops, no calls are made until about 45 minutes of your flight (with the lights changing from Boarding to Last Call as fast as you can blink).
After the long hike to gate 40, and another APIS check, I was finally through, with boarding commencing by class then two grouped zones.
Obligatorily A380 photo
My A330 in the distance.
US Airways US729 LHR -> PHL,
Airbus A330-300, Seat 16H, Economy
Booked Departure time: 13:05 BST, Booked Arrival Time: 16:10 EST, 12th Sept.
Boarding was completed in zones, with Envoy, then economy seating in groups. We were seated later as we were "closer to the front" in row 16. A good thing really as these seats have an inch or so extra room so it didn't feel like a total sardine can.
Boarding was through 1L, stampeding the exclusivity of Envoy and through to Economy.
Safety demo was done manually – surprising as the unit had AVOD screens.
Lets see how cheap we are then. Headphones. $5, alcoholic drinks $7 . Since I hadn't brought my United ones, it was back to the cheap over the ear jobs that get sore after 10 minutes. I really need to invest in a pair of noise canceling ones one year.
The aircraft pushed back on time, and after a chug around Heathrow, we turned onto the runway, and strgiht up in the the big blue.
Off again!
After takeoff, it was a a it turbulent and cloudy – a nice start. What didn’t help was the seat wasn’t exactly behaving. If I lent back too much the seat started leaning back of it’s own accord.
After a while, the IFE started (AVOD), however, where is the airshow function? Didn’t seem to be one
. The addition of an old edition of Click, Fast Track, and How I met your mother
IFE Boots!
Service began after 30 minutes , with a sales pitch for the headphones (Guilty), and then lunch and drink service (alcohol declined) and a “meal” service.
Lunch – of sorts.
Hmm. Ok, taking this apart – it was Chargrilled chicken with mash with peas in a Spanish sauce (main – although to be honest, I’m not sure if the sauce would have been anywhere near spain), Bean Salad (side), Chibatta bread (Rock level). The portions were a bit small, but as far as TATL Y food goes, it was edible. That’s’ all you can ask for in Y I suppose.
The seat itself. A bit worn, and a bit narrow I think, and with a few cables here and there… this A330 has seen better days.
Even Envoy looked a bit tired – think BMI Premium Economy for those who have seen my previous reports. Personally, I’m not sure if I would pay for the extra – especially for a 7 hour 39 minute hop. I’ll think about that on the return leg.
Why in the blue...
Drink runs were reasonable, with FULL cans of Diet Coke served *hint hint*, with softs remaining free for me, not a bad thing as that what I mostly drink
AVOD selection was reasonable ie – not great, but I’ve had worse selections in the past
The flight itself started soothing out after crossing into the Atlantic, but it was sill heavily cloud covered. After 3 hours – the llghts finally went down.
The flight itself was quite choppy with cloud cover from end to end for all practical purposes – a shame as I was looking forward to Greenland as usual.
Mid-route, there was a pretzel and orange juice water run. Standard Pretzel fare, small, nibbable and overdone with salt, where as the orange juice came from a can. Oh the fun.
Midflight.
Towards the end of the flight, there was a snack run with turkey ham and cheese herb bread warm snack.
Yes, it was completely artificial. But at this point of the game, it tasted *good*.
Little did I know that this snack would have fuel me...
Next up: PHL-SEA. Or "Run like the wind!"