Gatwick Alan

Warning, this report will be spread over 3 months and is likely to ramble!

The Preamble

Last winter I didn’t take a holiday, things were looking grim at work and I decided my disposable income was better spent on a kitchen refit and a new car.
As a consequence I spent just over 12 months without a holiday or a flight and I started to get withdrawal symptoms.

After my company had made 750 people redundant, I was one of the fortunate ones to still have a job, I also found myself working back at Gatwick after stints at Heathrow and on other projects off airport.

My late summer holiday normally consists of 2 weeks of chilling out in Arizona, this year I decided to venture slightly further west and spend 2 weeks in Palm Springs.

March arrives and I think I will feel better with a holiday booked so I find a house to hire in Palm Springs and then set about finding flights. There are only really 2 logical choices flying from the U.K, AA or UA.

UA had by far the best schedules and although my experiences with them have been fairly negative and it means changing planes at LAX I decide to book with them.
At the time of booking i had a 2 and a half hour change in LAX and a return flight through Denver. Then the schedule changes started. Firstly they gave me a 1 hour 11 minute connection in LAX, for arriving aliens and a terminal change this was never going to work, so i ring them up and change it, i now have a 4 hour connection at LAX.
Next they cancel the DEN - LHR flight and book me a 7 hour connection in SFO leaving early in the morning. At this point ive had enough and since the schedule change was over 4 hours i cancel the booking.

I text Jo-anne and tell her, she thinks i'm a nutcase where travelling is concerned and assumes correctly i have an alternative plan.

On to the AA website and flights are booked via DFW, which is an altogether superior airport to LAX.

Move forward to June and i read on FT of the buy C get F offer on Emirates to various asian destinations with a stopover in Dubai allowed. For just over £1500 for 4 flights in F, this has just got to be done, so i get on the phone to Trailfinders to confirm they have the offer and LGW - DXB - BKK - DXB - LGW is booked.
Diane a friend of mine finds out i am doing this and wants to tag along, a quick phone call later and she too is booked.

Finally i decide to burn some US and Priority Club points and go to the States for Superbowl weekend, after playing around on the always fractious US website, i come up with a 60,000 mile Envoy trip to Savannah. The website refuses to take the booking so i end up on the phone. 30 minutes and the outrageous U.K departure tax later, i'm all set and 3 holidays are booked.