Back to Dulles.
Of course, being stuck in the back end of Dulles means a hike through all of the A concourse, and finally into the new "Train station". For those of you who are wondering, a lot of the wonderful Dulles moon buggies have been replaced with an "AeroTrain" (with limited moon buggy service around the airport now).
And whilst nice and fast between concourses, its a mile hike to get to it, then another mile to get to C Concourse at the end of it. Whist I understand this when for when the "new" Concourse C/D gets built, some of us are wondering when are they going to be bothered to start - as we all know Dulles C/D are some of the most depressing places on the planet.
Where moonbuggies once departed... Even Michelle Obama is smiling about it...
Being in Dulles of course means a visit to one of it's lovely lounges - and C7 was selected as my flight was going from C5
The Entrance to the C7 RCC
United RCC C7 Lounge
I made my way in and presented my Diamond Club card and my boarding pass, where I was greeted warmly. I then asked about my luggage, as I had this fear Air Wisconsin had once again decide to leave my luggage out in the open (as they did last May). A few clicked gave an interesting result - my luggage had decided to travel without me to London the night before.
Can anyone say the words "Security Breach" here?
In addition, I was moved forward a few rows to 30K - whilst not big, its better than 35K at the back of the plane.
But anyway, drink chits were offered freely - a shame the bar was very quiet and I wasn't in the mood for a vodka this morning. So instead I raided the orange juice and coffee bar for a bit.
The view over the bus station
Breakfast things
A shame the breakfast snacks here are so weak in comparison to other stations, but that seems to be Dulles's big problem for United - it has a big load of "MEH" to it and they urgently need to de-meh the place.
I kept an eye on the clock, and saw my flight was about to board to London, so I walked around the lounge and exited to C5 where Star Golds were being boarded. Excellent timing as always. I presented my boarding pass and was beeped aboard. America's Finest TSA was out in force at the gate, but they didn't seem interested in me this time, and let me pass onto the plane
United Airlines 922 Washington Dulles International - London Heathrow Airport
Boeing 767-300ER, Seat 30K, Channel 9 Off 
3677 miles flown, 3677 miles earned.
The pictures
I boarded the plane and was greeted by a London crew heading home. I was directed to the back of the plane, where I stowed my backpack and popped the little red bag underneath the seat - running into the first problem of the 767-300ERs - the size of the IFE box in these aircraft is pretty darn big. This doesn't help when your seatmate arrives and starts intruding into the remaining foot space.
Pretty soon the plane filled up again, and interestingly, a full paper run was done through the whole aircraft. A very nice touch by the London crew.
Pushback as slightly delayed, but eventually, the plane pushed back and begun winding it's way around Dulles... and straight into a Penalty Box to allow for a storm cell to pass.
I don't know, but I get the feeling someone at Dulles doesn't like me as I'm now 3 for 3 with penalty box waits here now...
Eventually, the aircraft turned and begun a very long takeoff roll, and eventually, we were up in the air.
Off we go for one last time
Of course, it was as choppy as hell getting in the air, so it took some time for the crew to be released to conduct service.
Finally through
And when it started, it was glacially slow. Eventually, the offer of Pancakes or Omelet made its way to my row, and in a fit of madness, I chose the UA omelet again - whilst joking with the pursers what concoctions Dulles catering came up with again.
Breakfast
Well the omelet - it's "Inspired" I suppose - a cheese and spinach one. Whilst the sausage was slightly burned, I've had worse out of London.
Then there's the pastry.
Oh dear. Whilst not on US Airways bad of level catering (those who have flown TATL with US Airways in the back will know what I mean), it was lacking a lot of things.
Coffee
A drinks run followed the food, but performance seemed to be very slow in the back - maybe they were short on crew, but it did seem overly slow.
To relive the boredom, I decided to make a GhettoIFE system, and ran into a problem - plastic bags. Whilst it sounds good in theory, the plastic on these bags is - to be blunt - tough. And lets face it, I'm going to win no awards this time for the state of this system
Plastic Sickbag Ghetto IFE Systems = FAIL
However, I decided the only course of action since the cloud was solid would be to crash out of for a bit... and crashed out I did. A good 3 hours rest and I was once again ready to watch stuff on the system.
This being a shorter flight, there was of course no snack run, but there were oversalted pretzels in the galley
About a 1000 miles out from London, it started to get a bit bumpy, with solid cloud above and below us. The captain popped the seat-belt sign on, and everyone was locked down for a good few hundred miles. It smoothed out enough for the snack service to begin
The Pre-arrival snack
Whilst comparable to the FRA-ORD snack, this snack wasn't bad, but again, its the details. Things like a larger chocolate bar for example. The drinks service as I had come to expect was very slow.
A clear-down was done, and as the cloud cleared over the Irish sea, we made landfall near Swansea and begun the slow trek and decent to London.
Clearing as we cross the Irish sea
Being late of course, we were chucked into one of Heathrow's stacks (the Ockham stack) for a good five rotations before we were allowed to approach South London, turn and finally land.
Stuck in a stack
Over London
Alas, we landed at the back end of beyond, which meant a long taxi over to Terminal 1, and of course the preferred place to park US bound aircraft - the back end of beyond. The captain released the seat-belt signs, and it was a mad scramble for everyone to get out of the plane.
Overall: Not a bad service, and delays were really out of the flight decks hands, but I can't help feel that the onboard crew were short staffed - and very slow. I'm not sure about the daytime flights (although I can see the benefit of them) - maybe I'm just too used to redeye TATL's...
Back to LHR
Being a US Arrival, of course we were shoved down the back end of beyond at Gate 38 or so, therefore it was a hike to the Europier and then moreso into T1 itself.
IRIS was dead at Heathrow T1, meaning I had to join the 10 switchback queue at Passport control - again, even for a UK Citizen to entry, the passport control people were taking their own sweet time.
It was then a matter of racing to luggage reclaim to see where the little rucksack was - and it was sitting out with yesterdays luggage.
After grunting at a United Luggage handler, it was in my hands and I was through the Green Control Zone, and heading off for the first HEC or HEX to get me into town.
Heathrow Connect - Heathrow Central - London Paddington
Class 360 Desiro (Heathrow Connect 5 Car Configuration), £7.90 Single
As I headed downstairs, a HEX decided to pull out. Doing a quick bit of math in my head working out which train would make it into London in time so I could race across the city, the Heathrow Connect was chosen due to two good reasons - 1) It was the first train to arrive after the HEX, 2) it's half the price of a HEX and 3) 10 minutes .
Ticket inspection was carried out after leaving the Heathrow Central, and the guard hid for the rest of the journey.
25 minutes later, the train arrived at London Paddington at Platform 12 - time enough to get some cash out, and run to the Taxi rank.
It was coming up to 23:00 when the train pulled into Paddington - with 30 minutes to play with - with those time limits, it's no point messing around - it's easier to jump a cab and say that magical colloquium -
"Euston Main Line Station, and step on it!".
And apart from the 1 minute wait outside Paddington Station to get out of the place - he did - 7 minutes later the cab was at Euston Mainline taxi drop off.
A quick bound up the stairs indicated that Euston control once again cannot organise anything, and the 23:30 was awaiting a platform description. As the deadline pasted to 15 minutes before departure, the platform was announced, and half of who were at Euston station moved in the general direction of Platform 15.
Ticket inspectors were at the entry point, and were clipping them before boarding the train.
Virgin Trains London Euston to Birmingham New Street
Class 390 Pendolino
For the last train of the day, it certainly was very busy (even up in the arches of C Coach). The train pulled off on scheduled, and happily whooshed past Watford Junction before grinding to a halt and switching to the slow lines for run up to Milton Keynes. This normally is fine - except for the slow train in-front of us.
After Milton Keynes, the train sped back up, and Rugby, Coventry, Birmingham International and finally Birmingham New Street.
At Birmingham New Street
Not wanting to mess about, another taxi was hailed, and I was dropped off at the flat, bringing another adventure to an end.
My bags - normally I'd do it at the flat, but this time on a train.