UA 931 LHR-SFO. Got to the airport in about an hour 15 on the tube (I'd thought of taking the Heathrow Express, which would have taken about half the time but at a cost of something like $20). Checked in at the F/1K desk, which had a line of one, as
compared to the C-class desk, which had a line of about 20, or the Y one, for which it looked like there was a half-hour wait. Had been assigned 8A, first row of C, but as I thought we'd be skirting Greenland on the south I changed to 13J in the
second C cabin. Took the Fast Lane, which last time had taken seconds; this time it took something like 20 minutes, as it was almost as crowded as the regular line. Passed security and customs, did a bit of duty-free, and then had breakfast (some
rather yucky Danish and several glasses of wine) at the RCC; then, still feeling peckish, I tried to go back to the departure area where there was an oyster bar. I was given the full patdown at the little return gate, pretty weird as this was supposed
to be all in a secure area. Turned out oysters were $3 each and didn't look big or fresh, so I gave up on that and went to the plane. Got on and found myself sitting next to an affluent-looking, plump Scots-Irishman who spent half his time eating and
half his time reading yachting and car magazines. Turns out - so much for my clever plan to ditch my primo seat for a secundo one on the more scenic side of the aircraft - that we were routed away north of all that, well into King Christian Land, way
up over the Arctic Circle to the 70th parallel, which we followed for a couple thousand miles over Baffin and Victoria Islands - I'd wanted to see Hudson's Bay, too, but we were in fact a couple hundred miles north of it. Then south over Alberta and
to the coast. Funny thing was that this ascent took us right over Inverness, a neighborhood I know vaguely, and I inordinately impressed my seatmate and the blonde FA by calling this from 31000 feet. One doesn't expect a middle-aged Asian-American with
weak eyes to be able to point out Dalcross airport. We cruised at 340 and went over Canada at 390 (great views of the frozen Arctic wastes, when the clouds parted; otherwise, great views of the Pratt & Whitney Dependable Engines logo on the gigantic
80,000 lb thrust jet), climbing to 410 to avoid some turbulence. The movies were Mystery, Alaska; Three to Tango; The Muse; The Thomas Crown Affair (why for the remake they had the gall to misspell the title I can't figure); Runaway Bride; Viva Zapata; [ctd]