Tim_T

This trip was intended to combine visits to family along with a few days stateside for a bit of shopping and relaxation. I had about 2 months to plan the trip. I intended to use miles for some of it so I would have preferred longer, especially with the intended return date being the weekend before 4th of July.

Our first stop after a 6-hour drive from Northern England was the Milton Keynes Hilton. This is a modern hotel a few minutes away from the motorway. There is nothing around the hotel apart from the University and some office buildings – no restaurants, bars, or shopping etc. But then again it is unlikely that you would be using this hotel unless you were driving, this is after all Milton Keynes which is about as American as England gets. We were using the hotel because it was close to family. A short 5-10 min drive gets you to a lot of places including the shopping mall, theatre district, indoor ‘real snow’ ski slope, and parks/lakes.

The hotel itself was OK, nothing really special or unique, much like most of the other ‘Hilton Nationals’ in the UK. At check in we were given two registration cards, one each. This is something I never had before, and was a bit of a pain as none of our details were available on the computer. It was claimed by the check in agent that ‘our system is not linked to the central HHonors system’, which to me was rubbish as she had our name, reservation number and HHonors /FF number in the system just not our address. Our room was fine, again nothing special. No upgrade to speak of, or extra amenities in the room. After a bit of confusion, and a phone call to front desk, we managed to get the lights on after having to insert our key into a rather small box by the door to energise the room. I can understand the reason, but it does mean the room is always stuffy when you enter because the aircon is switched off.

Our rate included an allowance for diner in the evening that we used. The restaurant / bar was very busy with a conference for hairdressers and a wedding both being held in the hotel. Again, the meal was rather plain and fairly expensive, not surprising given the lack of any competition within walking distance. No newspaper in the morning even though it was asked for at check in. No bill under the door either. At check out the full cost of our dinner was on the bill even thought the rate cover it. A quick word got this removed.

Our next stop was the Heathrow Hilton. We were flying from terminal four and had also parked at the long stay nearby so this was very convenient for us. The rate was also excellent. Check in was swift with all details being pre printed on a card. An upgrade to the executive level rooms was automatic. The executive rooms are the same size as the business and standard rooms, but the furniture is a bit better, and a bowl of fruit was present. The lounge is small, but at the weekend not very busy, and like other Europe side lounges included free drinks. I had printed a two for one meal reward voucher from the HHonors website - This is such a simple process and so much better than having to phone up to claim a reward. We used this for a buffet diner, which would have been very overpriced if we hadn’t. Checked out in the lounge before the short walk over to T4.

When I was planning this trip I looked at both Boston and New York as destinations, along with Manchester, Heathrow and Gatwick as departure points. I looked at the price of tickets and found them a little steep for when I wanted to travel and therefore decided to try to use my miles as I was flexible in departure and destination points. BA has recently introduced online rewards so I gave this a try. You are able to enter your departure and arrival airport along with the number of seats required and the class. The website then returns a calendar showing a month and what days your selection is available. This is much better than having to go thru each date in turn. Once you have picked your outbound, another calendar is shown for return flights. When you have completed your selection, your seats are reserved and a confirmation number issued. You then need to phone the service centre within 24hrs to confirm the reward. I found limited flights available for both Boston and JFK/Newark in economy on dates that were suitable which surprised me – I wasn’t expecting any! I then tried LHR to JFK in the new world traveller plus as the supplement was only 10k each over economy. To my initial surprise, every date with every flight was available. When I actually thought about this, the surprise subsided a bit – the service is new and hence a lot of people perhaps don’t know about it. Anyway, tickets in WT+ to JFK were quickly booked, and a call to the service centre confirmed the selection. To do this all on the phone would have taken hours.

On arrival at T4 we quickly found the checkin. There is no special checkin for WT+, but this didn’t matter as the queue was short and we were at the desk within 5 minutes. I asked if any upgrades were available, just out of habit – we were after all on free tickets (except for 150gbp of tax !!!) and had no status with BA, he looked at the screen and said no. We collected our boarding passes and headed off to the gate. It was only after I arrived at the gate that I noticed we didn’t even have window seats. I spoke to the gate agent who put a request in our record for a seat change and asked me to come back after the flight closed about 40 minutes before departure. We had a stroll around the duty free, and had a bit of breakfast as we had rather a lot of time to kill. As we were walking around the terminal we saw a mock up of the new club world beds, but there was a bit of a queue so we didn’t try them out – may be another day. At 40 minutes before departure we got our seat change and then waited about 10 more minutes before boarding. Handing our boarding passes over to the gate agent she said with a smile ‘oh, you seat assignment has changed again’ - would you believe it a surprise upgrade for two to new club world, and on free tickets!

On boarding the 747-400 we walked through what seamed like hundreds of club world seats before arriving at ours towards the back of the plane. The configuration of the plane was heavily biased towards club, as this stretch all the way back behind the wing before 4 rows of WT+ and then only one small cabin of economy right at the back. I think this is a bit mean for the economy passengers, as they have to walk through loads of club seats, then the WT+ before reaching their (small and cramped) seats. After stowing our carry on in the empty overhead bins (nothing is allow under the seat in front) we settled down. Initially my wife took the window as normal, but then decided that she didn’t fancy taking off backwards so we swapped. Take off backwards was strange. The view was excellent because you are facing the ground, but the slight ‘hanging out of the seat’ sensation wasn’t very pleasant.

We swapped back once the flight had levelled out. This was not particularly easy because of the way the seating is arranged. The seat behind the aisle seat, once the footstool is raised, completely blocks the exit from the window seat. You have to climb over a footstool that is approx 18 inches high and about the size of a small seat. Other gripes that I had with the seat include the stupid flapping dividers between the seats. These constantly flapped away during the flight, slapping against each other and making an irritating noise. There was no position for them that didn’t obstruct communication between the seats (remember you are facing each other which should have made it easier), and they cause the flight attendant no end of problems with meal and drink service. The plus side is the window seat once reclined and with flaps spread apart is very cosy and effective for sleep.

Overall I was impressed with new club world, but didn’t feel it was as fantastic as some people think. The layout is not the best, the seats are a bit cramped and very awkward for the window and centre seats, and the BA service is not as prompt or friendly as other rival airlines. To be honest, my loyalty to a certain British competitor will not change.

On arrival at JFK we took the airport bus into the city. With hindsight this was perhaps a mistake. It was cheaper than a taxi for the return journey, but took quite a bit longer. I didn’t read the sign about hotel transfer very well, as was expecting the bus to drop us off. Unfortunately we had to change at grand central and then wait for a shuttle bus to take us to our hotel, which happened to be last of 5 in the run. Anyway, we arrived at the Waldorf=Astoria at a pretty decent 4 in the afternoon. There was already a queue for checkin and no obvious VIP checkin area so I ask a stern looking security chap manning the checkin line if there was a VIP area. ‘No, only for diamonds’ in an obvious tone of therefore not for you. ‘That’s fine, I’m diamond anyway’ was my reply much to his annoyance. The diamond checkin was a small room with seats off to the side. We were quickly checked in, and our reward voucher for the stay taken. I asked if we had been upgraded to which she told us we had a boutique room. This didn’t have lounge access because ‘that’s only available to towers guest’. I didn’t argue, but felt sure the main hotel had a lounge as well. We were given a couple of pre-printed with our name vouchers for some drinks.

The room was very nice, a good size mini suite type. It had a large bedroom with TV and desk, a slightly smaller second room that held large fitted wardrobes and a dressing table, and a marble bathroom with a large bath - plenty of space for us for three nights. I did check the in room documents which talked of an Astoria Lounge for guest on the Astoria level. This is different to the Towers, but in the end I was not prepared to argue it out with the diamond check in lady, as the room was fine. We freshened up and then explored the area around the hotel before grabbing some dinner at a local deli.

The next two days we spent exploring and shopping. This included a trip out to the Bronx zoo and a nice wander around central park in the morning watching everyone jogging and reading before work. I must say I found the subway to be harder to navigate than others I have used, including Washington DC, London, Paris and Moscow. This may be because of engineering work that caused the trains to not stop at stations they were supposed to. In all it took 2 hours for us to get from Lexington Av to the Bronx Zoo. We did not eat at the hotel, or indeed use our vouchers for drinks, preferring to try local (and cheaper) establishments, including Ruth’s for a very tasty strip steak.

We checked out of the Waldorf and took the return leg of our airport bus service back to JFK to pick up a hire car for a couple of days. Much to the confusion of the bus driver, we didn’t care which terminal, and ended up at terminal 4. We then waited an hour for a hertz bus to turn up in an area with no seats, little shade with building work and dust everywhere. After a long tour of the airport, we finally arrived at our car, which was ready and waiting. I had booked a full size with never lost, and ended up with a town car which was fine we us. I have never had a car with never lost so didn’t really know what to expect. I have to agree, you are never lost with the system (unless in a tunnel) as it does know where you are, however its interpretation of your destination does not always correspond with your own. Within 5 minutes we were heading the wrong way down an interstate on the advice of the system before it then complained (in a female voice) that I was on the wrong road. I think part of the problem is that you have to select a type of route i.e. shortest distance, shortest time, most use of freeway. All of these give different routes, and can require you to travel back the way you have just come to take a minor road just to shave 100yards of the journey. Another problem was that it didn’t always tell me to turn off, typically when one road had two numbers and then split into two roads. Anyway, after much swearing at the system we finally made it to Montauk Point via the outlets at Riverhead. We stretched our legs with a walk to the lighthouse and along the dunes before heading back the way we had come to East Hampton and the Maidstone Inn for the night.

The next day we spent exploring the towns, villages and beaches of the area, including East Hampton, Sag Harbour, Mastic Beach, Bridgehampton, & Jones Beach SP before finding the Huntington Hilton for our last night. The Huntington Hilton is a rather nice hotel. It has both and indoor and outdoor pool and a very good restaurant. I had kept an eye on the rates and the week before travel had changed our booking to dinner bed and breakfast for only 10 usd more. When we priced what we had for diner it came to over 100usd - A bargain in my book. We had a nice room on the executive level with lounge access except the lounge never appeared to be open.

Our last morning we spent walking on the beach before heading back to JFK and the Hertz return. I left plenty of time in case we had to wait a further hour for a bus, just in case! A minor bit of confusion with our bill for the car as our rate included a coupon (via Virgin) for a free tank of gas. Once that was sorted we took the bus to the terminal, which thankfully wasn’t too long. Check in for our flight was swift. Again I asked for consideration for upgrades, and was told it was possible but to check at the gate. At the gate there was however nothing for us, which didn’t bother me as we were on free tickets, had no status, and had already received one upgrade that week. Boarding was quick and easy, but we did wait for about 200 US high school students who were heading to the UK for 4 weeks to board first. The plane was full, and was different in configuration to our outbound flight. This one had two cabins of economy, and in WT+ we were in the same position as in the new club world going out. The WT+ was quite a bit bigger than economy, had a good foot rest and reclined well. The seats we had were in the second row, and only had one seat in front of the aisle seat which gave the window seat tons of leg room. We took off 1 hour late because of ATC delays, had a rather disappointing meal, and arrived back in the UK on time.

We collected our bags, negotiated the mob of tired and grumpy high school students also trying to find their bags, before collecting our car and heading to see family (and to take a well needed shower). I didn’t fancy driving 350miles after an over night flight, so we spent the last night of the vacation at the East Midlands Airport Hilton, which was very cheap and made a good stopping off point for our journey home. The hotel was modern and well located just off the motorway. Check in was swift with an upgrade to a plaza room, which wasn’t any bigger than other rooms but better furnished. The final leg of driving got us back home.

Looking back on the holiday, I was very pleased with it. Everything went according to plan with no major slip-ups. The flights were good, especially the upgrade to club, but overall my opinion of BA has not changed and I will continue to generally fly Virgin. We made a packet with bonus points and miles thanks to Hilton (and Amex), splitting stays between both our accounts to take advantage to complete two 50k bonuses. Upgrades at Hilton were generally automatic, which is a welcome change from having to argue for them. I was very pleased to get flights and hotel in New York as rewards with only 2 months notice; this saved us a lot of money. Overall an excellent holiday, and a welcome break from work!