As we didn't really have hand luggage due our expected Manhattan tour I chose 1A/C for our puddle jump to ORY. We got to LHR and checked in. I tried to get the luggage checked through to SFO from LHR. It started to confuse the lady at Bag Drop so I just said don't worry about it. Through South Security I noticed
C-W-S waiting to guest someone in to the CCR, he really is a local celebrity in LHR. I just said hi and went through to the North Lounge. I enjoyed the new egg on English muffins. Took the bacon from the hard bacon rolls and made a smashing sandwich.
Through to boarding, and settled in to 1A/C. Not looking forward to what BA now calls brunch, but had a quick ham and cheese croissant and a cup of tea. The flight was uneventful – goodbye UK!
Once we got to ORY I saw F-HAVN on stand operating the BA8003 to EWR. F-GPEK had operated the earlier BA8001 meaning we had F-HAVI, the only OpenSkies aircraft in full BA livery with blue engine nacelles and lower fuselage.
We waited what seemed like an hour for our luggage but once picked up I went to check-in. Check-in is located Hall 3 of the terminal, with the landside IB lounge at the other end in Hall 1.
Check-in opens 3 hours before the flight so had an hour to wait. The IB lounge being landside was therefore a benefit to us as it meant we could wait there for check-in to open. We had our boarding passes on our phones so we were let in without issue. As you can see, it's plain and functional.
Standard IB sandwiches and drinks are available. Rumours of free-pour Pommery were not confirmed. All I could find were 20cl Codorniu Cavas.
Once check-in opened I went downstairs and checked-in without issue - they have a separate line for Biz Bed. I'd heard rumours on FT that near to boarding time, pax in the lounge were escorted through security. This was not offered to us so can’t comment. Security was straight forward with a premium line.
Boarding was a bit of a scrum with no real premium line, although one of the Biz Bed pax from the lounge seemed to make his own line so we followed him. Boarding was through door 2L, always a pleasure turning left.
Back in 1A/C again, took up the offer of the preflight bubbly, and relaxed into the flight.
Now, this will possibly polarize opinion, but when I stay in a hotel I don't really worry about the fixtures and fittings. As long as it's clean you won't see any complaints from me. F-HAVI has those similar dated fittings, but what would turn out to be a comfy seat, fab food and attentive staff.
Take off was powerful as I’d always expected a 752 with only 114 pax to be. Before long iPads and menus were distributed.
The food was lovely – find me a meal this good in Club World. Amuse bouche, Starter, Main, Ice cream, Afternoon snack. The macrons were distributed at tea time, and I went back for seconds – sorry no pics as they weren’t around for long enough!
Once we got to North America the turbulence was choppy and uncomfortable. Would a widebody have been better? I would have thought so. I had another drink to take the edge off.
Had a little nap while watching a film on my iPad. When I awoke it was just about time for tea.
Landed on time into JFK. Luckily we slotted in between some larger BA arrivals so was through immigration pretty swiftly.
Collected our luggage, through customs and redeposited it to SFO.
So here we were 20:00 in JFK. What to do? Or original plan was to stay up all night, mooch around Manhattan and get some sleep on the 08:00 departure to SFO. It was pouring down though - hardly walking the streets weather. Should we just grab a hotel at JFK? We weighed it up over a quick coffee and decided to just head to Manhattan.