StarlightSusan

As promised here's the report from the first part of my journey:

Flight from PHL-DUB in coach on the AA Airbus 330-200 was OK. Seat was comfy enough and food was edible. Arrived at DUB about 10 minutes late and headed to C&I. I followed the signs for connecting flights and headed left past the huge line for Non-EU passport holders only to discover that the connecting flights station was closed (it was about 9:20 a.m. on a Friday). So I walked back to the (now even longer) non-EU passport holders line at C&I (It now stretched up the corridor heading back to the gates).

It took about 30 minutes to reach the head of the line. As I got close to the head of the line I observed a man with a very distinctive scarf head towards the connecting flights portal (more in a moment).

The immigration agent quizzed me on how long I would be in Ireland and I mentioned that I was connecting and that the connections portal had been closed. He then asked how long I would be in London and told him I was heading right back to the states. He seemed genuinely puzzled at this and asked why. I said it was a mileage run and he still didn't understand, asking why again. I finally said it was because it was cheap and earned a lot of miles. He just shook his head and let me through with a confused look on his face. I was really surprised he hadn't heard about mileage running, especially as a DUB C&I officer (he was definitely not "green" by any measure).

As I was walking along the walkway to terminal 1 I came across the man with the distinctive scarf, so they had opened the connecting flights portal sometime while I was in the long line.

The DUB-LHR flight was uneventful (though I was impressed by the amount of service BA gave during a very brief flight) and we arrived at the DUB flights gate at T5A. I got off the plane quickly and things didn't seem crowded so I used the connecting flights path (sorry C-W-S ). I had checked in on-line with BA before leaving PHL and my BP had "Fast Track" on it so I just followed the signs. There was practically no line for Fast Track security and I made it to the T5B lounge in less than 20 minutes from arrival at the gate.

I boarded the A380 to LAX and at no time did anyone ask me any of the usual questions or put a sticker on my BP. Is this because I printed it at home or because I had cleared C&I at DUB?

The LHR-LAX flight in CW (window seat) was good. Service for the first 2 hours of the flight was excellent, however, the FAs pretty much disappeared for the next 7 hours with only 1 pass through the cabin offering water. I made several trips to the snack area in the galley for water during that time. I'm not sure where the FAs hide on the A380 but it's nowhere near the upper deck CW section. The CW seat is OK and I found it comfortable. However, I think that the odd arrangement where you need to squeeze between two seats while climbing over the opposite seat's footrest is awkward. Also the foot rest is a bit of a bother with manual adjustments that don't work well.

I'll do the PHL-DUB-PHL flights soon and will report on those too. Hopefully the connecting flights portal at DUB will be open, otherwise it's going to be a tight turn.