Me and some friends had said for years that we would go to New Orleans. One of the girls and her bf had been four times and the group of us thought it would be a great trip to do together. Years and years passed and we never did anything about it. Until last year. On New Year's Day 2019 in our hungover state, we agreed that 2019 would be the year we finally went to New Orleans. They flew direct to MSY from LHR whereas I took a little more circuitous route. Given that I am in Aberdeen, I didn't feel so bad not booking the same flight as them. The re was a deal on Business Class flights to Vegas so I jumped on that (going through LAX first and for which flight I managed to use some Avios to upgrade to First Class). Flights from LAX to MSY were ridiculously expensive when I was looking - over £650 so I shelled out some Avios and I was booked.
Final routing: ABZ - LHR - LAX - LAS - LAX - MSY - DFW - LAX - LAS - LAX - JFK - LHR - ABZ. Yes, quite creative!
A few weeks before departure the prices on the MSY flights went down significantly so I cancelled my Avios booking and paid with cash. Those extra 200 tier points would come in handy.
The day of departure came - a Saturday. I took the bus to Aberdeen airport in the early afternoon. From my place, it takes just under an hour. Check-in wasn't open when I arrived so I waited about 10 mins until the staff came down and then left my case and headed to the lounge. I've reviewed Aberdeen lounge before so I won't say much. It's still a great wee lounge and a very pleasant place to spend some time before the flight. The staff there are all wonderful.
Before long, our bird from London arrived along with some other traffic.
BA1309, ABZ - LHR, G-EUYA, A319
It was starting to rain as we were boarding so it was a quick dash up the steps and onto the plane.
These flights down south to London don't take long at all. Just enough time to "enjoy" the Afternoon Tea and have a few drinks.
I went with the sandwiches today rather than the Ploughman's lunch (I do wish they'd swap out the blue cheese on that to a nice cheddar.....). The sandwiches were OK. The scone is always my favourite part! Decent crew on this flight giving regular top ups which is always appreciated.
Given that it was getting close to 4pm, the sun was starting to set so the views out of the window were lovely.
Not much of a loop the loop and we were in Heathrow. Bags didn't take long to arrive and I was then on my way to the Hilton Garden Inn just beside Hatton Cross tube station for the evening.
It was a pretty quiet evening. I had a few beers and soemrghing to eat and then headed to bed at a decent time given that I was getting up around 6.30am to head back to Heathrow.