Trip Report EDI-LHR-LAX-LAS-LAX-LHR-EDI

Old Oct 29, 2014, 4:24 pm
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Join Date: Jul 2013
Location: Scotland
Posts: 122
Trip Report EDI-LHR-LAX-LAS-LAX-LHR-EDI

Sorry all ... this is a little belated, I had great intentions of posting images, but haven't quite gig my head round how to do it anyway ....

Our journey started just over a year ago with reading hour after hour here on Flyertalk. It's a bewildering and encyclopedic reference for us all and to everyone who contributes, thanks very much - we took your advice !

On booking .... I became possessed !! Checking availability three, four, five times a day until I got a pair of matching seats out and back to LAX. I checked with my wife in dates (mistake) and within minutes they were gone .... Lesson learned but a pair of CW Seats popped up a week later and bingo, we were off to LAX. These had awkward connections (EDI-LHR-LAX Then LAX-LHR/LGW-EDI) but, based in FT feedback, I thought I'd take my chances later.

The FT addiction didn't stop there though I continued to look for a pair of Seats in F and, after a few months, not only did a pair open up on return, but so did the return flight from LHR-EDI.

So, as booking goes, a good experience.

As a Bronze, seats were not pre-bookable other than the F return leg. We did reserve a pair but, somehow, when the flight schedule change, so did our reservations and we got moved back from row 2 to row 3 .... No big deal.

We then thought about what we wanted to do and Mrs A decided we're going to Las Vegas so I checked and, low and behold, we snagged a pair of Y seats on AA that connected with our LAX flight.

The agent said they'd add this to the original PNR but had to call us back as the tax difference was [somehow] -300+ .... Clearly not right (!). In the end, it should have been 9000 Avios and about 13 each in tax that we billed to our BA Amex.

Well return to this mix up later



EDI-LHR-LAX

Early check in due to bags [and Mrs A's risk aversion to cutting it neat] then off to the new lounge ... Even better, we got accurate information about what to do with our baggage in LAX, and we were checked all the way through to LAS (we'll return to this later too !). Staff, food and ambience all great, followed by an unremarkable and on time flight down.

We decided we wouldn't push our luck by stopping at the lounge in T5 (we had about 45 mins to make the connection) so instead we stopped at Starbucks to spend our 15 each for two bottles of Mot that we enjoyed later in the trip.

On board and settled in we hit the first real issue .... The SD card in my camera (yes, the one that I'd just bought the new lens for) was still in the laptop, in the drawer, in the house ! So iPhone it was for photos until we could buy another in Las Vegas.

We booked seats upstairs on the A380 in 53 J/K a week out (I'm a Bronze so that's as early as I could). In general, though there was a bit of noise from the Galley, there wasn't enough to stop me booking them again and they were great. Staff and food were great, the only minor inconvenience being that the Tattinger ran out and Mrs A tried the Castelnau (tried, but declined to finish). I found the Sauvignon and Bordeaux great and a great accompaniment to the food. Of fascination was the enormity of the upstairs loos, where I'm told you can fit 17 crew members in the forward port one - sounds fun !)

Disembarkment (or de-planing as it seems to be fashionably called these days) went smoothly, immigration was swift and pleasant with the bags arrived within about 25 mins total - all good. Then came an inordinate wait to get your customs card checked whilst loads of eejits (Scottish terminology) got pulled for taking all manner or disallowed things into the USA. That took about 45 minutes and then we dropped the bags and headed out of TBIT and into T4.

We went to the Admirals Club to kill the 2 and a half hours or so. A friendly welcome and a swap from my BA issued Boarding Card to an AA one (why, no one knows), four drink vouchers and we settled down to wait. These lounges aren't quite what we're used to by BA but it was clean, drinks were fine and we could FaceTime home to see how the 'kids' were.

We left for the gate in good time and, with ten minutes to go, heard those words that no traveller ever wants to hear ... "Smith [thats our real names - honest], party of two, please see the desk".

What followed was an involuntary denied boarding (the bags went though), three calls totalling 70+ minutes back to youFirst to get BA to issue the ticket I'd chased them about months ago (remember the tax thing, it got resolved but, despite my questions, no ticket was ever issued). Now, we were checked though to LAS, and when asked to prove we had a ticket we couldn't (remember that nice lady in the Admirals Club that took our BA boarding passes )

Mrs A lost her sense of humour, but eventually we got a later flight. Too late to meet our friends who we overlapped with for one night and our show ..... Not 'appy

In the process .... and working in the airline industry, I was appalled at the attitude to security by travelers and staff alike. On pointing out three unaccompanied bags in the AA customer service room, the ground staff said they'd seen the man who left them and they were probably just buying something elsewhere. When their supervisor did the same, they were also told the same. Only when the supervisor started checking tags etc, the women who owned them reclaimed them. #Gobsmacked


Anyway .... AA flight to LAS was great, new aircraft, clean, efficient and great service. Bags arrived in no time at all and we were downtown quickly (albeit several hours after we needed to be).

We did lots of walking (my new fit app says a between 14,000 and 29,000 steps per day), "socialising", shopping and relaxing and we even managed to take in a show after all.

We stayed at the Vdara. A great hotel, great location, great F&B promotions and choices across the Group (Mandarin Oriental, Aria, Bellagio plus many others). I loved the way we could charge from any of their hotels back to your room. We had a couple of issues and their customer services fixed them quickly and made us happy again. I'd like to see them try a bit harder with room cleanliness, but all in all, I'd use them again.

After 5 days in Las Vegas (with hindsight, 3 too many for us) it's back to LA for two nights.

We chose Southwest on recommendation and paid around $90 each. For that, we got fast kerbside check-in, two hold bags (each), a drink, peanuts and a warm welcome. This was what flying was like thirty years ago, until they added up the peanut costs, removed them in case of allergic lawsuits, and generally commoditised the living daylights out of flying ..... Anyway, I'm now a Southwest, as well as a BA, fan.

In LA we're staying in Santa Monica with Dale and Paul Newman, we found and booked a room with them from airbnb.com as an alternative to another characterless hotel. It was great !

Everything about Santa Monica was the antidote we needed for Vegas. We met some great people, walked and walked and walked all day and enjoyed the sunsets. We found it a great way to spend a couple of days achieving absolutely nothing ..... this is our kind of vacation !

So .... So far, we had some firsts .... First time on the A380, first time in Las Vegas, first time in Santa Monica and first time flying Southwest ..... So time for some more ......

On return ..... First time using Uber.com. Using a voucher provided by our hosts in Santa Monica, our return trip to LAX was a free ride. I understand why people, cabbies in particular, don't like Uber, but I did, finding the cars clean, the drivers friendly and engaging, and the service predicable.

Our next first, was our first First experience !

Check-in was easy and off the the one world lounge it was. Security was an easy experience, albeit, fast track is not a description I'd use. The lounge had a great selection of food and drinks and then we were called to the gate for boarding.

The team working the a first cabin didn't half work hard ! They showed my wife to her seat (we were in 3E and 3F), then worked their way through the cabin with sleep suits, wash bags and glasses of LPGS to settle us down

We were looked after by Rob, a charming and friendly young man who provided great service to us, and really did look after us. To be fair, others served us too, and they were all great.

The CSD (are they still called that, or am I showing my age ?), came to speak to us, acknowledging it was our first First, a nice touch that Mrs A was very appreciative of and later in the flight he came back to update us on our (tight) connection back to EDI.

We disembarked at LHR, flew through immigration in no time at all then spent 45 minutes in a security queue that is, frankly, an embarrassment to HAL. That we waited, in fast track (don't you just love the way we use terminology that rarely means what it says !), 20 minutes to strip ourselves, empty things out that we didn't in LAX, and then have two of our 5 trays pulled for special examination was frustrating. That it took 25 minutes of waiting for them to test the two items of concern (a 1.75l bottle of Grey Goose bought in LAX duty free and still sealed .... plus .... a 100ml bottle of face cream, bought in LAX duty free and still sealed, pretty much sums up the uselessness of our security screening). The security supervisor said he had all 16 machines in use and they all had in excess of 5 trays waiting, hence the wait. After that, it was a quick march to A1 followed by another unremarkable flight back to EDI.

and that .... was LA !
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