Ldnn1

Sounds like an arse. Thanks for the info!

Airlineanorak

madfish

Funky Spike

Re the lounge. I had no problem getting in without an invite just using the mobile boarding pass on my phone.

Spike

MarkedMan

It took literally the time to take out stuff from my bag to get through security: walked right up to the guy checking boarding passes, where the line @madfish mentions can be sometimes seen in the new part of the airport, waved me through upon seeing my mobile BP, walked right up to the desk, picked up trays, placed liquids/laptops and walked through. Maybe 3 minutes.

I had taken a wander around the airport exploring what's what, as I was sure the lounge would not be worth the time, to be fair when I had arrived at first there was a line for the boarding pass check, but when I came back it had cleared. The BA desks where a zoo of people, so glad I had a mobile BP and could skip that mess. 15 minutes in the lounge for a glass of water and a few work approvals processed and I was out to the gate. There aren't many airports I have been to where I would recommend getting there 75 minutes before the flight, but if you don't have a bag to check this is def one of them.

Markie

I was there on a Saturday morning so it may well have been worse than a work day.

H2L

Little late in the day (on the way back from my run) but can someone PM me the WhatsApp group? Think I sat next to Scallywag 72 this morning on PHX-LAX (or Mr Scallywag as the ground crew know him) but missed the chance of introducing myself to FT royalty. Cheers.
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KC818

Hi All

This is my first post and the first thing I world like to say is a big thank you to all the people that contributed to the forum. In particular, KARFA and rossmacd. I've learned so much from you guys and managed to retain Gold with a single OTP-PHX trip which is awesome. Unfortunately I can't make the do but thought I would share a few points as a small contribution to the community.

Regarding OTP, my understanding is that the BA crew stays overnight so you'll have different crews if you fly out on BA884 at 1900 and return on BA885 the next day at 0830. From my experience, BA884 and BA885 are bussed in whereas BA886 used an airbridge. The bus transport is not ideal as it adds quite a bit more time, especially at Border Control. Don't use the first two kiosks that are for Crews as they just jumped to the front of the queue.

If you stay at Vienna House, it's about 10 minutes' walk if you know the way. The DoubleTree is about half an hour by Uber (under GBP 10 excluding tips) in the morning but more than double the time during rush hour. The Uber driver picked me up at the car park barrier, i.e. inside the car park, which is across the road where the waiting taxis are. One strange thing about the hotels were that they made you sign an agreement to pay a cleaning fee if you do smoke in the room but the rooms had a strong stale smoking smell in both Vienna House and DoubleTree.

I got back to the airport at about 0715 for the BA885. Security took about 10 to 15 minutes and you do need to take everything such as power cable and supply for the laptop out but there were no queues for Border Control. I did manage to spend about 10 minutes in the lounges. You may use both the VIP and the Tarom lounge on the mezzanine floor. I had an invite for the VIP lounge but just used my boarding pass to get into Tarom. They are equally unspectacular. I just got a can of drink there and I think spending 10 minutes in either would be too long.

By the way, at PHX you can use the countesy phones dotted around the airport if you need to make a local call which I believe is area code 602. I used it to call the hotel for the shuttle pick up. For AA arriving at Terminal 4, the pick up is at the island to the right of the taxi stand outside Door 7 North. If the free PHX WiFi browers doesn't open after connection, type w w w . boingo . com and it should redirect back to the PHX portal. It's free for 24 hours and quite useful for when you are landside.

Safe travels!

KARFA

Welcome to FT KC818!

Thank you for your comments, and thanks for your informative post.

londonLHR

Iamnotlost

If you go to the Information Desk at PHX, where you enter baggage reclaim, they will ring your hotel for you. I have done it 3 times so I don't think it was a fluke.

mikeyfly

Boring question folks - I have a 7hr non back to back at PHX - does anyone have any experience of jumping on an earlier flight ? I am LAS-PHX-LAS - is there airside ticketing desks ?

rossmacd

You can go on standby for an earlier flight and it might clear. The higher the status you are, the more likely. Even more likely if you are willing to downgrade to Y, since F will most likely be full of upgrades by that point.

See more here: https://www.aa.com/i18n/plan-travel/...day-travel.jsp

Any of the Customer Service desks, or preferably the AC agents will be able to help you.

mikeyfly

Very helpful thanks Ross - I'll get straight on it as soon as I land - for the 1hr flight I can cope with Y ! Better than 7 hours in an AC

rossmacd

No problem. One thing to remember is when you are at the gate for the standby flight, do not leave the gate until the boarding door is actually closed and the agent switches your standby to the next flight (if there is one). This way you standby for the next flight and give all possible time for someone to no show (which they can do quite late).