Ancient Observer

If your holiday times allow, I am with others on this - a trip to Yosemite is brilliant. ....But it is quite a way off H 1 or H101. We took quite a while to get there - "back roads" as LA and SF had not been fun driving!

Donsyb

We did San Diego/ Flagstaff/ Monument Valley/ Page (Horseshoe Bend & Antelope Canyon)/ Vegas/LA last year - fantastic trip. Flew BA return to LA, then internal flights to San Diego, Phoenix and from LAS to LAX. I was in CW on the 787 and it was great.

We're due to fly to Seattle and Vegas later this year, not looking forward to the old metal.

The AA 777s were pretty good in CW last time I flew on them, newer and better than BAs.

TLMTOED

I think the original question was around which planes to go for (if you can), which airports and BA vs AA. I think most of the advice I would have top of mind has been given one way or another, but as I fly LHR to West Coast around twice a month, I thought I would summarise my particular thoughts:

Planes:
- Personally I would prioritise A380 and 787 over other available aircraft, for a couple of reasons... mainly, cabin altitude and noise, which nets out to you just feeling substantially better at the other end compared to an older aircraft. Also, it's just fun (in my opinion) travelling on a newer plane... noticing all the little improvements and being able to think to yourself, "I got out there on one of those new(ish) Dreamliners/380s"
- After that I would agree with others that top deck of a 747 is the next best option (though bear in mind, if you take a roller carry on bag, it probably wont fit in the overhead bins - small problem and perhaps not applicable to you if you're going on a long vacation and therefore likely checking your luggage
- And also agree that you should use the cabin refresh thread to check if it's possible that you'll be in an refreshed cabin. Personally, I rarely watch the IFE anyway and use my phone or tablet... but it's worth setting your own expectation perhaps (to avoid disappointment) that you might encounter a tiny, old fashioned TV, if you are potentially using an unrefreshed plane

Airports:
- 380s do, or at least did until recently, fly into SFO. Not every flight though. So SFO on a 380 would be a good option, but check the schedule
- San Jose airport is excellent. Small, quick, less traffic, only a (quite) short drive to San Francisco if you are heading that way (as it sounds like you are). And it is exclusively served by 787's as far as I remember (by BA, I mean of course)
- It might also be worth considering the LHR end. In general, at CW level and without status, I wouldn't say there wasn't much in it between T3 and T5 lounges. If you are flying first, then I would definitely try to optimise for flying from T5 as you have the Concorde Room there. T5 is a nicer terminal (in my opinion) but T3 is fine.

BA vs AA:
- I haven't ever flown AA Business Class. What I would miss from a BA flight compared to a flight on perhaps most US based carriers however is the crew, who in general I find to be excellent (possibly controversial)

Varig_dc10

Does anybody know what time of night BA release new reward flights?

For example, today I can book flights departing 8th July 2020.
Will flights departing on the 9th July 2020, come available at midnight, or do they normally get loaded up at say 2:00 am?

Also, does anyone know when seat choice becomes available in Club World?
Is it as soon as you book the flight?

rapidex

0001Z or later as they see fit.

Varig_dc10

Hi,

Just a bit of an update.

I have managed to book four Club World seats from Heathrow Terminal 3 to Las Vegas.

The aircraft is a Mid-J 747, so there is a small chance we might end up with the old Rockwell Collins IFE.
But I've had another look at the Mid-J Cabin Refresh thread and the BA Fleet Tracker thread.
By the time we travel, there should only be 13 Mid-J 747's left. Only four of them will be Rockwell Collins IFE.
So we might get lucky.

I was hoping that we would be able to select our seats as soon as we had booked the flight.
But it turns out that only Silver and Gold members can do that.

If we had not been able to get flights to one of our first choice airports, I would have had to spend about £500 on domestic flights.
I've now used that money to reserve four seats in the bubble.
My two teenage kids don't know we are travelling in Club World, so it will be good to see their faces when we board.
I assume we will board via the main deck and go up the internal stairs?

Our itinerary is pretty much set now, although we may need to shuffle San Diego and Carmel/San Francisco around, depending where the return flight departs from.

Las Vegas - 3 Nights
Grand Canyon - 3 Nights
San Diego - 4 Nights
Anaheim - 5 Nights
Carmel - 2 Nights
San Francisco - 2 Nights

I would still have liked to visit Yosemite. But obviously the kids want to spend more time in the theme parks. So something had to give.

I doubt we will get Club World back from SFO, SJC, LAX or SAN. So we will probably have to travel home from another US airport. But we are happy to do that.

If anyone is interested, the reward flights come available at 1:00am. I stayed up on three different nights to try and book a flight and the 1:00am release time seemed to be consistent.

I read somewhere (probably on this forum) that Club World travellers at Terminal 3, can use the American Airlines and Qantas lounges. Is that true for everybody or again is it Silver and Gold members?
What is the T3 Club World lounge like compared to T5?

Thanks again,
Varig_DC10.

saccosekk

Yup! Only the A380 boards the upper deck using a jet bridge. Congrats on the booking, and good thinking reserving the upper deck CW cabin. As Bronze you would have gotten free seat selection a week out, but by then a lot of the good seats might have been taken, especially given you're travelling in peak season.

The BA lounges in T5 and T3 are broadly similar in terms of their offering, but unlike in T5, there is some serious competition.
You'll have access to the BA Galleries lounge, AA lounge, Qantas lounge, and the Cathay Pacific lounge. If you show up early enough you can visit all four!

I used to live in Vancouver which is served by T3 and I far prefer it to T5, much due to the lounge situation. There are multiple threads on FT extolling the virtues of each lounge. The long and short of it is that BA and AA are widely considered the worse two lounges, but the AA lounge has pick and mix sweets you can take on to the plane which may be of interest to the kids!

Cathay has a noodle bar cooking up a variety of fresh Asian dishes and is the only business lounge in T3 with food cooked on demand. The Qantas buffet is generally pretty good too, though. If you're a gin person be sure to check out the Qantas gin bar, failing that, both Qantas and Cathay have a manned bar happy to dish out any cocktail, BA and AA are self serve.

Varig_dc10

Great, we've got a long connection, so we will try and visit all four. Assuming my wife can drag me away from the QF Gin Bar!

JERmlb

phenombr

StingWest

Yes, you need to visit Yosemite early in the morning for the best experience. I have a house near the entrance, and advise people coming from outside the park to try to get to the Western gate no later than 7:30am - earlier if possible. It's another 50-60 mins into the Valley from the Rt 120 entrance at that hour, and you should be able to find a parking space in Curry Village.

squawk

PoincianaKings

747_not_777

I've just booked flights to PHX for next Summer and having not flown there for 12 months, I was surprised to find there were no mid-J 744s on that route any longer. But for next summer at least, it appears to now be 777s... Where did you pick up 787s from?

And does anyone know if PHX would be 777-300s or 200s?

The _Banking_Scot

Hi.

PHX moves to a 789 from the winter 19/20 timetable start then to a 777 300 from the summer 20 timetable start
​​​​​​Regards

Tbs