KARFA

Seattle between Christmas & New Year, and NYC for 6 hours - (LBA-LHR-ORY-LHR-SEA-JFK-ORY-LHR-QQK-Leeds, BA Y&J, AA F, EC J) – December 2013

Another trip report from me. If you want to read some of my travelling background then there is some information at the start of this TR:

TR - Far East inc. Beijing, HK, KL, Singapore & Hanoi (BA J, CX Y, KA Y&J, MH Y, MI Y)

Planning
Back in mid-November 2013 a rather interesting deal from Iberia was spotted by someone and posted on the BA tier point run thread. Here is the start and it really rumbles on for quite a few pages of posts afterwards.

The deal seemed to be exFrance departures were around EUR1050 in J to the US (not Hawaii though). The only way to book seemed to be through the IB site, or on French sites such as ebookers.fr or expedia.fr. There was no promotional code necessary. The fare did not show up on ITA matrix so no one could see the fare rules, but from trial and error it seemed to include outbound legs up to 15 April. Given a chance to travel in J for such a low price I couldn’t resist.

The IB site was not the best to work with, and ebookers.fr seemed to be a bit easier to play with and give some better options. There was no need to go on any IB metal, although you could go to MAD if you wanted and on to the US from there. The most obvious option seemed to be going CDG direct to the US on AA to MIA, ORD, or JFK, and connecting onwards. However, whilst the new J on the AA 77W looks great, I was less than convinced about J on the older 767 and 757s.

In the end I decided that Seattle would be where I wanted to go, so it was just a matter of trying to work through the flight options and see which I wanted to do. Seattle had been somewhere I always wanted to go.

Due to a lack of holidays I could take between November and April 2014 my only real option in terms of dates was between Christmas and New Year, getting back to work for 2 January. I managed to book on ebookers.fr and did an outbound of ORY-LHR-SEA (all BA), and SEA-JFK-ORY (AA then openskies). I will admit that I compromised on tier points a bit for convenience and an earlier arrival in to SEA.

I also booked a separate revenue ticket for positioning LBA-LHR-ORY, and return ORY-LHR.

For hotels in Seattle I leaned towards the Hilton properties as usual due to my status with them. However, I also noticed the Kimpton hotel in Seattle. I had stayed at some of the Kimpton hotels in Boston and Washington DC before and found them to be fairly good with great staff. I had also done a status match from my Hilton gold to get their Inner Circle tier. The thing I did notice was the name, The Alexis Hotel. As my first name is Alexis there was no way I couldn’t stay there for at least one night.

Firsts for me in this trip include positioning to outside the UK for a flight, first time on US domestic AA, and first time on openskies.

Main Costs
BA, LBA-LHR-ORY-LHR (UK Domestic & Euro Traveller) - Ł261.35
Hilton Paris Orly Airport - €91.50
BA + AA + EC, ORY-LHR-SEA-JFK-ORY (Club Europe, Club World, Domestic First, Biz Bed) – €1,098.02
The Arctic Club Seattle (2 nights) - US$375.42
The Alexis Hotel (1 night) - US$247.07
Hilton Seattle Airport - US$88.80

LBA & Yorkshire Premier Lounge
Packed and ready to go on Boxing Day. I booked a taxi (Premier) to the airport which is around 30 minutes drive from my home. Taxi cost was Ł17. Only a few people were at check-in so I was quickly processed. I went to fast track security and through in 5 minutes. After setting off at 12:20 I was through security and in lounge by 13:00.

The lounge is a third party one run by the airport and used by BA, KLM, and also available for paid entry. The lounge is made up of two separate sections, one more family/leisure orientated and the other more business orientated. I went to the business section as normal. I just had diet coke and caught up on some FT messages and threads.



I have written before about the Premier Lounge, and there are some photos on my Zurich trip report.

After the high winds and flight disruption in the UK in late December I had been a bit nervous about any weather disruption. As there are no trains running in the UK on Boxing Day there was no way I could get a train down to Heathrow if the LBA flight got cancelled. My back-up plan was to drive to Heathrow if necessary. However, the conditions on Boxing Day could not have been better as it was sunny with no winds so fortunately no sign of the disruption recent storms had caused.

British Airways BA1343
LBA-LHR(T5)
G-EUPJ, A319-100
UK Domestic, seat 4F
26 December 2013 - 14:45d, 15:55a (scheduled)
Duration - 1h 10m (scheduled)

Boarding was called at 30 minutes before departure at gate 7, and I was deliberately at the front of the queue for a good reason. I had bought two boxes of Lindts chocolates (one for each galley) and was going to give them to the cabin crew as a thank you as I appreciated it is not a popular time of year to be working and away from family. I gave the two boxes of chocolates to the purser who seemed initially taken aback and then quite grateful.


Lovely sunny day at LBA. No wind so great for flying.


Lining up at LBA.

We departed on time and take off was on runway 32. The load was around 70. Bar service started fairly promptly and I got a small bag of nuts & fruit and a white coffee. I had several hours waiting in the lounge at LHR coming up so there was no need to start drinking too early.




Leg room.

This was my first time on BA since they introduced the new PED policy so I had my iPad on throughout the flight (in flight mode of course).

After a short flight we landed at 27R at LHR and we were about 15 minutes early. However, frustratingly our gate was still occupied so we were kept waiting for 15 minutes near the northern end of T5A waiting for our gate to be vacated. Once off the plane I went up in to the departures lounge and on to the BA south lounge complex after picking up some US currency at Travelex.

LHR & Galleries First Lounge
Once in the lounge I went to the customer service desk and asked whether there might be a paid upgrade to Club Europe available, but after some tapping away I was told no. I went to the work area for a bit to send some emails and also check in for the next days’ flight to SEA. I managed to check in but couldn’t print my boarding pass.

I had a glass or two of champagne (Tattinger Prelude), and also some dinner of pork belly red cabbage with some mushroom pasta. Pork belly is quite fatty but great to counter the alcohol.


Pork belly and pasta.


Retired to the terrace with some cheese.




Some views of the lounge.

As expected on Boxing Day the lounge was fairly quiet. With 50 minutes to departure the gate came up on the screen and today would be A15.

British Airways BA338
LHR(T5)-ORY(W)
G-EUPR, A319-100
Euro Traveller, seat 4A
26 December 2013 - 19:20d, 21:40a (scheduled)
Duration - 1h 20m (scheduled)

Boarding was called at 18:55 and using fast track I was on board fairly quickly.

I had managed to get 4A which on this flight was in the row immediately behind the curtain for the Club Europe seats. This meant seat 4B was not sold, and gave me a bit more space.

Again, two boxes of chocolates were handed to the purser on boarding who seemed less surprised and took them very easily - had she already had some today?

The load was around 47 so a quite flight. We departed on time and taxied to runway 27L.

Short flight time of 50 minutes. Drinks and snacks were offered, and the same snack selection was offered as on the LBA flight. Had nice chat to cabin crew member who was serving the drinks and he thanked me for chocolates. They were coming back on 27 December as well as well but on a later flight than I would be on.





Hilton Paris Orly Airport
Luggage took no longer than 10 minutes to appear on the carousel. I went to find the shuttle bus to the airport Hilton, and it arrived after a 5 minute wait. The airport away from the terminal building, but annoyingly you can’t seem to walk to it.

Once checked-in I went up to my room. I was very disappointed that the window was one of the non-opening type so I was hermetically sealed in, I really hate hotel rooms where you can’t open the window for some fresh air.



I ended up having one of the worst nights I have ever had at a hotel. The bed was just not comfortable, and the pillows were about 2ftx2ft so massive, yet lacking in any support. The room was stuffy as well despite putting the air conditioning on.

I had a fitful sleep and woke up at 0500 local so watched tv for a bit. After a shower I went to breakfast for 0630. Although this was fairly early for a 10:00 flight just in case there were any problems.

ORY (W)
The shuttle to airport arrived after 10 minutes. The BA check in desks were in hall 3. I checked in, but the agent couldn’t print my onward boarding pass for LHR-SEA and I would have to collect it at LHR. I wasn’t entirely listening to the agent when she told me about the location of the lounge so I didn't realise it was landside until too late and I had gone through security and passport control. So for the first time in a long while I just sat in the departure lounge with everybody else. The hall 3 gate area had a small cafe, a couple of duty free shops, and newsagent. Early on it was fairly empty so there was plenty of space at least, although as the morning went on it quickly became very full.

British Airways BA333
ORY(W)-LHR(T5)
G-EUPL, A319-100
Club Europe, seat 2F
27 December 2013 - 10:00d, 10:15a (scheduled)
Duration - 1h 15m (scheduled)

The gate seemed to be very disorganised. Lots of passengers started lining up from around 09:30, but boarding didn’t actually start until 10:00. There was a feeble attempt at calling for fast track by the gate agent and I made my way to front. General boarding called very quickly after. Upon boarding I handed two boxes of chocolates.

We eventually took off 40 minutes late so it was just as well I did not have a tight connection. A hot towel offered about 5 minutes after take off.



Brunch was being served, but as I wasn’t hungry I just had some tea.

LHR & Galleries First Lounge (again)
We landed about 10:30 27L. I went to the connections area and was expecting something protracted with lots of keyboard tapping and phone calls. There is a line for international boarding pass collection which I was pointed to, and there was no queue. The BA agent after a minute of keyboard tapping gave me a boarding pass. He also checked my bag was checked through to SEA. It was all very easy compared to the nightmare I was expecting. I headed up to north security, there was no fast track but I found a quiet lane and the line moved fairly quickly.

I went to the duty free shop on way to lounge to buy some chocolates for the cabin crew. Once in the lounge I sat near the champagne bar and had a few glasses.


Presents for the cabin crew.

The gate was displayed on the screens with about 1 hour before departure. The gate was in the T5B building so needed a quick trip across in the transit train. It was a bit early to go across, but to be honest I wanted a change of scene.

British Airways BA49
LHR(T5)SEA
G-BYGD, B747-400
Club World, seat 62K (UD)
27 December 2013 - 14:30d, 16:05a (scheduled)
Duration - 9h 35m (scheduled)





I have posted this elsewhere, I truly think the 747 is a beautiful plane and the BA livery seems to fit is so well with the speedmarque on the exterior of the upper deck. There is something about the curve of the UD as it goes down which looks really nice.

Boarding commenced with about 40 minutes to go. When my boarding pass was scanned there was a beep which I thought might be upgrade. However, it was in fact indicating that I had been selected for an extra security search. It was all conducted quickly and in a friendly manner and involved a quick look in my bags with a body pat down. It really didn't delay me that much at all.

I was met by the CSD with another colleague at the gate. When I handed the chocolates over and explained why the CSD seem genuinely happy which was nice, I even got a hug and a kiss.

Once upstairs I settled in to my seat. I had been on the UD before on BA (64A and 61A). 62K is an exit row seat and has direct access to the aisle.







As with all UD window seats, you have the side bins for extra storage and to use us as shelf. With 62K it seems the last side bin before the exit door is actually very deep and goes all the way to the floor, so I could get my rucksack in there. I took some orange juice when one of the cabin crew came around offering pre-departure drinks. Also one of the CC from the main deck came to the UD to thank me for the chocolates before we set off which was very nice of her.

The menu was handed out.















The amenity kit was also handed out



This is the new amenity kit that BA have been giving over the last few months. It now includes a pen (useful) and razor (why?), but more importantly and bizarrely does not include earplugs and eyemask. These items are apparently now available upon request.

The food order was taken before departure, and I went with the salmon starter, and the chicken. We had a long taxi and wait, and eventually took off nearly 45 minutes late. 62J next to me was unoccupied so I kept privacy screen down during the flight. The UD was around 60% full.

A hot towel was offered once airborne. There were two drinks rounds, with dinner served around 1 hour after take off.






The food, was ok but nothing special. After the meal I went for a wander and went all the way to the back down one aisle and up the other. The galleys in WT were crowded with the cc and they looked very busy so I moved on and didn’t want to get in their way. I stopped off at the club kitchen on way back and had a short chat with the CSD again. I also had a nice chat with another of the cc who was from and still lived in Huddersfield, so not far from me in Leeds. WT and WT+ both looked around 80% full, and CW on the main deck around 60% full.


View across from 62K.

I got a hot chocolate and the lights were dimmed. I watched the Star Trek Into Darkness film on IFE, then I watched The Bridge (the original Danish/Swedish one) on my ipad as I had saved several episodes on BBC iplayer.

At 1 hour and 45 minutes to go the lights were turned on, and most passengers had shades up already. A hot towel was offered and afternoon tea handed out.



We landed on time, and after collecting my bag and going through immigration unusually quickly I made my way to the light rail which goes from the airport to downtown. The hotel I was staying at (The Arctic Club) was near the Pioneer Square station. I checked in and headed upstairs. My plan had been to stay awake as long as possible and go to sleep at the normal US time – didn’t work though. I ended up going to sleep around 6pm and this resulted in me waking up at 3am.






Some room shots.

Saturday 28th
I ended up reading for a bit, and then went for breakfast around 8am. There is no buffet at this Doubletree so you don’t get a free breakfast. Instead you get a $14 coupon to use each morning.


Ended up getting the very tasty crab cake benedict both mornings I was there.

After a slow morning I ended up going to get the ferry for a trip across Puget Sound to Brainbridge Island. The great thing about the ferry is that you get some nice views of Seattle.







Looking back towards Seattle.


Another ferry passing us.

After disembarking at Bainbridge Island I had a wander around for a bit and got the ferry back. Once back in Seattle I walked to Smith Tower which is at the southern end of the downtown area. The views were pretty good.









After, that I headed up to the Seattle Center where the space needle is. Between the Westlake Center and Seattle Center you can get the monorail which was originally built back in the 1960s. I actually ended up using the monorail more than I expected, and it was a convenient way to get to the Seattle Center. I ended up deciding to walk to Kerry Park from the Seattle Center in order to get a nice sunset view over Seattle.




The plane just visible was a BA 747 which was operating BA49.





I had arranged to meet up with a fellow FT’er (hugolover) who I also knew would be in Seattle at the same time on an IB ticket.

We met up in the hotel lobby around 7pm. He had been staying near the airport with two other friends. We headed out to Pike Place Market Brewery and had a few drinks there, before heading back to the hotel for a final drink before they headed back their hotel. We had a great chat during the evening and our conversation was not dominated by flying or FT. In fact, I may see that FT member again in Brussels in April when I have to go there to position for a trip to Hawaii.

Sunday 29th
Up early again at 5am on Sunday again due to an inability to sleep. I have no idea why my body clock would not adjust for this trip. After breakfast I waited in the hotel lobby for my pick up as I had booked to go on a Boeing Everett factory tour.

The drive to Everett took around 30 minutes due to the light traffic on a Sunday morning. Once we arrived we went to the museum/visitor center first. We had an hour there to look around before the tour itself.
















Cross-section of a 787 fuselage.




727 cockpit.

Also on the top floor is an outside viewing gallery on the top floor which looks across the runway and towards the factory. Sadly during the short period I was up on the viewing gallery there wasn’t any activity on the runway. I did see an Air India 787 take off as we walked to bus though.







Unfortunately for the factory tour you can’t take a camera, in fact you can’t take much and you need to put your bags and phones in the lockers at the visitor center. The reason given is that someone dropped their camera from the viewing gallery a few years ago and caused several million dollars of damage. So sorry, no photos to show you.

We watched a brief video first and then got split up in to groups. Each group had their own guide and bus which took us to the factory. Once inside you basically go to the two viewing galleries to look at the 777 line, 747 line, and 787 line. It was all very impressive, and great to see the planes being built below. Due to the time of year there was not much activity on the lines. Once back to the visitor center we were dropped off at the gift shop. The guide did the usual Boeing sales pitch, and most of the people of the tour are not aviation geeks like me. I really would have liked a more geeky tour though. In case you are wondering I booked the tour through Show Me Seattle rather than direct with Boeing as I wasn’t hiring a car so needed the transport.

After being driven back to Seattle I was dropped near the Seattle Center. I was planning to try and go up the Space Needle but the queue was a bit too long for my tastes, so instead I went to Chihuly Garden & Glass next door. I hadn’t been planning to go to this, but having gone in on a whim I was actually very impressed.





















I had booked a food tour in the afternoon on Capitol Hill, so after the glass display I got the monorail back to the Westlake Center and then walked up to Capitol Hill. I had booked the tour with Savor Seattle. Whenever I go to places I always try and book some kind of food tour, and so far they have always ended up being really great in terms of the food I have tried and learning something about the place. One of the attractions of this tour was that I hadn’t planned to go up to the Capitol Hill district so this was a good way of seeing a part of Seattle I might otherwise have missed out on.

There were about 12 of us in total on the tour but apart from me they were all one family group. I thought that might be a bit daunting at the start but it worked out ok. Although I don’t have any photos to show, I can say the food tour was great and the guide was really good.

After getting back from the food tour I headed to The Arctic Club to pick up my bags and walk down to The Alexis Hotel to check in. I was a bit surprised that the reception staff didn’t say anything about the hotel name matching my own – I would have thought that would be worth at least a little comment. After getting the room key I headed up, and was actually very surprised that I had been upgraded to a suite. No mention had been made of this on check in. As an Inner Circle member my complimentary drinks and snacks were waiting for me in the room as well.


My hotel, named after me I would imagine.


Complimentary food and drink.


Bedroom.


Bathroom.


Living room.


Living room looking back to dining table area.


Dining table.


Corridor from just outside bedroom to front door.

After doing a bit of unpacking in opened the bottle of sparkling wine and had a few glasses with the complimentary snacks. I ended up snoozing on sofa for an hour before heading to bed.

Monday 30th
I was up early again, 5am this morning. Throughout this trip for some reason my body clock just didn’t want to adjust. I caught up on a few things and packed up to go and check out. I left my bags at the hotel as this evening I was going to stay at the Hilton Seattle Airport due to having an early flight on the Tuesday.

I ended up walking around in the morning and going to Pike Place Market.




This one is from the evening as I was heading back to the hotel.



After that I got the streetcar to Lake Union and walked up to Seattle Seaplanes as I was having a 20 minutes seaplane tour around Seattle.




The seaplane that we used.

I was in the tour with a local couple. They sat together on the seats behind, whilst I sat in the seat next to the pilot.


My view of the cockpit.


Shortly after take off.


Puget Sound.




Looking towards Bellevue






Coming back in to Lack Union to land.

The trip was very enjoyable. I was surprised that the landing and take off in a seaplane were relatively smooth, although I can imagine that would change if the water was choppy.

After the seaplane tour I got the streetcar and light rail back to The Alexis Hotel, and then back to the light rail to go to the airport station.

Hilton Seattle Airport
The Hilton is over the bridge from the station in the opposite direction to the airport, then a short walk down the road. On checking in I was told that I had been upgraded to a room in the main building which meant less walking to get to the room.


Room at the hotel.

The room itself was perfectly fine, but I did notice later on that quite a lot of the sound from corridor carried through. I ended up having something to eat at the hotel restaurant before heading to bed.

KARFA

Tuesday 31st
Yet another early morning, although this one was a bit more deliberate. I woke at 4am. After a final pack I went down to check out. Unfortunately I had just missed the airport shuttle which goes at 5, 25, and 45 minutes past the hour, so instead I walked across to terminal.

American Airlines AA236
SEA-JFK(T8)
N878NN, B737-800
Domestic First, seat 4A
31 December 2013 - 07:15d, 15:29a (scheduled)
Duration - 5h 14m (scheduled)

Check in was ok, although agent seemed to be very miserable about something. At SEA there seemed to be a number of security points you could use, so I just went to security point 3 which was the nearest one. Although the line was long, it kept moving and ended up taking around 15 minutes to get through.

I went to get some chocolates from a shop at the airport for my colleagues when I got back to work, and then just sat and read a book at the gate (D7).


Our plane being towed to the gate.

The gate agent announced that the flight was pretty full, so as an incentive to gate check your bag AA would let you board with group 1 boarders. Boarding started at 0640. Passengers in First were asked to boards first. The configuration on the 737-800 in domestic First is 4 rows of 2x2 4. Of the 16 seats, 14 were filled.


Snapped just before leaving the plane at the end of the flight.

This was my first time on domestic AA (I had flown MAN-JFK return in Y with them back in 2010) and of course first time in domestic First. The seats were fairly comfy and wide, and we had a hot towel offered and several drinks rounds whilst still at gate (included water, orange juice, and champagne) – I had a few glasses of champagne. We had an on time departure, and were advised we should get to JFK early but due to weather we may have to hold. Take off was from runway 16L.

Menus were handed out and orders taken.







The IFE consisted of a preloaded Samsung tablet and AA Bose headset. The tablet actually has a really good broad selection of films to watch, but did need to be plugged in to the at seat power to be used – the disadvantage being you then couldn’t charge a phone at the same time.



One thing I had heard before about AA was that the seat belt signs stay on for a long time during a flight and rarely seem to get turned off even in the calmest conditions. My own experience backed this up, and seat belt signs just remained on for a long time after take off. However, after a while passengers just seemed to ignore it and get up - so how are you supposed to know when there is real turbulence? The seat belt sign went off at about 1 hour in to the flight. If I compare this to European short haul flights on BA the seat belt sign would normally be turned off no more than 10 minutes in to the flight unless there was some turbulence, but equally passengers would not get up if it was on and cabin crew would be pretty strict on enforcing it.

Drinks were offered and delivered to the seta by hand. Breakfast followed around 40 minutes after take off, and I had chosen the breakfast skillet.



I actually quite liked the food unlike the BA short haul hot breakfast which can feel a little to greasy sometimes. Plates were all cleared quickly. Actually one thing I did notice was that the cabin crew I had were both lovely and very attentive - they were constantly in the cabin topping up drinks and checking on passengers

I went to the toilet at one point and ended up chatting to them in the front galley for about 1.5 hours about various things. The cabin crew for the first cabin comprised a male and a female. They told me they often try and work together around Chrsitmas/New Year, I think we have arranged to meet up in Seattle again over New Year in 2014/2015! I think the male crew member was being a bit flirty with me, he was very tactile. Nice to know I haven't lost my sex appeal

In the end I had to return to my seat as one of the flight crew wanted to come out of the cockpit to use the toilet. The aisle before the galley was blocked with a cart whilst that happened.

I went back to watching my film (Dr Stranglove). I also got served more champagne, and the crew were keen to keep me topped up.







I also had a go at using the on-board wifi. The cost was $10 for 1 hour, and if you buy 2 hours you get an extra free - so 3 hours for $20. I just went for the 1 hour choice. The wifi seemed quite speedy and reliable.

We also got offered a warm cookie about an hour before landing.



We ended up coming in to JFK about 20 minutes early.


Long Beach on the final approach to JFK.

I thanked to cabin crew and really enjoyed the flight.

Manhattan Dash
My flight back to Paris was not until 2130, so instead of waiting in the lounge I had planned to head in to Manhattan for a few hours. I had already booked a timed ticket for the Top of the Rock observation deck at the Rockefeller Center. I had been there a few times before so was familiar with were to go and how to get in to Manhattan. I endedup getting the airtrain to Jamaica, then the LIRR to Penn Station – my preferred way to get in to Manhattan. I arrived at Manhattan around 1625 and decided to walk the 20 or so blocks to the Rockefeller Center. At one point I did try and head in to the subway but was immediately put off by the very long queues for the ticket machines.

As it was New Year’s Eve a lot of the roads were shut, and there were plenty of party goers wandering around so I had to work hard to keep my walking pace up. I walked across from Penn to 6th, and then straight up to the Rockefeller Center.










..and the view from the top of the Rockefeller Center.

After around 15 minutes at the top of the Rockefeller Center I headed back down and walked all the way back to Penn, and got to Terminal 7 at 6.30pm. So fortunately all went well, no disasters and safely back to JFK with plenty of time to spare.

JFK (T7) & Galleries First Lounge
I checked in at the BA premium desks at Terminal 7, there were no separate openskies desks, and went through fast track security which is opposite the premium check in desks. There was no queue for premium security this evening. Once though (very quick) I discovered the shortcuts to the Galleries Club and First lounges which involved a sharp right after the security lane and going down a white corridor, then straight through the newsagent shop and coming out at the bottom of the escalator to the lounge.

I presented my boarding pass and as this is a sleeper service the lounge agent explained I could dine in the lounge to maximise sleep onboard the flight. I had decided to eat on the plane though as I wanted to see what the food and service was like on openskies having never been on before.

The Galleries First lounge seemed quite nice, albeit a bit warm. It was fairly sparsely populated as I guess most people would not be flying on New Years’ Eve.





I had a glass of champagne (sorry, forgot what brand they had) and a few nibbles. I thought the food selection was quite good and fine for keeping me going until the flight.

One thing I did wonder was what would happen on the flight as we would be in the air at the stroke of midnight, so I didn't know if there would be any celebration or whether everyone would just be asleep.

Openskies BA8006
JFK(T8)-ORY(W)
F-HAVI, B757-200
Biz, seat 2F
31 December 2013 - 21:30d, 11:05+1a (scheduled)
Duration - 7h 35m (scheduled)

For those who don’t know, openskies is a BA subsidiary who have a small fleet of 757s and mainly run from ORY to EWR. They have also added the ORY-JFK recently.

I eventually walked over to the gate (1) and took a seat. Boarding was eventually called at 9pm by row numbers, with rows 1-5 (business class) called first. Once onboard initially I wasn’t that impressed. The seats are refreshed first generation lie flat club world – similar to those still on the BA 767 international fleet. The particular seat I had was a window seat facing backwards. The seat map on the openskies website shows the F seats in business facing forwards, bon on this aircraft all window seats in business faced backwards.

There is larger cabin of 3 rows of 2x2 biz seats at the front, then a slightly strange arrangement of a toilet and the emergency exits before a second smaller business cabin of 2 rows of 2x2. After that there is a premium economy section and an economy section.


My seat.


Front business cabin.


Certainly ok for legroom.


Amenity kit, older style BA kit.


Space between wall panel and seat which I used for some storage.


Silly fan to have some privacy from your neighbour.


Seat light.


Power socket under armrest.


Some TLC needed.


Seat controls.


Little cocktail shelf.

Frankly the biggest problem seemed to be the complete lack of storage. Apart from the space between the wall panel and seat there is nowhere put anything. At least on Club World on BA you get the drawer by your feet. The fan is just silly as well. The bottle of water and amenity kit were on the seat when I boarded.

The flight filled up, and I was rather surprised that all cabins were more or less full. The pre-flight drinks were only offered once everyone was on board which seemed a bit unusual. We ended up leaving a few minutes late.

Once airborne the menu was handed out (apologies for the poor quality photos).











I ended up picking the ravioli. I went to get changed in to my pyjamas whilst waiting for dinner ( my own, none were offered and I am not sure whether any are given on openskies). The purser spotting me coming out of the toilet with my trousers and shirt under my arm kindly offered to hang them in the cupboard. I mentioned I had a clean shirt in my bag, but I did take her up on the offer to hang my trousers.

There is no inbuilt IFE so a preloaded iPad was offered, but I didn’t take one. A hot towel was also offered.

As the flight was predicted to be quick at around 6 hours 30 minutes due to tailwinds I was keen to eat quickly so I could get to sleep.



Dinner was served quickly, but was not very memorable. Perhaps the daytime westbound flights are catered better? More importantly on the macaroon front, I only got two small ones with dinner, both were about the size of an old 10p coin. You can just about see them in the plastic bag behind the glass of water.

Once the trays were cleared around 1.5 hours after departure, the purser asked if I wanted a turndown service. Unlike on BA mainline business, there is a turndown service on openskies. Also there is a mattress and a proper duvet.



I also got a whisky nightcap. I actually slept very well and managed 3 hours. The bed was quite comfortable, and the mattress seems to help a lot.

I woke 1 hour before landing and one of the cabin crew quickly spotted this and came to ask if I wanted breakfast. I ended up just asking for a cup of tea which I drank as I sorted all my stuff out and got changed back. When I went to change the purser offered to pull the curtain across door 1L and let me change between the curtain and the door. Fearing some kind of mishap such as being unbalanced and falling through the curtain in to the galley I decided best to confine myself to the toilet.


Nice view from my seat – the windows seem quite big on a 757.



We landed around 30 minutes early and pulled up to a remote stand, so unfortunately a bus ride was needed. Once on the tarmac I tried to take a photo of the plane but was quickly pounced on by an officious ground staff member waving her arms and shouting “no photo”. I asked why and she couldn’t give any kind of logical explanation. Some of the other passengers also tried to take a photo and were met with a similar response from the same person – they were somewhat more robust in arguing back.

Once in the terminal and quickly through immigration the bags took 20 minutes to appear, and mine was second.

ORY (W) & Sala VIP Lounge
I went upstairs and check in for my BA flight back to LHR had not yet opened, so I went off in search of Ladurée shop for some macaroons. By the time I came back check in had opended and I check my bag in.

Unlike a few days ago on the outbound I found the lounge this time. It is in hall 1, and you take elevators on right hand side just after the Starbucks to floor 2. The lounge is white door in front of you on exiting the lift.


Entrance to lounge.


View of lounge from end furthest from reception.


Various nibbles and drinks were on offer.


Purchases before heading to the lounge, the green boxes would be for the cabin crew for the flight, and the purple box for work colleagues.

The lounge was fairly empty and quite spacious. There was wifi and some drinks and snacks. There are no toilets in the lounge, but there are some just back outside the lounge door.

I managed to find a bottle of champagne in a tall fridge set apart from the main drink/food area. I was Pommery and was unopened, so I just opened it and helped myself. I was planning to not drink on the flight to LHR so decided to have 4 glasses in the lounge.

As the lounge is landside I needed to give myself some extra time to get through passport control and security. I went around at 12.30. Both immigration and security looked like a zoo, but the queues kept moving so it wasn’t actually too bad. Boarding started early around 13.05, and unlike the previous ORY-LHR flight, boarding was much more organised.



I had managed to get 6A which on this flight was in the row immediately behind the curtain for the Club Europe seats. This meant seat 6B was not sold, and gave me a bit more space. However, when the gate agent scanned my boarding pass I got the beep and had been upgraded to Club Europe which was a pleasant surprise. I was given a new boarding pass for 4D.

British Airways BA335
ORY(W)-LHR(T5)
G-EUPC, A319-100
Club Europe, seat 4D
1 January 2014 - 13:55d, 14:15a (scheduled)
Duration - 1h 20m (scheduled)

I settled in to my unexpected Club Europe seat. I wasn’t sure why I had been upgraded, there was someone sitting in my previously selected seat 6A, but economy was only around 70% full.

We had to wait a few minutes for a bag to be unloaded, but as we had boarded so early we still had an on time departure and a quick taxi to runway 24.

Hot towels were offered once airborne, and a drinks & food round stated about 10 minutes in. The purser gave me two bottles of Pommery, and it was certainly tough to finish them both on such a short flight.


Leg room in 4D.


Looking across to 4F.


My prawn salad.

LHR and Journey Home
We landed at a T5A gate, and I managed to get through immigration and collected my bag within 30 minutes. I headed off to get the tube as I was going to get a train back up to Leeds from King’s Cross. I think all the travel and champagne may have taken an effect as I ended up nodding off on the tube for about 20 minutes of the journey.


The fantastic new departures area of King’s Cross.


My seat on the train home.

Conclusion
Well, I really enjoyed this short trip to Seattle, it was a nice place to visit. I have broken my duck with US domestic AA and really enjoyed it. The cabin crew were fantastic and the hard product was pretty good too.

On the openskies my thoughts are that the hard product is not great (of course it wouldn't be, it's old club world with the silly fans) but the cabin crew I had did work hard to give good service. I also managed a decent amount of sleep on the short flight.

I have done new Club World on BA many times, and a return on Club World London City in 2012, and I am afraid I felt openskies ranks below both. I would not really go out of my way to go on openskies again - perhaps if they got some dreamliners and at least used NCW or a version of the new AA J seats it would be much better. Unlike CWLCY, openskies didn't seem to have any similar premium feel to it. I want to try CWLCY again at some point, but don't feel the same about openskies.

PETER01

Lovely TR there KARFA ^

I remember my visit to the Boeing Factory in 2009 and like you I thoroughly enjoyed it. I have always wanted to go to Seattle so your TR is bookmarked for any future trip I do there. Reminds me of Vancouver in many ways from your photographs.

Your right there regarding the 757 windows they do look very big although it has been quite a few years since I flew on one of them and can't remember that.

A Hug and a Kiss too on boarding at LHR , charmer

jcm9000

Very nicely done report KARFA. Its unusual that I come across one I can relate to somewhat, but I am very familiar with the AA 737s (I really like seat 6E for some reason. Never 6B, just 6E), my one UD 747 flight was in the same seat (all other UD flights for me have been cancelled due to weather or client cancellations....darn!), and also the 767 CW (same as 757 open skies as you note) is a typical seat back to the UK for me - really enjoy reading others thoughts on all of those. Lack of storage does stand out on that style of seat on openskies - even my glasses go in their case and into the overhead bins when on the 767 to lhr. A small backpack is invaluable for that. Anyway, enough about me, thanks again for taking the time to post your report. ^

krazykanuck

I enjoyed the read. I've never been up to Seattle, but a good friend lives up there so I really should make it up for a visit one of these vacations. Loved the NYC photos, made me think back to my trip up there last summer.

DanielW

Love the photo's of Seattle, very cool.

billinghamn

Great TR KARFA - some great photos there.

courtster

Have been waiting for this one! Many thanks - you've certainly whetted my appetite for the 9 legger next month

offerendum

Great Report! Not impressed by Openskies, can`t imagain to fly soon......

Culture Guru

beautiful report!^^

FlyerTalker6245

Great report - really really enjoyed reading that. I must tell you that SOME trains do run in the UK on Boxing Day: in Scotland we have a Sunday service.

Overall what a great report - I read every word with avid interest. Was interested to see you were given a Samsung and Bose headsets on a 737 on AA - I thought that was only on the 767. Congrats on the OpUp on ORY-London Heathrow as well.

jaguarpig

Great read, thanks. Never got the Preloaded Tablet on the AA narrow bodies.

DocS

What a delightful TR - you're a charmer buying gifts for the CC - was this just for a Xmas gift?

Thanks for the OpenSkies review - very interesting to know you wouldn't opt for it again over BA CW. Is the tablet offered on every transcon AA F flight? I'm doing IAD-LAX later in the year and had expected no IFE!

Re: Seattle - if you ever get a chance to go agian the Olympic peninsula (and Mt Rainier) is definitely worth a visit - one of only 3 temperate rainforests in the world I believe (others being NZ and Patagonia).

KARFA

Hi PETER01, thanks for the compliments.

Hi jcm9000, thanks. Yes, due to my discovery of exEU trips to HNL I shall become much more familiar with the AA domestic F product both on 737 and 757 form. I love the BA 747 UD, only done it 4 times so far, and due to have another 2 goes later this year. I was in a window 777 seat in CW recently and had forgotten how narrow it can feel and the dorm like cabin. I had ment to mention the glasses thing as well on the openskies flight, I ended up putting them in the case and perching them on an armrest.

Hi krazykanuck. Thanks, yes difficult to take a bad photo in NYC. I shall be back there in late August as I am taking my sister out in BA F and back in BA J 747 UD.

Thanks for your kind comments DanielW, billinghamn, courtster, sleeplessinNL, jaguarpig, and offerendum.

Thanks andset1191. I didn't know that about trains running in Scotland on Boxing Day, I thought they stopped all over the UK. Certainly East Coast and Transpennine Express weren't running.

Haha, thanks DocS. This was the first time giving the cc chocs. I only did it due to Christmas/New Year and to thank them for working at that time of the year. I thought it would be nice to spread a bit of Christmas cheer. It isn't going to be a regular thing in terms of giving stuff to CC on every flight I take. Also, thanks for the Seattle tip.

themapelligroup

I really enjoyed reading this trip report! The pictures also are simply amazing. Well done KARFA!