ex-DUB TP Run (almost live)
 

Hello

Firstly I can put the blame for me currently being sat in the DAA lounge at Dublin squarely at the feet of you lot! That, and the fact that I am easily led. :p

Secondly, those who may recall my previous thread will also realise that I am somewhat 'mad' and am happy to spend a day or so at an airport.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...port-live.html

So here I am about to embark on my first ever TP run which will see me taking 12 flights over 6 days, with a mix of BA, AA and a couple of positioning flights on Ryanair.

So far I have completed the positioning flight - MAN/DUB. Check in with FR was easy enough and security was pain free. Unfortunately no lounge access. On board, crew were not particularly friendly, poor quality announcements, and we were not allowed any chocolate as their was an nut allergy sufferer on board. As for all the bright yellow...

Due to timing of positioning flights available, I choose to leave MAN at 13.10 to connect with the 20.40 BA flight to LHR. I certainly did not want to miss the start of the run, and other flights would not have arrived until around 7ish, which would have made me nervous. So I am faced with a six hour wait at Dublin.

However, I decided to try my luck at customer services, and they very willingly swapped me onto the 19.10 1A on the way. The benefit of a J ticket. Excellent service, even reminded me that I had fast track security... which I had forgot about. Novice mistake.

So, I am currently sat in the lounge at Dublin - without a drink yet - with a couple of hours to go until boarding. Have a night at Premier Inn T5 to look forward to, and then it's my first flight in CW tomorrow.

I'll keep updating this post/thread throughout the next few days, and hopefully offer a few insights from a novice of the service received. Hopefully with a few pictures.

There is also a bit of a challenge for Wednesday....

As for Vegas, what happens in Vegas... gets posted about on here!

Interesting about FR not serving chocolate due to the nut allergy. I am surprised they would let something like life threatening illness get in the way of additional revenue!

Good job in getting the swap: with J tickets that are part of an 'I' bucket itinerary I think it is really only the airport staff who are able to be so flexible.

Enjoy your first club flight tomorrow. (Let us know how rammed T5 is with the spring break-ers!)

It wasn't just selling it - couldn't even eat your own!

I was really not expecting to be able to get a change, sng my arm. As for tomorrow, was also told that both F and CW are sold out on BA117 with 1 oversold in WTP and 6 in WT.

Although have checked in, have not printed boarding card in case any better seats open up. Currently in 63K. Did have a heart in mouth moment earlier when it gave me three options for cabins 'front' 'main and 'upper' deck. Clicked on front but only showed me the lower deck with seats before the galley/loos.

In light of previous Nut-Gate issues, FR have been wise to act the way they have.

Personally I think they ought to be commended, and I bet that doesn't happen regularly! Must be Friday!

I agree with the sentiment, but was poorly communicated. CC even announced sales of chocolate before realising their error. Then spent about ten minutes checking packaging before serving drinks, which meant some people did not get served given short duration of the flight.

Anyway, time for an update. My original flight departing at 20.40 is now delayed an hour. Even more pleased to have switched.

I'm on your in bound delayed flight I think, now gone back to being on time

I know I was being a bit facetious :D, but genuinely that is quite decent of FR. I am pretty sure a US airline told a family they could get stuffed over a similar issue at some point last year (although if you are serving prepared meals to the cabin then it is more difficult to control, and you can't really refuse meals to folk who are expecting one, a short FR hop where nobody expects to get free food at least is a different matter!).

Excellent!
May the op-up gods shine on you, though. With the new DUT programming and reports of restricted op-ups for greedy golds and silvers ;) maybe this will be your best chance (i.e. before you get status)! Who knows what jiggery-pokery they will need to come up with to get everybody over the pond tomorrow.

Good luck Mr Fish

I'll be keeping an eye on your posts. Have fun :p

Ba0839 dub/lhr
 

Having switched to the earlier departure, I was relieved t find my original flight starting showing as being delayed by an hour. BA must have managed an aircraft change as it was back on schedule later on.

Having partaken in some refreshments in the lounge at Dublin (nice enough but would have liked a greater selection of food!) I headed to the gate around 18.30 for the 19.10 departure. A short wait and fast track boarding commenced, although we were later held on the airbridge. No problems storing my bag over 1A, and the whole process seemed fairly relaxed. Didn't see any issues and there were even some space left in the overhead lockers of CE. Plenty of announcements were made about luggage, but I suppose this flight is less likely to have HBO passengers given the later time.

CC were very friendly and helpful throughout. Did overhear a conversation with the ground crew about a passenger who was accepted late but had not yet made it to the gate. Anyway, we left them behind and the doors were closed and we pushed back a few minutes before scheduled departure time.

The flight was operated by an A320 (G-EUYF). All looked clean and quite fresh from where I was sat. Visited the toilet before we pushed back and again this was clean - although would expect it to be!

CC were a tad noisy in the galley, although didn't really bother me, and we were served a mixed chicken salad. Quiet tasty although a little too chilled for my liking. This was accompanied with a G&T. Sorry, BA038_Passenger, but I really couldn't face the monopole this time! Despite a message from the flight deck just before 8pm that we would be landing at 20.20, a few minutes late the ten minute warning was given to the CC, to which the response was something along the lines of, "Well, that's not twenty past." All very good humoured.

As well as a the food, better aircraft, the thing that really stood out to me was the crew. So much more friendly and genuine in their interactions. All messages were very clear and professional. Ryanair may win on price, but really think there was a world of difference between the two in terms of the service I received yesterday. I know this might not always be the case!

Arriving from Dublin we were off the plane fairly quickly and through arrivals, before heading off to Premier Inn T5 before heading back to the airport in the morning for BA117 to JFK. All in all, everything went according to plan, with very few grumbles and lots of positives.

Wirelessly posted (Blackberry8700c: Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; Android 5.0.2; HTC6525LVW Build/LRX22G) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/41.0.2272.96 Mobile Safari/537.36)

Madfish, we're you 1a or 1c? I was the guy in 2c

1A. I was the excited one!

ex-DUB TP Run (almost live)
 

Ha funny to read this I was the guy in 1C

Small world. Good job I didn't post anything about fellow passengers! Enjoy your weekend into don, and thanks for the information about AA upgrades. Not been able to log onto AA so cannot see anything but will keep looking.

Wirelessly posted (Blackberry8700c: Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; Android 5.0.2; HTC6525LVW Build/LRX22G) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/41.0.2272.96 Mobile Safari/537.36)

Haha lovely. From overheating the bits it was certain 1C was a flyertalker and likely 1A too. Off to Chicago now after a nice sleep at home!

Hurry up and get to Vegas mate :D

Loving the gogo on this 737 JFK to LAS ;)

enjoying this tailwind flight to PHX.. next LAS
 

teledude - I found the mp3 for the mix.. its only 60mb. We can try the air-to-air file transfer if you like ;)

Vegas here we come

LOL ;)

Spotify is Working well ^

Ba117 lhr/jfk
 

On leaving LHR the previous evening I caught the free local service bus (route 423) to Premier Inn T5. I have stayed here once before when visiting London on a work trip, and was aware of its proximity to the terminal having stayed at the Thistle in January. I had a wait of about ten minutes for the bus, but this was no bad thing considering you are dropped off right outside the hotel. Check in was really straight forward and pleasant and I was in my room within a few minutes. I have stayed in Premier Inns on numerous occasions with family as I really like the no-nonsense approach to the rooms – hotels where you have to stop a child from picking up and rummaging through things is a bonus. The fact that I often pick up rooms for the advertised lead-in rate is also good. I also find, despite being a chain, they often have little personal ways of running. For example, a regular one we stay at in Derby always leaves a plastic duck on the bed, which you return to reception and claim a reward. I really liked the non-standard email I received direct from the hotel, as well as the main chain one. I digress. The room itself was exactly what I expected and I was soon tucked up in bed with the expectation of getting a god night’s sleep. It’s guaranteed, supposedly. I set various alarms for 4am, not daring to sleep through and missing my flight. Anyway, I woke up at 2.30am and couldn’t get back to sleep. What happened to the guarantee? Any grounds in complaining and getting my room rate refunded?  It came as no surprise that I was packed and out of the hotel at 4am ready to catch the bus back to T5.

I needed to print my boarding cards as well as check in for the AA flights later the same day – neither the BA app, website or the AA website would allow me to check in. However, even I knew that the desks would not open until 5am, and I wasn’t that eager to get through to the lounge to wait for it to open. I decided to take a little journey on the pods. Simply heading over to the parking and straight back. Well, it helped kill about ten minutes.

On returning to departures, I tried to check in using the automated booths. Printed my boarding pass but told me I had to do an additional passport and visa check before heading through security, so had to queue up at the CW check in desks. A reasonable queue had formed by 5am, but about six agents came out, logged in and started processing those who had bags to check in. I had my passport checked – no mention of visa, although I would be surprised if there was as I have a valid ESTA. I also received my boarding passes for later on.

Security at South was a doddle. No additional screening. Green smiley face recorded. And so I was off to Galleries South. The lounge was more or less deserted, and I helped myself to some juice, a coffee and bacon roll. If you can class a slice of bacon in a petit pain as a bacon roll. The bacon was cold but the roll was slightly warm. The coffee machine was really slow, and why do you need to press twice to get a decent portion.

I had no real qualms about the lounge, although on a visit to the toilet the ‘sharps’ bin was missing a lid and people had come to use it as an ordinary bin. Not very safe. I left the lounge around 6.45 and headed to 5B where I knew I would be flying from. I’m not psychic – I had asked! Already by this point, I was aware of the flight being delayed due to late arrival of the incoming aircraft. So a 9.15 departure was scheduled instead of 8.20am. No big deal. Yet! Took the transit rather than walk – today was going to be a long day and I needed to conserve my energy. Even more important with the escalator to the lounge being out of order.

One of the reasons why I headed over early was to try to get into the spa. I thought that this one would be quieter and just after seven I was able to book myself in for a treatment. I was offered 8am, but concerned that they might bring the flight forward from the new time, I decided to just try the chair massage. I am fairly tall at over six feet, and clearly I had not sat in the chair properly at the start and so missed out on getting my feet done.
My ankles did seem to get a good working over. The whole experience was a bit strange and not what I expected. Despite going for the medium over the firm, the sensation at times on my lower back was quite painful. Although quiet nice the few times it did something near my shoulders. (From what I read on the first page of the spa thread – visiting the spa is something that CWS has not done – must surely be one of the few things BA related that he hasn’t!)

Following that I spent a little time in the lounge and headed to the gate around 8.30am. Not long after we were called forward with very clear priority boarding announcements. Despite asking for those needing assistance, children and first, I was second to board and the first up the stairs to the upper deck. I caught the crew something off guard as they were clearly having a quick bite to eat. In hindsight this was clearly wise.

As I write this, mid-flight, I have to say the crew have been excellent. Everybody was welcomed on board and spoken to. Without even asking a child was taken up front to meet the captain. Why do they think only children want to do this? An excellent blend of humour, pleasantness and professionalism. Service has been excellent. Including three pre-flight glasses of Tattinger. Being aware of the delayed departure, and that we had been catered breakfast, they made a point of taking all orders whilst still at the gate, especially as we encountered a series of delays. Firstly there was an issue with a cargo door for which the engineer was called. Once this was fixed, paper work completed and the engineer on his way, two whole plane lost power. Although the captain was able to restore this, one of the power generators was broken and the engineer had to be brought back. From the messages we were given, including starting one of the engines on stand, we were allowed to leave without this being repaired, but it still had to be authorised, and so delayed us further. Was most depressing to see on FlightRadar that the later flight to JFK had already pushed back, and would clearly beat us into the immigration hall at T7. Eventually all technical issues were resolved and we pushed back and were heading to the runway. One slight advantage was seeing the LAX service taking off. A first for me seeing it slowly rumble along the runway. It did look slow! However, what also surprised me was a number of flights landed on the same runway that we were taking off from. I thought the alternated, one for take-offs and the other for landing?

And so the flight commenced, and we were served yet another drink with our ‘extravagant’ breakfast. I went for the smoked salmon, which was served alongside a very rich fruit and nut granola. This was more than enough, but I still had the cooked breakfast to come. This was not too bad, and considering how hot it was, not dried out. Wrapping the scrambled egg in the bacon was a good touch and made sure it didn’t dry out. Just a pity the bacon was smoked as I prefer mine plain. Overall the food was of a decent standard and I have no real issues so far.

After gorging myself – I felt compelled to eat it all as not sure how I will find the afternoon tea offering. I put the seat down and went to sleep. I thought I did quite well and when I woke was somewhat perturbed to find that I had only been asleep for about 30 minutes. Oh well, more time to drink the Tattinger.

As for the seat. Being without status I refused to cough up £75/£85 to select a seat and was therefore waiting for online checkin to open. However, a few days before I discovered that I had been allocated 17K. I would have been happy with this, but really wanted to try the upper deck. Fortunately 63K was available and I was able to swap into this when I checked in for the first flight from Dublin. Overall I am pleased with the seat. However, there are a few issues. The arm rest is very loose and wobbles about, and the spring on the IFE screen is broken. I currently have it propped open with a folded piece of paper, which moves every time I touch the screen!
The rest of the flight was fairly uneventful. I went to check out the club kitchen to find it had been raided and there was virtually nothing left. Afternoon tea was served but this was somewhat uninspiring. The scone was nice but I managed to get a nice dollop of cream in a place where it does not look good!

The final approach was a little bumpy, but touchdown was smooth. However, when getting to the gate we needed to be towed into position, and then had to wait an age for the doors to open

Coming next – fun and games at immigration, Admirals Club lounge at T8 and AA JFK/LAX on the A321T.

Pictures will be loaded later.

A good read, keep it coming!

Thanks. I didn't realise it was so long!

He made it to the bellagio....and is still awake somehow! :D

Agreed, totally enjoying sharing the journey (a little). Keep the posts coming...

Now at Monte Carlo. 😃

Go on, spill it ;)

I claimed this once after a very hard bed in Northampton, I woke up and couldn't get back to sleep as it felt like my spine was being dislodged. I wouldn't of normally complained however the receptionist was very snotty when I handed my key in, preferring to talk to her colleague. After this I made contact through the website and revived a call from the Manager apologising and they issued a credit immediately.

So you got the gate next to the road. I always seem to get that one when on a connection where time is of the essence.

Enjoying reading this though have come to it a bit late. I am envious though of you being able to get on an earlier flight. I wasn't so fortunate recently and wondered if you, or anyone else, can tell me where I went wrong.


I arrived in DUB en route to JFK via LCY on 26/03 with just over 6 hours til my first flight. Ticket booked via aa.com with BA flight numbers in J/I. I went and asked the nice lady on the BA desk about getting on an earlier flight. She rang AA who gave her a change fee of over 2000 euro. She didn't even have to ask!

So I went and got the bus into Dublin instead which was fine though I am mystified.

Hope you continue to have fun.

I start out from Dublin this Thursday morning myself, heading to New York on BA003 later in the day from London City. Then Las Vegas for me with AA as well on Friday afternoon for a long weekend. Really looking forward to my first BabyBus experience.

Enjoy your trip madfish!

I am enjoying reading this. Currenlty heading out on an exEU myself. Positioned to BRU yesterday, and today I am doing BRU-HEL-LHR. Currently at HEL. BA1 tomorrow then a few days in San francisco and few days in Las Vegas before getting home on 8 April.

Sounds good KARFA. Enjoying reading this thread. Currently on a LUX - HNL run. Have done the LUX-LRH-JFK part. Currently on the way back to JFK after overnighting at the Hilton. Looking forward to First on the AA321 to LAX next.

Any chance of sharing. My wife and I have a few flights with AA in the next couple of weeks?

Cheers

Captainc747

I am on the return leg of a DUB-LHR-LAX-HNL-PHL-DUB run, and sat in the Flagship Lounge at LAX watching low cloud and hoping it will lift soon. 400 ft layer the pilot explained as he did an auto-pilot landing.

I start my next one on Thursday - DUB-LCY-MAD-JFK-LAX-HNL-LAX-JFK-LHR-DUB.

ex-DUB TP Run (almost live)
 

@CaptainC747 if you checkin with the AA app it will show you how many people are standing by for an upgrade so you will know how many neighbors you are about to have.

Not sure what, if any impact, the current merging of US/AA will have on the app but that's the pre merger status quo.

I have the AA app but I am not an AA FF. I only belong to BAEC does that mean I still can check?. I can see the fare buckets and what is still left.

I assume when you say checking I can only do that 24H out from the flight?

I can't UUA from BA MMB. It is a AA ticket but I guess I could give them a call no harm and asking

Cheers

Captainc747

ex-DUB TP Run (almost live)
 

You can still check, or at least as a BA FF I've been able to check and it's been a long time since I've had any AA status. You won't get a complimentary space available upgrade as an EXP would but as a BA FF you will get upgraded after AA flyers of a similar level and ahead of AA flyers of a lower level if they are overbooked.

Immigration and the Admirals Club at JFK
 

Immigration at JFK was somewhat chaotic. A number of passengers had onward connections which needed to be rebooked, and there was meant to be a representative there to help these people. Although she was there, she also seemed to open some of the barriers at random mixing the US and non-US passengers together. This meant that people didn’t know where to queue, resulting in a bit of a blockage and some people starting to get frustrated. In the end I only waited about 15 minutes, but that was in part due to getting off the aircraft fairly quickly. There were already some people in the immigration hall when I arrived, probably too many to have come off the same flight, so no doubt they were from the ‘later’ BA flight.

Now why do immigration officers need to be so ignorant? A series of barked orders with no pleasantness, no matter how hard you try to smile and be friendly. Have to say, when arriving into JFK with VS in February I was able to use the automated terminals and this was a more welcoming experience. Even my first visit to the US last year was so much more pleasant.

Once past immigration I went to go through customs only to find I had been selected for a secondary bag search. My heart started pumping wondering what I could have do wrong. But there was nothing much to worry about as my hand luggage simply went through a scanner. Phew. And with that I was free to head towards the Airtrain.

On arrival at T8, I went through fast-track security, or priority, or whatever they called it. This was certainly not as fast as either LHR or Dub, or even slow track at Manchester the day before.

From there it was a case of heading towards the Admirals Club. Have to say I was not overly impressed. Yes I could have a few beers – although no premium ones. There were a couple of soups and a few bits of cheese and crackers. I may have been spoilt with the few lounges I have visited in the past with BA, but this certainly did not fill me with much desire to return. I made a fairly sharpish exit and headed early to the gate. In some ways I should be relieved that I didn’t have another three hours to spend in there.

Aa181 jfk/lax
 

I had heard a lot of good things about the A321T service from FT and along with the CW flights this was one I was looking forward to trying out. Boarding was fairly swift and well organised despite very little space in the boarding gate area and the fact that they started boarding about five or ten minutes later than advertised. I quickly found my seat and settled down. A pre-flight drink was offered and accepted. The Prosecco was a little acidic and not up to the standard of the Tattinger.
I’d tracked this flight a number of times on FlightRadar and it often appeared to depart late. However, we pushed back five minutes ahead of scheduled departure and made our way down to the runway. This didn’t seem to take too long and we were soon in the air.
The seat itself was spacious in terms of legroom. I actually found the foot rest a bit too far forward despite being over 6 feet. There was a large fixed IFE screen directly in front with a separate handheld controller. Overall, the standard of IFE was far superior to that which I experienced on the earlier BA 747. The addition of the Bose headphones made a real difference. I never realised how good these were. All controls for the seat were located on a panel near the shared table with the passenger in 6B. Behind your head there is a small shelf where you plug in your headphones and any power needs. A bottle of water was already in position which I thought was a nice touch.

Meals were served about an hour into the flight. This was a starter of herby chicken with fresh fruit, a goats cheese salad and a choice of entrees. (When in America!) I had pre-ordered the steak. The other options included a gnocchi and a tomato based dish. I don’t do tomatoes. The starter and salad were fine and probably on a par with my experiences in CE. The steak came with mashed potatoes – with a cherry tomato plonked in the middle. Why? The port based sauce was a little strong but perfectly edible. The steak was succulent. I tend to go for well done but am getting better as I get older and will eat steak with a bit of pink. I would have to say this was probably medium to medium-rare, but I still ate it. Some parts of the meat were perhaps a little cool, but overall I am sure most steak lovers would find little to fault it on. I washed all this down with a few glasses of merlot.

However, the real highlight was the ice cream sundae. Absolutely delicious. Later on in the flight a basket with some goodies was placed on the shelf just in front of my seat. No missing out this time. Although I was pretty much stuffed so didn’t bor. I did try the freshly baked cookie later on.

We made excellent time across the US and ended up landing in LAX an hour ahead of schedule. I think a fair portion of this was due to the swift departure from JFK. There was a fair bit of trundling around to get to the gate but eventually we made it off, and I was able to say a belated hello to my first ‘planned’ FTer of this visit. (If reading, I hope you had a good onward connection to HNL.)

Very glad to see you back online madfish

Was getting a bit worried about you with no report for 24 hrs...

Do continue keeping us informed!

Aa1410 lax/las
 

Having arrived early I had a bit more time to enjoy the sights of LAX. Instead I headed for the Admirals Club. Very much the same as the one at JFK, albeit smaller. Nothing much to report of this other than I like the simplicity of the connection between the gates. After a relatively short while in the lounge I headed towards the gate. Seating around the gate area seemed limited, and the way in which the seats faces towards each other made it awkward to seat in a section already occupied by somebody else. Just seemed to be encroaching on space.

Boarding was called on time, with First and status passengers called forward. I think I was the only person who moved. Even at checkin, I was the only passenger in First although I was joined by a couple of others on board. I assume they were AA members and had updated at the gate. Once again the flight seemed to board without too many issues. The usual offer of a drink, and later a light snack were offered. I opted for a soft drink as knew I had a long night ahead with plans to meet up with some other FTers when I arrived in Vegas. Pushback was again prompt but t appeared to take an age to get to the runway. To be honest I even nodded off and when I woke, thought for a moment that we had already arrived in LAS and I had missed the whole thing as we were still making our way to the runway. Sadly this was not the case, and I was soon up in the air again.

The flight was operated by a 738 and cannot recall any real issues. For some reason my blanket was already open and had been put back in the bag, so I swapped it for the one next to me. Although the seat turned out to be empty so didn’t really matter. The cabin crew were friendly and polite, although seemed to prefer talking amongst themselves. For those who may be interested, one of them was fairly young, and the other in the front was middle aged. Think this beats the age of some of the ones I have heard of flying US.

The flight seemed to take a while. Perhaps because I was tired, but we more of less made it to LAS on time. And here’s where I realised I hadn’t actually given as much thought to the airport experience itself, having focused on the flights. I planned on getting a taxi but what I hadn’t taken into account was the need to get to the right place. With two terminals, I followed the signs for ground transportation. Although arriving in terminal 1, I ended up leaving by terminal 3. Not sure if this is normal or not. However, the taxi stand was nearby and I joined the queue. I had an idea of the price as large signs give details of the various hotels and average prices. Although staying at Monte Carlo, I headed to Bellagio where I had agreed to meet with Teledude, 62aClubWorld and njf63.

As for Vegas… you know the rule!

Aa311 mia/jfk
 

The final AA flight and this was on board an older 757 which had been subbed a week or two before hand. I had been warned that there was less legroom in row 1 in comparison to the 738s I had previously travelled on with AA. But first, Admiral Club at MIA.

The previous flight arrived at one of the lower numbered D gates and I found myself wandering along and into the Admirals Club by gate D15. The lounge was very much the same as the previous ones. Same food and drink offerings. I spent about 30 minutes in there before heading out to explore the terminal a bit. I walked around to the E gates, and saw where the Premium Lounge is located. Unfortunately this doesn’t open until 1pm and so there was no way I was going to be able to access it. This part of the terminal was in complete contrast to what I had seen in D. Dirty, run down and in need of refurbishment, which looks like what they are doing. The D gates was a much more pleasant experience. With not much else to do I found myself going into the second Admirals Club. This is the larger of the two and is located by gate D30. Again, same food and drink offerings. What is worth noting is that I was given two vouchers on entering for the premium drinks at both lounges. If this is your thing then lounge hopping may be an option. I hasten to add, I used none of the vouchers.
I could explain about boarding, but this was very much the same as previous flights, and you have probably read it already, assuming anybody is actual reading. Only significant difference was an announcement that it was a full flight and they were looking for volunteers to have their bags checked for free. Definitely more bags being taken on board, reflective with the number of business travellers, and higher density of seating compared to the JFK/LAX route.

As I took my seat in 1A there was clearly less leg room, or more accurately feet room as no seat in front to put them under. A series of clear announcements from crew and flight deck were made and this certainly had more detail and a sense of personality than some previous ones. Once again boarding was completed and the doors closed before scheduled time of departure. However, we were delayed a few minutes before pushing back. It was then a quite slow and painful trundle towards the runway. (I will try to remember/make note of actual runway codes – still something I have to learn.) In total it was a good half an hour before we had wheels up.
Service on board was good. A team of quite young cabin crew, but they were friendly and polite. Pre-departure drinks, followed by a full bar service with warm nuts. I had pre-ordered the steak again. Sadly this was not of the same standard as on the A321T. As many have complained of poor steak, this was the same. To be fair, I may be doing it a disservice as it may have been termed as beef, rather than steak. It was more beefy. It was edible but hardly anything to write home about. Portion sizes were also noticeably smaller. This came with an accompanying salad and was rounded off with another drink and a warm cookie. Where’s the sundae? I know they were serving the sundae on the slightly longer LAS/JFK flight so why not this one?

This is one of the few flight reports that I have actually written mid-air. At present we are about an hour out from JFK. We have flown up the coast and were mostly over the sea for the first half before cutting in land. Looking out of the window I can see what appear to be two fairly substantial rivers or at least inlets, although no idea where exactly we are. There’s an airport in-between the two. I want to suggest something like Washington, but will have to check when we land.

We came into JFK from the North (or so I think). Seemed to be quite low over the house on approach as we executed our final turns. Was among the first off the plane and out to the Airtrain to take me to T8.

Nice, very nice. LAS cabs are a bit of a racket sadly. You have to tell them you don't want to go via the highway or IME they will take you on a magical mystery tour that seems to double the fare!

AA boarding is always reasonably impressive too, especially in comparison with what we get here.

How are you doing jet-lag wise?