Las Vegas

What is there to be said about Las Vegas. I have been to it a couple of times, and this time I just wanted to stop over to improve my lap times at Exotics Racing. If you are headed out there and want to drive super cars around a race track, these are the right guys to do it with. I had a friend who would be arriving the next day and we went back to ER again as well, yes the experience is that good, we added on a trip to Machine Guns Vegas’ shooting range as well. I didn’t take a lot of pictures in Las Vegas, but we did what most tourists do, shows, nice meals, and people watching on the strip. 3 days flew right by.


Need to get one of these ASAP. AMG GT


Definitely getting one. Time to sell a Kidney!


Second car I drove. Not as fun as the AMG. (I am weird, yes)

Leaving LAS I rerouted my flights. Unfortunatley as mentioned above I got a meeting time rescheduled and had to make it back to Kuwait. My original flight was LAS-LAX-LHR on AA F, to try out the new F suite. And then connecting to BA on LHR-KWI. After a 45minute call to the BA call center in the UK I got that changed to LAS-DFW on AA, and then QR J on DFW-DOH-KWI. That would get me home at 9:30pm the night before my meeting.

Flight 11: AA70 LAS - DFW
A/C B738
Sched Dep Time: 09:50
Sched Arr Time: 14:40

It was time to head home. After an enjoyable trip, it was time to get back to reality for me. I woke up early and took care of transportation with the hotel to take my friend and I to the airport. I would be heading back home and he was heading back to San Francisco on Southwest with a departure time close to mine.


Vegas sunrise. This was taken from an earlier trip when we stayed at the MO as well

We checked out at 8am, and after a quick ride to the airport, I checked in at the AA counters. My bags were tagged all the way to KWI. TSA was quick and I bid farewell to my friend before taking the tram to the D gates. Since there was no lounge at LAS I got breakfast at Starbucks and read the news for the next 30mins till it was time to board.


The view from Starbucks.

Again it was a full flight. But we boarded on time and doors were closed on time as well.


Leaving LAS

Service on this flight was good, and the crew were very friendly and chatty. There was a lunch service on this flight, no menus were distributed but a choice of chicken salad or a sandwich was offered. I went for the salad.


Sad looking piece of chicken.

After lunch another round of drinks was offered and the flight attendant came around and told all the connecting passengers personally where their next flight would depart from. Nice touch AA, and he told me that there was no gate for QR yet but they should leave from the D gates (which was correct) and that I should head over there and as a OWE I can enjoy the Admirals club.

We made an ontime arrival into DFW. We seemed to taxi for a long time until we parked at the A gates. I disembarked and took the Skytrain to the D gates.


Flight 12: QR734 DFW - DOH
A/C B77L
Sched Dep Time: 18:40
Sched Arr Time: 17:20 (+1)

Just after getting off the escalators from the Skytrain I spotted a QR agent, I asked her about which lounge QR was using for the flight and she told me the Club Lounge, she had a look at my boarding pass and said that I can go to the Admirals club but it would be busy and the food on offer is not that great. She told me to follow her up to the lounge and she would replace all my AA boarding cards into QR ones as well. I was first into the lounge as they just opened, and I had a good seat by the windows. There was plenty of food on offer as well as soup. I wasn’t hungry so just had a coffee and began replying to some texts.


We are in AA territory for sure!


Empty Lounge

More seating.

After an hour I decided it was time for lunch. I am a huge fan of Texas BBQ, especially brisket. So, its off to the A gates again for some much hyped about Salt Lick BBQ.




Brisket Sandwich with some spicy sauce. Not as good as it was hyped up to be, I have had better BBQ

Once I was done I headed back again to the lounge. Boarding was called and I made my way to the gate, we stood in line and waited as economy began boarding. This again made no sense to me as to why were we called to the gate when they are not ready. After 15 minutes J class was allowed to board. Today’s flight was full in all classes, except for one free seat in J, the one next to me!


My seat, 1A. 1B would be the only unoccupied seat on this flight. Score!

As mentioned earlier, I like to adjust my food and sleep patterns on airplanes and before flights. I only had 4 hours of sleep the night before in Vegas, and this was to get myself really exhausted and ready to sleep for 6 to 7 hours on the DFW to DOH leg. I would wake up with 8 hours left of the flight that would get me on KWI time. This worked perfectly for me. So food wise, once we took off I had a ravioli dish from the light bites menu, and went straight to sleep as the other passengers were digging into their dinner. After I wake up I would have a full breakfast, and I would have the dish I reserved from dinner right before landing, which should serve as my late lunch. I hope that made sense.

I apologize as due to my sleepiness I forgot to take pictures of the menu, and the ravioli from the light bites menu. I did realize however that QR stopped handing the menu out in the leather binder. Any ideas as to why?

I got a solid 6.5 hours of sleep and woke up with 8 hours of the flight left. Perfect, that means it was 9 am Kuwait time when I was up! I got up, changed out of the sleep suit and into a fresh pair of clothing, and freshened up. I ordered breakfast immediately afterwards, and chased it down with a latte.


Yoghurt with cherry compote and granola


Waffles with berries
After a few movies, and about 2 hours before landing when the rest of the cabin was waking up I ordered my main course. It seemed odd as everyone was having breakfast items served and I was having my main meal


Pumpkin soup. I usually chase this with an order of Arabic Mezze, but this was my first QR longhaul where they didn’t serve it anywhere on the menu.


Lamb Shank with roasted root vegetables and mashed potatoes. Really good!


Pecan pie. Not so good.


Over Iran with about an hour to go


Got freight?

We landed on schedule and made a quick taxi to the gate. Security was a breeze as usual in DOH and I headed to the lounge. I had an onwards F pass but the Alsafwa F lounge was still not open, so I made use of the Almourjan J lounge.


Almourjan lounge

Flight 13: QR1074 DOH - KWI
A/C B77L
Sched Dep Time: 20:05
Sched Arr Time: 21:30

After just over an hour in the lounge and 2 large bottles of water later, it was time to board. I headed to the gate and onboard another B777-200LR. It always makes me chuckle how a J product which I just used for an international sector, magically turns into an F product regionally with QR. This flight had a light load up front and the purser made a fuss about moving all the passengers into the main cabin ahead of doors 2R and 2L, and keeping the mini-cabin ahead of Y empty. We were a total of 14 passengers on this flight.


Seats 4A and 4B on this flight.


Looking forwards.
Flight time was 55 minutes, and a small meal service would be served. I just ordered the dessert and a coffee.


Menu



We landed about 25 minutes ahead of schedule, and surprisingly baggage was on the belt quite quickly (an achievement for KWI airport). I was home within 30 minutes from leaving the aircraft, and was in bed an hour later. Perfect!


Finally home.


An old picture I took of downtown Kuwait from a previous flight.

Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed my first report.

Great report.

Always enjoy reports that include BKK. Can't wait to go back in about 5 weeks now!

Very nice report! Looks like you had a good time. Shame you had to swap your AA/BA F flights for QR J (although maybe they are of equal quality ?)

Thanks for the TR. The DFW-DOH QR seats looked pretty crap compared to the newer seats. Are they refurbishing these planes to bring them into line with the newer cabins. Does not make much sense to use these older seats for such a long flight.

Nice report! And echoing other posters, I did not realize that QR used the old J seats for any of its US routes. Interesting.

Re. Exotics Racing: 5 laps enough? Car suggestion? Can you push them pretty hard or will do they make you take it pretty easy "for safety"?

Great report thanks for sharing your experiences.

Great report! And good pictures! Thanks for sharing. Just wondering, if you ever got the mileage/status credits for that TG flight that you were put on (ORC)? Did you double dip with a *A program as well?

Nice TR, thanks for posting ^. Question: What was your favorite exotic to drive in Vegas?

Thanks, and I hope you enjoy your trip there.

Thanks for the kind comment. You are correct about swapping F to J, the loss of TP's was a pain but I have a flight coming up next week to at least to make up for it.

The current seats on the 777's are fine IMHO, but not great when traveling solo. The new seats are only available on B787, A380 and A350. I have no clue if the B777's will be reconfigured, however, the A350 should be heading to BOS and JFK next year so the new product will be available in the USA next year.

Thanks. Yes, the old product is currently equipped on the ULH aircrafts, which are the 777's at the moment. As I mentioned above, once the A350's start taking over some ULH flying it should be available in the US through BOS and on one of the JFKcflights.

You can push them as hard as you want, but, the track has cones laid around it so you know when to brake, turn, accelerate at the apex, and exit the turn. You will go through a lesson that will help you understand and there is a good straight where you can floor it. As long as you stick to your instructors advice, you will enjoy it.

5 laps is not enough, it will take you 3 laps at least to get the hang of it, then you will see your lap times improve. Also, they usually have offers on the day on special cars, the two times I went they had 100$ off the Nissan GTR if you book it as a second car. All the times I went, I find I get a better deal as a walk in, I just call ahead and make sure they have slots open before I make the 50$ cab ride to their location. Also, if you are a repeat customer, and on their database, make sure you mention it when you book as you get a free lap on the "cheaper" car you booked for that day.

As far as car choices go. Pick a track car (Porsche GT3/Nissan GTR) an exotic (Ferrari 458 Italia/Gallardo) and a super car (AMG GT/Hurracan/Porsche Turbo) it all depends on what you are looking for. My way of picking is I start off by choosing something that I will probably not own or am not interested in owning and I go from there. But the Hurracan is a must just because its their fastest car around the track!

Thanks for reading it.

Thank you. Unfortunatley, I didn't. BA rejected my request for miles for that sector and I am not a member in any of the Star alliance programs, however I don't see why you wouldn't be able to get miles for it if you claim missing miles.

Thanks for reading. I have driven the Hurracan before and came back to try it again. However, I enjoyed the AMG GT much more. It felt like it wouldn't spin out when you punch as you leave the corners. More so, the next day I took out for another 6 laps. I know a lot of the people there enjoy the GT3, which makes sense at was built for the track.

Really nice report. Great pictures. Thanks for posting.

Great TR, I really enjoyed the pictures. I love to see other airlines menues, to compare what is offered.

Epic report! What was your favorite airline/segment?

surreal!

Thanks for the great report, would like to fly some of these products (again)^

Thanks for reading, glad you liked it.

Thanks.

Thank you. I would have to say CX F from LHR to HKG was absolutely fantastic. Surprisingly, BA from KWI to LHR was great but mainly due to the crew. I have another flight on that route next week in F and I hope to have the same experience.

That being said, I now need to find a way to fly from KWI to Europe via HKG just for the CX product!

Thanks for your kind words, I'm glad you enjoyed it.