Moomba

Thanks Oformula. I am hanging out for May in order to finish this adventure.

Yes the Sheraton Miyako, although quite competitively priced seems to not endear itself to me and doesn't feel like a 4 star hotel.


Thank you very much Madone59 I am glad you enjoyed the report.

Thanks kyushuman I am pleased you like my writing.

roadwarrier

So sorry to hear about your Dad, that kind of thing is never easy when you are miles away. When my Dad passed away, I was in Portugal and my sister in Milan. When our Brother went, I was in Mali and had to get back so that I could arrange for the repatriation from Botswana back to South Africa. And the worst was when I was in Milan, at the same hotel that my sister was when our Dad passed, I got the news about my Mom. So no more Hilton Milan for me thanks.

Hope that all is settled now and you have the fondest of memories of him.

Looking forward to the rest of your TR in May, and no, to answer your Thread Title, we will not allow you to stop buying "These things".

Digital01

Moomba, very sorry to hear of your loss. It's unfortunate to hear of these things happening, particularly when there is no way you can get home fast enough.

As always, thank you another excellent report. Look forward to the finale!

Kiwi Flyer

Belated condolences Moomba

SYDSiderFlyer

My sincere condolences to you and your family. I know how hard it is losing family when living overseas. My thoughts are with you.
Thank you for the report and amazing picture as always

Frequent_Flyer1

Also my condolences Moomba to you and your family! All the best! ^
It's really a hard toll when one is travelling and get such devastating news! In those circumstance, "beaming" should be available

Moomba

Thanks you for your comment roadwarrier

Thanks Digital01

Thanks Kiwi

Thank you SYDSiderFlyer

Yes it would have been nice to beam down to Oz. It would have been the only option that would have allowed me to see my father again. From the point I found out about his situation to his passing was less that eight hours.

Seat 2A

It's nice to see you back in the air again, Moomba. Please accept my condolences on the loss of your father. Here's to sunnier days for both of you.

Having recently completed a trio of flights in Cathay's First Class, I share your joy at flying aboard this fine airline. Thanks for the great photos. I love the layout of Qatar's A380 First Class cabin.

Moomba

Thank you Seat 2A. There will be a few more CX F flights before this report is done. I am looking forward to them.

Sealink

Great TR, of which I am not in any way jealous whatsoever, no siree; tinged with sadness and hope you are bearing up.

Moomba

Thank you Sealing. Hopefully you won't be too jealous of the remaining portion when I post it.

yetihouse

Fantastic report Moomba! Very sorry for your loss!

Moomba

Thanks yetihouse.

Moomba

After a pretty traumatic end to the previous section of my report a little over 6 months ago it was time to once again head into the sky to complete this round the world trip.

I finally finished up a contract role that lasted for 6 years and 2 months the Friday before this trip continued. After a few leisurely days in the wilds of Wiltshire and a couple of days in London it was time to head on out to Heathrow.

I used my usual tube and HEX route to get to Heathrow and was ascending to the departures hall at T5 around 12:10. I made the long walk up to Zone J where the F desks are; yes I am still amused by this, and was swiftly seen to. I had been unable to check-in online and even after calling BA they still couldn’t understand why but the agent seemed to have no issue securing me BP.

I doubled back to security and used the surprising fast track to make it airside in a couple of minutes. I approached the white door guardian and was directed inside to the Concorde Room. At the desk inside my BP was checked and I was then ushered into the lounge properly. My first stop was some lunch as I had barely eaten all morning.

I didn’t get a chance to take a photo of the menu and wine list. I ordered the asparagus and poached egg for starter that was quite nice.


Asparagus Starter


I followed this up with the steak that had a nice flame grilled taste to it but was a bit gristly and hard to chew in places.


Steak Main

I finished up with the lush banoffee mousse.




Of course I couldn’t have the dessert without having some of the dessert wine.


Banoffee Dessert

As this was an A380 I knew the gate would be at the C pier so with this in mind left the lounge relatively early in order to make my way over there.

As I approached the elevator I noticed that the flight was Now Boarding. I had intended to walk but decided to take the transit instead. At T5C I ascended to see the Final Boarding message against my flight. Of course when I got to the gate there were still hoards of people waiting to board. They had started and the elite queue had all but disappeared so I was able to walk straight on down and be checked before heading down the ramp.

Flight BA0287 LHR-SFO (First)
Aircraft: A380
Departure time: 14:05
Seat 2A

Once on board I was directed to my seat by the CSD who also introduced himself and gave me the welcome speech. The lead F crew member dropped by with amenity kit and offered me a PJs and a drink.

The seat on the 380 is a lot more spacious than BA’s other aircraft with a lot more elbow room and a large cupboard under your elbow to stow items. The suit closet is also much larger and actually has space for a suit jacket without having to squash it in.


BA A380 F seat


BA A380 F seat

My bubbly was delivered and I was offered a newspaper.


Pre-flight Bubbly

The first officer announced a flight time of 10 hours and 20 minutes. I was offered a top up of bubbly before we pushed back at 14:05.
After a long taxi we took off at 14:21 and headed off towards the US.

Once the belt sign was off I changed into my PJs and back at my seat was given customs forms for the US by the CSD.

The crew delivered the menus and returned a while later to collect the order.

A hot rag was passed to me before the drinks service began.


BA Hot Rag

I started with the customary scotch and ginger to go with my warm nuts.


Scotch and Nuts

The meal service began a while later with the amuse I had on my recent Japan trip. It was a pesto horn with feta cream and some sundried tomatoes.


Amuse Bouche

The pea soup was OK but would have been quite bland without the ham hock croquettes.


Pea Soup

The salad was fresh and tasty and I washed this down with a glass or two of the Bordeaux.


Salad

For the main course I had pre-booked the Guinea Fowl Kiev and this was quite a tasty, if a little tough, dish.


Tasty but tough Guinea Fowl Kiev

Next up the malt chocolate terrine made an appearance. BA redeemed themselves on this one after the horrible dessert I had on my recent flight from HND. I of course had to have some sticky with this dish.


Malt Chocolate Dessert

I skipped the cheese and ordered some espresso, which was soon delivered along with the whole box of chocolates.

The CSD was walking past and said ‘Are they all for you?’ My reply was ‘I hope not.’ I exercised great self control and limited myself to just 3.


Coffee & Chocolates

I was given a bottle of water after the meal and decided to watch a movie before taking a wee nap.

Around 2 hours out of SFO the crew set up for the second meal service.

I began this service with the Soufflé a dish that didn’t really fare well at 33,000 feet.


Tough Soufflé

I pretended to be healthy for a minute and chose the chicken salad and was not displeased with that selection.


Chicken Salad

The crew on the flight were very proactive and chatty and my water or wine glass was not allowed to be empty during the meal services. How different an experience this was from my previous flight. BA really needs to work on consistency of the service elements of their first product.

After the meal I stepped back into my civvies and waited out the flight until we landed at 16:56.

After a long taxi we pulled up to a gate that was only a short walk from a completely empty immigrations hall. I was able to walk straight up to a desk and be processed into the US.

Of course a quick immigrations means a wait by the carousel for luggage.

Bags finally started to appear and the First tags did nothing as usual with BA.

My bag eventually made it out and I was on my way out via the customs lane.

I had decided to catch the Bart to save some money as the station at the other end was right outside my hotel.

I secured a ticket and walked down to the platform where a train was waiting. The BART may be cheap but it ain’t all that pleasant. The trains are tired and dirty.

I got off at Montgomery and figured out my best exit correctly and when I popped up at street level I was immediately outside an entrance to the Palace Hotel.

I was checked in and made my way to my home for the next two nights.


Palace Hotel Bathroom


Palace Hotel Bedroom

The room was quite nice but had a view of other rooms of the hotel and for US hotel I couldn’t believe they had no coffee making facilities in the room!

I was quite shattered and crashed for the night quite early.

The next day I decided to walk to the Fisherman’s wharf area via the Coit tower. It was more of an exercise event than a tourist event. I had been to San Fran a few times before and done most of the touristy stuff already. Just as I was leaving Coit it started to rain and got heavier and heavier as I got to Pier 39.


Looking down Montgomery Street


After wandering around dank and wet I found a Starbucks and grabbed a coffee to wait out the rain.

I walked back into the Union square area for a little retail therapy and was able to pick up some highly discounted apparel at Macy’s.

I grabbed some food and headed back to the hotel for a lazy evening.

Next up I fly back across the country on AA’s 321 service.

Moomba

I checked out of the hotel quite early and retraced my steps to SFO airport using the BART train. Once at SFO I had to catch the transit train to get to the AA terminal building. I located the first check in desk and was processed quite quickly. Fast track security wasn’t overly fast not helped at all by how slowly they can move people through the nudo-scope compared to the normal walk through metal detectors.

I wandered in to the AA lounge was the agent generously gave me 1 drinks coupon. The lounge was quite busy for a Saturday morning with only a few blocks of seats unoccupied. There was a TV blaring away in the middle with Obama yelling as he does when he gives speeches. At the other end a radio was blaring out some sports programme. On offer for food was the usual salty snacks and cookies plus yoghurts, fruits and a cauldron of porridge served with brown sugar and cinnamon. I grabbed some porridge and nabbed some honey from the tea stands to pour on it.

Around 45 minutes before my flight I made my way down to the gate to wait until boarding was called.

Pre-boards were called first and the First class followed by Business class.

Flight AA0012 SFO-JFK (First)
Aircraft: A321
Departure time: 11:25
Seat 2A

On board I was directed to my seat at which there was a pillow and blanket and the menu also. An amenity kit was sitting inside one of the seat nooks. The menu was sitting at the seat.


Menu at seat






Menu

The A321 F seat on the transcons that AA fly has a seat quite similar to the CX longhaul J seat although the seats are placed quite close together making the entry to the seat quite tight.

There is plenty of room at the seat and a few storage nooks and crannies available.


IFE screen


Seat controls

Seat storage

The doors were closed quite early just after 11 am and the crew dropped by with a bottle of water but no pre flight drinks was offered.

The captain announced we were ready to go apart from some paperwork that needed to be completed.
We pushed back at 11:26 and the purser announced a flight time of 5 hours and 14 minutes.

We took off at 11:39 and once the belt sign was off the crew came around to take a drinks order. A hot towel about twice as thick as a BA rag was handed out. After my drink was delivered along with some nuts the crew then started to hand out the Bose headphones.


Scotch and warm nuts


I was offered a top up of both my drink and the nuts prior to the lunch service beginning. Not long into to the flight we hit a bump and the belt sign was switched on. It remained on for the remainder of the mostly smooth flight making a mockery of the whole thing. Have AA captains never heard of the boy who cried wolf?

I had pre-ordered my main meal online and the crew confirmed this prior to the meal.

I opted for the salmon dip and some of the French white wine.


Salmon dip

The salad was quite fresh and crunchy, what more can you say about a salad.


Salad


I Wagyu meatloaf I had pre-ordered was served with quite a spicy sauce and if you hadn’t told me it was Wagyu I wouldn’t have known.


Wagyu meatloaf


Of course as this was a trans-con flight the dessert was the ice cream sundae. I went with my usual butterscotch and nuts sans any whipped cream thanks.


Sundae

After the meal I watched a movie and listened to some music until around 1.5 hours out when the smell of freshly baked cookies wafted through the cabin.

I was offered a choc chip cookie with some milk. I accepted the former and passed on the milk.


Cookie & Coffee


On the side at the front of the cabin the crew had set up a self serve area with fruit, fig bars, chips etc.

The IFE on this flight was bit flaky. The music album I was listening to kept skipping and missing parts. One of the albums listed had the wrong track listings showing. When watching a movie it kept pausing or fast forwarding.

Forty-five minutes before touch down the Bose headphones were taken away and I used my own in-ear phones until we landed at 19:52.

My bag was one of the first to come out and after grabbing it I made my way down to the transit stop from where the hotel shuttles leave. I tried calling the Sheraton JFK but there was no answer so I just walked outside.

A bus finally pulled up for the Hampton Inn. As this bus share the load with the Sheraton next door I jumped on board and made it around to the hotel. My original plan was to leave my luggage with the hotel for a couple of days rather than carting it on my mileage run over the next two days. However at check-in they confirmed I would not be able to store my bags for me. This is a first as I had done it before at other hotels and did so later in this trip.
Once I got up to my room I cancelled my second booking at the hotel and booked at the Hilton JFK for my return trip, just cause I am spiteful like that.