dat4life

On a bone chilling Friday in Texas in February 2022, I sat back with a satisfied smile. I just stumbled onto a fantastic Finnair business class fare from Los Angeles to Tel Aviv for a very reasonable $1,700. It would put me over the top re-qualifying for 2023 American Airlines status, plus most of the segments were operated by British Airways and featured their new Club Suite product. Israel is a place I’ve wanted to visit, but never had the opportunity. Until now of course. Naturally, I quickly pulled the trigger and I was set to head to Israel in September. Satisfied with my handiwork, I got ready to head out for my latest spin of dating app roulette.

Fast forward to August 2022, that same spin asked if I wanted to go to a wedding in Ireland. Never one to turn down an opportunity to travel, I said, ”Sure, when?” Naturally, the wedding fell a couple of days after my Israel. A direct turn back across the Atlantic was an option, but that required very precise timing to be feasible. Given current state of air travel, I wasn’t willing put my faith on precise timing.

My first thought was to look into pushing my Israel trip back a bit. I called up Finnair and spoke to a very lovely agent who quoted me a fare difference of $31,000 if I wanted to depart in December instead. Well, heck. I want to fly to Israel comfortably, not buy 10 year old used car. I just laughed and wished her a nice day.

But you know what, sometimes life has a funny way of working itself out. Call it a happy accident or plain dumb luck. Anyhow, as I predicted my Tel Aviv to London flight was delayed and I just happened to misconnect. While that would have fazed most folks, my years of traveling taught me to be prepared for every conceivable eventuality. And it just so happened I used 32,000 Avios to book my girlfriend a ticket on British Airways’ non-stop Houston to London flight in Premium Economy. In another happy accident, I just happened to buy us tickets to Dublin on Aer Lingus. The going rate for their short-haul Business Class product, dubbed Aer Space, was a bargain €98.

As for our return, I was able snag Business Class seats on British Airways from Dublin to JFK, with a Heathrow connection of course, using 57,500 AAdvantage miles and $200 in taxes each which was pretty reasonable. And for our last leg home, tickets on one of Delta’s LaGuardia to Houston non-stop set us back $120 each.

I was dang excited about this trip for a number of reasons. But most of all, this was my first post-COVID multi-continent adventure. And man, was it a fun one!


Previous Trip Reports
2022:The Dam Weekend (SQ/AA J; U2/AF Y)
2021: Chasing Bourdain and Perfect Tinder Pictures (AA/A3/LH J; BA Y; UA Domestic F)
2021: How The Turntables: MQD Running With My Parents (AA Domestic F; AM J; UA Y)
2020: Purgatory: Tales of Pandemic Travel in the U.S.
2020: The Last Dance (CX F)
2019: An Unexpected Jaunt Around The World (UA/CX/TG/BR/OS J; AK Y)
2018: Pilgrimage to the Fatherland (CX/MU J; CX W; WN/MU Y)
2017: The Ultimate Flake (AA F; SQ F and Suites; CX/MS/CA/MH/KL/JL J; TK Y)
2017: The Earth IS Round (UA/LH/HU/CZ/TR Y; CX/BR J)
2017: Something Old and Something New (SQ A350 J / AA J)
2015: Christmas in Asia (AA/CX/UA J; BA/AA/CX Y)
2015: A Manic Fall(AA/WN/UA/CX/FD Y; CX F; AA F)
2015: An Apartment in the Sky (Etihad Apartment First Class, AA Y, BA J/Y, QR Y)
2014: The End of An Era (JL/CX/TG/QF A380 F, OZ J, KA Y, and a Chinese Bullet Train!)
2014: A Tale of Two Cities (AA 77W J BA Y IB Y AF J)
2013: It’s The Most Wonderful Time of The Year (AA/MQ F AS Y)
2013: Geeking Out Across America (AA F)
2012: Around The World and From Sea to Shining Sea (AA F/Y, CX F, SQ F, UA F, DL F, WN Y)
2011: Everybody look at me because I'm sailing on a boat (KL J and DL Y)

dat4life

In an blink of an eye February turned into the dog days of summer, where I faced in interesting conundrum. I grew in up in Louisiana, but I’ve spent the better part of the last two decades in neighboring Texas thanks to wind and rain of Hurricane Katrina with a massive assist from the Army Corp of Engineers. I grew to love Texas. It’s where I finished university, started my career, and everything in between. In August, I was offered a very attractive promotion with a major catch: I have to be based back in Louisiana.

Now, I still love my home state, and I visit often over the years. But there’s a massive difference between visiting and moving back. It was quite the conundrum. In the end, the career oriented side of my brain won out and I “heading home”. Though if recent activity on the TR forum is indication, there’s quite a market for renting out spare rooms to FTer college football fans.

I spent better part of the weeks leading up to my jaunt house hunting in Louisiana and figuring out my new gig. It was really fun getting reacquainted with my home state.













Speaking of the new gig, it’s taking to some lovely parts of my home state I haven’t seen before. I ended up working near Vidalia, Louisiana in the weeks leading up to my trip. Vidalia is a picturesque little town in northeastern Louisiana nestled against the mighty Mississippi River and about 150 miles upstream from my childhood home.




I wrapped up my assignment the day before departure and made the long trek back to Houston.




With so little time at home in the last couple of months, there were a bunch of things that fell by the wayside. So I ended up pulling an all nighter to get everything in some semblance of shape of being ready to leave. I was absolutely exhausted when my Uber pulled up at 5:30 the next morning.



Traffic in and out of IAH has been an absolute nightmare in the last year because of construction. Today was no exception with a long line for Terminal A departures despite the early hour. I spotted Terminal B departures was deserted as usual. So I called an audible and asked the Uber driver to drop me off there, and I was through security and on the SkyTrain to Terminal A just a few minutes later.





My positioning flight to LAX was on Delta. Delta started non-stop service from IAH to LAX in early 2021 bringing along super reasonable fares and th comfortable Airbus A220. Operating the early morning LAX departure was one of larger -300 series aircraft. As I suspected, my lowly Silver Medallion just netted me the number 25 spot on the upgrade list with just four available First Class seats. But I was able to snag the single exit row seat, which was probably just as comfortable as First Class.

Delta 678
Houston (IAH) - Los Angeles (LAX)
Depart: 6:45AM
Arrive: 9:00AM
Aircraft: Airbus A220-300
Seat: 17B (Economy Class)





Elbow room and legroom was plentiful.



’

I pretty much blacked out as soon as I sat down. The hum of the plane’s landing gear being jolted me awake and moments later the plane pulled into Terminal 2 at LAX.

Delt’da new LAX terminal is gorgeous.






Feeling somewhat human, I made a short and walk over to the Hyatt Regency where slipped a few bucks to the bellman to store my bag so I could do a little a plane spotting a few blocks away.

The catch of the day was simply divine.

dat4life

After a delightful few hours plane spotting, I walked back to the Hyatt to pick up my back and hoof it back to LAX. My legs got me back to LAX a lot quicker than any set of four wheels.





It took about 20 minutes before I reached American’s snazzy new new Flagship Check In. I was flying Business Class, but I was eligible to use Flagship Check In thanks to my Executive Platinum status. One of bouncers checked my name off a list and walked me to one of the counters, where a friendly agent quickly checked my passport and printed out my boarding passes all the way to Tel Aviv. The bouncer then walked me out into the masses and up an elevator to security where he made a hole for me straight to the ID checker. So this is what it feels like to be kinda important!





Security was relatively painless, and then it was straight to the Flagship Lounge for a shower.







American gets a lot of crap (mostly deservedly so), but they deserve consistently good lounge shower rooms.



Thoroughly refreshed, I took a quick quick a quick peek around lounge, which was bright and airy.













Since I wasn’t flying First Class, I didn’t have access to Flagship Dining. I made the quick ten minute trek to the Qantas First Class Lounge in the TBIT, where my flight to London was departing anyways.

On the way, I caught a glimpse of my ride to London.



The Qantas lounge was just ten minutes away in the TBIT.



I really lucked out as the Qantas First Class Lounge re-opened shortly before my trip after a lengthy COVID hiatus.






It’s been a few years I’ve visited, but everything was exactly the same which is a good thing.









I hadn’t eaten since lunch the day before, so I went straight to the dining area where a waiter immediately brought me a menu.





I started off with a classic: the salt and pepper squid appetizer. It paired well with a glass of Chardonnay.



The sea bass main course was delicious.



I kept it simple for dessert with a fruit plate.



The Qantas First Class lounge is an attractive and comfortable facility. But if it weren’t for a la carte dining, I’d actually prefer hanging out at the Flagship Lounge which is airier and has plenty of natural light.

Hunger satisfied, I decided to stretch my legs with stroll around the terminal. The TBIT has come such a long way from being one of the worse airport terminals to its current modern state.





After my second lap, it was time to head over the gate. This particular gate had biometric e-gates, which are a bit on the creepy side for me. And it seemed to create unnecessary confusion as the masses just rushed the gates as soon as boarding was called. Eventually, I made it through the throngs and onto the plane.

dat4life

American Airlines 136
Los Angeles (LAX) – London (LHR)
Depart: 2:47PM
Arrive: 8:00AM+1
Aircraft: Boeing 777-300ER
Seat: 3J (Business Class)

Taking us 5,456 miles from sea to shining sea and over the Atlantic was none other than N718AN, the very same aircraft that took me over London back in December 2021. American has 20 Boeing 777-300ER. Over the years, I’ve logged 53 flights on them over years but on just 5 different aircraft. Too bad my odds in Vegas aren’t nearly that good.

N718AN was delivered to American back in 2013. Compared to similar aged American aircraft, the interior has held up pretty well.



While they didn’t offer drinks on the ground, the flight attendants were friendly and helpful throughout. The captain gave the usual spiel just as the flight attendant started taking dinner orders. Flying time was announced as 9.5 hours.

The cabin door was buttoned up and we pushed back a few minutes ahead of schedule. We were parked next to a British Airways A350-1000 which would be following us to London an hour or so later.



The taxi to Runway 25R was short. After lining up with the centerline, the two mighty GE90B-115 engines roared and the heavily laden Triple Seven hurtled down the runway and leapt into sky after a surprisingly short takeoff roll. It was an absolutely perfect day for flying.





Shortly after crossing the shoreline, the plane banked gracefully into a left turn for the familiar DOTSS2 departure. We flew parallel to the shoreline until passing Long Beach and turned east.

While the crew got to work, I got busy firing up the IFE system. American’s IFE interface hasn’t changed an iota since 2013, so it’s a bit outdated at this point but still perfectly usable. As always, the content selection was good. I was still pretty tired and didn’t want to think much. So I went with a couple episodes of Young Sheldon.





Kudos to American for providing Bang & Olufsen headsets, but I don’t find them particularly comfortable. So I just used my own Bose headset.



Dinner service began right as the plane leveled off with hot towels and tablecloths.



Followed by the drink cart and the always delicious warmed mixed nuts. I went with Glenlivet neat.


The stark beauty of the American southwest was the perfect accompaniment with dinner



I knew I made a good decision eating at the lounge after my first glance at the starter, which was some sort of bland roast beef. I just picked at it for moment before giving up. The salad was decent.







Since I wasn’t that hungry, I offered to give up my preordered filet and just take whatever was left. That ended up being the tortillini. It was alright.





Dessert was hands down the best part of the meal, though it’s hard to screw an ice cream sundae. I took mine with a touch of caramel.



After dinner, I reclined the seat and conked out. I slept well and woke up a little over 2 hours out from Ireland.
I took a peek at the snack bar setup when I stretched my legs and grabbed a fruit plate.



I fired the IFE system back up and started watching Top Gun: Maverick. Right as Maverick catapulted off the carrier for his final mission, it was time for breakfast. I chose the omelet, which was actually pretty good.



I raised my window shade just in time to see the rising sun.



The flight attendants cleared the breakfast trays in fairly short order and distributed Arrivals Lounge cards.



The weather in London was just as nice as in LA, which allowed for gorgeous views of Central London during the latter of stages of descent.



The main gear touched terra firma nearly an hour early, and the engines were shut down at the gate after a relatively quick taxi by Heathrow standards.

dat4life

Thanks to the early arrival my layover at Heathrow stretched to a whopping 10 hours. I didn’t realize how long my layover was until just before departing Los Angeles, which is a big rookie mistake. At any rate, I decided to clear immigration and head to American’s Arrivals Lounge to come up with a game plan.

One of the travel badges of honor I’ve grown to love and look forward to are passport stamps. I felt like quite the ...... when I got pages added to my passport, and I snuck it in before the State Department stopped offering the service. Since then, quite a few countries have gotten away from stamps all together making it a moot point. The UK joined those ranks since my last visit in 2017; however, they at least made things better with e-passport control. After a quick passport scan and a picture, the gate opened and I was through.

The Arrivals Lounge is just above the arrivals hall.



It’s small but pleasant place.





The buffet looked pretty decent.





There’s also an a la carte menu.



I was still pretty full from breakfast aloft, so I passed on food. But I definitely took advantage of the showers, as they are far nicer than British Airways lounge showers.





Since there really isn’t anything interesting near Heathrow, I hopped into the Underground to Central London. It’s been a few years since I’ve been here, so I figured I could do a little refresher and recon work to prepare for the girlfriend. Regardless, it was nice to stretch my legs and the weather was just lovely.







I alighted from the train at Terminal 5 just after 1pm, which was plenty of time before my flight to Tel Aviv. While I’ve flown British Airways a decent bit over the years, including a few flights departing from Terminal 5. But I’ve always connected to the said flights, so I’ve never gotten to check out their First Class check in.



First Class check in is located on the far side of the terminal.



It’s certainly little snazzier and more private.





The dedicated passport control and security were nice as well. I did get stuck behind a swath of folks selected for secondary screening, so it took awhile to get my backpack back. But once I did, it was short walk down a corridor straight into the First Class Lounge.





It was a bit crowded when I first got there, so I found a seat on the terrace.






It was nice to see the buffets back. The food was quite good overall.







The lounge emptied out a little while later, so I found more comfy seating to setup in.



Only to notice the sleep pods right next to the seating area. They were a cool concept. I did take advantage of them to catch 40 winks myself.





The departure ended up being in T5B, so I packed it up early and hoofed it over there.

British Airways 167
London (LHR) – Tel Aviv (TLV)
Depart: 4:55PM
Arrive: 11:55PM
Aircraft: Boeing 777-200ER
Seat: 5K (Business Class)
Boarding started about 20 minutes late. Doc checks took forever but eventually I made it through and made my way down what has to be one of the longest jet bridges on the planet.





One of the things I was looking forward to on this trip was that all of my British Airways flights were slated to be operated by aircraft with the new Club Suites. Of course, there’s always the specter of a dreaded equipment swap looming. But I figured my odds were low as all 3 of my British Airways slights were to be aboard a Boeing 777-200ER. Of the 28 examples of that variant stationed at Heathrow, only 3 have not been retrofitted with Club Suites. Again, I figured my odds were dang good.

Anyhow, several smiling flight attendants were waiting at the door to passengers. One of them glanced at my boarding pass and walked me across the galley to the far aisle. As we turned left, I saw this:



The flight attendant must have seen the look on my face, as he started apologizing and explaining there was a last-minute equipment swap due to a technical issue. He did promise he would “look after me and make this flight as enjoyable as possible.”

Well, I’m always up for an adventure, and I actually haven’t flown the old Club World seats either. So win? It looked a little cramped, but I did like the neutral color scheme.



Had I known about the equipment swap ahead of time, I would have tried to change seats as 5K in this configuration is missing a window and is rear facing. The seat itself was actually well padded and comfortable, but a bit narrow.





I couldn’t help but chuckle at the ancient IFE system.





The worst feature of the old Club World is the ying/yang configuration, which forces you to make eye contact with your seat opponent during taxi, take off, and landing until the privacy partition is raised. Fortunately, the Club World load was light and I ended up not having a seat opponent.



A pillow, comforter, and menu were already at the seat. In seat storage was non-existent, so I tossed the pillow and comforter up into the overhead bin.



Another flight attendant came by with champagne, orange juice, and water in proper glassware a few moments later. I chose the champagne. It was fine. She came back around several times offering refills, which was either an attempt at service recovery or trying to get all of Club World black out drunk to we wouldn’t notice the downgrade. Either way, I appreciated it.



The flight attendant who escorted me to my seat came back around and introduced himself as Luca, and took dinner orders. He again apologized for the equipment swap and promised to look after me.

A very American accent came on the horn and introduced himself as the captain to my surprise. Flying time was announced 4.5 hours, and that we would pushing back behind schedule to traffic but would still arrive on time. The captain also announced the cabin had to be prepared for landing with all passengers seated 30 minutes prior to landing at Tel Aviv in accordance with Israeli law.

The cabin door was shut and we pushed about 20 minutes late. As with just about every Heathrow departure, the taxi to join the take off queue was lengthy. The massive Rolls Royce engines growled, and the plane rotated off the runway nearly an hour after pushing back.

I unstowed the creaky IFE screen to what was on offer. Unsurprisingly, the interface was kin to Windows 95, but it was decently intuitive. The controls were laggy, and the screen resolution rivaled that of old school CRTs.



The selection of content was actually pretty decent. I ended up going with an old favorite, the better version of The Office 😉.



I enjoyed The Office with a Kir Royale and a package of mixed nuts.



For those interested, here is tonight’s menu.







I was admiring the beautiful sunset as dinner was served.



This was my first time experiencing the British Airways’ D&O catering, albeit the watered down COVID edition. That said, it was all pretty tasty and an improvement. I went with the Braised Welsh Lamb Shank, which was delicious.







Luca and the rest of the crew were absolutely fantastic. They were quick and proactive with the refills and clearing trays. Luca actually offered me a second main course, which I may or may not have taken him up on.

The rest of the flight was super uneventful. As advertised, the cabin was tidied up at exactly 30 minutes before landing, and we landed right on schedule.

dat4life

I thanked Luca and the great crew on the way out, and it was off to the races toward immigration. The late evening arrivals bank seem to have arrived within a few minutes of each other, so there was plenty of company on the long trek. Of course, that also meant massive queues at immigration itself. Naturally, I chose the slowest moving line but didn’t realize it until it was too late.

I watched as the immigration officer gave everyone ahead of me a hard time. So, I was bracing for my turn. But when sauntered up, he couldn’t have been any nicer. He gave me some tips on to what to see and warned me the next day was Rosh Hashanah (one of the highest holidays of the year) and most places would be closed. That’s something I should have picked up on while planning this trip, but I completely whiffed. Anyhow, he assured me the hotel’s restaurant should be open so if I don’t grab a bite in time I should be covered. I thanked him and went on my merry way.

After grabbing my checked bag, I found the taxi queue and made to the hotel about 30 minutes later and nearly $70 poorer.

My home for the next few days was the Publica Isrotel in Herzliya, which is a little ways outside of Tel Aviv. It was part of Marriott’s Autograph Collection, and it was a fairly reasonable $200 a night. I would have loved to stay in central Tel Aviv, but I wasn’t willing pay $500 a night. Even factoring in transportation costs, I was coming out way ahead.

It was nearly 2am by the time I stumbled into the lobby. The friendly front desk agent quickly checked me in. She acknowledge my Bonvoy Platinum status, and offered me a choice of welcome amenities. Of course, I chose breakfast.

I booked a standard room, and I got upgraded to a King Seaview room. The room was a bit small, but comfortable and clean.















The “seaview” in the room’s category was a misnomer, but it is technically accurate.



Breakfast was served buffet style at the hotel restaurant, and it was absolutely amazing. Everything was fresh, and I loved the Israeli options.

dat4life

I woke up just after 9 am the next morning. And after a delicious breakfast, I hopped into a cab to the Spice Market in central Tel Aviv. The crowds kept growing as the day progressed as folks ventured out to prepare for their holiday meal. It was super cool just watching the action. I was also really impressed by the variety of goods being hawked.







I got a little thirsty, so I bought a mint lemonade which was refreshing.







Eventually, I turned off a side street and made my way toward the shoreline and then followed it down toward Old Jaffa.































Eventually I circled back toward the Spice Market, where I noticed the crowds thinning out and merchant starting to close up shop. That was my cue to head on back to the hotel to avoid getting stuck. So I fired up the Gett app and hailed a cab back to the hotel.

Once back, I walked to a nearby gas station to buy some drinks and snacks for the room. I was hoping to grab a bit to eat on the way back, but the nearby restaurant were closed. So the hotel restaurant it was, and boy was it a good choice. I ended up ordering a salad and some fresh baked bread. The salad was one the best I’ve ever eaten. The crunch and sweetness of the bell peppers and cucumbers complimented the tartness of the tomatoes perfectly. Dressing was a delicious and refreshing drizzle of fresh lemon juice. The bread was baked to order. It was a perfect light and filling meal.



After dinner, I took a quick stroll down to the nearby beach for exercise.



I made sure to get back to my room in time for the Saints kick off. In hindsight, the effort was not worth it for that debacle of a game. But at least the beer and Israeli Doritos were tasty.

dat4life

The plan for the next morning was to join a tour to the Dead Sea and the Sea of Galilee. Meetup time was an eye watering 6am. When my alarm went off at 5:30, I considered getting up and trying to function for a moment. But I decided better of it and went back to sleep. I woke up again at a far more agreeable hour of 10, and went for a late breakfast.

The new revised gameplan for the day was to just enjoy a little beach day.











I got bored quickly, so I started looking for something else to do. I found an old Crusader fort in a national park about an hour walk away playing on the Google, which sounded pretty interesting. And off I went. The walk took me through some nice tree lined neighborhoods.







I made it to the Apollonia National Park an hour later.


Admission set me back a very reasonable $5. The park was very crowded with many families just enjoying some time off outdoors.









The fort dates back to around the 13th century.

























After a very enjoyable afternoon exploring, I hoofed it back to the hotel for a nap. I woke up just in time to head back to the beach to watch the sunset over the Mediterranean.



Having not eaten since breakfast, my stomach was growling. I found a tasty looking Greek restaurant off the beach.

I enjoyed some pickles and olives with my beer.



The seafood stew was amazing.



I went to bed early in anticipation of an early wake up for a tour I absolutely refuse to miss.

dat4life

At 5:30 the next morning, I was in a cab bound for the Hilton Tel Aviv which was one of the pick up points for my tour to Jerusalem and the Bethlehem. A couple of other folks were already waiting in the lobby. One of them was particularly chatty, and I ended up talking to him. Turns out, he was an American (Airlines) captain who worked the flight from Miami to Tel Aviv the day before. We had a great chat about the state of American and our favorite aircraft. His eyes absolutely lit up when I told him my favorite airliner is the 757, and we chatted for ten minutes about how much he misses flying 757s.

Turns out, the captain was going on another tour. Right before we boarded the first bus to the “hub”, the captain reached into his pocket to make sure his passport was there. And then it hit me: Bethlehem is in Palestinian territory. I grabbed my phone to look at my confirmation, and there it was in the notes: passports are required for all tours to Bethlehem.

Well crap… As we hopped off the bus, I bid goodbye to the captain and found one of the tour directors to explain my situation. I didn’t have my passport with me, but I did have a photocopy of it. There definitely wasn’t enough time to run back to my hotel to get it. After conferring with a few other tour directors, it was decided the photocopy should be good enough along with my driver’s license. I was uneasy, but I went along with it.

After boarding another bus, it was an one hour ride to Jerusalem. The landscape of the Israeli countryside was a lot more green and lush than I thought.



The first stop was a coffee shop on a hill overlooking the city.





In addition to the fantastic views, a kitten provided plenty of entertainment.



First stop was the Dome of the Rock and the wailing wall.





The separate entrances for men and women were a bit jarring in this day and age.





The Wailing Wall was an amazing experience. Pictures of the Wailing Wall were prohibited because of the holiday, but I managed to sneak one in.



Then it was off too Old Jerusalem on foot.


Made a quick stop for some fresh juice.



The next order was retracing the steps of the Way of the Cross.









At the end of the way of the cross is the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, which dates back to the 4th century and is believed to be site where Jesus was crucified, died, and buried.

















Afterwards, we jumped back on the bus for the relatively short ride to Bethlehem. I was still a little uneasy with my lack of passport, especially after seeing this sign.



The bus stopped at the gate, and our tour guide hopped off to talk to the guards. He jumped back on a couple of minutes later, and we were allowed to pass.



The bus parked in a mall parking garage and then made our way by foot toward the Church of Nativity. The sights were equally fascinating and amusing.







We made quick stop for lunch before starting the touring the church.


Then it was off to the church.

























After touring the church, we headed next door to the grotto.





















The walk back to bus was pretty short.



We had one more stop at a gift shop, where we were given a hard sell on buying souvenirs. Then we were off back toward Israel. My pulse jumped up a few notches as we neared the border. The tour guide asked us to have our passports ready as he jumped off again to talk to the guards. I gulped as one of the guards came into the bus. But he ended up chatting with the driver for a moment, and then we were free to go leaving me to breathe a sigh of relief.

After that, it was an uneventful ride back to Tel Aviv. And spent the evening packing up and grabbing a bite at the hopping stir fry place a block away.

dat4life

The next morning I up at 4am and out the door and in a taxi by 4:30 on the way back to Ben Gurion International Airport.
Despite the ungodly early hour, the airport was already bustling with activity. The line to get into the check in area was long but moved fairly quickly.



Once I got my boarding passes, it was onward to the massive security line. But again it was efficient, and I was through right before 6 am. I made a pit stop at the Dan Lounge, which was British Airways’ contract lounge.



The Dan Lounge is a small but decent space. Seating looked pretty limited, and I can imagine it gets pretty crowded if multiple flights departed at the same time. But it was fine that morning. A continental breakfast on offered buffet style, and the selection of drinks was solid.



I also enjoyed the tarmac views.



As the lounge was less than five minutes from the gate, I waited until the last second to head over. And that was still too early as the gate agent announced a 30 minute delay right as I walked up. I thought about going back to the lounge, but decided to just stretch my legs instead.



Boarding did begin 30 minutes later as promised, but then we ended up waiting another 15 minutes in the jet bridge.



British Airways 168
Tel Aviv (TLV) - London (LHR)
Depart: 7:00AM
Arrive: 10:30AM
Aircraft: Boeing 777-200ER
Seat: 1A (Business Class)

Naturally, I was a little snakebit after the equipment swap on the way to Tel Aviv. So, I monitored the previous evening’s inbound religiously until I was able to confirm the plane was well on its way before I breathed a sigh of relief. Waiting at the end of the jet bridge was G-YMMG, a Boeing 777-200ER that has served British Airways well for 22 years after rolling off the factory floor in Everett, Washington. Today, G-YMMG is looking daisy fresh especially upfront with the snazzy Club Suites.



I chose seat 1A.



At first glance, this was the Collins Aerospace Super Diamond seat, which is used by many airlines including American and Aeromexico, with a door. It’s one of my favorite business class seats as it is roomy, well laid out, and has plenty of storage. And of course, the Club Suites are a massive improvement over the old Club World seats.











This cabin crew was just lovely as the crew on the way to Tel Aviv. Pre-departure beverages were offered a few moments after settling in.



The captain soon added his welcome to this 4 hour and 35 minute triple 7 service to London Heathrow Terminal 5. He also apologized for the delay and added additional delays were expected due to traffic flow. His job on hand at the moment was negotiating with ATC for an earlier release time, but the earliest expected departure was at 8am.

We ended up pushing back a few minutes after 8. It was nearly 9 by the time the plane began the takeoff roll because of a lengthy taxi and take off queue.





The cabin got to work straight away after takeoff. I started off with coffee and orange juice.



While waiting for my Full English breakfast, I checked out the entertainment system which is a massive improvement on all accounts. As Halloween was around the corner, I decided to fulfill my annual obligation of watching Hocus Pocus. And I suppose it was extra appropriate given the then impending release of its sequel.

Anyhow, breakfast was tasty.



While my seat opponent across the aisle was able to close the door to his suite, my door was stuck. I asked one of the flight attendant for help. When he couldn’t figure it out, he called a few friends. When his friends couldn’t figure it out, I decided to give up.


I was pretty beat from the early start. So I reclined my seat for a little snooze and I slept pretty well for an hour.

I got a little peek at the mid-cabin snack bar on my way to the lavatory.



By the time I got back to my seat, we were going feet dry over the UK.





We touched down on Runway 27R a little over an hour behind schedule.





We were assigned a remote stand, which meant a lengthy taxi but great views of the graceful beast.





The other downside of the remote stand was of course being bussed to terminal. Fortunately, they didn’t pack the bus to the gills so that made it far more pleasant. Because of the delay departing Tel Aviv, I missed my flight to LAX 😉. Oh well! The reasonable thing to do was to find a place to stay. I booked a reservation at the Renaissance London Heathrow.

The N9 bus is the easiest and cheapest way to get to the Renaissance. I timed it perfectly as a N9 bus was waiting at the stand as I made it to the bus station. It just 20 minutes to make it to the stop, and it set me back £1.45 compared £6 for the Hoppa bus. From there, all I had to do was cross Bath Road to get to the hotel.

Though I arrived well before check in time, the friendly front desk agent happily found me a Runway View room available and checked me in. My rate wasn’t cheap at £180 for the night. But the hotel was convenient and the room was fairly nice overall.











Plus, it provided me plenty of entertainment for the rest of the day as the Runway View Rooms had a perfect view of Runway 27R.



















For dinner, I met a friend a nearby pub for shepherd’s pie.



I was beat from the early start and went to bed early in anticipation of another early start.

dat4life

I instinctively checked Flight Radar 24 as soon as I opened my eyes. My girlfriend was flying in from Houston on the British Airways non-stop. It looked like they on track to arrive in about 30 minutes early, so I made my way to the bus stop at 6am. The wait for the N9 bus was pretty short, and I was back in T5 15 minutes later.

After nursing a few cups of coffee, she finally got her bags and made it through immigration. While I would have preferred to take the Underground, it would have been less than ideal with her massive bag and my bag. So, we ended up taking a cab, which took us straight into rush hour traffic and set us back by £100. It took us nearly 1.5 hours before we made it to our hotel. As I expected, out room wasn’t ready yet but we were able to store our bags.

This was my girlfriend’s first time in London, and as I’ve been a few times I was happy to play tour guide. Naturally, the first spot any self-respecting tourist would go to first is Buckingham Palace. And we went there after a spot of breakfast a few doors down from the hotel. The walk to the palace was even more picturesque cutting through St. James Park.











We watched the changing of the guards and then doubled back toward the Thames.



Next up was the London Eye, which I actually haven’t done before. It was pretty cool.











We started circling back toward the hotel.







And then over to Trafalgar Square, but not before we passed by this.



Those of y’all who read my past trip reports know I’m huge fan of my hometown New Orleans Saints. In May when the NFL schedule was released, the Saints were slated to play the Minnesota Vikings in London on the weekend after I returned from Israel. At that point, I began plotting what was the best way to double back to London for the game. That all became a moot point when I decided to go the wedding, which fell on the same weekend as the game. It was a bit torturous to see all of the black and gold, including the “headquarters bar” on the same block as our hotel. So close but yet so far.



At that point, I got a text from the hotel that our room was ready. So we walked the few blocks back to The Great Scotland Yard Hotel.



The lobby was really cool with a ton of classic police memorabilia.







The Great Scotland Yard Hotel is part of Hyatt’s Unbound Collection. I used 25,000 points for the night, which was far more palatable than the £700 revenue rate. The friendly agent explained all of my Globalist benefits, including an upgrade to Koestler Suite, breakfast, and late check out.

Our suite was room 101. It was small, especially for a suite, but very well appointed.







One thing I didn’t get a shot of was the TV in the living room over a marble faux fireplace.













After freshening up, we went downstairs for our afternoon tea reservation at The Parlour. I’ve always wanted to have afternoon tea, but I’ve never gotten around to it during past visits. This seemed to be as good of a time as any to do it. We did the standard afternoon tea set which was £59 each. It consisted of unlimited tea, a savory tower, and a sweets tower.





We did have some time before our evening plans. My original plan was to head to the Great British Museum, but now that we were in food comas naps sounded like a far better idea.

On the docket for the evening was Back to the Future The Musical. The theatre was just a 15 minute walk from the hotel, though it took nearly double that on the way there because I took a wrong turn and didn’t realize it for a hot minute. And thus, my navigation duties for the trip were summarily revoked.









The show was pretty good. Afterwards, we took our time getting back to the hotel and then promptly conked out.

dat4life

The next day got off to a more leisurely start as we got to sleep in a bit. First order of business was refueling. Breakfast was served at the hotel’s restaurant, The Yard. My Globalist benefit covered an Usual Suspect (main course), a petty crime (a side), and drinks.





We started off with fresh squeezed orange and more importantly coffee. A waiter dropped off a basket of bread and pastries while we looked at the menu.

I ended up going with the Full English Breakfast, which was great. My girlfriend got the eggs benedict, which she enjoyed.



After breakfast, we headed out to Westminster Abbey, which was a short walk away. I made reservations for a 10am tour, but we still had to wait in a massive line to get in.



But the line wasn’t actually that bad. The person in front of us was actually a Saints employee who was a pleasure to talk to. I also met some pleasant Vikings fans, though I did refrain from bringing up 2009!

Interestingly, the Abbey seemed to lifted its no photography policy from my last visit. It’s one of the most beautiful and historical places I had the pleasure of visiting.

















Afterwards, we headed to Kings Cross Station via the Underground so my girlfriend could check out Platform 9 ¾. I can neither confirm nor deny the existence of a picture of my in a certain scarf there.

dat4life

We lost track of time shopping at the store and ended up having to rush back to the hotel to grab our bags. Having learned my lesson getting to the hotel the day before, I decided take an Uber to the Paddington Station and then taking the Heathrow Express straight into Terminal 2. The combination was slightly cheaper than taking a cab straight to Heathrow, but more importantly we avoid Friday gridlock and made it to Heathrow about 45 minutes after leaving the hotel.







Aer Lingus check in at Heathrow was a bit confusing. There wasn’t a separate line for AerSpace/Business Class though there was a dedicated counter. Apparently, we had to use the kiosk to check in before going to drop off our bags at the counter. But the kiosk couldn’t retrieve our reservation, so eventually the line bouncer relented and let us go up to the AerSpace counter. The agent quickly issued our boarding passes and tagged our bags. And then she gave us directions of the Aer Lingus Lounge.

Security and immigration were a non-event, and we were soon approaching the Aer Lingus Lounge. I have to admit I had no idea Aer Lingus had a lounge at Heathrow until the agent mentioned it at check in. I originally planned to use one of the Priority Pass lounges, but this was far closer to our gate.

The lounge was decent sized and it was a pretty attractive space. There was plenty of seating.







While the drink selection was good and included an automated espresso machine, beer, and sodas, the food selection was weak. All that was on offer was soup, cake, and some fruit.





We relaxed with some drink at the lounge before grabbing a snack at the nearby conveyor belt sushi restaurant just outside of the lounge. It was actually pretty good. We still had a little time to do some last minute souvenir shopping before it was time to board.



Aer Lingus 175
London (LHR) – Dublin (DUB)
Depart: 6:10PM
Arrive: 7:35PM
Aircraft: Airbus A320NEO
Seat: 1D (Kinda Business Class)

Aer Lingus branded their short haul business class as Aer Space, which includes a snack and drink, checked bags, blocked middle seats, and apparently lounge access. It was a steal at just €98 for our flight, which was actually cheaper than British Airways Economy. I was hoping to find a frequency operated by the long haul configured A321XLR, but it wasn’t quite meant to be. Regardless the European short haul kinda Business Class was perfectly acceptable for this short hop.

I chose 1D and 1F for us, which offered a smidge of extra legroom.



The snack was a choice from the Aer Lingus’ buy onboard selection.



Other than that, we pushed a few minutes late. The flight was rather bumpy because of the rough weather. Flight attendants were friendly and hard working. They offered us seconds on snacks and drinks, which we declined. And the engines were shutdown in Dublin right on time.

Everyone else on our flight seemed to be commuting as we were two of ten folks waiting at baggage claim despite the full flight. Eventually we got our bags, and it was off to immigration. Immigration took forever, though in a good way. The officer was super chatty and was genuinely happy it was our first visit to Ireland. As there was not line, he spent a good five-ish minutes giving us tips on things to do.

dat4life

Technically, this was my second visit to Ireland. But my first visit back in 2015, was completely derailed by a long bout of nasty weather that spanned the length of my stay. So, I didn’t really see anything outside of the Hilton Dublin Airport. I was pretty excited to get a chance to really check it out.

From there, we hailed a cab to our home for the next couple of nights: The Marine Hotel in Sutton, which is just outside of Dublin. While it wouldn’t be my first choice, The Marine Hotel was the wedding hotel. It looked pretty quaint from the outside.



It was even more quaint on the inside. Think 70s cruise ship style.



Our room was on the small side. Lacked heating. But it was quiet and super convenient for the wedding.





We had hoped to find something nearby for dinner, but by the time we settled in we were too lazy to go out and the hotel restaurant was closed. So we drank our dinner that evening at the hotel bar.



The next morning, I was up at the crack of dawn while my girlfriend slept in. And let’s just say I was a little hungover and actually hungry as we really didn’t eat since breakfast the day before. So I sought out something greasy, and fortunately our room rate included a full Irish breakfast. But I had some time to kill before the restaurant opened. So I went down to the hotel’s beach.



And then I got my fix.





Then I walked around the hotel grounds and town a little bit.



I was thrilled to find a laundry service across the street as I was completely out of clean clothes and I needed to get my shirt and suit ironed for the evening.

My girlfriend woke up late morning and went to breakfast then. We spent the rest of the puttering around until it was time to get ready for the wedding.

The wedding was in a beautiful historic church in Dublin, don’t ask me which one.



The ceremony was actually one of the best Catholic weddings I’ve been to: short and to the point. Afterwards, it was back to the hotel for the reception.



The reception was a lot of fun. The bride is a high school friend of my girlfriend. We got seated with the small Texas contingent, who were mostly in the wedding party. The contrast between the Texans and Irish contingents was sharp, but a good time was had by all. And it was nice to be able to just head on upstairs afterwards.

dat4life

We were both a little hazy the next morning, but we packed up and called a taxi to head over to our Dublin hotel: the Hyatt Centric Dublin Liberties.



I was pleasantly surprised our room was ready when we check in before 11 am. The member rate was a reasonable €160 per night for our two night stay. We got upgraded to a Junior Suite, which was pretty large and nice.













The views from the room was pretty nice.





And somehow, I forgot to take bathroom pictures but it was pretty nice. Also, sidebar – as soon as she put her backpack down, my girlfriend told me I was in charge of picking hotels from now on.