dat4life

When a buddy and I went to Portugal a couple of years ago, we joked the only reason for the trip was to spruce up the pictures on our respective dating app profiles. It was 2021 after all, and those pictures might have gotten a smidge stale during the pandemic. I may have updated my profile a picture or ten from Portugal. A short time later, I ended up matching with someone absolutely amazing. Fast forward two wonderful years later, I traded an eye watering wad of cash for a wad of carbon someone dug up ethically (allegedly) mounted on valuable metal (so I’m told).

Now this is FT, and no one gives two hoots about this rom-com nonsense. But if there are any Hollywood types here, I/we would be happy to sell our story. After all, weddings are damn expensive. 😉 Anyhow, before I bought the ring I was trying to figure out how I would ask “the question”.

Before we met, my girlfriend enjoyed traveling. But she’s not nearly as obsessed as I am. Our first little trip was to Canyon Lake, Texas for a wedding.



Mind you, this was a seven hour long outdoor affair in central Texas on June afternoon. Maybe it was the pending heat stroke that afternoon, but I questioned my life’s choices while sweating everything I've drank for months if not years. Luckily, I came to my senses after recovering for that wedding. That little trip kicked started a series of adventures together.

To London.



Ireland (Though this one was her fault too)





Scotland.





My girlfriend is as passionate about live theatre as I am about travel and aviation. It just happened that her favorite actor, Bernadette Peters, was in a production in London that closed in early January 2024. Never one to waste an opportunity for a trip, I jumped on the nugget immediately and began plotting. It seemed like a perfect junction of both our obsessions and opportunity to ask “the question”.

As I expected, airfare to London was outrageous during the first week of January. We’ve also been to London a couple of times already. So I looked for other potential nearby destinations to ease the pain a smidge. I found a very reasonable American Airlines fare from Houston to Paris with an open jaw return from London. The outbound to Paris (with a connection at DFW) was in Business Class, and the return was on British Airways’ afternoon non-stop service to Houston in Premium Economy. While Business Class was available on the return leg, I wasn’t too keen on paying an extra $7,000 for each of us just for old Club World. Premium Economy would do just fine for a daytime long haul.

Paris definitely fit my intended theme for the trip, and my girlfriend hasn’t been there yet which meant I could show her around. Plus, I was able to close the aforementioned open jaw easily with the help of EuroStar. So I went ahead and pulled the trigger on our tickets, and told my girlfriend to grab our show tickets. The timing was absolutely perfect as she was able snag primo seats for the closing show.

Our final itinerary looked like this:

American Airlines 1472 Houston Intercontinental to Dallas/Fort Worth Airbus A320-200 First Class
American Airlines 48 Dallas/Fort Worth to Paris Charles De Gaulle Boeing 787-9 Business Class
Eurostar 9015 Paris Gare du Nord to London St. Pancras
British Airways 197 London Heathrow to Houston Intercontinental

With all that set, the only left for me to do is endure the most nerve wracking wait for a trip ever.

Previous Trip Reports

2023: From Shire to Sea (AA F; EI J/Y; BA Y)
2022: The Holy land and an Irish Wedding (AA/BA/EI J; DL Y)
2022: A Slow Boat and Fast Cars (AA P)
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

I’m not a Lord of the Rings fan, but man I felt for Frodo in the weeks leading up to the trip. The ring was burning a hole in my pocket, and it got harder to keep it a secret. Nerves finally got the better of me and I cracked and I ended up popping the question during the holidays. And, yes she did say yes! So this ended up being a celebratory trip and pressure to keep the ring hidden was off!

Between Christmas and New Year’s festivities with family, friends, and everyone in between, we were absolutely exhausted when D-Day rolled around. We parked at the Terminal A garage around 90 minutes before departure. Impressively, they were already swapping out the Christmas decorations for rodeo decorations. Tis the season in Houston.





I couldn’t get us checked in online, so we made a quick stop at the counters to do that before heading to security. Since I keep on forgetting to help her sign up for Global Entry, I decided to maintain solidarity and stuck it out in the plebeian line with my fiancé in an attempt at self-preservation. Which was a mistake because I set off all kinds of alerts in the body scanner and got the FULL (sic) TSA experience.

Eventually, they got tired of feeling me up and we were free to go. I rarely use this checkpoint, as it doesn’t have Pre-Check. And when I do head to this side of Terminal A, I’m typically racing to the gate. So I never really paid attention to the displays dotted around. They’re actually pretty dang cool.





We headed over to the Admirals Club for a quick snack and drink before heading over to Gate A26 for our flight to Dallas.



American Airlines 1472
Houston (IAH) – Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW)
Depart: 12:12PM
Arrive: 1:41PM
Aircraft: Airbus A320-200
Seat: 3D (First Class)
January 2, 2024



Man, it never ceases to amaze me how awful the legacy US Airways A320s are. Not such a big deal on this quick 41 minute hop to DFW, but it would be an awful luck of the draw to have one on anything longer than this even up front.



Seat pitch was definitely on the tight side.







Not much to talk about on this flight. The flight attendant offered PDBs of choice, and she worked hard once we were airborne to make sure everyone upfront was properly hydrated.



Pretty soon, we were descending over Trinity Groves.







The plane touched down gently on Runway 17L, which meant a long taxi back to Terminal C.

Engines were shutdown at the gate a whopping 30 minutes early, which meant extra lounge time! It’s been years since I’ve flown internationally out of DFW, and the last time was eons before the Flagship Lounge was reborn. So I was pretty excited to check it out.

We headed straight to the SkyLink and hopped on for Terminal D.

From there, it was a quick stroll to Flagship Lounge. The Flagship Lounge is pretty dang impressive, and pretty similar to the other ones I’ve visited in Miami and LAX. It’s large, attractive, and comfortable space. There’s plenty of comfortable seating.











We setup shop in a cluster of comfy chairs.



No Flagship Dining for us that day.



But the food and drinks in the lounge were quite good. There’s a nice selection of hot and cold items.







The food was pretty tasty as well. I thought the charred/grilled asparagus and Tex Mex gnocchi were exceptional.



And a fairly impressive (for American) selection of booze in the self-serve bar as well as the ubiquitous Coke Freestyle machine there and dotted around the lounge.





My favorite feature are the coolers well stocked with San Pelligrino.



The lounge also had fantastic views of the tarmac and the 18/36 runways.







I did a double take when I saw our Paris flight was assigned A21. Like I said, it’s been years since I’ve flown internationally out of DFW. But I still fly through DFW frequently, and I can’t remember if I’ve ever seen an American long haul international flight depart from any terminal but D. But here we be.

We left the Flagship Lounge about an hour before departure, and made it over to A21 just moments before boarding began.






American Airlines 48
Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) – Paris (CDG)
Depart: 5:05PM
Arrive: 9:05AM+1
Aircraft: Boeing 787-9
Seat: 2L (Business Class)
January 2, 2024

I knew this would be a good flight the moment we stepped onto the plane. The flight attendant at the door greeted us enthusiastically and directed us to the starboard aisle. Just before we turned left, we got another enthusiastic hello from Beth, the flight attendant who ended working out aisle. Beth was an absolute rock star.

I selected seats 2L and 3L for us. American’s 787-9 are outfitted with the BAE Aerospace Super Diamond seats, which are one of my favorite current Business Class seats. They’re comfortable, spacious, and have plenty of storage. The controls are very intuitive and easy to use.





Menu, amenity kit, and Bang & Olufsen headset were already at our seats.





Standard PDBs of champagne, orange juice, and water were offered. We both chose champagne. At least for our flight, American is back to pouring Lanson Black, which is pretty decent.



Beth came around to officially introduce herself officially and confirm pre-orders.

The captain came on the horn to add his welcome aboard. Flying time was announced as 8.5 hours, and he expected a bumpy climb out. A steady drizzle started coming down as boarding wrapped up,

It turned into a downpour by the time we pushed back. Our taxi to the runway was short, but the takeoff queue was not. Funny enough, we were slotted right behind the Air France 787-9 heading to Paris as well.



We finally took off about 30 minutes after we pushed back.



Climb out was bumpy as expected, but the ride smoothed out considerably after we got away from the DFW Mertroplex.

American’s entertainment system always has a very good selection, though this made me throw up a little inside.



I started with Glenlevit neat and a Sprite Zero.



This menu was the same as my December 2021 Miami to London Heathrow flight, but I wasn’t mad as it was pretty good.





Looks like the bean counters struck again by not printing the wine list. Now admittedly, American’s wine selection isn’t anything to write home about. But I still want to know what kind of swill I’m drinking. I’m all for saving paper, but this feels pretty cheap.



The Cajun grilled shrimp was delicious, and the salad was fresh and tasty by American standards though a little lacking in substance.



Bread basket was the usual choice of white, sourdough, or pretzel. I chose the pretzel roll, as usual. The flight attendants made a couple of passes with the breadbasket.

I enjoyed the red snapper last time, and I ended up pre-ordering it again this time. It was still pretty good.



Dessert was of course the ice cream sundae. I asked for a little bit of all the toppings.



We were aptly cruising right over Canton, Ohio when dessert was finally cleared away. I put my seat into bed mode and conked out. The comfortable seat plus the fluffy pillow and comforter made for a restful night. I ended up getting almost 5 hours of sleep.



I had a mini heart attack when I couldn’t find my cell phone after I woke up. Beth showed up lickity split after I hit the call button, and she took apart my seat in no time. It ended up getting wedged between the seat and the console.

Despite my best efforts in monopolizing the cabin crew’s time, they were able to get breakfast served on time about an hour before arrival. The breakfast menu hasn’t changed in at least a decade.



Anyone else find it funny that the American breakfast is served with Canadian bacon? But that was a moot point for me as I went with the fruit bowl, which is actually pretty dang good and filling.



Biscuits and cinnamon rolls were on offer. The biscuits weren’t as good as the baked on board pre-merger biscuits, but they were far better than the chalky mess right after the merger.

I enjoyed watching the sun rise with breakfast.



We landed a little early and pulled up to a remote terminal.

SFO777

Great start to your report. Enjoying the pics and your humor. And congratulations, assuming that she said yes.

dat4life

Thanks, SFO777! She sure did!

dat4life

We thanked the fantastic crew on the way out and herded into busses and drove around in circle before finally making it to the main terminal. Immigration was a breeze. Our driver met us outside of immigration who marched us over to a waiting Mercedes S Class, which was super comfy for the one hour drive to the Hotel du Louvre.




While I love the Park Hyatt Vendome Paris, both the cash and point rates were exorbitant for our dates. So I booked the Hotel du Louvre instead, which was better located for our plans anyways. Plus, I stayed at the Hotel du Louvre with my parents a couple of years ago, and we really enjoyed it. I booked our stay using a combination of a paid night (for €400), points, and a Category 1-7 certificate. I was pretty proud that I was able to burn points on an off-peak night and used the certificate on a peak night.



Christmas decorations were still up in the lobby.





The friendly agent welcomed us and checked us in. Not surprisingly our room wasn’t ready. But she combined all of the reservations, and informed us that our room was upgraded. She promised us a text when the room was ready, but that never came. Though it was a non-issue as our room was ready by the time we got back to the hotel around 5pm.

We were upgraded to a junior suite, which was spacious and well appointed. And compared to the Park Hyatt, it’s a lot brighter and modern.






The bed was super comfortable.







A welcome gift of red wine (a tasty bottle at that) and a box of macaroons were already in the room.




Breakfast was served at the hotel’s restaurant, Brasserie du Louvre, which was included thanks to my Globalist status. The buffet was extensive with hot and cold items, and most importantly fresh bread and pastries that were absolutely amazing. Because that’s 70 percent of the motivation for any trip to Paris. There’s also a small menu for omelets, pancakes, and waffles.













Overall, it was another absolutely lovely stay at the Hotel du Louvre. Service was impeccable from top to bottom. Elite recognition was excellent. And the location is be better for the touristy stuff than the Park Hyatt Vendome. Throw in far more reasonable rates, and I actually might like the Hotel du Louvre better than the Park Hyatt.

dat4life

Since this was future Mrs. D4L’s first time in Paris, we stuck with the must sees during our three days there.

Right after we dropped off our bags at the hotel, we headed out to the Jardin Tuileries.





Cut across Plaza de la Concorde



And crossed the Siene.



Stopped for lunch.





And slowly made our way over to Notre Dame.







We took a quick peak at the Crypte Archeologique.



The heavens opened after we finished the crypt and it was raining cats and dogs. Cold, soaked, and tired, we cabbed it back to the hotel. I had grand plans to go out again after we rested. But we ended up ordering room service (delicious!) and passed out early.



The next morning, we had an early breakfast and grabbed an Uber over to the Tour D’Eiffel.



We bought tickets to the tower summit.







And then grabbed a cab back to the statue to meet our river walk tour group.





Oops. For the record, we did circle back and bought a few things from the vendor.



The protests!









We then headed to the Musee d’Orsay.









After we finished at Musee d’Orsay, we started heading back to the hotel. A lot more stall vendors along the river were open at that point so we stopped to get gifts for folks back home.

That night we stopped at a nearby restaurant recommended by one of the bellhops. It was fairly tasty overall.

We started with French onion soup.



Steak frites with bernaise sauce.



And we split a toffee cake for dessert.






The next day we did the hop on/off bus tour.





We made a quick stop at Arc D’triomphe, which was absolutely over run with influencers trying to get the perfect shot.





We noticed the little Christmas market across the street from the Eiffel Tower was still open the day before. So we stopped to do a little more shopping.





And grabbed a little lunch.




And then back to the Louvre for our 3:30pm entry slot.



It was drizzling as we got in line, and that drizzle turned to a steady rain pelting us as we waited. Luckily, the line moved fairly quickly and got in about 20 minutes.



There she is: the most overrated and overcrowded part of the Louvre.









As many times as I’ve been to the Louvre, I don’t think I’ve been to these parts.











I can’t quite seem to put my finger on what’s missing.





The fiancé wanted to do this Siene River dinner cruise that evening. The dock was on the other bank across from the Musee D’Orsay, which was about a 15 minute walk away.



As you can see, it wasn’t quite the most intimate experience. But there was live music and decent views.









The food was alright.



The salmon appetizer was a bit dry.



The sea bass filet was fine.



My fiancé had the filet, which she enjoyed.



Dessert was decent.



Overall, the experience was a bit cheesy but fun!

We took our time walking back to the hotel and enjoyed a view of the Louvre lit up.



Feeling inspired by our time at the Louvre, we fired up Netflix and watched the Da Vinci Code while polishing off the welcome gift wine. It’s been years since I’ve read the book, but the book is definitely better. At any rate, it was a nice chill way to finish up our time in Paris.

CosmosHuman

Nice trip report. Hopefully you get a chance to visit Les Invalides.

SFO777

Thanks for the pics and positive report on the Hotel du Louvre, and that you received a Globalist upgrade, something that PH Vendome seems loath to do.

757

Amazing photos and this report makes me want to book a trip to Paris now! Everything looks great, and thank you for sharing. Congratulations to you both!

dat4life

Thanks! Unfortunately we ran out of time, but I'll be sure to get her there during our next visit.

I've actually been pretty lucky with upgrades at the PHV as well, granted I've never stayed more than a night at a time. I actually got a Junior Suite in 2022 during the French Open.

Thanks, 757!

dat4life

In the not so distant past, I would have turned up my nose at the mere thought of taking the train. Because elite qualification. The 2024 me realizes flying doesn’t make sense. It took only 20 minutes to get to Gare du Nord from the hotel. Getting to CDG would have taken at least an hour. Plus we would have needed to allow at least a couple hours for security and immigration at the airport. Maybe some time at the La Premiere lounge would have made the extra headache worth it, but the CDG Admirals Club… Nah.

As we were on the 9:12am train, we went down for a leisurely breakfast at 7 and made it to Gare du Nord shortly after 8.



The cavernous station was impressive.





We headed up to the London departures area.



Immigration and security were efficient, and we were in the boarding area 20 minutes after we got out of the cab.



The boarding doors swung open 15 minutes before departure.



I bought Standard Premier tickets for an extremely reasonable €110 each. Premier tickets were double the price, and lounge access and a better meal didn’t seem not worth it. I was able to snag a set of two seats in car 15.



Overhead and luggage rack space was plentiful.



The seats were wide and comfortable. There’s plenty of storage for odds and ends.



Leg room was fantastic.



There was a coat hook and reading light in front of us. The cup/bottle holder though seemed kind of useless.



Train departed right on time. Attendants quickly served a continental breakfast shortly after departure. We were stuffed, but it looked decent enough. Tea and coffee were offered during and after the meal.




We both ended up dozing off and woke up 2 hours later as the train pulled into St. Pancras station just a few moments behind schedule.



All in all, it was a very pleasant and efficient journey. And what a pleasure it was to make it from city center to city center.

We went out and found the taxi queue, which was right outside of neighboring Kings Cross Station.



From there it took less than 20 minutes to get to the Great Scotland Yard, which has become our favorite little spot in London. Again, our room was unsurprisingly not ready. So we just stored our bags and headed out to stretch out legs.





We then hopped on a little Thames River cruise.













We planned to hop off the boat at Tower Bridge and then take another boat back to Westminster Pier, which put us back in time for our timed entry to Churchill War Rooms. But the other boat was running late, so we hoofed it up to a nearby hotel and caught a cab back toward Westminster. Traffic was at a standstill, so the cabbie crossed the Thames and made his way back down on the opposite bank. Everything was running splendidly, until we ran into the police barricade at the Westminster Bridge. We settled with the cabbie and hiked across the bridge and ran straight into the root cause of the gridlock.



We hooked around the intersection and eventually made it to the War Room.



The exhibits were absolutely fascinating and humbling.

dat4life

Afterwards, we walked back to the Great Scotland Yard where we were happy to find that our room was ready. We got a Globalist upgrade to a Koestler Suite again. During our last two stays, we got assigned room 101. This go around we were assigned room 106, which is laid out a little different than 101.

There was a long corridor.



The living room was to the right of the corridor, and its a good bit larger.





The bathroom was to the right side of the corridor.





The closet was just outside of the bedroom.



The bedroom was a lot smaller, and there wasn’t a door separating it from the rest of the room like in 101. The TV mounted to the far side of the room was weird. But the bed was still fantastic.





I didn’t noticed this during our past stays, but apparently the minibar is now free. This was greatly appreciated after late night munchies.





We rested for a bit and then got ready for the show. The theatre was about a 15 minute walk from the hotel, which left plenty of time for a dinner top. We ended up at Claude’s Fish & Seafood Bar.

I started with the delicious scallop sashimi.



My fiancé had the bruschetta.



The rest of the meal was a massive let down for me. My seafood risotto was bland and watery.



The broccolini side was tasty, and my fiancé enjoyed her salmon.



We passed by the Leicester Square Christmas Market on the way.





And this was it – the primary objective of this trip: The Gielgud Theatre for Sondheim’s Old Friends.





The house was absolutely packed for closing night.





The theatre was absolutely gorgeous.







The show was absolutely fantastic, and my fiancé was absolutely thrilled to see her queen Bernadette for the umpteenth time.



She was so thrilled that we waited for an hour in the cold drizzly night at the stage entrance in hopes of another glimpse of her queen. Spoiler alert: we did not get another glimpse.







And then we headed back to the hotel. I arranged a little celebratory surprise with My Hyatt Concierge before the trip and it was waiting for us when we got back into our room.

dat4life

With a mid-afternoon departure, we were able to sleep in and enjoy a leisurely morning before heading off to Heathrow. My definition of sleeping in is like 6am and my fiancé’s is 10ish. So I was up and getting a little exercise in the early morning light while she enjoyed a few extra Z’s.









We had a leisurely breakfast after I got back to the hotel and took our time packing up. Although it was Sunday, I still didn’t want to take any chances with London traffic and the possibility the airport might get blocked with a protest. So we hailed a cab just after 11:30. It was a good call as we didn’t pull up to Heathrow Terminal 5 until almost 1.

Terminal 5 was relatively dead by Heathrow standards, but pretty hopping by any other measure. I asked the cabbie to drop us off at the far side of the terminal near the First Wing, but he ended up dropping us off in the middle. So it was a little bit of a walk to the First Wing.





The fiancé started questioning my faculties as we passed by counter after counter and wondered where the heck we were going. And she was even more skeptical as I entered First Class check in with nothing but a smile and a quick “oneworld Emerald” at the bouncer.



The less than enthusiastic agent efficiently issued our boarding passes.



She had her ... moment when we cleared immigration and security a couple of steps after checking in and headed straight into the First Lounge. Sadly, I did have to explain we were able to use this because of status, and not because we were actually flying First.





After a comfortable hour in the First Lounge, we headed over to T5B to board our flight to Houston, which was assigned Gate B32. So we hopped on the satellite terminal train.







British Airways 197
London (LHR) – Houston (IAH)
Depart: 3:05PM
Arrive: 7:55PM
Aircraft: Boeing 787-8
Seat: 11H (Premium Economy)
January 7, 2024

Once our boarding passes were scanned, we went down an escalator and through a mile long corridor.



Then it was down 4 flights of stairs to board a bus…



That took us a couple hundred feet over to the Boeing 787-8 doing the honors over to Space City that evening. Then it was up the boarding stairs onto the plane. I felt like I had just run a marathon at the point.





We turned right down the far aisle and made our way past the last of Club World into the cozy World Traveller Plus cabin.



World Traveller Plus looked sharp and comfortable at first glance. I selected 11H and 11K. Pillows, blankets, and amenity kits were already on our seats.



But when we settled in, the shortcomings became very glaring. There’s no storage besides the small seatback pocket. And padding, to put it bluntly, sucked. It was thin and not very comfortable. That said, it was worlds better than economy. The extra width of the seats and legroom made a huge difference.



Amenity kits, pillow, and blanket, were already on the seats.



My only other experience with long haul premium economy is with American, and their seats have a cubby on the side of the seat big enough to hold a decent size laptop just like their domestic first class seats. American’s padding is also far superior than that of BA’s seat.

I was pleasantly surprised to have PDBs, in real glasses no less. On offer was the standard Business Class choice of water, orange juice, and sparkling wine.



Menus were also distributed on the ground.



Right before pushback, the captain came on the horn to wish everyone a very good afternoon. Flying time was announced as 9:57, with a quick 10 minute drive to the runways. And weather in Houston was supposed to be, and I quote, divine for our arrival.

As promised, taxi over to the runway was quick with a lovely view of the sunset on the way.



Service began 30 minutes after take off with hot towels and drinks, which was impressively quick.





But then, we didn’t get entrees until over 2 hours after take off.

I went with the chicken, while my fiance got the gnocchi. They were both decent enough.





There was a little snafu with the entree choices. Although the couple sitting in front of us ordered the chicken first, I somehow got served first and got the last chicken. So they ended up declining dinner. Also, the lady across the aisle from me had a seafood allergy which a flight attendant confirmed with her and promised her the gnocchi. By the time she was served, only the fish pie was left.

Trays weren’t cleared until nearly a couple of hours later, which was understandable as the crew also had to take care of economy. But it was still a while. A coffee/tea run was made then too.



The IFE system was a bit of mixed bag. The content selection was good, but the interface wasn’t intuitive and laggy. I enjoyed a couple of short films on BA’s vintage fleet. Then I passed the rest of the flight starting this trip report.





Other the mid-flight snack of a mango sherbet (which was delicious), the flight attendants pretty much disappeared.



The prearrival snack was served a little over an 90 minutes before landing. Let’s take a quick refresher of the menu: “a light refreshment will be served with your choice of beverage.” Light refreshment turned out to be a boxed aromatic chicken and bell pepper pastry, which is fair enough. But it was absolutely awful. Cardboard would probably taste better. The choice of beverage was anything you could want if it was juice or water.





As a point of comparison, this was American’s Premium Economy pre-arrival meal on a much shorter transatlantic flight in the twilight of the COVID era.



Overall, the flight was pretty disappointing, though significantly better than flying economy (though the bar is very low). We arrived early, and the timing couldn’t have been any better. So I guess mission accomplished?

I got another painful reminder for forgetting to get the fiancé enrolled in Global Entry, as we ended up having to wait awhile to get processed. But we were eventually through. We hoofed it back to Terminal A by subway to grab the car. But before we headed home, we made a quick pit stop to make up for the lack sustenance aloft (for the last day or so) and for a get quick Whataburger fix.







Then it was back home to symphony of wagging tails and angry meowing.

757FO

Congrats!!!

Yahtzee

Very nice report; you clearly enjoy the planning parts of trips too.