A Summer Transatlantic Redemption
Sep 24, 2024 | 10:58 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: HKG, LHR
Posts: 1,621
A Summer Transatlantic Redemption
This is a transatlantic journey from London to Toronto via Charlotte. With miles on hand across a few programs, I was able to find something with my Cathay Pacific Asia Miles.
American Airlines runs 3 flights a day to Charlotte - quite a good frequency for a relatively small city. It's a bit out of the way to then backtrack to Toronto, but there were no redeemable seats via New York or Philadelphia, so this would have to do.
Arriving a little less than 2 hours before departure, it was a fairly painless process to print out my boarding pass and luggage tag at the kiosk, then off to the bag drop. Heathrow's bag tags are well-designed so I just need to fold it and it'll stick automatically on the bulls-eye red dots in the back. There's no need to peel anything off to stick and find a garbage bin to throw out the extra bits. I didn't have to wait in line for a kiosk and barely had to for the bag drop machine.
Heading upstairs, there was a short wait for security but with the new machines where I didn't have to take out my electronics, processing was seamless. I emerged into a very busy shopping mall with lots of fancy upscale retailers and restaurants, including a conveyer belt sushi restaurant.
With an allocated gate 30, I headed to the distant pier and it was a very long walk as most travelators were down. The 3 gates in that vicinity were departing at around the same time with flights to Hong Kong and Miami next door, so it was quite busy. Of course, they didn't design this part of the airport with enough seats for 3 widebodies.
A mass of people clumped around the gate but I was able to see where the line was going as the various groups were called. I was surprised it didn't end up to be like an Air Canada-style chaotic mess and settled into my seat with plenty of time to spare for the 12:15pm departure.
I picked a window seat at the back of the 777-200 where the 3 seats become 2. It wasn't a spacious seat as a huge part of the armrest cushion from the seat in front extended out back, intruding into my legroom, and the seat looked a bit low. The headrest couldn't rise so I couldn't sit too comfortably given my height. A blanket and pillow were already placed on my seat, although there were some residual food chunks on the blanket corner. I wonder what happens to them after each flight - do they get washed or just repacked into another plastic bag?
We pushed back slightly behind schedule at 12:29pm and made a long taxi across the airport to the eastern end for take-off. As we inched towards our position, I got a nice view of the Concorde parked there.
We took off towards the west at 12:53pm and the initial climb was fairly bumpy. We quickly reached 36,000 feet and the skies below were shrouded in clouds. They cleared as we sailed across the Atlantic. I didn't hear a pilot announcement but I was settling in and checking out the IFE. With a flight time of just under 8 hours, this transatlantic crossing in Economy seems bearable.
Each seat has its own PTV and the IFE system can be managed by a very responsive touch screen. There is quite a lot of selection available with many episodes of Big Bang Theory. The map has many viewing angles to my satisfaction.
I picked the chicken dish for lunch, which came with a wet rice, bread roll, some sort of fruity jam cake, and small salad. Presentation-wise, it didn't look appetizing but it tasted fine. After, they came around asking us to lower our shades, which seemed a bit odd given it's an entirely daytime flight and we were flying during the afternoon.
The crew also placed a snack basket outside the rear galley with pretzels, mint chocolate cookies, and more. The lavatory lines never were long and the interiors were kept clean.
A few hours later, the crew came around offering ice-cream and pro-actively asked if I wanted to top up my water.
About 5 hours in, we reached Newfoundland and I opened my shade every now and then to check out our progress. The weather was quite good over the Maritimes.
As we progressed towards New York, I kept my eyes out for Manhattan's skyline but the haze made spotting the city quite difficult even though we flew fairly near it to the west.
I also couldn't really see Philadelphia shortly after leaving New York.
By now, the crew were offering wraps for a snack, which was just a big pack of flour and just a shade of filling. At least the can of ginger ale was normal sized, not the really small ones the other airlines offer. For a flight of just 8 hours, it's nice they offer a full meal and a snack, which is a fairly international norm.
Unfortunately, we would land from the south and had to loop around east of the city, so my left window could not see Charlotte's downtown skyline on final approach.
We touched down at 3:54pm, slightly ahead of schedule.
Checking the schedules the day before, it didn't seem there are that many international flights into Charlotte. But we were a fairly full widebody after all, and the immigration hall had a huge line that snaked around multiple times. To make matters worse, the building smelled old and dirty so it wasn't the most pleasant wait. The line did move steadily but it took me almost 40 minutes to get through.
Exiting into the baggage hall, there were no signs on which belt to pick up my bags. I had to listen to the audio announcement to find my way, and by then, the belt had stopped rotating and my bag was already there.
It's a long walk to the actual exit itself but I was hopeful to make the 5:04pm bus. The Sprinter Route 5 runs every half hour and takes about half hour to reach Uptown. Charlotte's airport is quite close to the city.
More photos on my website : https://www.globalphotos.org/aa733.htm
Next part : A day in Charlotte
American Airlines runs 3 flights a day to Charlotte - quite a good frequency for a relatively small city. It's a bit out of the way to then backtrack to Toronto, but there were no redeemable seats via New York or Philadelphia, so this would have to do.
Arriving a little less than 2 hours before departure, it was a fairly painless process to print out my boarding pass and luggage tag at the kiosk, then off to the bag drop. Heathrow's bag tags are well-designed so I just need to fold it and it'll stick automatically on the bulls-eye red dots in the back. There's no need to peel anything off to stick and find a garbage bin to throw out the extra bits. I didn't have to wait in line for a kiosk and barely had to for the bag drop machine.
Heading upstairs, there was a short wait for security but with the new machines where I didn't have to take out my electronics, processing was seamless. I emerged into a very busy shopping mall with lots of fancy upscale retailers and restaurants, including a conveyer belt sushi restaurant.
With an allocated gate 30, I headed to the distant pier and it was a very long walk as most travelators were down. The 3 gates in that vicinity were departing at around the same time with flights to Hong Kong and Miami next door, so it was quite busy. Of course, they didn't design this part of the airport with enough seats for 3 widebodies.
A mass of people clumped around the gate but I was able to see where the line was going as the various groups were called. I was surprised it didn't end up to be like an Air Canada-style chaotic mess and settled into my seat with plenty of time to spare for the 12:15pm departure.
I picked a window seat at the back of the 777-200 where the 3 seats become 2. It wasn't a spacious seat as a huge part of the armrest cushion from the seat in front extended out back, intruding into my legroom, and the seat looked a bit low. The headrest couldn't rise so I couldn't sit too comfortably given my height. A blanket and pillow were already placed on my seat, although there were some residual food chunks on the blanket corner. I wonder what happens to them after each flight - do they get washed or just repacked into another plastic bag?
We pushed back slightly behind schedule at 12:29pm and made a long taxi across the airport to the eastern end for take-off. As we inched towards our position, I got a nice view of the Concorde parked there.
We took off towards the west at 12:53pm and the initial climb was fairly bumpy. We quickly reached 36,000 feet and the skies below were shrouded in clouds. They cleared as we sailed across the Atlantic. I didn't hear a pilot announcement but I was settling in and checking out the IFE. With a flight time of just under 8 hours, this transatlantic crossing in Economy seems bearable.
Each seat has its own PTV and the IFE system can be managed by a very responsive touch screen. There is quite a lot of selection available with many episodes of Big Bang Theory. The map has many viewing angles to my satisfaction.
I picked the chicken dish for lunch, which came with a wet rice, bread roll, some sort of fruity jam cake, and small salad. Presentation-wise, it didn't look appetizing but it tasted fine. After, they came around asking us to lower our shades, which seemed a bit odd given it's an entirely daytime flight and we were flying during the afternoon.
The crew also placed a snack basket outside the rear galley with pretzels, mint chocolate cookies, and more. The lavatory lines never were long and the interiors were kept clean.
A few hours later, the crew came around offering ice-cream and pro-actively asked if I wanted to top up my water.
About 5 hours in, we reached Newfoundland and I opened my shade every now and then to check out our progress. The weather was quite good over the Maritimes.
As we progressed towards New York, I kept my eyes out for Manhattan's skyline but the haze made spotting the city quite difficult even though we flew fairly near it to the west.
I also couldn't really see Philadelphia shortly after leaving New York.
By now, the crew were offering wraps for a snack, which was just a big pack of flour and just a shade of filling. At least the can of ginger ale was normal sized, not the really small ones the other airlines offer. For a flight of just 8 hours, it's nice they offer a full meal and a snack, which is a fairly international norm.
Unfortunately, we would land from the south and had to loop around east of the city, so my left window could not see Charlotte's downtown skyline on final approach.
We touched down at 3:54pm, slightly ahead of schedule.
Checking the schedules the day before, it didn't seem there are that many international flights into Charlotte. But we were a fairly full widebody after all, and the immigration hall had a huge line that snaked around multiple times. To make matters worse, the building smelled old and dirty so it wasn't the most pleasant wait. The line did move steadily but it took me almost 40 minutes to get through.
Exiting into the baggage hall, there were no signs on which belt to pick up my bags. I had to listen to the audio announcement to find my way, and by then, the belt had stopped rotating and my bag was already there.
It's a long walk to the actual exit itself but I was hopeful to make the 5:04pm bus. The Sprinter Route 5 runs every half hour and takes about half hour to reach Uptown. Charlotte's airport is quite close to the city.
More photos on my website : https://www.globalphotos.org/aa733.htm
Next part : A day in Charlotte
Sep 29, 2024 | 9:09 pm
#2
Join Date: Dec 2023
Posts: 36
Wow, what a detailed trip report! Thanks for sharing your experience on the AA flight from London to Charlotte. It's cool to see how smooth the process was at Heathrow, especially with those new security scanners. The flight itself sounds pretty decent for economy class - two meals on an 8-hour flight is pretty good these days.
Those photos on your website are great. Thanks again for sharing, hkskyline !
Those photos on your website are great. Thanks again for sharing, hkskyline !
Oct 8, 2024 | 8:52 am
#4
Original Poster
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: HKG, LHR
Posts: 1,621
Charlotte is named after George III's queen and dates from the mid-18th century. Ironically, it played a large role in America's independence from Britain when the Mecklenburg Declaration was signed here in 1775. I arrived with an overnight connection made possible thanks to affordable hotels and a short bus ride from the airport to downtown, or Uptown as locals call it. Here is my 24 hours in Charlotte ...
The Fourth Ward was an upscale residential district in the 19th century where merchants, ministers, and more called home. Located in the northwest and spanning 30 city blocks, its decline started in the mid-20th century after the trolley's expansion allowed suburban development.
More photos on my website : https://www.globalphotos.org/charlotte.htm
The Fourth Ward was an upscale residential district in the 19th century where merchants, ministers, and more called home. Located in the northwest and spanning 30 city blocks, its decline started in the mid-20th century after the trolley's expansion allowed suburban development.
More photos on my website : https://www.globalphotos.org/charlotte.htm
Oct 30, 2024 | 5:16 am
#5
Original Poster
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: HKG, LHR
Posts: 1,621
My next leg for this summer transatlantic journey continued a day after arriving from London. After a relaxing night in Charlotte and a little sightseeing, I was ready to return to the airport for a much shorter beg to backtrack my way to Toronto.
I received a few emails that my flight would be delayed that morning for my 1:04pm flight. The first email arrived at 9:31am with a revised departure time of 1:28pm. 7 minutes later, another email arrived and the departure turned to 2:23pm. A further separate email came with the delay's reason - "aircraft maintenance or repair". It was nice that they pro-actively informed me well ahead of the check-in starting time so I wouldn't be stuck at the airport with nothing else to do. As a result, I bumped my hotel check-out by an hour and had a little more time to sightsee and relax in my room.
At 11:45am, I set off to catch the half-hourly Sprinter #5 bus. Charlotte's airport is actually quite close to Uptown, its city centre. The Sprinter bus costs only $2.2 a ride, and you can buy a ticket with Google Pay on their app beforehand. After less than half an hour, I reached the arrivals level once again.
Heading upstairs, I noted the terminal looked quite new and a world different than the dingy and smelly immigration hall that greeted me yesterday. Similar to London, the 2-step process is clearly marked and I headed for the kiosk to get my bag tag. However, it spat out an error, so staff directed me to the special services counter around the corner of construction. I was told these machines often hiccup when they encounter a non-American passport.
Returning back to the terminal, I monitored the security lines on the website and decided to use checkpoint 1 security, which seems to always show a much faster journey. This part of the terminal serves non-AA airlines, and given Charlotte is a dominant AA hub, maybe that's why this section is quieter.
Security was quick and I emerged air-side in no time. It was quite crowded but at least there are plenty of shops and restaurants around. You won't go hungry here. The airport is divided into various piers which are assigned letters. I had a lot of time left so I walked around the different piers. The food areas were not too packed but the gates were very busy with insufficient seating areas to manage the many narrowbody flights. With low ceilings and narrow corridors, it felt quite claustrophobic here and the Friday lunch-time rush didn't help. I thought Charlotte was a relatively small city but post-research revealed its airport was even busier than Newark in 2023!
Navigating past the neighbouring gates' crowds, I wonder why US airports can't separate incoming and arriving traffic to different levels to reduce the crowding, especially since aircraft are turned around quickly so the next set of passengers would likely be waiting at the gate already to greet the inbound folks, making it even more crowded.
Arriving at my gate at the end of the C pier, there was an announcement that the aircraft was being sent from the maintenance area and should arrive by 2pm. However, that didn't materialize and at 2:01pm, I got yet another email about the departure time pushing to 2:50pm. 15 minutes later, they sent us to another gate on the other side of the pier.
It seems the original plane is still stuck in maintenance and they swapped us a new one instead. At 2:21pm, the departure got moved yet again to 3:05pm, a full 2 hours late.
By now, I didn't have much energy left to roam around looking for food or to explore anymore. Lucky I had a muffin to snack on earlier.
With only a backpack and my hand carry checked in, it was a fairly seamless boarding although I heard announcements that they've run out of overhead space across many gates by the time the final groups were due to board, and that was also the case for my flight.
Today's flight is operated by an A319 and was not full. The middle seat next to me was empty and there was wifi entertainment on board. The announcements remarked our original plane is still broken so they swapped us to this one, and the flight time would be under 1.5 hours. We were all boarded by 3:04pm and pushed by 8 minutes later, heading on a long taxi to take off towards the south at 3:36pm.
With a right window, I had anticipated to see the skyline well when we looped around after take-off. However, we made a wide loop and stayed quite west of the city so I struggled to locate Uptown, even though the airport was much easier to spot and very visible. Clouds rolled in not too long afterwards so I turned to the wifi for some entertainment.
The IFE system available on the wifi had more than enough selection for the short flight, but seems to have less available than the long-haul flight across the Atlantic yesterday. Nevertheless, I had a lot of Big Bang Theory to choose from.
The crew came around with biscuits and a free drink and the flight passed by uneventfully.
There were some breaks in the clouds as we started our descent and I could see the Welland Canal and its Lake Ontario exit.
Soon, we turned and passed next to downtown Toronto, but there were some clouds in the way. We looped and then headed west to land, touching down at 5:01pm and reaching a stop 10 minutes later. The crew took advantage and actively sold their new credit card with a big mileage bonus enough to redeem a good set of longer flights and no check-in baggage fees.
Our arrival gate at Terminal 3 was just a short walk to the immigration kiosks.
Despite being at the back of the plane, I didn't need to wait for an immigration kiosk. However, similar to my last visit to Terminal 3, the kiosks don't flow naturally to the next step, the line to an immigration officer. I had to look for it, and it wasn't well signposted. As this problem had existed before, I can only point to management incompetence amidst confused passengers trying to find their way around. I was happy though to see a staff directing citizens to a side exit without needing to line up to see an immigration officer.
Reaching the baggage belt relatively quickly, I was delighted to re-unite with my bag shortly after 5:30pm but here is where the trouble started. There was a huge traffic jam to exit despite several agents at the end collecting our kiosk paperwork. After getting through that mess, it was another slow walk to the actual exit, which involved a 90-degree turn right at the end to go through a set of thin doors on the side. Obviously, with such high traffic, bottlenecks emerged here as well when frantic passengers had to manage their heavy carts around the obstacle course.
In recent years, I've had some awful experiences using Terminal 3, and today's was probably the worst. After passing the crowds and venturing upstairs for the train to Terminal 1, I finally got some peace and quiet.
More photos on my website : https://www.globalphotos.org/aa1876.htm
I received a few emails that my flight would be delayed that morning for my 1:04pm flight. The first email arrived at 9:31am with a revised departure time of 1:28pm. 7 minutes later, another email arrived and the departure turned to 2:23pm. A further separate email came with the delay's reason - "aircraft maintenance or repair". It was nice that they pro-actively informed me well ahead of the check-in starting time so I wouldn't be stuck at the airport with nothing else to do. As a result, I bumped my hotel check-out by an hour and had a little more time to sightsee and relax in my room.
At 11:45am, I set off to catch the half-hourly Sprinter #5 bus. Charlotte's airport is actually quite close to Uptown, its city centre. The Sprinter bus costs only $2.2 a ride, and you can buy a ticket with Google Pay on their app beforehand. After less than half an hour, I reached the arrivals level once again.
Heading upstairs, I noted the terminal looked quite new and a world different than the dingy and smelly immigration hall that greeted me yesterday. Similar to London, the 2-step process is clearly marked and I headed for the kiosk to get my bag tag. However, it spat out an error, so staff directed me to the special services counter around the corner of construction. I was told these machines often hiccup when they encounter a non-American passport.
Returning back to the terminal, I monitored the security lines on the website and decided to use checkpoint 1 security, which seems to always show a much faster journey. This part of the terminal serves non-AA airlines, and given Charlotte is a dominant AA hub, maybe that's why this section is quieter.
Security was quick and I emerged air-side in no time. It was quite crowded but at least there are plenty of shops and restaurants around. You won't go hungry here. The airport is divided into various piers which are assigned letters. I had a lot of time left so I walked around the different piers. The food areas were not too packed but the gates were very busy with insufficient seating areas to manage the many narrowbody flights. With low ceilings and narrow corridors, it felt quite claustrophobic here and the Friday lunch-time rush didn't help. I thought Charlotte was a relatively small city but post-research revealed its airport was even busier than Newark in 2023!
Navigating past the neighbouring gates' crowds, I wonder why US airports can't separate incoming and arriving traffic to different levels to reduce the crowding, especially since aircraft are turned around quickly so the next set of passengers would likely be waiting at the gate already to greet the inbound folks, making it even more crowded.
Arriving at my gate at the end of the C pier, there was an announcement that the aircraft was being sent from the maintenance area and should arrive by 2pm. However, that didn't materialize and at 2:01pm, I got yet another email about the departure time pushing to 2:50pm. 15 minutes later, they sent us to another gate on the other side of the pier.
It seems the original plane is still stuck in maintenance and they swapped us a new one instead. At 2:21pm, the departure got moved yet again to 3:05pm, a full 2 hours late.
By now, I didn't have much energy left to roam around looking for food or to explore anymore. Lucky I had a muffin to snack on earlier.
With only a backpack and my hand carry checked in, it was a fairly seamless boarding although I heard announcements that they've run out of overhead space across many gates by the time the final groups were due to board, and that was also the case for my flight.
Today's flight is operated by an A319 and was not full. The middle seat next to me was empty and there was wifi entertainment on board. The announcements remarked our original plane is still broken so they swapped us to this one, and the flight time would be under 1.5 hours. We were all boarded by 3:04pm and pushed by 8 minutes later, heading on a long taxi to take off towards the south at 3:36pm.
With a right window, I had anticipated to see the skyline well when we looped around after take-off. However, we made a wide loop and stayed quite west of the city so I struggled to locate Uptown, even though the airport was much easier to spot and very visible. Clouds rolled in not too long afterwards so I turned to the wifi for some entertainment.
The IFE system available on the wifi had more than enough selection for the short flight, but seems to have less available than the long-haul flight across the Atlantic yesterday. Nevertheless, I had a lot of Big Bang Theory to choose from.
The crew came around with biscuits and a free drink and the flight passed by uneventfully.
There were some breaks in the clouds as we started our descent and I could see the Welland Canal and its Lake Ontario exit.
Soon, we turned and passed next to downtown Toronto, but there were some clouds in the way. We looped and then headed west to land, touching down at 5:01pm and reaching a stop 10 minutes later. The crew took advantage and actively sold their new credit card with a big mileage bonus enough to redeem a good set of longer flights and no check-in baggage fees.
Our arrival gate at Terminal 3 was just a short walk to the immigration kiosks.
Despite being at the back of the plane, I didn't need to wait for an immigration kiosk. However, similar to my last visit to Terminal 3, the kiosks don't flow naturally to the next step, the line to an immigration officer. I had to look for it, and it wasn't well signposted. As this problem had existed before, I can only point to management incompetence amidst confused passengers trying to find their way around. I was happy though to see a staff directing citizens to a side exit without needing to line up to see an immigration officer.
Reaching the baggage belt relatively quickly, I was delighted to re-unite with my bag shortly after 5:30pm but here is where the trouble started. There was a huge traffic jam to exit despite several agents at the end collecting our kiosk paperwork. After getting through that mess, it was another slow walk to the actual exit, which involved a 90-degree turn right at the end to go through a set of thin doors on the side. Obviously, with such high traffic, bottlenecks emerged here as well when frantic passengers had to manage their heavy carts around the obstacle course.
In recent years, I've had some awful experiences using Terminal 3, and today's was probably the worst. After passing the crowds and venturing upstairs for the train to Terminal 1, I finally got some peace and quiet.
More photos on my website : https://www.globalphotos.org/aa1876.htm