Most of my flights in the United States have been with American Airlines and note their clear and comprehensive screens.
I was flying Spirit and it was slightly tricky to even find their slightly less decadent screens. But more on this flight shortly…. Oh, the anticipation.
As previously mentioned, I was at Charlotte Airport with five hours until my flight whilst pondering whether the aircraft to Chicago would take-off given that Hurricane Ian was hitting the terminal. It was much weaker than when it was in Florida and South Carolina, but I was conscious early on that flights were starting to be cancelled and passengers were starting to leave the lounge to go home or make different plans.
Whatever happened, I intended to be well fed. That’s actually the story of my life I think, but there we go. This is the breakfast selection and I’d note here that the welcome at the entrance to the lounge was warm and friendly, it all felt an inviting location. I sat at a table with a power supply, so I had food, drink, electricity and wi-fi. What a time to be alive!
The hot food selection.
Bacon bits. Bloody delicious. I had a lot of these.
I was annoyed when the bacon bits ran out and the lunchtime selection was put out.
This is very American Airlines. Indeed, I’m delighted to hear that their lounge at Heathrow T3 has just reopened, as they have pick and mix there. Proper food.
I understand that I likely caused huge distress and concern by checking into Untappd with Miller Lite. However, this was the only beer that was free of charge, so not being made of money, I decided it would have to suffice. I felt a little sorry for the staff member behind the bar, she had to warn customer after customer that they’d have to pay for their choice. Many already knew, some didn’t care and some were disappointed or annoyed. This is the problem that American Airlines have, they have so many status passengers that they have to draw the line somewhere. However, more on this and how it impacts positively on those of us with BA status (although I’d add mine is about to run out at the end of 2022, but that’s another story).
Things were looking better outside, the rain was easing off.
I posted this in my previous post, but this was the state of the airport. My flight was still departing on time, the flight Gods were looking down on me positively. As for the lounge, I enjoyed my time there, with friendly staff, a clean environment and plenty of food. Maybe they could be more generous with their free alcohol offerings, but I wasn’t unhappy with what they offered and I can imagine there must be financial limitations on what they can do.
Apparently it’s possibly to buy a day pass for $59, which at the moment is about £50 and I think that’s a little excessive. However, the lounge was spacious with two separate wings, one each side of the main entrance. I got entrance with my BA status and my flight was already very cheap, so I left feeling that I had received very good value for the small amount that I had paid. Most of all, I was just pleased that my travel plans weren’t impacted as I didn’t have much slack in the rather fierce itinerary that I had given myself.
After several hours in the lounge, I was pleased that my flight to Chicago O’Hare was taking off on time given the situation with Hurricane Ian. Incidentally, I paid £4.30 and 7,000 Avios points for this flight which I thought was very good value for money, the redemption on internal US flights is generous especially as I had so many Avios from previous trips with BA.
Here’s a photo of a corridor. OK, I’m running a little short of photos for this post. I can’t remember why I took this photo either.
My BA status meant that I was one of the first to board the aircraft. Wooooo. I’d add here, in case anyone thinks this is a bit decadent, that I managed to secure BA silver status back in January 2019 by a series of cheap flights to Malta, I’ve been living off that ever since…. I’m slightly sad to say it’ll end (temporarily) in December 2022.
Nice out.
I really enjoy internal US flights, as although it’s not as good as train travel with Amtrak, it’s quite relaxing to gaze out over the country.
The weather got better as we neared Chicago, but the pilot never turned off the seatbelt sign. The crew also remained seated and there was no service offered during the flight, the weather conditions just didn’t allow it.
We sat on the tarmac for around thirty minutes after landing at Chicago O’Hare and I looked longingly at the British Airways aircraft. I don’t know why as I didn’t want to get on it, it’s just reassuring in its own way. As a flight, all was comfortable with American Airlines and I was pleased that I had arrived into Chicago on time. What could possibly go wrong…. (more to be revealed in later posts)
Having safely arrived at Chicago O’Hare airport I remembered something that I had read on Flyertalk, which is that American Airlines allow access into their lounges to departing and arriving passengers. I’m not used to this set-up, not least as in most European airports they don’t allow departing and arriving passengers to mix at all. But, nothing ventured and nothing gained. Although that sentiment can be reversed to be nothing ventured, but still the potential to be refused and look an idiot.
Anyway, despite the potential downsides, I thought that I’d visit the lounge and see what they said, with a friendly and helpful man at the desk saying that I was absolutely allowed to enter and not just that, I could visit the floor with the Flagship Lounge. Very lovely. It’s also quite exciting as they then press the button on the elevator and then a staff member already waiting on the second floor takes the card and offers a formal introduction to the lounge.
I’m going to come back to this lounge again as I had a much longer visit later on during this trip, but since I liked it so much, there can be two posts. Here’s the dining menu which was rather decadent and I liked the attempt to use local suppliers where possible. I was quite impressed at how neatly the cutlery was arranged and even how posh the napkins were. I thought it was all a bit too decadent for me, but it’s important to embrace these things, especially when they’re free.
It’s all self-service as part of a buffet arrangement, here’s the cold selection.
And the hot selection.
This was a rather lovely welcome back to Chicago and not one that I had really expected. I had been carrying the champagne they gave me at reception around the lounge not really knowing why I had accepted it as I’m more of a beer person, but I wasn’t going to let it be wasted. I had found a bottle of Samuel Adams Octoberfest, a new beer to me, to complement my prawns, thin little carrots (I don’t know what the technical term is) and roast potatoes.
Being somewhat uncouth and primitive, I have a habit of eating food with my hands, not least because chicken strips, burgers and pizzas are all best consumed in that manner. The food here was suitably upmarket for that to be rather difficult, it’s quite hard to use my fingers to eat a ceviche in a couth manner. What with the surroundings being spotlessly clean, the ambience feeling inviting, the food and drink being plentiful and finding it necessary to use a knife and fork, this was the little treat that I needed.
I took the time to charge up my devices to face the wild outside that was Chicago and then a second beer before I thought that I really must go and find my hotel. And that proved to be more of an adventure than I had anticipated, much more of an adventure…..
The sun shines through the terminal windows at T5 lighting up the delights of Gate A9, which was fortunately not the bus gate (which is A10). The boarding process was all orderly and no-one stood in front of the queueing area, which made things much easier for the staff. Although the flight is to Dublin, this is effectively a domestic flight for purposes of border security, the staff don’t need to check passports at the gate, it’s just a photo image they take and that’s an automated process.
I boarded early, but the flight transpired to be relatively busy. It’s aircraft G-EUOF, an Airbus A319 which British Airways have had since October 2001. They really get their money’s worth from these aircraft, it’s doing six flights today, from Geneva to Heathrow, from Heathrow to Dublin, from Dublin to Heathrow, from Heathrow to Madrid, from Madrid to Heathrow and from Heathrow to Amsterdam.
My exit row seat, with the middle seat not being filled on the flight. I fell asleep soon after boarding, fortunately waking just as they handed out the water and cereal bar (which are still in my bag) before having another little sleep. Very restful. This is the big advantage in British Airways over Ryanair or WizzAir, who bang and clank down the aisle trying to sell things. It’s not the fault of the hard-working crew at these airlines, just the model in which they have to work. It was the usual professionally operated flight, the pilots were reassuring and gave useful announcements, whilst the crew were endlessly polite and efficient.
Safely in Dublin, arriving around five minutes early.
There are only six Play aircraft, the relatively new budget airline which operates from Iceland.
The border control process at Dublin is easy for UK passport holders. They do no checks on the passport on their computers, they just check that it’s a UK passport and that the image looks like the passenger in front of them. I think I was at the desk for around three seconds, it was almost as good as being in Schengen, not that that’s looking likely for the UK in the next few decades.
Liam’s impressive timing meant that I got to the airport at a perfect time, not too early (my usual style) and not too late (his usual style). I arrived at the Heathrow T5 BA lounge complex at 04:59, one minute before it opened. Very handy.
I was the first person into Galleries South lounge, that’s never happened before. I can’t claim it’s something that I should get a badge for, but it did let me get some photos without other passengers cluttering them up. This is the main food area in this photo where they were laying out breakfast.
One of the seating areas, this one is just behind where passengers enter the lounge. These lounges do sprawl and there are three of these Galleries Lounges for BA customers at T5, two in the main terminal and one at B Gates (plus the First Class Lounge and the Concorde Room, which are too decadent for me).
The seating area at the end of the lounge which overlooks south security, with the cinema room off to the right.
And my favourite seating area, high chairs and power points, very convenient for my laptop arrangement.
Another photo at the back of the lounge. You used to be able to overlook security until they put that sea of grey over the windows, which is understandable, but I did used to like watching it.
One of the coffee stations and sets of beer fridges, where I was pleased to see that Brewdog Jet Stream was available. I had a few espressos to wake me up, although I’m not sure that they worked that well.
The cinema room.
I only had one beer as it was a bit early. I was pleased to see that the lounge had burnt the bacon, which is good as that’s just how I like it. Those sausage patties are very moreish as well. The BA food offering has definitely improved recently at this lounge (and non burnt bacon was also available).
Some healthy eating. Along with some grapes.
Anyway, my three hours in the lounge was very productive, although I was a little sleepy. The lounge was starting to get very busy when I left, so I was pleased with my timing.
I’ve photographed this before, but it’s just an iconic image and so I thought I’d have another image of it.
Starting Thursday having stayed at the YHA at Lee Valley, I was fully rested and ready for the excitement of crossing London during a rail strike. Although I’ve trailed that bit with the title of this post really.
Much of Britain has been a bit short of water recently and this is the River Lea looking the driest that I’ve seen it. Incidentally, it can be spelled either Lea or Lee, or as Wikipedia notes “the spelling Lea predominates west (upstream) of Hertford, but both spellings (Lea and Lee) are used from Hertford to the River Thames”.
The railway tracks for the Greater Anglia services are on the left, but they weren’t running at all from Cheshunt, although there were some trains shuttling up and down the line. The Overground was operating, although it wasn’t going to be the next day, but only from 08:00 which is later than usual. I wanted to get across London as quickly as possible for my 13:20 flight, so I caught the 08:02 service. I’m not entirely sure why the Overground was operating later than usual, but I assume it was because there were difficulties in getting drivers in on time.
The service was busy when I got off at Seven Sisters, but I think that was just a lot of people switching to the underground network who would have otherwise got the train into central London. It wasn’t busy for much of my journey, but I can imagine it was nigh on intolerable for many.
This is how I spent much of my journey, in the peace and quiet of the underground. I arrived at Heathrow T5 at around 09:40, which was as fast as I could have expected even on a day without strikes, so I was more than pleased with TFL.
I don’t often fly on domestic flights for environmental reasons (and my flights will be decreasing sharply next year anyway), but I have to note, it is much cheaper and convenient than using rail. However, I didn’t have many options when I needed to be in Newcastle and the trains weren’t running. A single fare cost £30 on BA, which I thought was very reasonable and compared to the railways, it’s just far better in terms of comfort, speed, efficiency and cost.
They’ve changed the security queueing system around a bit and I was stopped from going to the premium security bit by a staff member who said that there was no access via the way I wanted to go. I asked how I could get to the premium security line and she pointed me the way that I had been going. I suspect my dishevelled look must have slightly disorientated her. The staff were all friendly, but there was a woman complaining that her liquids were being seized. Again and again this happens, surely people must realise they can’t sneak stuff through, although I’m always impressed how surprised people pretend to look.
I had time to visit the BA Galleries South lounge and the breakfast spread here has improved no end recently. I’m not saying this is world class, but it’s more than sufficient and everything has reverted to being self-service once again. I’m pleased that they’ve stopped insisting on putting the bacon and sausages into rolls, it’s now served separately.
How decadent.
There’s now a market table as they’re calling it, with salad items and the like, as well as rolls.
And it’s the first time that I’ve seen nachos in a BA lounge as well.
Some of the hot options, which includes pies, chicken curry, vegan curry, chilli and the like. I was very pleased that the gravy was self-pour. They took the breakfast options away just before 11:00 and brought the hot food out just after 11:15, which I think is earlier than it used to be.
I was pleased to see the gravy was self-serve because that meant I could drown my pies in it, just as I like them. I’m easily pleased I accept. They’ve changed to pea and ham pies this month, and the quality is very acceptable indeed. I could have had quite a few of these. I know that as I did have quite a few of them.
There seem to be a lot of screens down around Heathrow at the moment, although the number of staff seems to have increased.
Boarding was a mess and it took them nearly 40 minutes from announcing the gate was open to letting people through. It’s easy to be critical, but they could have explained what was happening as I could see the annoyance on the faces of some people. And, if I couldn’t, the man next to me shouted down his phone to someone “it’s blasted carnage here”. I’ve changed the “blasted” word to be less rude, but readers (if it’s plural) of this blog can guess the word he used. I privately thought that the word “carnage” was a bit strong for a queue of this length, but sometimes people like to recount their stories of drama.
It transpired, as the pilot mentioned it on board, that the computer system had gone down and the gate staff were trying to fix it. They probably could have just said that whilst we were waiting, but they did look short-staffed and perhaps they were just focused on getting people through quickly. Boarding by group fell apart, although the queue I was in moved quickly and so I boarded relatively early. It was all fine, but it isn’t helped that there aren’t enough seats in this part of the terminal, so it’s not entirely comfortable waiting.
I can’t recall many air bridges that are so long, the terminal building is visible at the rear of the photo.
The flight was impeccable as ever and I had plenty of space and no-one seated next to me. The snack was the same crisps and water as with every other flight, but I’m content with that. Helpful and personable crew, but that’s fairly standard in my experience of British Airways.
Safely in Newcastle in under an hour from taking off. We had taken off 44 minutes late and arrived 38 minutes late, but I wasn’t in any hurry, so all was well. The boarding had been a bit odd as people were trickling on the aircraft for over half an hour, but on a day of a national rail strike, I was just glad to have arrived safely.
The aircraft is G-NEOR which as the registration suggests is an Airbus A321 NEO which BA have had since new in 2018. Of no interest to anyone else, but just for my own interest, I haven’t been on this aircraft before. The weather was colder than I’ve experienced in Norfolk over recent weeks, which to be honest was just a relief.
And I’ll leave this post here, starting off again soon enough with getting on the Newcastle Metro into the city and then checking that the pubs were all still open.
Carrying on from the previous post, this is now late Wednesday evening. After a hot day of public transporting around Prague, I arrived four hours early at the airport, ready for my 21:15 flight back to London Heathrow with British Airways, albeit operated by Finnair.
The security process at Prague Airport is just before boarding, so I was able to get to the Mastercard Lounge quickly and without delay. The staff member politely mentioned that entry was only allowed two hours before my flight, but then she asked who I was flying with and when I said British Airways, she said I could enter immediately. I don’t know whether BA offer a higher rate than lounge pass schemes such as Priority Pass, but I was very appreciative.
I was here a few months ago with Richard, but that was a morning flight and this was one of the last flights of the day, so there was a different feel to the arrangements. It was all clean and organised, there’s a self-serve soft drinks machine, snacks in the fridges and self-pour alcohol. They had a separate beer fridge with a couple of choices in it, nothing exceptional, but perfectly acceptable given it was free. I’m not at all picky when stuff is free, I’ve noticed I’m more inadvertently generous on Untappd. Nathan would no doubt tut at my lack of consistency….
The two hot options were pasta and chicken drumsticks. It seemed an odd choice for a lounge, as the chicken was a little greasy and they were going to end up with bones dotted around the place on places. However, I wasn’t let down with the taste of the chicken, although the pasta was a bit bland.
The food menu and the meat platters were rather lovely.
It’s a relatively large lounge, although it wasn’t particularly busy when I was there. They have very few power outlets, although I was fortunate to find one as I did need my devices fully charged given that I might not get chance later on. They had views over the runways, although no power points in those areas of seating. They also have unlimited popcorn…..
The seating was comfortable, it was practical for those with laptops and the like, although there were some more comfortable chairs for people who prefer just to relax and not always sit and stare at a screen as I seem to.
The flight was showing as delayed by one hour, but after three hours in the lounge I thought that was enough, so I meandered over to the gate. There was plenty of seating available, with a few power points dotted around.
The boarding process was efficient and customers were called in group order.
There’s the Finnair aircraft, which BA are wet leasing as they seem to have managed to not have enough of their own, a situation which seems far from ideal.
And as it was the Finnair aircraft, I opted for my favourite seat with lots of legroom.
Excellent crew again, although the Finnair cabin crew nearly always seem very professional and personable. I had the entire row of three exit row seats to myself. Whilst I was in the lounge, I had received a message from British Airways saying that there would be no catering on board the flight due to operational reasons. I had another chicken drumstick to fill me up in case there was no mini bags of crisps and water on board. It transpired they had water, but no crisps, which I could manage without, although I’m not sure that the Club Europe passengers would have been quite so impressed as they get meals provided. The crew said that the catering lorry couldn’t reach the aircraft due to a crash at Heathrow, which meant that they didn’t have their food either, so they were wondering where they could eat at nearly midnight at Heathrow.
We arrived into C Gates of London Heathrow about thirty minutes late, although I was in no rush. It’s not ideal to be at C Gates usually, as it’s quite a walk as the internal trains don’t run when it’s close to midnight. But I was in no rush and I like walking.
The UK border was moderately busy, but their automated machines were rejecting a lot of people, including myself, which meant a bit of a queue as there weren’t many border control officers. They were doing some quite detailed checks on some people entering the country, but I was waved through after a cursory check of my passport. I tried to look and act as British as I could in case they thought I pinched someone else’s passport or something.
As my flight was arriving late, I decided against a hotel in London, which at the moment are ridiculously priced compared to what they were. I had a great idea of just getting the 06:00 train from London to Norwich, which was £10, and getting the night bus from Heathrow into central London. That meant I wanted my devices fully charged, so this was the arrangement I set-up for myself, I found the chair and moved it towards the power points and refused to leave (not that anyone asked me to) until everything had full battery. This travel isn’t as easy as people think when there’s a fear of devices without power….
The arrivals floor at Heathrow T5, not very busy at night. For anyone who wants to stay the night at the terminal, it’d be on this level, they remove people from the departures floor. It’s not particularly comfortable, but there’s power, wifi, toilets and I think one of the shops stays open overnight.
I was pleased that the weather was overcast and not too hot.
Heathrow still have no date of when pedestrians can walk into the terminal, something they’ve currently banned from doing, although cyclists can cycle in from next year when the tunnel reopens. The free travel zone has been scrapped and they’ve introduced this new drop-off fee, all adding to the expense for many people. But, Heathrow have shareholders who need cash…..
I’ve never caught the night bus N9, but it’s a bargain really at £1.65 to get from London Heathrow to Trafalgar Square.
The bus timetable if anyone should want it, but the services are regular throughout the night and it’s an 85 minute journey from one end to the other.
On time and not very busy.
The passengers who boarded were just using the bus to get to T3, so I was on my own on the bus for a while after that. Well, with the driver obviously as I’m not sure what my bus driving is like…. (although, I have driven a bus without incident when the driver let me near Cromer, but I’m not sure that was entirely within the rules so I best not go too far down that line). It was a very peaceful journey and it’s actually really quite nice to be able to watch the city go by without stopping at literally every bus stop. There was a mixture of night workers coming back from work, going to work, some early morning commuters, party-goers and travellers.
Sad to see the Admiralty pub like this, certainly different to the last time I was in it a few months ago.
The pub was badly damaged by fire a couple of weeks ago and it looks very serious in terms of the repairs that will be needed.
It was gone 03:00 by this time and I was surprised just how many people were still around Nelson’s Column and Trafalgar Square. It all felt safe and non-threatening, although I was careful taking photos as I didn’t want any mugging incidents.
The Royal Courts of Justice. I had intended to pop into the 24 hour McDonald’s on the Strand to kill an hour, but it was at near capacity and I didn’t want all that raucous noise and party excess. I’m over 30 now and can’t be dealing with that.
St. Paul’s Cathedral and it was a real treat to walk across the city when it’s so quiet, it feels like such a different place. Buses still shuttle around the city, so it seems alive and energetic, but yet with a sense of calm.
The Royal Exchange.
It took me around 40 minutes to walk across London, so I arrived at London Liverpool Street at 03:45. I’ve never seen the railway station all locked up, but the side entrance to McDonald’s was open so I thought that I’d get a little snack.
Back in the day, there used to be seating in this McDonald’s, but this is it now, just self-ordering kiosks. They were all switched off and I wasn’t sure what to do, but a security guard came up when I looked confused and got a crew member to come and take my order at the counter.
McDonald’s probably wondered what they’d do with the £1.80 I gave them for two burgers….. But just as I had finished, the gates of London Liverpool Street railway station swung open at 04:00.
It’s not often the concourse is so quiet.
By now it was 04:02 and the first train out is at 04:40 to Stansted Airport, which is where most of the waiting passengers were heading I think.
It’s very hard to get a photo of this statue as there’s often rubbish on or around it, and it’s also used as a seat or somewhere to lean against. I don’t entirely like this sculpture here, it’s not prominent enough and I hope they can rearrange things a bit. Note the uncomfortable seating behind it designed to avoid anyone homeless sitting on it.
Für Das Kind, or For the Children, designed by Flor Kent, which I’ve written about before.
I sat down for an hour in view of where the new Greggs will be opening soon.
There was nearly no-one around after the first train to Stansted Airport had gone.
I was pleased to see that this wasn’t the Stansted Express with no tables.
This wasn’t a busy service at all. I managed to fall asleep as soon as the train departed, but was conscious that the train guard was checking tickets nearly straight away as there were so few of us on the train.
And safely into Norwich Railway Station at 08:00. The blog will be quite quiet for the next month, with the exception of some odd random and irrelevant (not that they ever really cross the boundary into relevant) posts which I’m sure I’ll feel the need to make, as I’m doing nearly no travelling. Expect a few bits about the LDWA AGM weekend, the Summer Poppyline and some pub photos, but not much else.
The weekend in Canterbury had gone quickly and the four of us in Carena House waved goodbye to the landlady. It was a clean B&B (actually, it was more of a B as there was no breakfast included), although quite quirky, but the welcome was friendly enough, even when Richard changed rooms for reasons unknown. But, I don’t get involved in these matters.
We walked to Tannery Field and had a little look at the bull, designed by local artist Steven Portchmouth. There’s a double purpose to that sculpture, it marks that this was a tanning site, but also that there was a tannery rail track, so they’ve replicated the rails in the artwork.
And there’s some more information about the bull for those who want to know even more.
It was a similar walk to the previous day, with West Gate in the background. It was still too hot.
Back in Wetherspoons, which I accept shows a complete lack of originality, but I didn’t have long and there was a power point here which was handy for ensuring my devices were fully charged for the day ahead. The poached egg was only just runny, they keep getting these wrong now, but that’s my fault, I probably should have gone to a local cafe.
Back again also to Canterbury West railway station, where we set off from the day before.
And the sizeable waiting room, with an absence of power points. I had another little debacle at this railway station, as I had stupidly used my Chase card to buy my rail ticket. The collection machine was having none of it, but this is a known fault with Chase cards on the network, as confirmed both by them and also by Great Western Railways. Chase had said the workaround was for the ticket desk to print the ticket (which isn’t really a solution to their dodgy arrangements in this area), but the man on the desk said he couldn’t do that. I wasn’t going to argue, although I’ve noted that other ticket desks have managed to, but he was helpful enough to wave me through the barriers so I could get to the platform.
My plan was to go and speak immediately to the train guard to tell him of my little predicament, which was a good strategy. The guard said he couldn’t print the ticket either as his machine didn’t have that functionality (there’s a lot of little issues in terms of consistency within the rail network), but that it didn’t matter, he’d wave me through the barriers at London Victoria.
Another routine complaint of mine, there isn’t space in a rail carriage for five seats across, and I am unanimous in that…. Anyway, we got about 100 metres down the track before the Southern ticket inspectors came to interrogate passengers, but fortunately, the train guard noted this and told the inspectors I had a ticket but the machine was broken at the railway station. The inspectors looked confused, as the machine wasn’t broken, just it wouldn’t print my ticket, but they didn’t pursue the matter. They came back through the train twice, with one of them forgetting they had spoken to me already, but the other was more alert.
That meant at London Victoria station I had to get through the barrier as I still didn’t have a ticket printed out. The customer in front of me told the gate guard that “the guard had forgotten to print my ticket” which was not an excuse that was accepted. For about two minutes there was an argument about this, with the gate guard saying that he didn’t believe the guard on-board had forgotten, and even if he had, the customer should have reminded him. Voices were raised and it was bloody clear that the customer didn’t have a ticket, but he was let through anyway. This is a fault with the rail network, what’s the point of this expensive set-up if people are just let through anyway? I was slightly worried that the gate guard would instead have an argument with me, but I showed him my booking reference for the ticket that I couldn’t print and I was let through without dispute. I think it’s fair to say, it’s not hard to get through those barriers without a ticket.
It was time then to get on the Victoria Line for a couple of stops, to then board the Piccadilly Line to get to Heathrow, a moment of excitement as that meant a few days overseas, the last I’d get for several weeks. No delays here, all was going well.
Back at Heathrow T5, which wasn’t particularly busy despite all the fears of overwhelmed airports. The flights that have been trimmed seemed to have helped operations though, with the wait at security being relatively minimal.
The BA lounge has gone from self-service to order via app, back now to order at a counter. Here’s the menu for the lounge, a choice of meatballs, pie, vegetable curry or vegan balls.
I opted for two steak pies with a can of Brewdog Jet Stream, living the dream…. These pies aren’t world class, but they’re moreish (as are many things with me) and sufficiently tasty for my needs, especially when I get chance to ask for extra gravy.
These raw juices were rather delicious, although I suspect I overdosed on fruit with them. There was no fruit health warning in the area which I felt that there could have been.
There’s the green sludge of the raw juice in the background. And another highlight, crisps have finally returned to the lounge, so what a time to be alive!
And even more excitingly (I don’t get out much), the ice cream has returned to the freezers.
The flight was departing from Gate A1 but I wasn’t entirely sure this was well managed, as there weren’t enough seats and there was a paucity of announcements. Standing there for thirty minutes was fine in terms of time, although the terminal in this area was quite hot.
None of these dispensers were functioning at the airport, another one of Heathrow’s little short cuts I imagine.
Ready to board the BA0858 flight to Prague on aircraft G-EUYT, which I’ve travelled on before when going from Heathrow T5 to Warsaw.
The interior of the aircraft and I had an exit row seat by the window. The flight was very busy and at near capacity, so there was the usual faffing around trying to fit ridiculous numbers of arguably oversized bags into the overhead lockers.
We took off over 30 minutes late, which is always slightly frustrating on a night flight, especially when I had plans to catch the last bus of the day in Prague. Fortunately, we landed on time as the pilots were able to make up the time during the flight. There was nothing much notable about the flight, which is always a positive as far as I’m concerned.
The standard in-flight snack of crisps and a small bottle of water.
At Prague airport and there was more queueing as UK travellers now need a stamp in their passport. Fortunately my fast walking had meant the queue wasn’t too long when I arrived, I think I was through border control in under ten minutes.
Rather random, but I liked the little aircraft shaped holes they had made in the benches. I had visited Prague a few months ago and remembered where the ticket machines were to buy bus tickets, something which saved a few minutes of uncertainty.
I caught the last 191 bus of the day, with just a couple of minutes to spare. It wouldn’t have mattered as a night service then kicked in, but this saved me over thirty minutes, so I pleased to be able to catch it.
The bus journey takes around 40 minutes and I was fortunate with my hotel choice, as there was a bus stop just a one minute walk away. It goes direct from the airport to the city centre, or at least the west bank of the river so that people can take another bus or tram to get elsewhere in Prague.
Off the bus and ready for my big one minute walk to the hotel. It’s rare that they’re such short treks at this time of night and I had already alerted the hotel that I’d be late. I’m not sure they care to be honest as they have 24 hour reception desks, but I like to let the hotel know of my plans in case they flog off my room to someone else and they replied promptly and politely telling me all was fine with arriving late.
And here it is, the Ibis Praha Mala Strana, a well reviewed Accor hotel on the west side of the river which isn’t an area that I’ve much explored before in my previous visits to the city. The entrance, for reasons unknown, is tucked away on the far side of the building, but the signage was sufficiently clear for me not to get muddled up.
Typically, someone had just checked in despite it being after midnight, so I had a little bit of a wait, but that gave me enough time to take photos of their shop area. The staff here were always friendly and welcoming, this transpired to be one of my favourite Accor hotels.
My welcome gift was doughnuts and I was very pleased indeed with that. I just knew that this was my sort of hotel.
And the room, the standard Ibis layout, all clean and comfortable. I’m still quite content with this sort of room layout, it’s functional, it has a desk, working wi-fi and space for storage. Given that I had such a late arrival into Prague, I was surprised that I was able to make such timely progress to be in the hotel just after midnight. That gave me enough sleep before breakfast, but more on that in the next riveting instalment of this blog as it transpired to be relatively memorable (or as memorable as a hotel breakfast can realistically be).
I excited the nation with my fascinating post a couple of weeks ago about my flight being shifted from Heathrow T5 to T3 which then meant it failed to meet the minimum connection time between terminals at the airport. I was interested to see how long it would take BA to notice from when they shifted the flights on 4 July 2022.
It’s 18 July today, so exactly two weeks, and I’ve got an email saying they’ve agreed to the changes I’ve requested. I haven’t requested any such thing, which makes me slightly pre-annoyed. They’ve shunted my entire journey forwards a few hours, so I would leave Dublin at 06:30, arrive into London at 08:00 at T2 (they’ve switched me to an Aer Lingus flight), then depart T5 at 09:40.
I’m going to phone BA as that’s a very tight connection at the moment for Heathrow and changing terminals, and because they’ve shunted my Dublin to Heathrow flight forwards, they could have left the Heathrow to New York flight in place. Not least because it leaves from T3 which gives me more time at the Qantas lounge and I would prefer to fly on American Airlines rather than BA. I shall call them up and will report back on how I get on….
