tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29890315977279025242024-03-05T10:41:07.536-08:00Tier Point Run to HawaiiSpongthrushhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15389104896151188372noreply@blogger.comBlogger35125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2989031597727902524.post-90906571706497806942016-01-31T12:40:00.001-08:002016-01-31T12:42:25.721-08:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">You will find it easier to read a tidied version of my first Tier Points Run in 2014, which reads from oldest post to newest post (and thus more logical to read as a story, <a href="http://metsonij.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">here</a> </span></h2>
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Spongthrushhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15389104896151188372noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2989031597727902524.post-32109639776656848492015-07-26T06:03:00.002-07:002015-08-05T02:08:52.933-07:00mini-TP run Frankfurt-Madrid-Frankfurt with LAN<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Not a Hawaii tier points run as such, but is relevant to anyone who's trying to get to the magic 1500 tier points for BA Gold, as unless you are very clever you'll need to top up any Hawaii run with a few more TPs. Thanks to <a href="http://www.headforpoints.com/" target="_blank">headforpoints.com</a> for pointing me at this one.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">LAN Chile fly Boeing 787s Madrid to Frankfurt and return on a daily basis, the special offer fare being £117 return in business class which generates 40TP each way. I booked on the LAN app. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>**update 26-July: Note that there is another offer currently active until 30-September-15, the fare being available nearly every day in September. ITA shows a fare of £138, Expedia £148 and the LAN website £174. So shop around!**</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I was hoping to position to Madrid via the Iberia A340-600 using Avios in business, but availability was skinny so instead booked to start in Frankfurt with BA in economy for 3500 Avios plus £35 return. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">8-July</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The lounge at Heathrow was fairly busy, I'd read about the bacon grabbers before, but was amused to see people taking the bacon out of the rolls in order to create a plate of bacon. I guess that there is a chance that the now empty rolls can be refilled, rather than someone take several rolls away, remove the bacon and bin the rolls....</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The trip to Frankfurt was uneventful, I'd forgotten how spacious the exit row seats on a 767 are.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I enjoyed the sunshine on the Terminal 2 terrace for a while then later repositioned to Terminal 1 to see if there was any lounge access for LAN passengers. I wasn't hopeful, as T1 appeared to be a * Alliance stronghold.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Through security I tried my luck at an information desk, where a very nice lady said that she'd had this question before and wasn't sure what to do. She spent a while on the phone to several different lounges and drew a blank; then suggested that I should have a lounge invitation issued at check in? No, because I checked in online and had hand luggage.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I thought I'd try my luck with asking the same question at the Air Canada Maple Leaf lounge, where I was told that I was in the right place, LAN pax are allowed in, but where is my invitation. Anyway, I was in.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Nice views of the ramp and runway, catering not too bad. Very quiet.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Boarded on time to be greeted by some absolutely charming and giggly crew to find I have the whole rear business cabin to myself.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Champagne, a pleasant meal, enjoyable wine</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">LAN seem to use the mood lighting to the max, it wasn't exactly subtle but I loved it. I don't actually recall how BA use the lighting, perhaps because my only 787 trips have been in economy where one's preoccupation is with terribly narrow seats that are a claustrophobe's nightmare. Or anyone who doesn't enjoy being heated by an adjacent passenger's body. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I digress. The LAN business class seats did seem a bit firm but as the crew gave out duvets once airborne, they served as padding and I have no complaints about the seats or the IFE.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We arrived in Madrid to find it 38C at 11pm and I retreated to the hotel.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">9-July</span></h4>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Today was my first experience of Terminal 4 at Madrid (aside from yesterday when I arrived in something of a blur). Very swish, but you really wouldn't want to cut it fine time-wise as the furthest gates are a long way from landside.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">After yesterday's Frankfurt experience, I stopped at the LAN desk to collect a lounge invitation and after some exploration settled into the Iberia lounge which, despite having acres of glass, was cool. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">On this flight the business cabin was half full; I was in 3K which doesn't have a window.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">On arrival at Frankfurt it seemed that the Oneworld lounge was landside; as I didn't have masses of time I went through security to find the BA flight home delayed. Hey ho.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A normal, full, BA A319 economy trip home. Whilst the crew did their service OK, sat in the last row, I found their audible loud-voiced chat (I had ipod on max volume) quite irritating. But sort of alluring. In the end I took the headphones off to listen to their BA management and colleague-slagging tales, issues of theft of watches from the trolley while they were doing food service, tales of nightstops past.... </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">All in all, a most enjoyable trip, with the objective of 80 BA tier points achieved at minimal cost.</span><br />
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Spongthrushhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15389104896151188372noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2989031597727902524.post-30507860058035084012015-01-11T00:39:00.002-08:002015-03-28T13:00:49.399-07:00January 2015 TP Run: 44 hours in Honolulu<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Pre-trip plan</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This trip was a consequence of my work colleague </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- well, ex-colleague as I don't have a job any more - </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Kev's </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">desire to get BA Silver from a quick run to Hawaii. He asked if I'd like to tag along. Why not! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The trip should generate 43000 Avios and 1120 Tier Points. That equates to a Club return to the US (used with an Amex 2-4-1) for the Avios and two upgrades from the TPs. So although the fare was around £1370, there's plenty of ways of arguing that the value created by the trip means the cost is half that if you value Avios at 1p each.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Kev sorted his flights and I managed to get on the same flights except for the Dallas to Honolulu sector where there's 3 B763s a day; Kev was on the first and I was on the second.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The itinerary looks like this</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">8-Jan</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">-15</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The weather was awful in the UK. Kev had booked Club 'positioning' flights to/from Heathrow. I booked a £37 flybe from Southampton to Dublin and had the bumpiest trip across the Irish Sea that I can recall.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1WnHd6xnfs84uZ7KImE-xA2V6PhG5v3Z0Oo1gIYwnnXEvIiP_wq8nVzaSy5Xm2ymq6RrSEhcpBc6emddtMDGnvK-PYV0hnVNyzHqCzrAdRwbNc-BQiizgQ-zLiZkoSV34sPKHNQUl-5RY/s1600/IMG_2771.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1WnHd6xnfs84uZ7KImE-xA2V6PhG5v3Z0Oo1gIYwnnXEvIiP_wq8nVzaSy5Xm2ymq6RrSEhcpBc6emddtMDGnvK-PYV0hnVNyzHqCzrAdRwbNc-BQiizgQ-zLiZkoSV34sPKHNQUl-5RY/s1600/IMG_2771.JPG" height="320" width="240" /></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We met at the airport Radisson Blu which has some rather swish rooms with views of the runway and of some rather perilous approaches. The storm outside meant little sleep as the windows rattled; BA cancelled the last flight of the day and there were several diversions so we were pleased to be there.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">BA's lounge is the DAA Executive Lounge. It's ok. No fry up in here though.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Nice lady on the desk suggested we watch the screens as BA were cancelling flights. Just what we didn't want to hear!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The wind had died down by the time we approached London City. There's no airside connection provision here, so we immigrated and emigrated, sat watching the goings on at the airport then trotted down to Gate 21 where the A318 departs from.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Here it became rapidly apparent that there were other mileage runners on the flight; we laid low and enjoyed the champagne.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">BAW1 had 30 booked passengers for the 32 available seats, 29 turned up and we departed for Shannon on time. Canary Wharf and Excel look quite close from the end of the runway!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">West Ham's new - from 2016/17 - home, the Olympic Stadium.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It's having a roof fitted at the moment.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">London City departures to the West and North weave around at low altitude, good for sightseeing!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Captain came for a chat soon after take off as he'd had a 'rude' message from DaveM on the R/T at Swanwick. It's a shame that the UK doesn't allow R/T on liveatc.net or I'd add it here. We asked about flight crew duty day; the Captain was very happy that they just do the City-Shannon sector and get a night stop which suited him as he could go and see his Irish relatives. He told us that the sister aircraft G-EUNA was tech at JFK with a dodgy engine that was burning way too much fuel; he'd been asked if he'd like to ferry it to Dallas for maintenance but wasn't too keen!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Given the 250kt eastbound jet stream, it took around 90min to reach Shannon, where we descended through bumps into a very wet airport. I'd not been on BAW1 before, which pre-clears US immigration here (BAW3 does not) and was looking forward to see how I got on with my new Redress number. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">All was well and soon after we were back in 7JK waiting to taxi for JFK in the rain and a long flight (>8hours). The two empty seats at the back were now occupied by flight crew who were, presumably, positioning to JFK to deal with the stranded A318.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The cabin crew 'did' the service the way most people would imagine it should be, much better and more consistent than my recent experiences of BA long haul, so credit to the three of them. They're Gatwick crew and don't get night stops in Shannon as do the flight deck crew; the chatty female crewmember was interested in the mileage run malarky and appeared to be unaware....so we pointed out that on this flight there were, to our knowledge, 5 of us on this flight doing a Tier Points/Mileage Run, 3 to Honolulu and 2 to Las Vegas. We were amused to hear that she'd been chatted up by an ATC person in a bar in Southsea over Christmas. It didn't take us long to figure out who that was!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The flight wasn't too bumpy after all and we arrived to find snow on the ground in New York. As you arrive as a domestic passenger and given we were hand luggage only, it took minutes to end up landside and looking for the La Guardia NYC Airporter bus.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">After a $13 trip that spent longer going around the JFK terminals than getting to LGA, we phoned the Courtyard by Marriott who advised that the courtesy bus would be with us soon. Not soon enough for us, as our extremities had turned to ice....packing for Hawaii didn't include gloves, scarf and hat!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Courtyard at La Guardia had an aeronautical technical college across the road. I ventured out to take a few photos but it was dark and cold so didn't hang around.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">By day it was apparent that the hotel is at the end of one of the runways so you'd make the hotel reception staff happy by asking for an airport view; every non-enthusiast type of guest presumably wants peace!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">As we were initially given a room that hadn't been cleaned, it made me appreciate how tidy even I must seem to the poor chamber maids who have to clean up after guests. Minatures thrown all over the place, it must have been a good party! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Up around 0400 for the 0430 shuttle back to La Guardia. The Admirals Club lounge had coffee and juice and was warm. Eventually we trotted down to the gate to board the 0645 flight to Dallas. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It was a relatively old B737-800 on this leg but the wifi worked fine. It's worth pointing out that I bought 3x 1hour gogo wifi vouchers before I left home. They're only valid for 30 days, but the in-flight price was significantly more (double?), so it makes sense to pre-load your account.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We arrived on time at Dallas and spent 20 mins taxying to the gate; it felt a bit like landing at Northolt and taxying to Terminal 4 at Heathrow. Here, Kev and I parted as he was leaving on a flight 3 hours ahead of me.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I jumped on the inter-terminal monorail for a spot of airport sightseeing and ended up at the American Express Centurion lounge which advertised both food and alcohol as available, which they aren't in the Admirals Clubs. It was OK, not a patch on BA, Malaysian etc lounges, but worth remembering as another Platinum card benefit when in the USA. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">After this, off to the Admiral's Club closest to the departure gate that's been showing on the app since yesterday. Leaving the lounge for the gate about 4o mins prior to departure, the gate has been changed to one on the other side of the airport. Great! Off on the monorail again.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Boarding the 767-300 I was pleasantly surprised to find the Business Class seat is an angled/lie flat design, not just a big seat as per the 737 we'd flown on down from LGA.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The crew handed out Samsung devices that served as IFE and some nice noise cancelling headsets.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Our 8hr trip took us quite a way north, somewhere between San Francisco and Seattle</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Being used to smaller portions I was amused to find the ice cream sundae was enormous, and rather yummy! I washed it down with a few tinnys of Sam Adams and snoozed for an hour or two.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I'd deliberately chosen a left side window to get a good view of Pearl Harbor and the Hickam AFB ramp, which is at the western end of the airport</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I'd seen the local buses on my previous visit so I wandered around a little in that bloke-ish 'I don't really want to ask anyone for help in case they try and sell me something' way, walked the whole length of the terminal before stumbling across a bus stop on the upper level. A few minutes later a number 19 bus appeared and for $2.50 I was on my way to Waikiki. Luckily the Pacific Beach Hotel was a stop on the route and before long Kev and I were in the bar having a celebratory Kona beer.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyXRhMIx0Vay-4nLTJt_Tc5J3LmOadI4vSp5-omEyNjyWdDCp0Zonb-FxJnrYoiALYFvq_Oqmhd3lXZpKzY4h8tNJVUF0cA_YEb8-Db2MF_hIXuTxJyYr2WzGJvc6NLL-E9jnQBe4JkfIb/s1600/IMG_2791.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyXRhMIx0Vay-4nLTJt_Tc5J3LmOadI4vSp5-omEyNjyWdDCp0Zonb-FxJnrYoiALYFvq_Oqmhd3lXZpKzY4h8tNJVUF0cA_YEb8-Db2MF_hIXuTxJyYr2WzGJvc6NLL-E9jnQBe4JkfIb/s1600/IMG_2791.PNG" height="320" width="180" /></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Kev had asked the concierge how much a day tour to Pearl Harbor would be. $150 including lunch and entry to all the attractions. Per person. Seemed a little pricey, so we didn't book and resolved to have a go at DIY via public transport, especially as I'd bagged 2 free tickets for the Arizona from the national parks website while in the lounge at Dallas.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">11-Jan-15</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Awake at 0400, TheBus routes 20 and 42 go from the road 1 block away from the hotel to Pearl Harbor. USS Arizona memorial is how it's signed to avoid the confusion between the tourist side and the active military base. The bus fare is $2.50.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj80BI23a5bzlnnyVh3BH0AzFez2sOi1bs1VmhFPVhTZ-SFxU5WJZ9Ef_aI5as720lxd7bGU2HT40PQC3uSMmSBqc94wMOKd6QWyWfKRrIH3U_LfbJX50tFyGBoWDGpx54ky9geZ7FR-rT3/s1600/IMG_2790.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj80BI23a5bzlnnyVh3BH0AzFez2sOi1bs1VmhFPVhTZ-SFxU5WJZ9Ef_aI5as720lxd7bGU2HT40PQC3uSMmSBqc94wMOKd6QWyWfKRrIH3U_LfbJX50tFyGBoWDGpx54ky9geZ7FR-rT3/s1600/IMG_2790.JPG" height="200" width="150" /></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We were on a 0635 bus and arrived at the Visitor Center to find no queue </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">whatsoever for security or tickets. It took around 45-50 minutes to get there, with an interesting array of passengers, none of whom looked like Americans. Apart from one family that we decided must be Canadian (why I have no idea), apart from the belief that US tourists don't 'do' public transport?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Despite worries that we would struggle to get tickets, there was no queue whatsoever so we made the 0800 Arizona memorial tour and bought tickets for the USS Missouri and the Ford Island aircraft musuem.</span><br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5w5J7SNFwfA/VOpLdNvmlEI/AAAAAAAAOq0/N3VWxpwQh2s/s1600/IMG_8431.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5w5J7SNFwfA/VOpLdNvmlEI/AAAAAAAAOq0/N3VWxpwQh2s/s1600/IMG_8431.JPG" height="150" width="200" /></a></div>
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-OBD4MrRtYjY/VOpLeAO-xrI/AAAAAAAAOrE/ge-w5j7j3KU/s1600/IMG_8437.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-OBD4MrRtYjY/VOpLeAO-xrI/AAAAAAAAOrE/ge-w5j7j3KU/s1600/IMG_8437.JPG" height="150" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Arizona memorial starts with a video in a theatre recapping the events of 1942. It was rather well done, with requests to show respect thus no texting, phones, selfies while on the memorial. </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This involves a boat shuttle to the memorial; I can't help wondering if the sailors thought this what they were signing up for when they joined the US Navy.</span></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3ei1CZcEqp0/VOpLdMU5m9I/AAAAAAAAOqw/vh0Dto30A_w/s1600/IMG_8435.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3ei1CZcEqp0/VOpLdMU5m9I/AAAAAAAAOqw/vh0Dto30A_w/s1600/IMG_8435.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The ship lies underneath the structure above</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPx_qZazlwcrbodnw4UvxEKMgBs_G27TAJtSKl-MTFjL9gSxeThPXEwRZ6QncSmUHVwEvIPRSNaaqOckYx-5Mf-aq2hTaDm0fR20Jg2q-OQI8z1loDFw60fSAgMVkQgaaoir7GGmGNl4UY/s1600/IMG_8447.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPx_qZazlwcrbodnw4UvxEKMgBs_G27TAJtSKl-MTFjL9gSxeThPXEwRZ6QncSmUHVwEvIPRSNaaqOckYx-5Mf-aq2hTaDm0fR20Jg2q-OQI8z1loDFw60fSAgMVkQgaaoir7GGmGNl4UY/s1600/IMG_8447.JPG" height="392" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwdMShYOII554vnCxWj9PBCI5Z1NAAn0fOFu0ufqscZLbPMC7SHaUfvdO2UFfn2T9F5s8tDY3Xaq4yKVGQfYWEdTEEvy1JygMd9WO_xJUEPmDEbY5Y0hX0UiSOH0H4CZQkDNSQqhryr9jw/s1600/IMG_8451.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwdMShYOII554vnCxWj9PBCI5Z1NAAn0fOFu0ufqscZLbPMC7SHaUfvdO2UFfn2T9F5s8tDY3Xaq4yKVGQfYWEdTEEvy1JygMd9WO_xJUEPmDEbY5Y0hX0UiSOH0H4CZQkDNSQqhryr9jw/s1600/IMG_8451.JPG" height="320" width="240" /></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">There's a pungent smell of fuel around the memorial; diesel is still leaking out 70 years after the ship sunk.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Then on to the USS Missouri, where the Japanese surrender at the end of WW2 was signed</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEid_pYMr_BCxRJYNF2vD6a1kD7gFjZP-JnBjK286HPXJfyxNK9RgcJvRysn28qDQ2yQA6nXx0L75AIX1gnZTuBxLRUahpGetYfYOYIxIdf6LEkFfNMKZN_R5bUS1Vt7gdDf3QPAecr1KDsU/s1600/IMG_8440.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEid_pYMr_BCxRJYNF2vD6a1kD7gFjZP-JnBjK286HPXJfyxNK9RgcJvRysn28qDQ2yQA6nXx0L75AIX1gnZTuBxLRUahpGetYfYOYIxIdf6LEkFfNMKZN_R5bUS1Vt7gdDf3QPAecr1KDsU/s1600/IMG_8440.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-v2HiM8X1TMU/VLvbua5mbQI/AAAAAAAANz4/b6CQsgtbmbM/s1600/MVI_8462.MOV" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-v2HiM8X1TMU/VLvbua5mbQI/AAAAAAAANz4/b6CQsgtbmbM/s1600/MVI_8462.MOV" height="223" width="400" /></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Then over to the Pacific Aircraft Museum on Ford Island, a short bus drive away</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_aw7rVa_jJc/VOpR31xtyVI/AAAAAAAAOsw/7H1NtbYJFUc/s1600/IMG_8493.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_aw7rVa_jJc/VOpR31xtyVI/AAAAAAAAOsw/7H1NtbYJFUc/s1600/IMG_8493.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This B-17 was recovered from a swamp in New Guinea</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This a radar mounted on a rig that enables it to be towed by a ship </td></tr>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LTuYgOelpfo/VOpR5J0X00I/AAAAAAAAOtA/Lqv2-dsCU5I/s1600/IMG_8524.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LTuYgOelpfo/VOpR5J0X00I/AAAAAAAAOtA/Lqv2-dsCU5I/s1600/IMG_8524.JPG" height="320" width="240" /></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">After lunch we made our way back to the bus stop.....to be told by a guide on a bike that the bus back to town stopped outside on the main road. In the end we jumped in an enterprising cowboy taxi man's van.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We'd arranged to meet my friend John for beers and pizza; he's a Captain with Air Japan who are an All Nippon subsidiary. He arrived from Tokyo at 0930, slept for a few hours then came to meet us for beer and pizza, early, as he was operating back to Tokyo at lunchtime the next day.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">12-Jan-15</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We called our taxi man from yesterday for a $10 transfer to the airport, checked in and mooched around looking for a nice lounge. </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We found a Qantas lounge but were told it was closed, so ended up in the main JAL/Oneworld lounge.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">There's not great views from the lounge but plenty of noodles and soup. Facing three consecutive 6 hour flights, we were fairly sensible.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The airport is largely open air and it's a nice touch to find a peaceful garden area with four themes. Odd, to find peace in the area between the main terminal and the gates!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Perhaps even odder is the airside entertainment, very sweet!</span></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-KzeLxufHRxU/VOppsMOR6rI/AAAAAAAAOuA/0qKbzpOd-5s/s1600/MVI_8542.MOV" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-KzeLxufHRxU/VOppsMOR6rI/AAAAAAAAOuA/0qKbzpOd-5s/s1600/MVI_8542.MOV" height="480" width="640" /></a></h3>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Starting with an American 757 HNL-LAX, </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">then an American 737-800 LAX-Boston</span><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-dvpXgvgom24/VLvbDtmDEcI/AAAAAAAANzY/ImIrg5FPqv4/s1600/IMG_8592.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-dvpXgvgom24/VLvbDtmDEcI/AAAAAAAANzY/ImIrg5FPqv4/s1600/IMG_8592.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">13-Jan-15</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">followed by a daylight flight back from Boston to Heathrow on a very empty BA 777. Some nice views of Boston as we departed on a 5hr 15min sector</span></div>
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Spongthrushhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15389104896151188372noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2989031597727902524.post-65606801084575625872014-09-05T02:44:00.000-07:002014-09-10T02:46:06.403-07:00Post trip report, 2 months on.....not so impressed with BA Gold now!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">I'm much less happy with BA now. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">As mentioned before, I was really impressed that BA stumped up sufficient ££ to cover most of our actual loss after they lost three of our four bags between T5 and Austin and delivered them with a lot of stuff missing.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">I had had also submitted an online moan (via the Contact form on ba.com) about the 'soft' issues associated with this e.g. my daughter's 16th birthday cards being opened with money/cheques stolen, having to leave someone in our apartment over the first weekend of our hols in case the courier - who was completely incommunicado - decided to deliver our bags and traipsing around US medical facilites replacing missing drugs/items....I wasn't expecting BA to financially compensate for any of this and they didn't. Maybe I made the mistake of suggesting that some sort of Avios compensation was in order!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">This was answered after a month or so and the essence of it was 'sorry, nothing we can or will do'. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">I rang the Gold line to confirm BA's stance before launching into verbal and internet commenting and was essentially told that whilst BA empathised, the policy is not to give Avios for baggage issues, this is immovable and words to the effect of we realise that you have a choice (i.e. poke off if you want to).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">I was happy with the financial attempt to make things right, but we're still worse off compared to the situation if BA had not mishandled the bags and items had not been pilfered. Given BA give out Avios if the IFE is flaky to keep customers happy and loyal, I thought it was likely they'd offer something for the emotional consequences of the baggage faff. I was wrong.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">So, in line with the guidance from the Gold line, as I have a choice, I cancelled a booking next week to Bordeaux with BA and rebooked with easyJet as a start! </span><br />
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Spongthrushhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15389104896151188372noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2989031597727902524.post-78923031962220761322014-08-21T10:44:00.002-07:002014-08-21T10:44:11.278-07:00Post trip report, 6 weeks on....<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I qualified for BA Gold during the family holiday to California by taking a day out from LAX to Las Vegas in American First Class (£115, 60TP each way), the family using an Uber-type credit to get to a shopping mall not far from the hotel.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">BA Gold card arrived very swiftly, in fact it arrived before we arrived home from holiday and was followed 2 weeks later by a BA Silver (previous to the Hawaii trip I was Bronze).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">To be honest, my expectations of Gold status weren't great. In practice, they've been hugely exceeded as the BA Gold line seems to be staffed by people who know what they are doing, are really helpful and empowered to make decisions.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">BA managed to lose 3 of our 4 suitcases on the outbound sector LHR-Austin and 2 were delivered to us in our apartment in Venice Beach 24 hours later and the third arrived on day 4, just as we were checking out to move on. All had been opened using bolt cutters (what's the point of TSA locks?) and stuff was missing. Some of it rather expensive.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I tried the Amex Plat claims procedure and found it not as easy as it perhaps could be, so thought I'd call BA for a moan as it was their fault the bags were delayed and items pilfered. 48hours later, I had £££ to cover the new clothes I had to buy plus the stolen/missing items that we had to replace. Very good!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In addition, I'd booked us using Avios LHR-Chengdu-LHR over Xmas as that was the place to find 4 Club seats, our intention being to get to Bangkok. When 2 seats on BA10, the direct BKK-LHR flight appeared I rang BA to change the booking to 2 Club, 2 economy and the helpful person suggested that as the kids would be 'unhappy' about being down the back perhaps I should use the Gold benefit of using 2x miles for that sector to get them into Club too. I hadn't even realised this was a benefit and we chatted about life and kids and how I'd never been in Club until I was 40something etc. She suggested I watch availability in case 2 more Club seats come up, at which time I could pay the change fee and get the extra Avios back. Very good!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Suitably impressed so far, I'm now wondering what my excuse will be to do it all again. I know, keeping a friend company as a social service. Anyone out there need a companion??</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Meanwhile, I've been watching some old <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCSAswLLEko&list=UUXu01OCqMrELL_LtFfXzymg" target="_blank">youtube videos </a>of trips to the US. They're very childish (like me)....search for metsonij and Groom Lake on youtube.....thanks for reading! </span></div>
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Spongthrushhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15389104896151188372noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2989031597727902524.post-27494685035806320682014-07-11T08:04:00.003-07:002014-07-11T08:24:31.829-07:00Tier Points posted today<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The points seem to have posted already, quite impressive 48 hours later and all looks accurate. Hooray!</span><br />
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<tr><th style="background-color: #3c78c7; border-left-style: none; border-right-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); border-right-style: solid; border-right-width: 1px; color: white; line-height: 1.33333; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;">Transaction date</th><th style="background-color: #3c78c7; border-right-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); border-right-style: solid; border-right-width: 1px; color: white; line-height: 1.33333; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;">Posted date</th><th style="background-color: #3c78c7; border-right-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); border-right-style: solid; border-right-width: 1px; color: white; line-height: 1.33333; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;">Description</th><th style="background-color: #3c78c7; border-right-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); border-right-style: solid; border-right-width: 1px; color: white; line-height: 1.33333; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;">Tier Points</th><th style="background-color: #3c78c7; border-right-style: none; color: white; line-height: 1.33333; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;">Avios</th></tr>
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<tr><td id="resultRow0Col0" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-left-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;">09-Jul-14</td><td class="nowrap" id="resultRow0Col1" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top; white-space: nowrap;">11-Jul-14</td><td id="resultRow0Col2" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;">AMSTERDAM - LONDON HEATHROW (M/N)<br />
BA443(Booking ref: 7X....)</td><td id="resultRow0Col3" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;">10</td><td id="resultRow0Col4" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;">500</td></tr>
<tr><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-left-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;"></td><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;"></td><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;">Tier Bonus</td><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;">0</td><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;">125</td></tr>
<tr><td id="resultRow1Col0" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-left-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;">09-Jul-14</td><td class="nowrap" id="resultRow1Col1" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top; white-space: nowrap;">11-Jul-14</td><td id="resultRow1Col2" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;">LONDON CITY AIRPORT - AMSTERDAM (C/J)<br />
BA8455(Operated by: BA CityFlyer)(Booking ref: 6GL...)</td><td id="resultRow1Col3" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;">40</td><td id="resultRow1Col4" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;">500</td></tr>
<tr><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-left-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;"></td><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;"></td><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;">Cabin Bonus</td><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;">0</td><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;">250</td></tr>
<tr><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-left-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;"></td><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;"></td><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;">Tier Bonus</td><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;">0</td><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;">125</td></tr>
<tr><td id="resultRow2Col0" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-left-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;">08-Jul-14</td><td class="nowrap" id="resultRow2Col1" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top; white-space: nowrap;">10-Jul-14</td><td id="resultRow2Col2" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;">NEW YORK-JOHN F KENNEDY - LONDON CITY AIRPORT (J/R)<br />
BA4(Booking ref: 6GL...)</td><td id="resultRow2Col3" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;">210</td><td id="resultRow2Col4" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;">3,461</td></tr>
<tr><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-left-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;"></td><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;"></td><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;">Cabin Bonus</td><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;">0</td><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;">3,461</td></tr>
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<tr><td id="resultRow3Col0" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-left-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;">08-Jul-14</td><td class="nowrap" id="resultRow3Col1" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top; white-space: nowrap;">10-Jul-14</td><td id="resultRow3Col2" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;">PHOENIX - NEW YORK-JOHN F KENNEDY (F/A)<br />
AA425(Operated by: American Airlines)(Booking ref: HXV...)</td><td id="resultRow3Col3" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;">210</td><td id="resultRow3Col4" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;">2,155</td></tr>
<tr><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-left-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;"></td><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;"></td><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;">Cabin Bonus</td><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;">0</td><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;">1,078</td></tr>
<tr><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-left-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;"></td><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;"></td><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;">Tier Bonus</td><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;">0</td><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;">539</td></tr>
<tr><td id="resultRow4Col0" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-left-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;">07-Jul-14</td><td class="nowrap" id="resultRow4Col1" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top; white-space: nowrap;">10-Jul-14</td><td id="resultRow4Col2" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;">HONOLULU - PHOENIX (F/A)<br />
AA693(Operated by: American Airlines)(Booking ref: HXV...)</td><td id="resultRow4Col3" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;">210</td><td id="resultRow4Col4" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;">2,916</td></tr>
<tr><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-left-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;"></td><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;"></td><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;">Cabin Bonus</td><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;">0</td><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;">1,458</td></tr>
<tr><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-left-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;"></td><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;"></td><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;">Tier Bonus</td><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;">0</td><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;">729</td></tr>
<tr><td id="resultRow5Col0" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-left-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;">05-Jul-14</td><td class="nowrap" id="resultRow5Col1" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top; white-space: nowrap;">08-Jul-14</td><td id="resultRow5Col2" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;">NEW YORK-JOHN F KENNEDY - PHOENIX (F/A)<br />
AA679(Operated by: American Airlines)(Booking ref: HXV...)</td><td id="resultRow5Col3" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;">210</td><td id="resultRow5Col4" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;">2,155</td></tr>
<tr><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-left-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;"></td><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;"></td><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;">Cabin Bonus</td><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;">0</td><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;">1,078</td></tr>
<tr><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-left-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;"></td><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;"></td><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;">Tier Bonus</td><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;">0</td><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;">539</td></tr>
<tr><td id="resultRow6Col0" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-left-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;">05-Jul-14</td><td class="nowrap" id="resultRow6Col1" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top; white-space: nowrap;">08-Jul-14</td><td id="resultRow6Col2" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;">PHOENIX - HONOLULU (F/A)<br />
AA694(Operated by: American Airlines)(Booking ref: HXV...)</td><td id="resultRow6Col3" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;">210</td><td id="resultRow6Col4" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;">2,916</td></tr>
<tr><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-left-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;"></td><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;"></td><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;">Cabin Bonus</td><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;">0</td><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;">1,458</td></tr>
<tr><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-left-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;"></td><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;"></td><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;">Tier Bonus</td><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;">0</td><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;">729</td></tr>
<tr><td id="resultRow7Col0" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-left-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;">04-Jul-14</td><td class="nowrap" id="resultRow7Col1" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top; white-space: nowrap;">06-Jul-14</td><td id="resultRow7Col2" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;">LONDON CITY AIRPORT - NEW YORK-JOHN F KENNEDY (J/R)<br />
BA3(Booking ref: 6GL....)</td><td id="resultRow7Col3" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;">210</td><td id="resultRow7Col4" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;">3,461</td></tr>
<tr><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-left-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;"></td><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;"></td><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;">Cabin Bonus</td><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;">0</td><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;">3,461</td></tr>
<tr><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-left-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;"></td><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;"></td><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;">Tier Bonus</td><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;">0</td><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;">865</td></tr>
<tr><td id="resultRow8Col0" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-left-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;">04-Jul-14</td><td class="nowrap" id="resultRow8Col1" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top; white-space: nowrap;">05-Jul-14</td><td id="resultRow8Col2" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;">BRUSSELS AIRPORT - LONDON HEATHROW (C/J)<br />
BA393(Booking ref: 6GL....)</td><td id="resultRow8Col3" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;">40</td><td id="resultRow8Col4" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;">500</td></tr>
<tr><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-left-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;"></td><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;"></td><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;">Cabin Bonus</td><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;">0</td><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;">250</td></tr>
<tr><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-left-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;"></td><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;"></td><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;">Tier Bonus</td><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;">0</td><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;">125</td></tr>
<tr><td id="resultRow9Col0" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-left-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;">04-Jul-14</td><td class="nowrap" id="resultRow9Col1" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top; white-space: nowrap;">05-Jul-14</td><td id="resultRow9Col2" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;">LONDON HEATHROW - BRUSSELS AIRPORT (C/U)<br />
BA388(Booking ref: 6HE...)</td><td id="resultRow9Col3" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;">40</td><td id="resultRow9Col4" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;">500</td></tr>
<tr><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-left-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;"></td><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;"></td><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;">Cabin Bonus</td><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;">0</td><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;">250</td></tr>
<tr><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-left-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;"></td><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;"></td><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;">Tier Bonus</td><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;">0</td><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;">125</td></tr>
<tr class="highlight"><td colspan="3" id="totalLbl" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 187); border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 5px; border-left-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-left-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid; font-weight: bold; padding: 10px; text-align: right; vertical-align: top;">Total:</td><td id="totalPoints" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 187); border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 5px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid none; font-weight: bold; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;">1,390</td><td id="totalMiles" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 187); border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-bottom-width: 5px; border-right-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid none; font-weight: bold; padding: 10px; vertical-align: top;">36,574</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br /><div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">So it really did work as advertised, albeit with a little patience and need for deep breathing when told I no-showed at BRU so my whole itinerary had been deleted.</span></div>
<div>
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<div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Thanks to all at FlyerTalk, Raffles and <a href="http://www.headforpoints.com/">www.headforpoints.com</a> for the help in getting me nearly to Gold in one trip. Now I just have to explain to the family that I'll be disappearing for a few hours during the family hol to California in a few weeks to do a swift LAX-LAS-LAX trip in F to get the remaining points needed......</span></div>
</div>
Spongthrushhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15389104896151188372noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2989031597727902524.post-22073807250861654022014-07-09T10:43:00.002-07:002014-07-11T08:20:19.825-07:00BA443 AMS2110-LHR2110 Economy!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Typical European internet, Schipol Airport gives you 2x 30min free and then requires that you upgrade to premium. This is really annoying. Before it dropped out though, I find that 24 is actually 12 episodes so I have three more to watch, not one. This makes sense as when in Whitehall a few weeks ago, there was filming going on and Mrs Metty enquired what it was all about....she was told it was a 'Spooks' thing, but I bet it was actually 24, as I had been musing that the number of '14' vehicle reg plates must mean it's fairly recently shot.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Anyhow, on to the last flight and the last row of economy on the 'rusty pigeon' (Olympic dove) colour schemed A319 to Heathrow.</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQvA2usReAr4SLhX95__6JbjloLWtN3F2dReAYYotVkS4DcrtmDfLpGMWQQEmC-vCSZ_g96kxvBdxKuHSQi6ntytrpwINiiHloswjsx_a72AyGEnahR28jOBsjgol3ZD7uubGTZ023pXt7/s1600/IMG_1922.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQvA2usReAr4SLhX95__6JbjloLWtN3F2dReAYYotVkS4DcrtmDfLpGMWQQEmC-vCSZ_g96kxvBdxKuHSQi6ntytrpwINiiHloswjsx_a72AyGEnahR28jOBsjgol3ZD7uubGTZ023pXt7/s1600/IMG_1922.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Arrived on a remote stand so the bus had to wait for me. And so to home, safe and sound, except I had completely forgotten which floor of the car park I'd left the Cube on. The vehicle plate guidance system was u/s. So a little exercise followed.</span>
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Spongthrushhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15389104896151188372noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2989031597727902524.post-50043243657067143012014-07-09T10:40:00.001-07:002014-07-11T08:09:46.800-07:00BA8455 LCY1530-AMS1730<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-L5ZZvaeIwcA/U77CzJRIivI/AAAAAAAAK5k/6rNciy96KOY/s1600/IMG_7206.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-L5ZZvaeIwcA/U77CzJRIivI/AAAAAAAAK5k/6rNciy96KOY/s1600/IMG_7206.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Excel in the background</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The next flight is an Embraer 170 and it was almost full although I had a spare seat next to me. No, there wasn't a smellometer operating and yes I only took 2 pairs of underwear and socks on the trip but in my defence I did buy 2 new shirts and was wearing trunks, shorts, whatever they are called, in Hawaii. And I have had 3 showers in between Honolulu and here.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTK7q_SXFb6YRU0oaiqQkJI1wCsiXSXY4ercKPntZ-pPn8IHKXS2e9FiCTdbGj6joFUSFXjsiRoFz-3ICgblnqve4wF4MGQB9EJs1R9KPle-I_T3Fjhmr7lfBG6ktF9BupcFKS0uxFa-UR/s1600/IMG_7207.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTK7q_SXFb6YRU0oaiqQkJI1wCsiXSXY4ercKPntZ-pPn8IHKXS2e9FiCTdbGj6joFUSFXjsiRoFz-3ICgblnqve4wF4MGQB9EJs1R9KPle-I_T3Fjhmr7lfBG6ktF9BupcFKS0uxFa-UR/s1600/IMG_7207.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The food was the nicest of the whole trip. It was a bit like a BA cream tea combined with a main and proper lettuce. Do things like lettuce actually grow in the US or, because there's no way of modifying it, wrapping it or processing it to 'add value' is it just too simple to be sold or put on a plane?</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-S8lfIT_Phbc/U77CyjM68vI/AAAAAAAAK5s/RoToclLfDR0/s1600/IMG_7209.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-S8lfIT_Phbc/U77CyjM68vI/AAAAAAAAK5s/RoToclLfDR0/s1600/IMG_7209.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The weather in AMS is grey and overcast so that's my excuse to stay airside and check that I can just arrive into the terminal on my flight from City and wander around for a couple of hours watching excited cloggie World Cup fans (it's Semi Final tonight) in the bars before going to the gate for my Heathrow flight.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I can't see why a same plane turnround wouldn't work, but after my Brussels experience I don't think I'll risk it myself in case there's ticketing issues. Fine if you already have a boarding pass....just that most of the time I couldn't get more than one.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I have felt so much worse after normal trips, never mind 3 long haul sectors, 6 hours in the East End then a short haul. But I'm not home yet...let's see how the M3 goes later.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I have one more episode of series 9 of '24' to watch, I've quite enjoyed it as it's based in London this series. My New York taxi companion earlier suggested that 'The Fall' is good.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Tot seens as they say...</span></div>
Spongthrushhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15389104896151188372noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2989031597727902524.post-20107672403918305772014-07-08T17:49:00.001-07:002014-07-11T08:32:25.852-07:00Radisson Blu BA London City arrivals facility<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Because there's no posh lounge at the airport, BA use the <a href="http://www.radissonblu-edwardian.com/offers/4327279/" target="_blank">Radisson Blu</a> close to the airport. It may be close but the BA transfer by taxi took 30-40 mins as the driver had never done the trip before; I wasn't too worried at the scenic tour of some untouched parts of the East End and a journey down each bore of the Blackwall Tunnel, but my taxi companion just wanted a shower before going to the office. Poor driver seemed a bit upset but I have to admit I didn't know where the hotel was, I know the area reasonably well and it was poorly signed. Plus the satnav to the postcode sent by the company took him the other side of the river near the O2.</span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwylO-ES-ZjTX2ghtpaE2rIcdfDgUQaiTnQMovoaMrBC5URtM09T6Zl4GzF3Y0uyLItsx0K3mHfpBxNbKgahlC2ynKQNcvbR601kC8MYbK-RAPuDLsJ-c1nX8HRnbo_1CBv1UR4QrebFqr/s1600/IMG_7204.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwylO-ES-ZjTX2ghtpaE2rIcdfDgUQaiTnQMovoaMrBC5URtM09T6Zl4GzF3Y0uyLItsx0K3mHfpBxNbKgahlC2ynKQNcvbR601kC8MYbK-RAPuDLsJ-c1nX8HRnbo_1CBv1UR4QrebFqr/s1600/IMG_7204.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">It's in here, behind the Ibis</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-gxGWj-F4DP8/U77EHix0dzI/AAAAAAAAK6g/KAl83VMGytg/s1600/IMG_7205.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-gxGWj-F4DP8/U77EHix0dzI/AAAAAAAAK6g/KAl83VMGytg/s1600/IMG_7205.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">...and a clearer view from Blackwall DLR station</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We were shown to the East SIde Spa and a private treatment room and shower that I was told I could stay in all day, which would have been nice - apart from the risk of sleeping until tomorrow - but as ATC colleague from City was going to meet me after his shift, I wouldn't be staying long. As Mrs Metty likes a spa, I took a price list as if the JFK-LCY flights come up as reward flights, this would be a nice end to the journey. And there's a discount for BA pax, although I forgot to ask what that is.</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0yUO4iGFcIV7LYg7xfA2eA-NB3IttgKXqd4Oi7-JI7t47hJlXA05UlGr-gyQZP48_HYS3OMAr1lPmZB7baTX-L4hcRbTnpe5I8LdUU8SSvj_7DECNH8FnJPPJJ_ZPig7atu5QitnnAqq1/s1600/IMG_7201.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0yUO4iGFcIV7LYg7xfA2eA-NB3IttgKXqd4Oi7-JI7t47hJlXA05UlGr-gyQZP48_HYS3OMAr1lPmZB7baTX-L4hcRbTnpe5I8LdUU8SSvj_7DECNH8FnJPPJJ_ZPig7atu5QitnnAqq1/s1600/IMG_7201.JPG" height="640" width="480" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I chatted to the concierge about my trip; whilst trying to comprehend why I was flying later from City to Amsterdam to then fly to Heathrow, he was interested and helpful, employee of the month, a credit to Radisson! After showering, breakfast is available but as I'd already had 2 US Airways breakfasts and 2 BA breakfasts, I declined in favour of a coffee and hung out in the bar until my friend arrived. </span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/--Awe59nSaf8/U77DwN7CGJI/AAAAAAAAK6M/9OfHo6FdYt8/s1600/IMG_7203.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/--Awe59nSaf8/U77DwN7CGJI/AAAAAAAAK6M/9OfHo6FdYt8/s1600/IMG_7203.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The spa's relaxation room overlooking the Thames and the O2 across the river</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Later I made my way back on the DLR to London City. Although the Daily Mail readers are probably in a frenzy and camping out at the airport the day before their flight due to the reported travel chaos caused by enhanced screening, I have noticed little that's different to normal (apart from having my possessions examined at JFK of course!) </span></div>
Spongthrushhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15389104896151188372noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2989031597727902524.post-13153643295124923102014-07-08T17:17:00.000-07:002014-07-11T08:46:49.536-07:00BA4 JFK2145-LCY1000<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Well no trouble having a human check me in at JFK. Having googled people being secondarily inspected, I am curious to see whether the code letters on my boarding pass are going to lead to an invitation upon leaving the country. I won't upload a pic here as NASA870 the Predator drone may get excited, assuming that it's still got eyes on me.</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0cFmUqLvfcA/U7yJuU_fp4I/AAAAAAAAK4U/LJkjE8pWY-w/s1600/IMG_7189.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0cFmUqLvfcA/U7yJuU_fp4I/AAAAAAAAK4U/LJkjE8pWY-w/s1600/IMG_7189.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">No it's not Grandma's living room, it's where I've taken up residence in the BA lounge at JFK. It seems very busy, but as the 747s start departing for LHR I guess it'll thin out. </span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-4crZBoHMc5E/U7yPM6SZCfI/AAAAAAAAK4k/mWMJLXfj9xA/s1600/9+Jul+2014+01:39:00.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-4crZBoHMc5E/U7yPM6SZCfI/AAAAAAAAK4k/mWMJLXfj9xA/s1600/9+Jul+2014+01:39:00.jpg" height="480" width="640" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">It has thinned out, been for a nice shower. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Reflections so far</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I love the Pacific Islands, understand completely why some friends go to Raro for their winters, not that I've been, yet. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Why don't Americans let people in from side roads when driving? Bit like mainland Europeans and queueing....it just doesn't feature in the thinking? Or are we just brought up to be deferential and humble and giving and helpful?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Fuel at $4.35 in Hawaii....no wonder they drive small cars...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Wifi everywhere with no stupid catch you then spam you clauses...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Nobody engaged me in elongated chat on planes, unwillingly at least. Maybe it's just that in the pointy end you're not in someone else's personal space. Or maybe I looked unfriendly</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The people side of US Airways service was great. Sam Adams cans are nice. 757s First Class seats are poor.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I know this is an indulgence that's cost me my West Ham season ticket and a bit more, but it's actually not too difficult. Everything has worked in the end, if a little stressful at times. And as travel is exciting, if I'm with someone else, I naturally drink too much. Not drinking makes it *much* easier.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Nobody has said 'have a nice day!' and even the New Yorkers were lovely. Hallelujah, sincerity.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Selfie on the A318, another free seat next to me, so I won't be waking anyone with my snoring! Food wasn't very exciting, I'll spare you another meal photo, I guess the idea is to eat in the lounge before departure.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Only 16ish passengers tonight and a quick trip home 6hr</span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> 8min</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Taxying in at City, my mate Dorian in the TWR. Our early arrival had 'caught them out' according to a PA from Capt Speaking....not sure what he expects anyone to do, there's only so many stands here and they are all full....there was a plan to tow us along the taxiway and wait as our tail was hanging over the runway....but we parked within a few minutes.</span></div>
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Spongthrushhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15389104896151188372noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2989031597727902524.post-48596410936132067522014-07-08T17:08:00.000-07:002014-07-11T08:36:03.774-07:00US678 PHX0845-JFK1645<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">A brief sojourn in the Admirals Club lounge to recharge my batteries and noticing the BA announcement about keeping your electronic goods batteries charged or they won't be flying. I've had no interest in my electronics all trip.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The Airbus 321 on this flight is the 7000th Airbus built. Better than the 757 on the previous sector, the seat doesn't squeak and it has wifi.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I chatted to my daughter on Facebook during the flight using my pre-purchased gogo internet pass; nothing out of the ordinary happened. Everyone fairly jolly and it was only 4 hours 8 minutes. I am beginning to think that all US Airways pilots are staunch Republicans or the starts and stripes ties (of which there seem to be more than one version) are company issue. Each to his own I suppose. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I try on my HNL airport purchase T-shirt upon arrival at JFK. </span></div>
Spongthrushhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15389104896151188372noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2989031597727902524.post-58676141256983283432014-07-08T17:01:00.003-07:002014-07-11T08:40:15.644-07:00US693 HNL2215-PHX0730<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I turned up at the airport way too early, I couldn't self-check in as 'there are greater than 3 segments in your itinerary' so I had to wait until the US Airways folks pitched up to check me in manually. There are no food and drink outlets, apart from a Starbucks, landside. All the food and drink is airside. I amused myself by trying to check in with a human at American, suggesting that they were all one company. 'Not until March next year' was the response and I was sent away to observe some cross people trying to get the US Airways desk staff to come out of the office early.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">They were fighting off a few people slightly fed up that the other Phoenix flight had been cancelled, thank goodness mine was operating. The lounge was ok. T5 Galleries still the best (well apart from the Concorde Lounge in T5 of course).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Little to report from the flight, I vaguely remember taxying but seemed to fall asleep vertically, awaking in time for a strange breakfast and 2 glasses of wine. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">This flight is notable only because I asked hostie to snag my seat as 2A squeaked every time I moved, keeping, presumably, others around me awake. And as I'd read somewhere, the 757 seats feel like they've shined with some slippery polish that means that gravity tries to make you slip forward. So to those who have trouble sleeping in them, I understand why.</span></div>
Spongthrushhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15389104896151188372noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2989031597727902524.post-71742135425164241662014-07-08T12:31:00.000-07:002014-07-11T08:43:24.665-07:00Pearl Harbor<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Woke up early due to excessive aircraft noise, I guess my first night being a Saturday of a holiday weekend, there weren't many nocturnal cargo flights. The FedEx Cessna Caravan fleet didn't move. Last night it was Sunday; apart from the FedExes, the Aloha and other noisy Boeing 737-200s were off delivering the Sunday papers to neighbouring islands.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I could smell beer; it was then that I remembered that I'd put my 2 remaining bottles of Third Shift in the freezer last night before I expired. Why I did that, I don't know, as I was never going to drink 6 in one evening. Anyway, there was a sort of beer slush puppie mess to sort out. Oops.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">So, my last 12 hours in Hawai'i - I thought I'd better spell it right once - and I have survived the US Customs and Border protection, the mystery of Oneworld and missing flights, Hurricane Arthur and <a href="https://www.britishairways.com/travel/flightops/execclub/_gf/en_gb?p_faqid=5047&openxzoneid=647&openxcampaign=2129&openxbanner=15699&openxtype=click" target="_blank">the new security regulations for US bound electronic devices</a>. So far so good.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Having cleaned up the slush I thought I'd best check my homebound reservation and see if I could check in for the first flight at least. No, I can't check in online and the US Airways app won't allow me either. I have a look at ba.com and aa.com to find that, surprise, surprise, my JFK-London City leg is missing on both. But curiously the London City-Amsterdam sector is there. No point worrying that US Airways only shows me getting as far as JFK, it always did.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I try 1-800-AIRWAYS from the room phone...'callers are waiting for an excess of 1 hour'....then try skypeing the UK Executive Club number. Same. I try ringing aa.com, prepared with a list of PNRs and my ticket number. I actually spoke to a helpful human who told me not to worry, 20 minutes later, actually sorted it out and BA4 shows in my aa.com itinerary at least. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">So off to the <a href="http://www.pacificaviationmuseum.org/" target="_blank">Pacific Aircraft Museum</a> which is on Ford Island in Pearl Harbor.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">A nice lady from Alabama asked if I would take her family's photo so I asked her to take a photo of me and mine. The car park was one of those entertaining observational things for a European used to the idea of park and walk (park and ride being available when you have to park 2-3 miles away from where you want to be); there was a fair amount of car park anger brewing as the spaces were a 10min walk away and people seemed to think that a shuttle bus should be provided instead of legs.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Because it's an active naval base, no photos or video or selfies once on the shuttle bus that takes you to the sights. Shame as the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Ronald_Reagan_(CVN-76)" target="_blank">USS Ronald Reagan</a> was just being tugged away from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Peleliu_(LHA-5)" target="_blank">USS Pelieu</a> with jolly jack tars manning the rails. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Apparently, this is one of the actual Zeros that attacked Pearl Harbor.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Ye olde Control Tower and the Hawaiian flag, not surprisingly, the only time the Union Flag appears in a US state flag. July 31st is Hawaiian Flag Day....can't say I saw as many of these as I did US flags, maybe due to the sheer volume of military on the island.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">A Raytheon testbed outside the hangars in the static display. Not sure why it's here, maybe a radar test connection with Pearl Harbor. Rather than hang around, I had this romantic notion that I'd be able to get close to the Ronald Reagan as she left port at the end of Lagoon Drive close to the rotation point of 08R (the 'Reef' runway) departures.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Well it's a way off but she sailed out of the channel</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">An hour or two later, all the F-18s departed from Hickam, presumably to their home on the carrier, about 20 in total.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-palJwxd0ZMU/U7wIgCMeQtI/AAAAAAAAKyM/lI0XkP8NYJ4/s1600/IMG_7176.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-palJwxd0ZMU/U7wIgCMeQtI/AAAAAAAAKyM/lI0XkP8NYJ4/s1600/IMG_7176.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Why do I take photos of flowers when on hols?...</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Learjet that's part of the exercise</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">locals doing a 'St Maarten'. Ish.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">There's two US Airways flights to Phoenix tonight. One is cancelled, luckily it's not mine, :). Out of interest I replay a couple of hours from my time at the end of the runway and notice that NASA appear to have a role watching over us from above, which made me start thinking about the security measures that must go with the carriers....presumably subs and drones overhead. NASA drone showing on FR24 over the Ronald in plane sight at FL225 is presumably testing or researching something (new payload?); although it is widely googlable as being involved in Project Ikhana - research into forest fires - clearly there won't be any over the sea and it seems to have had an upgrade since then. N.B. any active duty military drone that's up there too will not show on FR24.</span><br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-gkKhb3yznPw/U7yEkhIbPoI/AAAAAAAAK38/kvaG72Ya5dU/s1600/NASA870.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-gkKhb3yznPw/U7yEkhIbPoI/AAAAAAAAK38/kvaG72Ya5dU/s1600/NASA870.jpg" height="332" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; text-align: left;">Here's what NASA870</span><a href="http://he.flightaware.com/photos/view/790555-51452da7ea2780a345d25dccbba5f05e39601390/aircrafttype/MQ9/sort/votes/page/1" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; text-align: left;" target="_blank"> looks like</a><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"> and what a stock MQ-9B <a href="http://defense-update.com/products/p/predatorB.htm" target="_blank">looks like</a></span></div>
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Spongthrushhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15389104896151188372noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2989031597727902524.post-63506471230330638512014-07-07T14:26:00.002-07:002014-07-11T08:48:15.912-07:00Oahu<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I woke up before dawn and watched the goings on at the airport; I find it slightly odd that you can monitor all the ATC frequencies using liveatc.net, especially at a major base such as HNL.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlgEAd1MEM_4KTBB8_VoxIvM5A7TuFM2xcq_5Ulm3NHZwon58S1xy3VjQUZhv0Z6rGRVJr8-002-RLOyPY-0Qp27ag9f3kCbsvjonz7QbOtSbN4CdUZO5hEYMVEu05BXF5QZ2GO9mUut7W/s1600/liveatc.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlgEAd1MEM_4KTBB8_VoxIvM5A7TuFM2xcq_5Ulm3NHZwon58S1xy3VjQUZhv0Z6rGRVJr8-002-RLOyPY-0Qp27ag9f3kCbsvjonz7QbOtSbN4CdUZO5hEYMVEu05BXF5QZ2GO9mUut7W/s1600/liveatc.jpg" height="320" width="296" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Without much of a plan, I set off for a drive around Oahu, starting at the aircraft museum at Kolopea airport, the former Barbers Point base. It was well and truly closed.</span><br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-i_k2t8UNBwA/U7sOmkyT0aI/AAAAAAAAKm8/AYNw1HHJgww/s1600/IMG_7055.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-i_k2t8UNBwA/U7sOmkyT0aI/AAAAAAAAKm8/AYNw1HHJgww/s1600/IMG_7055.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">So I then set course for the farthest corner of Oahu and ended up at Dillingham where there's a nice beach</span><br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OG64KFA6xUs/U7sN8crMDAI/AAAAAAAAKmE/AjGu7r1wjLQ/s1600/IMG_7057.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OG64KFA6xUs/U7sN8crMDAI/AAAAAAAAKmE/AjGu7r1wjLQ/s1600/IMG_7057.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A Cube....looks like someone's nicked the wheel trims though...</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">North Shore was rather pretty, if full of Asian types dutifully queuing for Sunday lunch at the toursity places. The beaches, surf shops and macrobiotic vegan stores were more interesting and it had a nice vibe. Out of hours it must be beautiful; Oahu on the whole probably isn't anywhere you could describe as beautiful, but as with the other Hawaiian islands, I love it. It's the geography for me, the rain over the volcanoes and the sun at the shore, so many micro climates!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">On the east coast there's a national park where you can see the Kaneoehe Marine Corps base in the distance and many of the aircraft participating in RIMPAC. Lots of P-3 Orions here, Canadian, Japanese and no doubt US ones with false serials that have mid air collisions with Chinese QRA aircraft.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">And one more pretty flower....actually this is out of focus....replace....</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Then back to the room with some beers and a strange garlic chicken meal for the microwave as although Waikiki is not far away, it's busy and parking looked a problem.</span></div>
Spongthrushhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15389104896151188372noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2989031597727902524.post-38485865582502441712014-07-06T11:36:00.001-07:002014-07-11T08:50:36.518-07:00US694 PHX1330-HNL1740<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Phoenix, Valley of the Sun, was fairly warm at 100F.</span><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-2JqnPugtukE/U7j_ufN8haI/AAAAAAAAKiQ/jFBdlCw2jI0/s1600/IMG_7039.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-2JqnPugtukE/U7j_ufN8haI/AAAAAAAAKiQ/jFBdlCw2jI0/s1600/IMG_7039.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The Admirals Club lounge is on the mezzanine level above the moderate chaos of the concourse below. It looks like you only get in the lounge with status, not just because you are travelling First. So the Cathay Pacific Gold card - which equates to BA Silver and OneWorld Sapphire was the entry ticket. I could be wrong. Plenty of plugs and charging points, a bag of nuts, some water and the World Cup is on the TV, so watched the first 20mins of Netherlands vs Costa Rica. Of the few people that I have talked to, Costa Rica has been recommended, especially a Danish guy whose father had a property there. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The flight to Honolulu on this 25 year old Boeing 757 was delayed in boarding because... the aircraft was too hot inside. They had been working on the aircon for an hour to no avail. When we did board, this was at the whim of the gate agent who received a bo**ocking from Shelley, our First hostie for this trip, as it was still 88F down the back and that was violating some new health and safety regulation. But at least we were ready to go!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Or so we thought. One of the escape slides was showing as u/s when we closed the doors, that delayed us another 30min while the mechanics fixed it by cleaning dirt and dust out of the door. A common problem according to a white haired grumpy old man. No, not me, Captain Speaking.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-uBt6ha2qr_WxFL9EgH892-95X1b6mIGomCcyfVJHWR6WeoREnDVVJU3Qjarju15zm2XnZ1xWSbLePbVZZTOekj1uJHTQ0C30BFLZcuZFIgh4SQUkto2uyFozoLfuhxVGWSsPE7VvRbVS/s1600/IMG_7040.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-uBt6ha2qr_WxFL9EgH892-95X1b6mIGomCcyfVJHWR6WeoREnDVVJU3Qjarju15zm2XnZ1xWSbLePbVZZTOekj1uJHTQ0C30BFLZcuZFIgh4SQUkto2uyFozoLfuhxVGWSsPE7VvRbVS/s1600/IMG_7040.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">There's 4 rows of 2:2 seats in the forward section of the 757. Today, only 6 customers. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Soon after we passed over Los Angeles heading out over the Pacific, there was a 'is there a physician on board?' PA request. I briefly thought about volunteering my A Level Physics knowledge before remembering that Lizzie seems to be able to do her GCSE science papers better than me. There's a 4-5 yo girl who's not well in 14A; I'm wondering whether we press on or divert back....we press on....</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">CBs over Palm Springs</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">US Airways 'premium' beverage and snacks with a list of additives so long it fills the whole reverse of the packet</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The seats aren't very comfy and seat pitch isn't great by today's standards but it's (a) way better than being down the back and (b) the US Airways service is good. No hiding away in the galley or going for a kip, they keep on coming with the drinks, nibbles and asking if Mr Metty is ok. On this one, the only thing wrong was that I was - very unusually - freezing cold, I guess a factor of the a/c issues. So I ended the flight wrapped in blankets, nodded off and woke up as we broke cloud for Honolulu.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Short final for 08L at Honolulu; Hickam AFB is a segregated area of the same airport, sharing the runways with Pearl Harbor top left.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">A few additional aircraft here for the<a href="http://www.cpf.navy.mil/rimpac/2014/participants/" target="_blank"> RIMPAC</a> exercise.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Medics met the aircraft, the girl was whisked off and I went off to pick up the car from Dollar and drove the 100m to the Best Western, where I asked politely for a nice airport view room, got a furrowed brow, then an upgrade to rm1120 which is the only one left with a view. Of the airport of course.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">As I'd emailed <a href="http://dating-relationships.top5.com/dr-emily-morse%E2%80%99s-top-5-tips-for-having-a-successful-first-date/" target="_blank">Dr Emily Morse</a> from the aircraft on the way over with some feedback on her podcast - it keeps me amused while at work and she talks a lot but it's sense - I was delighted to get a reply! </span></div>
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Spongthrushhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15389104896151188372noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2989031597727902524.post-82864937071332000392014-07-06T00:48:00.000-07:002014-07-11T08:52:01.052-07:00US679 JFK1045-PHX1232<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">A full A321 for the trip to Phoenix. First Class on US Airways is brilliant for the 210 Tier Points but nothing like the lie flat pampering of Club World on BA or the even better (I think) American business class product on the new Boeing 777s and A321s (140 Tier Points). Rosie the charming, experienced hostie in charge of the First cabin introduced herself the old fashioned way, no PA, just talking to all of us at once. Very quaint.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We have wifi at a cost, worthwhile as I could do domestic stuff, ebay etc, that never seems to get done at home. I must type up my Tesco Clubcard accounts into an Excel spreadsheet on the next sector so I can dispose of the list in case I get snagged on the way home!! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The food and drink - everyone is drinking quite a lot, far more than me and my 2 cans of Sam Adams - is good, even if they made a drama out of choosing your choice of chicken or pasta main meal. Starting from the back then working forward on westbound services which is row 4, there's only 16 First Class seats, but even so row 1 had no choice. In the end, the chicken looked like this (beef)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The in flight wifi worked perfectly, so I caught up on various things, resolving issues with ebay buyers via chat sessions and watching our progress on FlightRadar24.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">All things considered, a reasonably pleasant flight and we arrived in Phoenix a little early.</span>
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Spongthrushhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15389104896151188372noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2989031597727902524.post-77014381872658493762014-07-05T06:20:00.001-07:002014-07-11T08:52:52.051-07:00Admirals Club near gate 40 at JFK<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In the aftermath of Hurricane Arthur it's a beautiful blue sky and cool (NY standards) summer day.</span></div>
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The Days Inn bus, which collects from the Hotel Shuttle stop on the AirTrain actually drops you at the correct terminal. In my case, Terminal 8. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Security is fairly quiet and I pottered to the Admirals Club lounge to see what I need to produce to get in. I'm not sure whether a First Class ticket is enough....apparently not...nor is BA Bronze, or Priority Pass, but Cathay Gold did the trick. Natalie suggested that I went to the other Admirals Club closer to the gate, gave me two drinks vouchers and smiled. I then asked why New Yorkers seemed so happy today - I've been smiled at, called 'hun', 'darling' and 'sweetie' already - she seemed to think this was very funny and said she was happy because she's off home in 20 minutes.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The lounge is almost deserted, a few plastic pastries and juice available and there's free wifi.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Please, Europe, do not start shrink-wrapping apples! I expect they've already been sprayed with pesticides too...</span></div>
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Spongthrushhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15389104896151188372noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2989031597727902524.post-58028095481956832382014-07-04T21:46:00.003-07:002014-07-11T08:56:38.248-07:00Arrival at JFK<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">As we taxi to the gate at JFK, I'm thinking that although today seems a bit nuts, at least I've had a nice sleep, been comfortable and had spare seats by me, so I haven't needed to chat to people who think that because I'm British I may know their Aunt Morag in Dundee. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In the 80s I remember ending up JFK absoultely shattered after a standby trip with American Transair on a TriStar. We turned up at Gatwick to find we were actually routing Gatiwck-Milan-Paris-JFK and even then we may have needed a tech stop in Bangor or Gander. Economy class in the 80s with no entertainent....but I was younger. Anyway, on arrival at JFK, there's always a queue.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Except today, there wasn't! Straight to immigration, yippee, I do all the fingers and thumbs and photos and the nice guy draws an ominous looking yellow line across my customs form and asks me to follow him.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">After 10 mins wait, another immigration officer calls me to his desk for a chat, he can't see anything wrong with my ESTA. He mentioned the several trips to the UAE, perhaps understandably that's one trigger. Off I go, only for the nice customs people to do some 'secondary screening'. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">This took about 20 mins, they'd apparently never heard of Tier Points runs (the immigration guy was fairly clued up...he said he'd had several people doing same day turnrounds in Hawaii never mind 2 days like me)...I had a gathering of 4 people in the end, half of whom were doing the actual inspection of my travelling life and Calvins while the others asked about Air Traffic Control matters. Now New Yorkers can be a little brusque at times; these guys were very chatty and quite OK.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">When one of them picked up my camera and had a look at the photos I was beginning to regret taking the Daily Mirror headline of earlier....instead, he was more interested in the ID of my daughter.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">He tested the camera works...as you see here...having emptied everything out and tried to understand my photocopy of Aircraft Museums of Hawaii, Honolulu Airport spotterswiki etc the thing that seemed to cause most concern was my spreadsheet of Tesco Clubcard accounts and why I was bringing it on vacation with me. Explaining a Tier Points run was relatively simple by comparison to trying to explain why I seemed to have 60x strings of 16 digit numbers with all sorts of notes and codes. It will seem funny to look back on but it wasn't just now....I was visualising 'declined entry to the US due to clubcard violation'. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Anyhow, all's well, I was allowed to continue my journey and I'm now in the Days Inn. :)</span></div>
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Spongthrushhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15389104896151188372noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2989031597727902524.post-15218454495073717492014-07-04T13:00:00.000-07:002014-07-11T08:57:49.925-07:00BA3 LCY1600-SNN-JFK2020<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Biggest queue of the day at London CIty security, it's a busy place these days. After my second frisking of the day (is it the rivets in my Levis?), off to gate 24 where there is a mini Club Lounge.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">There's 24 passengers for our 32 seat minibus (A318); one guy is seriously unhappy that we don't pre-clear US immigration on this flight in Shannon as happens on the earlier flight. There isn't an earlier flight (as it's 4-July?) today, the other A318 is parked next to us.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">When they announce boarding, nobody moves. So I do. I mention this to hostie (there's 3 of them to look after us) and she says it's a little odd, more than irritating, that the posh people are too cool to go first, unlike her normal job as Gatwick cabin crew where the passengers queue up and jostle even though they have allocated seats.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Inside, the A318 is a bit like a double sized 747-400 upper deck.</span><br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-l1qqLk032sM/U7dtSP6bGmI/AAAAAAAAKfg/DfVoctFbze0/s1600/IMG_7021.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-l1qqLk032sM/U7dtSP6bGmI/AAAAAAAAKfg/DfVoctFbze0/s1600/IMG_7021.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; text-align: left;">We are on the ground at Shannon for around 40 minutes; the cockpit crew change and we are refuelled. I have visions of the cockpit crew reporting for duty at T5 and being bussed or chauffeur driven to City, so they're out of hours by the time they get to Shannon....hostie won't be drawn on that but said (I think) that they get to stay in a hotel near CIty, which is fun and a change from Gatwick, where they are based.</span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi45ptMgrfUTSTyT8siY6IaAm-4bJ4Ud1UZ_SCKoXSkLjOGwgkxxqOb2et6gnjfzhW3kpkelZHI0Qj2H8ngf8Nfe3XkgELqlCeIGBJR2HdOKeGaKVuA5wBYnJSJ0YgbN1wej5im9CRGAZY2/s1600/IMG_7025.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi45ptMgrfUTSTyT8siY6IaAm-4bJ4Ud1UZ_SCKoXSkLjOGwgkxxqOb2et6gnjfzhW3kpkelZHI0Qj2H8ngf8Nfe3XkgELqlCeIGBJR2HdOKeGaKVuA5wBYnJSJ0YgbN1wej5im9CRGAZY2/s1600/IMG_7025.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Pretty looking islands after departure from Shannon.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The Tandoori cod was rather tasty. It was fairly turbulent most of the way, thanks to Hurricane Arthur, but after a few glasses of wine, I was rocked off to sleep for a few hours.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Captain advised that it was bumpy despite us going northabout the hurricane, it would have been much worse further south. First Officer spent a while chatting to the passengers about it, but far more time trying to help passengers connect to the in flight wifi, which seemed sporadic at best. I didn't bother.</span></div>
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Spongthrushhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15389104896151188372noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2989031597727902524.post-55455650154874193062014-07-04T12:00:00.000-07:002014-07-04T20:53:00.332-07:00Tube and DLR to City<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Immigration at T5 was great. No queue. So off on the tube towards London CIty</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Arriving in good time at City, it's time to check in for the next leg. 'You're not in the system' was not what I wanted to hear, although not entirely surprising perhaps. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">It seems that having duplicate PNRs in the system - but only one ticket - caused a 'no show' on one of the PNRs which then cancelled the rest of the reservation, hence no sign of me on the list for BA3. The suggestion was that I call American Airlines (as I made the booking through them) but I didn't think that was my job, especially as BA yesterday assured me that all was fine and one of the PNRs was a dummy anyway. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Eventually, the BA ticket desk folks gave up and just put me on the flight. It looked like the next legs on US Airways were still in the system....but I'm wondering about getting home, assuming I get that far as last minute reservation changes caused me to spend some time with the nice US Immigration folks a few years ago.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">But for now, it's sorted. Advice to anyone else, if you see duplicate PNRs in Manage My Booking, try and sort it before departure!</span></div>
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Spongthrushhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15389104896151188372noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2989031597727902524.post-78607890853401075692014-07-04T04:11:00.000-07:002014-07-04T20:10:14.107-07:00BA388 LHR0640-BRU0840<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">This may be sad to admit but the A319 operating BA388, G-EUPR, I first saw in bits at the Airbus factory at Hamburg-Finkenwerder in 2000 before it was delivered to BA.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">No wonder I was offered a PrOactive UpGrade (referred to as a POUG by the experts) 48hrs after booking my handbagge only fare for £49 in economy as there were only around 50 passengers and 3 of us in Club. An extra £59 (ish) was the upgrade price, getting me a breakfast and more importantly the extra 30 Tier Points.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgioNuLcKj4N7dSomsP6WwlPjqpKHX391Hm_9gFDB3A3xTPtSiGIMVFRc3kWsWt2L0BvhqYJN59K6Yazx5Ai4Ofmd5juZYLxokkFq941pGK1g1312PRhZcTd9RTSOoxSH1l9GiQkl9onhM5/s1600/IMG_6994.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgioNuLcKj4N7dSomsP6WwlPjqpKHX391Hm_9gFDB3A3xTPtSiGIMVFRc3kWsWt2L0BvhqYJN59K6Yazx5Ai4Ofmd5juZYLxokkFq941pGK1g1312PRhZcTd9RTSOoxSH1l9GiQkl9onhM5/s1600/IMG_6994.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">It's a nice day in Dover</span></div>
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Spongthrushhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15389104896151188372noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2989031597727902524.post-31608351841573453902014-07-04T01:24:00.001-07:002014-07-04T01:24:17.625-07:00Brussels<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Thinking that I have a few hours here in Brussels, I decided to immigrate rather than just go upstairs to the gate, as I was expecting some drama with checking in for the first sector back to Heathrow.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The BA check in girl ummed and aaahed and then handed me a boarding pass for the first sector back to Heathrow on BA393, suggesting that I get the inter-terminal transfer bus to T3 as I arrive at T5. I pointed out that I was flying out of London City and asked for my other boarding passes, she said, sorry, get them at London City, you have duplicate reservations in the system and it's a bit complicated. I asked if she could remove one, she said no.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Off to security, no worse than usual; I put the paper through the scanner with my other stuff and was treated to a hand search. This was fine, more worrying was my passport and boarding pass somehow got caught in the scanner mechanism and required retrieval.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-O2Fq1LVTGKM/U7ZdkuJmTSI/AAAAAAAAKco/kOrxwbxDngY/s1600/IMG_6992.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-O2Fq1LVTGKM/U7ZdkuJmTSI/AAAAAAAAKco/kOrxwbxDngY/s1600/IMG_6992.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The BA lounge is ok, it's empty, presumably midweek in summer is quiet for Euro people. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">There's a 'Diamond' lounge across the way which seems to be much the same and Priority Pass folks can get in there.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Pondering the double reservations and having checked, they both seem to have my BA number in, so I'm wondering if I get double miles/tier points.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Anyway, time for breakfast number 3 (only joking)....</span></div>
Spongthrushhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15389104896151188372noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2989031597727902524.post-68473990278819570972014-07-04T00:00:00.000-07:002014-07-04T20:09:50.212-07:00BA393 BRU1150-LHR1220<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgR1iTvNgQT_ulooZ5vIJ_rQTR_HjiEeVtNig5SzXQZ7WjahOxwPaVMr6Q0SBf2tjFceJIlDMDsfuPng0lgmWP1cuKQmh0eoruO-AC7tAvj6gqiPGrNZuO2zpNjKE8yIn-vl6Mc_qV2piag/s1600/IMG_6999.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgR1iTvNgQT_ulooZ5vIJ_rQTR_HjiEeVtNig5SzXQZ7WjahOxwPaVMr6Q0SBf2tjFceJIlDMDsfuPng0lgmWP1cuKQmh0eoruO-AC7tAvj6gqiPGrNZuO2zpNjKE8yIn-vl6Mc_qV2piag/s1600/IMG_6999.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Packed flight back to Heathrow, apparently we were late departing Brussels due to a disabled aircraft - not that I could see - and late arriving due to the usual holding at Lambourne.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">It's odd having an alcohol free day so far, especially with all the champagne on offer, but my body will thank me later.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I amused myself watching the turnround supervisor trying to jump start their car on the ramp</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Interesting mix of cabin crew on this sector, I assume mixed fleet. The guy up the front looked a spit for Charlie Higson (Fast Show, author) albeit somewhat thinner; he had an air of accountant or bank manager about him. His colleague, a 20something girl, had an air of 'I just couldn't give a toss', not good at all. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; text-align: center;">In the Lambourne hold</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Overhead London City....where I need to get to next</span></div>
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Spongthrushhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15389104896151188372noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2989031597727902524.post-54856002632377682472014-07-03T21:56:00.004-07:002014-07-11T08:59:19.896-07:00In T5 Galleries<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">A beautiful sunrise driving up the M3, expecting that the Daily Mail headlines of travel chaos due to security enhancements may for once be accurate. Let's hope the Daily Mirror's aren't! Absolutely no problem at all and the lounge is quiet.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I did get a strange look from a fellow traveller taking the photo above....</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">This is in the loo of the Galleries North, as if to remind me that you could get from A to B quicker in 1930 than what I'm doing A-B-A-C-D-E-F.... I am wondering about the madness of this trip thought, I don't leave London City for another 10 hours yet! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">So far, so good.</span></div>
Spongthrushhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15389104896151188372noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2989031597727902524.post-26973820921904536072014-07-03T11:02:00.004-07:002014-07-03T11:02:50.479-07:00Duplicate PNRs in ba.com<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">It looks like I'll be getting as far as Brussels, all checked in for the 'positioning leg' to get me to the start of the official run. Checking in to come back again from Brussels is a no-no; there's a clone of my booking with a new PNR appearing in ba.com.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I rang to ask for help and was told that one of the PNRs is a phantom one and the other is the real one. Unfortunately, the real one doesn't recognise my BA Bronze status and seems to have dropped all my seat reservations to boot.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The helpful, but not surprisingly confused call centre person said that the reason that I can't check in is that my ticket has 9 sectors on it and my ba.com booking only has 7. So it's never going to let me do that, apparently.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">So it's a good job I'm not doing a same aircraft turnround in Brussels, I need to go to the terminal and check in there (assuming there is nobody at the gate when we arrive who can do so, save me the exercise and another queue at security). </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">A 'tricky' booking for someone to resolve at checkin, security issues and a single traveller with hand luggage on a circuitous routing who is going to spend 48 hours in Hawaii during a major naval exercise. Hmmmm.....cross fingers!</span><br />
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Spongthrushhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15389104896151188372noreply@blogger.com0