A bit of context…… I’ve been going on about doing a Mileage Run or Tier Points run for many years, not for any particular purpose other than the usual things that excite someone such as the feeling of getting a good deal, doing a lot of travelling just because it’s always fun and because I grew up sitting on the Queens Building at Heathrow as a plane spotter and never really grew out of it. Even a career as an Air Traffic Controller hasn’t dampened my enthusiasm. So the logic (well, excuse) for a TP run is to achieve Gold this membership year, then in 2015 I retain it and then in 2016 drop drop down to Silver. Which, having been a grateful recipient of a Silver card for 2 years since BA gave me one based upon the bmi acquisition and associated *Alliance points, is quite good enough for me.I thought it may be useful to record my pre-trip issues and thinking with booking a suitable Tier Points run. I’ve been lurking (mostly) at flyertalk.com for a few years and saw the chat around the ex-EU to Hawaii trips. Thanks to Raffles who now runs the HeadForPoints blog, he’s one of those people who have helped get me into this. Without his posts and help we wouldn’t be travelling in the pointy end at all….and that’s really the point. You generally pay the same as you’d pay to travel in Economy – thanks to taxes and charges – but have a much nicer time in Business. ITA Software Matrix is excellent but needs a little fiddling with for a newbie. This Tier Points calculator is really useful, well done owenrudge! Booking the fare on aa.com required a little creative thinking but I got there in the end.
Here I’m fiddling with the ITA Matrix – not my actual example – but it gives an idea of what to do.
Raffles has written some guidance here and flyertalk has some here. In addition, although most males are terrible at referring to the ‘Help’ section, believing that user interfaces should be intuitive, the ITA Help is actually helpful too!
I’ve found that it’s worth fiddling around, doing searches with lots of departure points and few, as often the search results can be different. In this instance, for the outbound I have forgotten to specify the route to force ITA to quote for LCY-JFK (as that’s 210TP vs 140TP for same price LHR-JFK) by putting in LON BA1-4 NYC LAX…
self-explanatory; clicking on the highlighted cheapest fare leads to this
it’s a very long list, you can expand each entry using a ‘details’ option on the right of each entyry that is visible when you hover the mouse in that area, but clicking on the fare gives you this
I doubt that Alaska First generates any TPs but you get the drift. The fare breakdown is lengthy and clicking on the fare rule (ILR21AP) gives you a very long fare rule, extract only here but all the sales periods etc are in here
Booking
BA.com is not good for these complex itineraries and although Expedia, opodo etc have multi-city search options, I couldn’t get them to show the sale fares that I was after. aa.com is great.
Because there’s only 6 fields, some creativity with the routing is required, there’s not space for JFK-LAX and LAX-HNL so I put JFK-HNL which was great because it threw up JFK-PHX-HNL both ways on US which books into First and thus 210TP rather than the AA JFK-LAX which is proper Business Class thus 140TP. Try things like LON instead of LHR if not getting the ‘right’ answer. It’s really important to use the radio button selection as per the above, especially Search By Schedule and show 50 flight results. What is slightly annoying with aa.com is that it disallows a connection on the return at JFK onto BA2 despite there being a legit connecting time and ba.com allows it (but ba.com won’t allow booking of this complex itinerary on BA, US and AA flight numbers), the result is BA4 which misses an early LCY-AMS flight and also a LHR-HEL-AMS/BRU opportunity to gain even more TPs!
Itinerary
Mrs Metty was not entirely comfortable with my cheaper suggestion of a 5 night stay in HNL to avail of a cheaper fare. To be honest, as I’m travelling solo, to stay in a hotel an extra 3 nights would have cost as much anyway, so 2 nights in HNL it is.
1 night seemed too short and although ITA and the associated fare rule suggested it would work for the same fare, aa.com didn’t agree. Interestingly, ITA wouldn’t show a via PHX routing whatever I fiddled with in the search box despite a fair few hours playing with it, but aa.com did.
A cheaper option would have been ex-LUX on 4-Jul returning to BRU, but the positioning flights to and from made up my mind. To get to LUX meant a night stop or same aircraft turnround, which I’m not quite brave enough to do, especially as I seem to be getting more attention from immigration of various countries these days, worst of which was the UK at Heathrow on return from Bangalore recently who seemed very interested in my passport before graciously releasing me into my homeland.
Return from BRU would mean easyJet as the BA flights home were extremely expensive and not available on Avios, so I thought I’d book outward from Heathrow on BA to BRU on the first flight of the day, see if I am offered a ProActiveUpGrade (I was) and decide what to do about the return from AMS later.
AMS means hanging around LCY for a bit on the way home but there’s lots of options home from there (e.g. flybe to Southampton) but having scored a POUG on the LHR-BRU sector I booked AMS-LHR and haven’t been offered one, yet.
Tier Points and Avios calculation
rom
To
Airline
Fare Basis
Distance
Avios
Bonus Avios
Total Avios
Tier Points
LHR
London, United Kingdom
BRU
Brussels, Belgium
BA
J
(150%)
218
750
125
875
40
BRU
Brussels, Belgium
LHR
London, United Kingdom
BA
J
(150%)
218
750
125
875
40
LCY
London, United Kingdom
JFK
New York, United States
BA
I
(150%)
3,461
5,191
865
6,056
210
JFK
New York, United States
PHX
Phoenix, United States
US
A
(150%)
2,148
3,221
537
3,758
210
PHX
Phoenix, United States
HNL
Hickam Afb, United States
US
A
(150%)
2,912
4,367
728
5,095
210
HNL
Hickam Afb, United States
PHX
Phoenix, United States
US
A
(150%)
2,912
4,367
728
5,095
210
PHX
Phoenix, United States
JFK
New York, United States
US
A
(150%)
2,148
3,221
537
3,758
210
JFK
New York, United States
LCY
London, United Kingdom
BA
I
(150%)
3,461
5,191
865
6,056
210
LCY
London, United Kingdom
AMS
Amsterdam, Netherlands
BA
J
(150%)
208
750
125
875
40
AMS
Amsterdam, Netherlands
LHR
London, United Kingdom
BA
V
(100%)
230
500
125
625
10
Total Mileage:
17,913
28,309
4,760
33,069
1,390
Pre-departure checks and check in
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. 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.
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. 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). 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!
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.
I did get a strange look from a fellow traveller taking the photo above….
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!
So far, so good.
BA388 LHR0640-BRU0840
Acknowledging my geekiness I find that 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. 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; 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.
Beautiful morning in Dover
Brussels
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. 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. 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.
The BA lounge is empty, presumably midweek in summer is quiet for Euro people
Anyway, time for breakfast number 3 ….
BA393 BRU1150-LHR1220
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. It’s odd having an alcohol free day so far, especially with all the champagne on offer, but my body will thank me later. I amused myself watching the turnround supervisor trying to jump start their car on the ramp
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.
In the Lambourne hold
Overhead London City….where I need to get to next
Tube and Docklands Light Railway to London City
Immigration at T5 was great. No queue. So off on the tube towards London CIty
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.
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.
Eventually, the BA ticket desk folks stopped being lazy/gave up/took pity and just put me on the flight, confirming that I had a ticket, just no reservation. 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.
But for now, it’s sorted. Advice to anyone else, if you see duplicate PNRs in Manage My Booking, be aware and try to encourage the airport staff to make sure that you don’t get stuffed! It seems that duplicate PNRs are just part of the way Oneworld reservations across the partners and multiple segments works.
BA3 LCY1600-SNN-JFK2020
Biggest queue of the day here 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. 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. 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 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.
Inside, the A318 is a bit like a double sized 747-400 upper deck.
Time for a celebratory London Pride and a watch of some films on the iPad that I’m given
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.
Pretty looking islands after departure from Shannon.
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.
Captain advised that it was bumpy despite us going northabout the hurricane, but it would have been much worse further south. The 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.
Arrival at JFK
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. 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. 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. 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’. This took about 20 mins, the Customs guys have 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. 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.
He tested the camera works, flicked through my iPhone and…as you see here…having emptied everything out they tried to understand my photocopy of Aircraft Museums of Hawaii, Honolulu Airport spotterswiki etc 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’.
Anyhow, all’s well, I was allowed to continue my journey and I’m now in the Days Inn JFK. 🙂
Next day: US679 JFK1045-PHX1232
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.
The lounge is almost deserted, a few plastic pastries and juice available and there’s free wifi.
If you can’t process fresh fruit you may as well shrink wrap it!
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. 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!! 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.
The in flight wifi worked perfectly, so I caught up on various domestics and watched our progress on FlightRadar24.
All things considered, a reasonably pleasant flight and we arrived in Phoenix a little early.
US694PHX1330-HNL1740
Phoenix, Valley of the Sun, was fairly warm at 100F.
The Admirals Club lounge is on the mezzanine level above the moderate chaos of the concourse below. 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. 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 on this trip, Costa Rica has been recommended twice, especially a Danish guy whose father had a property there.
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! 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.
There’s 4 rows of 2:2 seats in the forward section of the 757. Today, only 6 customers. Soon after we passed over Los Angeles heading out over the Pacific, there was a ‘is there a physician on board?’ PA request. 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….
CBs over Palm Springs
US Airways ‘premium’ beverage and snacks with a list of additives so long it fills the whole reverse of the packet
Chicken Tarragon
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 aircon issues. So I ended the flight wrapped in blankets, nodded off and woke up as we broke cloud for Honolulu.
Short final for 08L at Honolulu; Hickam AFB is a segregated area of the same airport, sharing the runways with Pearl Harbor top left
A few additional aircraft here for the RIMPAC exercise. 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.
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.
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.
So I then set course for the farthest corner of Oahu and ended up at Dillingham where there’s a nice beach
North Shore was rather pretty, if full of Asian types dutifully queuing for Sunday lunch at the touristy 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!
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.
Then back to the hotel with some beers and a strange garlic chicken meal as although Waikiki is not far away, it’s busy and parking looked a problem.
Day 2
Woke up early and 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.
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 the new security regulations for US bound electronic devices. So far so good.
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.
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.
A nice lady from Alabama asked if I would take her family’s photo so I asked her to take a one of me. 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 USS Ronald Reagan was just being tugged away from USS Pelieu with jolly jack tars manning the rails.
Apparently, this is one of the actual Zeros that attacked Pearl Harbor.
Ye Olde Ford Island control tower
The Hawaiian state flag includes the Union Flag
Ye
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.
Well it’s a way off but she sailed out of the channel
An hour or two later, all the F-18s departed from Hickam, presumably to their home on the carrier, about 20 in total.
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 Reagan 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.
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.
They were fighting off a few people slightly fed up that the other Phoenix flight had been cancelled, thank goodness mine was operating. The JAL lounge was ok. Little to report from the flight on the Boeing 757, I vaguely remember taxying but seemed to fall asleep vertically, awaking in time for a strange breakfast and 2 glasses of wine. 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. Maybe next time I’ll bring some velcro!
US678 PHX0845-JFK1645
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. 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. 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. I try on my HNL airport purchase T-shirt upon arrival at JFK.
BA4 JFK2145-LCY1000
No trouble having a human check me in at JFK.
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.
It has thinned out, been for a nice shower and am reflecting. I love the Pacific Islands, understand completely why some friends go to Raro for their winters, not that I’ve been, yet. Nobody engaged me in elongated chat on planes. Maybe it’s just that in the pointy end you’re not in someone else’s personal space. Or maybe I looked unfriendly. Or knackered. The people side of US Airways service was great. Sam Adams cans are OK. 757s First Class seats are poor. 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. Nobody has said ‘have a nice day!’ and even the New Yorkers were lovely. Hallelujah, sincerity.
Only 16 passengers tonight and a quick trip home in 6hr 8min.
Taxying in at LCY
Because there’s no posh lounge at the airport, BA use the Radisson Blu 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.
It’s in here, behind the Ibis
…and a clearer view from Blackwall DLR station
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 my ATC colleague Dorian 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.
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.
The spa’s relaxation room overlooking the Thames and the O2 across the river
After your flight from New York JFK to London City Airport, take time to refresh yourself and enjoy the facilities at Radisson Blu Edwardian New Providence Wharf
Refresh
Freshen up in a private treatment room with shower
Relax at East River Spa and make use of the gym
Enjoy BA preferential rates on spa treatments
Shirt and suit pressing service*
Preparing you for the day ahead
Complimentary Breakfast – in the restaurant or ‘On the Go’.
Take advantage of our business centre
Enjoy complimentary Wi-Fi throughout the hotel
Have onward transport arranged for you by our concierge
How to book
Booking the Arrivals Service is essential. Please speak to a member of the British Airways team at New York JFK who will be pleased to book the service at check-in, in the lounge or at the boarding gate. Terms and conditions
Available to British Airways Club World London City customers only at Radisson Blu Edwardian New Providence Wharf
Booking is essential through British Airways staff at check in, in the lounge or at the boarding gate at New York JFK airport
Present your Club World London City boarding card at the hotel’s concierge who can direct you to the restaurant or spa
All services are subject to availability
*Shirt and suit pressing service is chargeable at £10 per item
The next flight is an Embraer 170 and it was almost full although I had a spare seat next to me.
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.
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. 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. 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. Tot seens as they say….
BA443 AMS2110-LHR2110
So the final leg is the ‘positioning’ leg back to LHR in economy as I wasn’t offered an upgrade. Anyhow, on to the last flight and the last row of economy on the ‘rusty pigeon’ (Olympic dove) colour schemed A319 to Heathrow.
We 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 where I’d parked the car in the car park.
The points posted a quite impressive 48 hours later and all looks accurate. Hooray!
Transaction date
Posted date
Description
Tier Points
Avios
09-Jul-14
11-Jul-14
AMSTERDAM – LONDON HEATHROW (M/N)
BA443(Booking ref: 7X….)
10
500
Tier Bonus
0
125
09-Jul-14
11-Jul-14
LONDON CITY AIRPORT – AMSTERDAM (C/J)
BA8455(Operated by: BA CityFlyer)(Booking ref: 6GL…)
40
500
Cabin Bonus
0
250
Tier Bonus
0
125
08-Jul-14
10-Jul-14
NEW YORK-JOHN F KENNEDY – LONDON CITY AIRPORT (J/R)
BA4(Booking ref: 6GL…)
210
3,461
Cabin Bonus
0
3,461
Tier Bonus
0
865
08-Jul-14
10-Jul-14
PHOENIX – NEW YORK-JOHN F KENNEDY (F/A)
AA425(Operated by: American Airlines)(Booking ref: HXV…)
210
2,155
Cabin Bonus
0
1,078
Tier Bonus
0
539
07-Jul-14
10-Jul-14
HONOLULU – PHOENIX (F/A)
AA693(Operated by: American Airlines)(Booking ref: HXV…)
210
2,916
Cabin Bonus
0
1,458
Tier Bonus
0
729
05-Jul-14
08-Jul-14
NEW YORK-JOHN F KENNEDY – PHOENIX (F/A)
AA679(Operated by: American Airlines)(Booking ref: HXV…)
210
2,155
Cabin Bonus
0
1,078
Tier Bonus
0
539
05-Jul-14
08-Jul-14
PHOENIX – HONOLULU (F/A)
AA694(Operated by: American Airlines)(Booking ref: HXV…)
210
2,916
Cabin Bonus
0
1,458
Tier Bonus
0
729
04-Jul-14
06-Jul-14
LONDON CITY AIRPORT – NEW YORK-JOHN F KENNEDY (J/R)
BA3(Booking ref: 6GL….)
210
3,461
Cabin Bonus
0
3,461
Tier Bonus
0
865
04-Jul-14
05-Jul-14
BRUSSELS AIRPORT – LONDON HEATHROW (C/J)
BA393(Booking ref: 6GL….)
40
500
Cabin Bonus
0
250
Tier Bonus
0
125
04-Jul-14
05-Jul-14
LONDON HEATHROW – BRUSSELS AIRPORT (C/U)
BA388(Booking ref: 6HE…)
40
500
Cabin Bonus
0
250
Tier Bonus
0
125
Total:
1,390
36,574
So it really did work as advertised, albeit with a little patience.
Thanks to all at FlyerTalk, Raffles and www.headforpoints.com 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……
Getting to Gold
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).
BA Gold card arrived very swiftly, in fact it arrived before we arrived home from holiday.
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.
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.
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!
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BA Tier Points Run to Hawaii, summer 2014 
