IAD-LHR-BRU on United, and time in Brussels

 Belgium, Flights, New Years 2009-2010, United Kingdom  No Responses »
Aug 182011
 

Shortly before we booked this trip, United had started the London-Brussels flight as a way of holding onto their Heathrow slots for the off-season.  I didn’t expect it to fit so perfectly into our needs, but there you have it.  This year was exceptionally difficult (I found) to get award space over the holidays, so this extra option really helped out.  After Christmas with family, it was time to head off on the adventure!

United 922, Washington, Dulles to London, Heathrow
Boeing 767-300, Registration N646UA, Manufactured 1992
Depart 9:46 Arrive 22:00
Seat: 6H

Honestly, not a whole lot to say about this flight. It was quite uneventful, and after the drama the year before on the same date (22 hr delay after boarding, etc) we were just glad it was uneventful. The food was pretty standard: full hot breakfast shortly after departure, and full hot dinner shortly before arrival. All in all an uneventful flight, and after several dozen trips between IAD an LHR the past few years that’s how I like them. Landed on-time around 10pm, and we were home in the flat around midnight and off for a short night’s slept before grabbing some coffee and catching the DLR/tube back to Heathrow.

United 935, London, Heathrow to Brussels, Belgium
Boeing 777-200, Registration N784UA, Manufactured 1997
Depart 13:20 Arrive 15:35
Seat: 2J

When we got to the gate for the flight, it was clear there were maybe 50-60 people on the entire 777. I’d heard rumors of rampant op-ups on this flight, but didn’t want to get our hopes up. Then, one of the agents I knew from many previous trips came over, started chatting us up, and came back with two new boarding passes…1J and 2J….yes, it’s only an hour tops to Brussels, but the op-up is certainly appreciated. That said, we weren’t the only ones. I think business was booked to 1 or 2 people, and ended up with 10-15 people in it. I suspect all elite Milage Plus members were upgraded one class.

We did our best on the short flight to do serious damage to the champagne stocks (and I do believe we managed an entire bottle) before landing in Brussels on-time and ready for a short bit of exploring before catching our 20:55 flight to Ljubljana. With 5 full hours in Brussels I knew we had time to train into the city, walk around and grab a short dinner, before heading back to the airport for the flight to Slovenia.

Walked around the city a bit, and soon, as the sun was setting, it was time to head back to the train to the airport.

Got to the airport, quick check-in, and we were in the lounge well in advance of our Adria flight. I still think the lounges in Brussels are majorly sub-par, but you can’t really complain too much – they’re comfortable enough with internet (albeit very very slow) and no shows, but it beats the alternative!

…oh and being Belgium, it wouldn’t be a pre-flight lounge snack without a tasty beer. Soon, it was time to board, and off to another new country: Slovenia!

London, Heathrow to Washington, Dulles in United First

 Caucasus Trip, Flights, United Kingdom  1 Response »
Aug 142011
 

One of the best things about this itinerary was that despite having to wake up at 3am or so for a 5:45am flight I was able to connect to the noon flight out of Heathrow still getting me home at a really good hour! I wasn’t going to complain about that!

Through transfer security, and soon I was in the Star Alliance lounge. I find even the main lounge to be a great improvement over the old Red Carpet Club in T3 at Heathrow (well, I have to admit I only tried it once before using the SAS/Air Canada lounge, and that was before I discovered the Singapore Lounge that was also available!) but the First side is quite nice. It looks nearly the same as the regular lounge, but is far less crowded and has food to order. However, this trip, there was no listing of what was available, so one was left to guess. No matter, my request of a bacon roll was soon delivered!

 

Quick shower in the lounge, and it was time to head to the gate to board.  Since United now boards from somewhere out in Wales, it’s a good 10-15 minute walk from the lounge to the gate. Continue reading »

Yerevan – Warsaw – London in LOT Polish Business Class

 Armenia, Caucasus Trip, Flights, Poland, United Kingdom  No Responses »
Aug 132011
 

Now, before I start this segment there are three things I must confess.

1)  Those of you expecting a fabulous business class report are going to be sorely disappointed.  Not only is this “European Business Class” it is all on ERJs!

2)  I don’t do redeyes or early morning flights.  Matt REALLY doesn’t do redeyes or early morning flights.  Our flight was set to depart Yerevan at 5:45am.  Yes, this would be lots of fun, and I admit I fudged a bit.  “Oh, it’s early, before 7, like 6 something I think?”

3)  Neither of us had flown LOT, so I was kinda excited, Euro business or not, for this.  Though, EVN-WAW-LHR-IAD was going to make for a very very long day.

So that said, on with the show!  We’d made it to bed somewhat early, but the room was a bit warm and wouldn’t cool down much, so I’m not sure how much sleep we really got.  Alarm was set for something like 3:45 if I recall directly, which was a nightmare not to be repeated….at least until next month. Continue reading »

Dubai to London on the Emirates A380 in First Class

 Flights, New Years 2010-2011, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom  No Responses »
May 222011
 

You may have noticed the title of this post, yes, the plan was to fly Lufthansa. Up early and to the airport for the final segment of our trip. We were flying LH first from DXB-MUC-LHR and then on another ticket I had to unexpectedly continue on LHR-IAD on United with a 2 hour or so connection in LHR. Piece of cake.

Check-in at DXB at the LH F counter was horridly slow. They had called some passengers over from another line, and it was an elderly couple with lots of issues to sort out. Nearly 15 minutes later a supervisor finally realized what was happening, and called us to the business queue to check-in. Not the best, but also not totally their fault.

We didn’t have a lot of time, so opted to skip the lounge in favour of caffienation at Starbucks, and then off to the gate for boarding. I didn’t spot it but when when we hadn’t started boarding 45 minutes before departure the other Mr Ironmanjt realised one of the engines on the A340 was open…and they were tinkering around with something. Not a great sign. Even worse when it was announce that there has been a “mechanical issue with the aircraft” and more information would be available in 2.5 hours. Um, say what? There goes my connection…. Continue reading »

London to Doha, Qatar in Qatar Airlines Business Class

 Flights, New Years 2010-2011, Qatar, United Kingdom  No Responses »
May 172011
 

Part I of the trip was a positioning trip, and being it was booked with miles I needed to find a route with two seats up front to the Middle East from London. Easier said than done just about six weeks before the holidays. After much digging (and many thanks to United’s new one way awards) I scored a route that I thought would be perfect: LHR-FRA on LH followed by FRA-RUH-DOH in business. Unfortunately, I found out later there’s no way to get off the plane in RUH, so well technically in Saudi Arabia, some people would debate counting it….it wasn’t to matter in the end.Made it to Heathrow around 8am thanks to the rare trip without a hitch on the Piccadilly Line, and checked in with Lufthansa. No problems at all, everything looks good, off to the Star Alliance lounge to wait. Unfortunately, that’s when we noticed the inbound was still at the gate in FRA thanks to a combination of LH’s website and arrivals monitors. When it became obvious we weren’t going to make it….we hit up the Lufthansa transfer desk. Took the agent a bit to figure things out, but very soon we had something I’ve never seen before: confirmed tickets on the nonstop flight on Qatar leaving at noon, and actually arriving in Doha at the same time! I was quite shocked LH would do this on a UA-issued award ticket….no way United would have booked offline to protect award passengers!

Soon we were FIM-ed and off to make the bus trek over to terminal four at Heathrow. Qatar uses the Skyteam lounge, which was actually quite nice except for the barely functional internet connection. Now, onto the flight!

QR 12
London Heathrow (LHR) to (DOH)
777-300 registration A7-BAQ delivered just 4 days before this flight! Continue reading »

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