Day 15 : Flight 15 Apr 27th LAX-JFK American Airlines 08.10

Day 15: Flight 15 LAX-JFK American Airlines 08:10

Aircraft: Airbus A321T

Class: First

Distance flown: 2470

Tier points: 210

I’m up at 5am to head over to the terminal. I need not have left so early because the security at LAX was very quick.

I head to the admirals club and to my surprise am given a card to the flagship lounge. This is a huge improvement on the standard offering with spirits and beers on self service and a breakfast bar with eggs, sausage, cereal yoghurt and pastries.

It’s too early for my body so I just take some yoghurt and blueberries.

We board and it’s nice to be getting into a proper first cabin which is lie flat.

We depart on time, breakfast is a bacon quiche (the same as a flight I had from lax-mco) which is tasty.

I watch a film and catch up on the football with the in air WiFi  - it turns out Chelsea have beaten Liverpool, another interesting end to the prem is on!

Land in JFK on time, but we don’t have a gate to disembark the plane so we wait on the tarmac for about 15 minutes.

I’m in no rush as I’ve got a 4 hour wait at JFK. Connecting from Terminal 8 to my

BA flight at terminal 7 is relatively straightforward on the sky train.

Day 14 : Flight 14 Apr 26th HNL-LAX American Airlines 12.40

Day 14 : Flight 14 HNL-LAX American Airlines 12.40

Aircraft: Boeing 757

Class: First

Distance: 2550 miles

Tier points: 210

I’m dedicating this post to a good friend who got married while I was asleep in HNL and in fact I missed the wedding due to the routing of the TP run so congratulations and best wishes Faz, having seen the photo’s online it looked like a fantastic day!

I also wake to find that my girlfriend has locked herself out of our flat and doesn’t have the landlord’s phone number. She tried to phone me but I was flat out asleep with phone on vibrate and after her transatlantic flight spent 2 hours waiting for a locksmith to get her in. Given my ridiculous trip home I can’t help but laugh, it turns out I have the flat keys in my suitcase.

The third piece of news for the day is that Oasis are hotly rumoured to headline Glastonbury and I don’t have a ticket.

I head over to the airport and get ticketed, security is quick at HNL so I head to the Admirals Lounge and have some soup. I can’t find a decent coffee in the lounge so I head on down to Starbucks at the boarding gate.

Hawaii airport is partly outdoor as you walk to the boarding gates, you get a little garden on one side and then the planes on the other side of the walkway which you can hear and smell the jet fuel.

Once boarded the flight leaves on time, I’m really grateful that the trip is unwinding now, it’s the last time that I’ll be passing through HNL on this trip and each stop now feels like I’m going home.

As we leave HNL I spot a pair of F22's taking shade in their hangers.

Then we have to wait for a C5 Galaxy to land right in front of us.

I’m seated on the back row of the first cabin next to the window, just in front of the galley. I’ve been all over the 757 cabin and can firmly say that this is my favourite seat. There’s something that just feels a little more private and cosy with this seat and I like the fact that you can see the whole cabin in front. The downside is that you don’t always get your first menu choice, having said that you can always pre book your meal online. I must admit that I’m not that taken up with food on a plane to bother with that.

Lunch is a green salad followed by lasagne which is nice. I turn down the offer of the ice cream sundae.

I start reading ‘the meditations’ by Marcus Aurelius and overhear the cabin crew saying “we’re past the point of no return now, we’re heading to LAX”. It transpires that a passenger has been taken ill and the flight crew are concerned with getting on the ground asap. Oxygen is taken back to the rear of the aircraft and we get told that we will be early into LAX due to a medical incident.

There’s still a fair chunk of time to go to LAX, it must be terrible to be taken ill over the Pacific.
We're going the 'wrong way' around the world so its getting dark pretty fast.

No cookies due to the early arrival and we have a quick decent into LAX

We land, flight time I just under 5 hours, and paramedics board and take a passenger off the plane.

The chap is walking so hopefully he is OK.

Out of the terminal and into the Hilton LAX where I have a 17^th floor room. Next stop JFK.

Day 13 : Flight 13 Apr 25th LAX-HNL American Airlines 16.30

Day 13 : Flight 13 LAX-HNL American Airlines 16.30

Aircraft: Boeing 757

Class: First

Distance: 2550 miles

Tier points: 210

There’s just under an hour until my next flight, the gate for the flight to HNL is right next to the flight from MIA.

Just enough time to use the bathroom and then boarding is underway.

I’m seated next to a chap who seems pretty well oiled with alcohol and is keen to chat. He’s got his own marketing company and he goes out to Honalulu once a month to consult with a client out there, he’s making it a long weekend so he can do some surfing before spending Monday and Tuesday with the client. Pretty nice perk of his job!

I’ve also noticed on AA that they have a little procedure when the captain needs the bathroom. The fasten seat belt sign will go on and then they will block the galley with a drinks trolley and stand looking down the cabin while a member of the flight deck comes out for the bathroom. I’ve been ordered back down to my seat while this was happening on a previous trip with a fair degree of urgency (and it’s quite normal on AA for passengers to use the bathroom while the seat belt sign is on).

Dinner is a salad and a mushroom dish. Nothing to write home about. I have a pretty good chat to the passenger next to me, the flight crew are especially hospitable on this flight. I generally find AA flight attendants fantastic.

Descending into HNL you get to see the US military base with some C17’s, Galaxy’s, refuelers and some F22’s right next to the civilian airport.

Straight out of the terminal and I’ve checked into the Best Western airport hotel, there’s a free shuttle that you call in the arrivals lounge. I’m sure the distance is walkable but I’ve no idea how you get there and my phone is still blocked from the network.

I applied for a Best Western status match to my Hilton status before I left and being a BW diamond got me a nice big corner room on the top floor and a welcome bag with bottle of water and some chocolate. The view in the morning...

Day 13 : Flight 12 Apr 25th MIA-LAX American Airlines 12.50

Day 13 : Flight 12 MIA-LAX American Airlines 12.50

Aircraft: Boeing 757

Class: First

Distance: 2210 miles

Tier points: 210

After a beautiful holiday for a week it’s time to complete the TP run. I head to MIA with my GF who is flying back to the UK. I drop the car off with Fox Rental (who are off site but were both very cheap and very efficient) and get the Fox shuttle to the airport.

MIA is busy and it seems to take an age to get ticketed and through security even in the priority lane.

There’s just enough time to grab a glass of water in the Admirals Lounge (which is a pretty dire offering at MIA) and head down to the gate.

I board and have now got the AA safety video subconsciously memorised, and the piano renditions of Emily Sandea and Ellie Goulding that they play on AA while taxiing have me wondering if I’m reliving a previous flight through a dream, they have become so familiar.

Leaving MIA we fly over south beach.

Not much to speak about the flight, lunch was a corn chowder and salad with chicken skewers, followed of course with an ice cream sundae.

There’s wifi on the flight so I catch up with some work and before I know it we’re landing in LAX.