A disrupted reunion

[andye]

Get on the official ESTA site.

its not straightforward.

As well as the old demographics and questions of turpitude, they now want the details of all held passport numbers (took a trail of my emails to find my expired UK passport details) and Facebook/Linkedin etc usernames.

Go to pay. Click on the paypal option (I have some USD cashback sitting there). It doesnt go straight to the paypal page and I get my password wrong. Click back to use credit card and...Im logged out!

Resign in to the ESTA site (very long set of credentials required) to see a screen saying something along the lines of "We are unable to determine payment. Please check in again in 4 hours".

The flight to LAX will have left by then

 

[kelvedon]

Where is the best British pork pie?

Melton Mowbray !

Ye Olde Pork Pie Shoppe of Melton Mowbray | Dickinson & Morris

Ye Olde Pork Pie Shoppe, the home of world-famous Melton Mowbray Pork Pies. Looking for an authentic award-winning taste, you’re in the right place!

porkpie.co.uk

 

[I love to travel]

My internal monologue was resembling Hugh Grant's opening scene in Four Weddings and a Funeral. My previous hire car logistical challenge fades into insignificance (and this isnt my fault).

I call an Uber and get onto Alaska (the issuers of the QR award flights). Short wait, helpful agent. But nothing they can do. No award flights to anywhere in Australia (unsurprisingly) and not possible to short-check to DOH and sort myself out from there. I eventually cancelled (though in retrospect maybe could have checked to see if BER-DOH reappeared).

Reach LCY and (with somewhat faux-naive optimistism) contact my Travel Insurers. No, I can't just book any J flight home (not least as the award seats are refundable)

Given it was less than 24 hours to departure wasn't it up to QR to rebook you?

 

[andye]

Given it was less than 24 hours to departure wasn't it up to QR to rebook you?

It would have been but they were obliged to get me to HKG which wouldn't have been for a while given the weather event

 

[andye]

So I board the DLR and change onto the Elizabeth line. At Stratford there is an announcement that due to people on the tracks, the train wont go all the way to LHR but will terminate at Hayes & Harlington.

I hadn't noticed my battery bar but en route, my phone conks out.

The travel gods are certainly making this a trial

 

[andye]

Alight at H&H and fortunately there is a plug outlet in the little waiting room.

Once I had some juice, I was able to get back onto the ESTA site.

And I can now reaccess the payment page...hooray

I pay by credit card this time...

And get -"Thank you for your payment. We are unable to make an immediate decision. We aim to do so within 7 days"...boo (hoo)

I don't usually get headaches but I was doing so now

 

[andye]

Not too long before a train comes for the stop to LHR T2/3.

its now about T-90 mins.

AA signage points to the kiosks. Try to check-in but no-go presumably due to being ESTA negative.

Speak to most experienced AA check-in staff-member I can see. He confirms the issue. Not an uncommon problem with ESTAs. His recent experience is 4-8 hours rather than weeks but its variable.

The deadline for check-in is T-60 mins.

 

[Quickstatus]

Assuming @andye is posting in realtime...

Plenty of Y QF classic rewards via HKG with CX, SIN with BA and DXB with EK on Monday 17Nov

Via LHR and STN/LGW (EK)


For example LHR-HKG operating on Monday 17Nov in the afternoon with CX

And BA15 all the way to SYD

Anyone got Andye's contact details maybe call him

 

[VPS]

Melton Mowbray !

Ye Olde Pork Pie Shoppe of Melton Mowbray | Dickinson & Morris

Ye Olde Pork Pie Shoppe, the home of world-famous Melton Mowbray Pork Pies. Looking for an authentic award-winning taste, you’re in the right place!

porkpie.co.uk

But have you been to Melton Mowbray - it's not a very exciting place. In fact I was very disappointed with it.

Just go to Fortnum and Mason or Harrods or Borough Market

Sorry @andye for hijacking your stressful thread. I'm assuming you're actually home now

 

[andye]

Assuming @andye is posting in realtime...

Plenty of Y QF classic rewards via HKG with CX, SIN with BA and DXB with EK on Monday 17Nov

Via LHR and STN/LGW (EK)


For example LHR-HKG operating on Monday 17Nov in the afternoon with CX

And BA15 all the way to SYD

Anyone got Andye's contact details maybe call him


View attachment 482184

Fortunately not real time but thanks for the support if I were

 

[andye]

So settle in to one of the charging stations. There is a lot of refreshing of the ESTA site.

Realise that I dont really want to lose the points if the visa doesn't come through.

Call QF. Pretty short wait for an NB but it is the middle of the Australian night.

Agent confirms the latest I can cancel the award is T-60 mins.

Which is getting close.

I keep her talking and refreah and enter details again and again

At T-65, just as I'm about to cancel.

The approval come through

I hang up and hurry to the AA checkin desk

 

[andye]

Fortunately, the AA man I''d spoken to earlier was still there

He knew the situation and fobbed off one of the other agents while he got to work

It was a flurry of typing and (I kid you not) at T-61, I'm in. It felt like a Mission Impossible cliffhanger!

Both relieved, he tells me not to hang around and go straight to the gate.

 

[andye]

Security was mercifully quick and I walked toward the gate.

As I approach the QF lounge, I turn in and ask the barman for the largest Gin & Tonic he's allowed to serve me.

 

[andye]

Of course, I have plenty of time especially as I'm boarding group 99 or something, but it was nice to sit down at the gate and decompress

 

[Quickstatus]

It's interesting there are classic availability at the last minute.

 

[andye]

AA Y is not something I usually look forward to.

Its a Boeing 777-300ER

Im not tiny by any means but I do fit in a seat so some of the pax in the boarding area were enough to make one worry

But I did OK. Aisle seat of the middle 4 seat and I had a space next to me.

Seat was reasonably comfortable and fair legroom though the headrest adjustment wasn't working properly.


Food was to expectations (but I had been planning to be enjoying the delights of QR J/F/Al-Safwa )

Crew were the best AA ones I've come across-cheerful and funny.

One obviously took a liking to my neighbour as he gave him a couple of extra vodka miniatures. He didn't drink so I 'created' a novel coughtail

My neighbour was a Brit so understood my reference to Del Boy from the comedy Only Fools and Horses ordering a Tia Maria & Lucozade

 

[andye]

And so to LAX. Ive never done an Int-Int connection before. Its a bit of a schemozzle but not terribly slow. After picking up bag, giving your fingerprints to the stony-faced immigration people, you don't check bag at a desk, rather hand it to a staff-member, then traipse off to a theme-park style queue to be shouted at by TSA.

I found TBIT a bit disorienting but it's quite striking with giant video billboards everywhere

Find the Amex Centurion lounge. Its busy. Food is ok but not amazing. The coughtail bar is the better of the two there (first bar served a rubbish G&T but the Platinum Mule was good).. Call home (I had been messaging) to decompress further.



Then head off to the One World J lounge (operated by QF but named to keep the QP riff-raff out). Its a bit darker. Bar aervice better. Food less good than Centurion

 

[andye]

Boarding for LAX-SYD on QF12 is crowded.
Its quite organised getting on though with automated gates. Slight anmoyance as I end up two boarding groups further back than I could have been as wouldnt let me flash my IB OWS as I had my QF NB on the boarding pass (for Points Club SCs). Its a long time on the plane anyway.

Lucked out again. Had a window seat near the back with a shadow. The shadow wasn't mine but a former State Treasurer who is a rusted in QF man but balked at the J fare.

A380s are one of the best ways to fly Y but now behind the times with no wifi or charging points



Long flight. Slept lots. Ate no food. Had a decent chat with the Treasurer re super, NDIS and politics in general. Also behind me was a man from the CSIRO, who had some equipment in the bulkhead to record signals from thr Auroras (despite being a long way from the Poles)- he looked exactly as you would expect.