A Very Long Way to Bridgetown

[Princess Fiona]

As promised earlier I said that I would try to do a little trip report on my recent QF SC run. I've never done one of these before so forgive me if I'm a bit rusty.
Here goes

 

[Princess Fiona]

I had a trip to NY booked and about a week free at the start of the trip. Was doing some rough calculations in my head and thought it might be a good idea to rack up a few QF SC in my free week.
As we all know since things have become "Simpler and Fairer" it's a challenge to earn decent SC on anything other than QF metal/codes.
Undeterred I set about crafting a run with a couple of strict criteria :
Must earn big SC at a good rate ( sub $3/SC)
Must involve nice long sectors on decent aircraft with little or no Red-Eyes and proper meals ( I love my food when I'm travelling and get cranky when it's numerous coughpy snacks).
The trip I settled on was HNL-BGI.
This fulfilled almost all of my wishes except there would be one ugly flight, the first one from HNL-DFW.
You can't win them all

 

[Princess Fiona]

I had a ticket through to JFK with a stopover in LAX. I tried to see if I could get something fitting my requirements from LAX but nothing jumped out at me. Decision was made to use points to position to and from HNL and start and finish the run there.
Being particularly cautious about mixing award and revenue fares and missed connections I built in an overnight transit at HNL before starting the run.
However the best laid plans do indeed come unstuck and that's exactly what happened.
I was booked on an evening flight to HNL departing LAX at 1900 and after a pleasant day at the LAX Hilton I settled myself into the Flagship Lounge.

 

[get me outta here]

OOh, a cliff hanger, waiting to see what happened.

 

[DontGetMeStarted]

OOh, a cliff hanger, waiting to see what happened.

I have half an hour free....what happened ? Looking at doing something similar myself

 

[Princess Fiona]

Boarding was uneventful, nice bulkhead seat in a 757. The usual AA service of PDB offered. I took a champagne and watched the view from the window

After a short while the captain announced that there would be a short delay due to some engineering issues which had to be signed off on. At the time I thought this seemed a tad ambitious as there was seat cushions coming onboard to go in the back of coach and various other comings and goings.
Sure enough the next announcement was that we were being de-planed and a replacement aircraft would be sourced to stay at the gate.
I of course headed straight back to the Flagship Lounge feeling a long wait was more likely.
The new scheduled departure was going to be 2230 according to the AA Angels. I thought (well actually dfcatch thought on Facebook) that I should head over to TBIT and check out the QF F Lounge. Things were looking up

 

[Princess Fiona]

Back over to T4 after a lovely coughtail and went straight to the gate to hear the inevitable announcement "The Crew is over hours, please check with the gate staff as your flight is now departing tomorrow"


Headed straight back to the Flagship Lounge and the AAngel told me to take a seat and she would find out where I'd be staying.

It turned out to be the LA Downtown Hotel which was lovely but as the name suggests its downtown. $50 in a taxi away and no transport provided. I was grateful that I had a hotel room though so I agreed to go and come back in the morning for an 0900 departure.
The Hotel

 

[Princess Fiona]

Uber Black back to T4 next morning (decided I wanted to go back in style) quick run through TSA and back to the Flagship Lounge.
Quick coffee there and back onboard another 757 bound for HNL. This time we have lift off !!

 

[Princess Fiona]

Landed in HNL 14 hours behind schedule at 1200.
As I stated earlier I had originally built in an overnight stay in HNL but sadly that wasn't to be. Boarding for my flight to DFW was in 4 hours so I had no real option but to stay at the airport and check it out. Or more accurately check-out in a comfy chair in the Sakura Lounge

 

[Princess Fiona]

The run begins :
First flight on a B763 HNL-DFW. Dep 1734 arrived 0544. AA does a sort of modified F service on these flights. It's pretty similar to F on a three-class trans-con. The F duvets and pillows are provided and the dinner service has tablecloths and separate three course meal with menus provided


As this is a Red-eye flight, after dinner the lights are dimmed and most passengers try to get some sleep. I watched a couple of movies on the Samsung tablet provided and dozed fitfully on the sloping lie flat.
I seriously underestimated how ugly the turnaround at HNL would be and I definitely don't recommend anyone try this without an overnight stay.

 

[RooFlyer]

Been looking forward to this one .

So you were in T4, with T4 BP obviously, and you exited, and were able to enter TBIT and the QFlounge there? There has been quite a bit of speculation whether that was possible. Any raised eyebrows at security or the QFlounge? (The latter I thought had been explicitly precluded on a T4 BP.)

 

[Princess Fiona]

Been looking forward to this one .

So you were in T4, with T4 BP obviously, and you exited, and were able to enter TBIT and the QFlounge there? There has been quite a bit of speculation whether that was possible. Any raised eyebrows at security or the QFlounge? (The latter I thought had been explicitly precluded on a T4 BP.)

None whatsoever. The agent at the bottom of the escalator asked me if I was here for shopping and eating and there was no comment at all from the QF F Lounge staff.
The airside walkway between T4/TBIT will be opening soon apparently so then it will be even easier to go between the two.

 

[RooFlyer]

Yes, that's why I thought they had a 'TBIT BP only' rule at the Flounge ( maybe J). They might get over run with all the OW Emerald members from T4!

 

[get me outta here]

RooFlyer, I did that about 8 weeks ago just telling security that I was going to check out the lounge. They seemed completely unfazed by that. I went to the F QF lounge in TBIT which I needed to locate for my return journey, which was totally deserted except for a staff meeting, wandered through for 2 mins and went back to T4 AA Admirals F lounge and told them where it was as they were not even aware of it, so they said. My BP had a lot of scribbles on it.

Been looking forward to this one .

So you were in T4, with T4 BP obviously, and you exited, and were able to enter TBIT and the QFlounge there? There has been quite a bit of speculation whether that was possible. Any raised eyebrows at security or the QFlounge? (The latter I thought had been explicitly precluded on a T4 BP.)

 

[RooFlyer]

Thanks - good to know. Sorry for the diversion PF, looking forward to the next instalment

 

[Princess Fiona]

Arrived at DFW with a very comfortable transit time before my next flight. I absolutely love DFW, it's one of my favourite airports in the US in terms of layout and lounges. As I had just over three hours this was plenty of time for a shower and breakfast. I started off by going to the AC at A23. It has amazing showers and a gym if you are feeling energetic!!
View attachment 50756
View attachment 50757
Next I headed over to the D gates where my flight was departing and had breakfast at the Amex Centurion Lounge.
Boarded at 0830 for MIA.

 

[Princess Fiona]

DFW-MIA. This was a relatively rare int configuration B757

It even had seat back IFE

Felt truly spoilt
Uneventful flight to MIA and headed over to check out the brand new Amex Centurion Lounge there which had just opened the week before.
They were still doing some picture hanging

Nice lounge though, if a bit crowded. I find this is a common theme in MIA.
Boarded for final flight to BGI at 1700 and that's when the fun started :!:

 

[JohnM]

Arrived at DFW with a very comfortable transit time before my next flight. I absolutely love DFW, it's one of my favourite airports in the US in terms of layout and lounges. As I had just over three hours this was plenty of time for a shower and breakfast. I started off by going to the AC at A23. It has amazing showers and a gym if you are feeling energetic!!
View attachment 50756
View attachment 50757
Next I headed over to the D gates where my flight was departing and had breakfast at the Amex Centurion Lounge.
Boarded at 0830 for MIA.

Pics not showing, PF​.

 

[Princess Fiona]

Pics not showing, PF​.

I'll try to fix it up. On my iPhone at the minute so it's tricky

 

[boomy]

Enjoying the TR Princess Fiona.
I've never done SCs run before but it looks like fun. I assume all these AA flights are in F, how many SC you earn per flight on average?