Catching the Platinum Express

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Routing;
MEL-SIN-LHR-CPH-HEL-PRG-LHR-ORD-MCO-ORD-BOS-ORD-LAS-ORD-MIA-SJU-MIA-ORD-LAS-LAX-DFW-MIA-SJU-MIA-DFW-LAX-MEL
45,597 BIS miles.
92.7 Hours in the air.


Part I

Hi Everyone,
Here’s my trip report, where I caught what I’ll term as the ‘Platinum Express”

First up, it’s the big, long hairy outbound sector MEL-LHR n QF9.
I booked this leg as part of a RTW ticket (Plated by AA to save on taxes.)

I virtually never go to NZ, so couldn’t be bothered doing a departure ex AKL to save more (time sensitive – just not enough days in the week!)
So I was booked in whY in the most god awful seat of 53K, everything decent was taken, so I didn’t have much choice, I put in for a points upgrade, and true to form the new QF upgrade process worked fine, some T-20 I received a text and was allocated 18B in J - 96k points lighter, but a whole lot happier!

The next morning I busily finished packing my bag and headed to the airport around noon, The check in agent had trouble with my booking and had to get a supervisor on the phone to help, I was rather worried that my J seat had been “enhanced” but it came through, incidentally, my surname is not hard to say, the 6 different pronunciations you gave on the phone to the supervisor were rather entertaining J - Mr McNugget being one of them! (You can now call me chicken if you like) – My wife did have a heck of a laugh at my expense.

As a QF SG, I couldn’t Flounge, so I was in at the Mel Intl J lounge, and ill be honest it is rather depressing, it’s got no view and damn uninspiring, so I basically had a quick drink and a bit of fruit and left again. The walk around the terminal in Mel is also boring, but it is good to stretch my legs. (the terminal section at MEL intl which has gates 4-9 around it is in dire need of renovation, and really do they need any more shops selling ugg boots and koogi jumpers? But I digress.....

Onboard the plane, I normally take a window seat, but this time I had an aisle, and to be honest in J, an Aisle is better, I could come and go as I please. I had a great seat buddy, a very nice lady who was a real pleasure to talk to. The CSM from MEL/SIN was a great guy and turned out knew my brother in law pretty well (QF intl FA) so we had a good gas bag. Qantas staff were very cheery and excellent. Meals on Board were good without setting the world alight, but to be honest the only reason I upgraded to J was for the Skybed MkII.
I watched a couple of movies and stayed awake until Singapore, the QF staff were great and whilst not bribing them with chocolate I did hand out some goodies to the crew who served me (at the end after the flight)

Landing in Singapore, I caught up with a SIN based co worker who was flying from SIN to CPH via HEL on Finnair, He has no OW status so I guested him into the SIN J Lounge without any issue.
I really don’t know why I bother with that lounge, the airport is big enough and has enough stuff to see that you should stretch your legs, so we left there and went and looked at the orchids and generally caught up.
Boarding was only an hour after landing so it was pretty much on/off in quick succession. A new Crew on board, an all English crew, which to be honest was hit and miss, I had 2 great FA’s and 2 lousy ones, the CSM was also English, which I found a little unnerving (for no good reason) but it really felt like I was on BA. Food again was ok without being outstanding, and I donned the new famous Qantas PJ’s with aplomb and promptly went to sleep for 6 hours. I then dozed and relaxed until breakfast and then landing at LHR. I again left goodies with the Nice FA’s not the evil ones.

QF9 Rankings:
Service 7/10 The two FA’s on the last leg stopped it from being a 8.5
Hard Product: 9/10 the skybed mark II on an A380 is a winner.
Seat 18B, a good seat without being specatular. (8/10) 4 Babies on board in row 16 (all FA’s and their babies) all were fantastically we behaved and were really looked after by the crew.

Heathrow. This held some trepidation for me, the long queues, the bad service, the lounge dragons and of course BA in General.
Well the T3-T5 transfer was done in 22 minutes, not a queue anywhere, no waiting for a bus, nothing, just straight through, yes it is a 7 day camel trek down the walkways, but this was a total breeze, I’ve never seen so many staff there to help at an airport before.
I then hopped straight into a shower, again no waiting simple and easy. As one of my darling children has given me the start of a head cold, the shower was quite a godsend.
I then headed into BA galleries South (the further one away) and it was excellent! – awesome view, (plane spotting was great 10 aircraft queues all the time!) good food and plenty of seats. This lounge is easily better than any QF J lounge. Now I’m not sure what happened but there was a lot of chit chat with a lounge dragon, we exchanged pleasantries, chatted about the weather where I’m off to, and why, etc, dragon she was not. Admittedly it was 6am and there was no queue, but it was great and she didn’t deserve her moniker – upon leaving the lounge I also dropped off a little something to her to thank her for her hospitality.

(View from the BA Lounge South Heathrow)

The BA flight, was well, average... The food was ok, I’ve certainly had worse, but I’ve also had better. But what was really pretty bad was the plane, it was the most decrepit Airbus I’ve ever set foot in, it seriously felt like an old Ansett A320 The seat pitch is the tightest I’ve ever seen, and the seats are cough. But we left on time, and arrived early, so I’ll put that down into the “any landing which I survive is a good landing” bucket.

BA Snack on the flight to CPH



Cont......

 

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Part II

Copenhagen airport is a very busy airport in terms of space and people, the arrival hall and departs hall in T3 is all together, so there was people everywhere! A quick Trip down the escalator to wait for the train. (the train service in Denmark is great and if you need transit to the city or onto other locations I give it a thumbs up)
I had several colleagues who were grounded by the bankruptcy of Cimber airlines, so a few more guys had to get the train/bus combo to our final destination, Billund. Again the trains/busses in Denmark are great.
So after 5 days it’s time to leave. luckily a colleague from Germany drove up and he was able to drop me off at the train station, because have never seen rain like it before, I would have been drenched.
A 3 hour trip and the same train from Vejle direct to Copenhagen airport. Then it was Finnair from CPH to HEL and then onto PRG. (Finnair departed from T2 at CPH which is a 2 minute walk from the train and was easy to get through, as a SG, I used the priority boarding pass line, and after a tiny debate about getting my extra case on, the check in lady checked bags through and gave me a security fast pass. There was no need as they were all standing around. The security guy asked me if I was flying home, he said how he wishes he could go too, but sadly not just yet. I don’t think there could have been a more opposite experience from TSA anywhere in the world than what I had in CPH.

AY whY Lunch meal.

Flight AY666 (the flight to HELL) was uneventful, I had selected an exit row on the AY site, and also had a shadow next to me, 1.20 minutes and slept the whole way. Only a drink was served on the flight. The AY plane felt new, it was very clean and very comfy seats. We landed and taxied off terminal so were bussed. My first trip to Helsinki was an eye opener, it is a very busy airport and in fact it was pretty much packed! The AY lounge above gate 25 was also packed, and for those that want a similar comparison experience, think BNE QF J lounge, 5pm Friday night with all QF flights behind by 4 hours.

So ever so sunny Prague, I stayed at the courtyard Marriott right at the airport, which was very convenient for the meetings I had the next day, which was in a small town on the western side of Prague. What was amazing was the sights of the former communist powers, in the town which I had to visit; Kladno, was what I can only describe as the biggest steel mill I had ever seen in my life, it was massive! My driver told me that it pretty much now sits empty and mostly derelict, again another sign of times gone past.

One thing I will say about the Czech republic, I don’t think I have met a more friendly bunch of people anywhere, there we amazingly gracious and helpful, and once knowing I was an Aussie were even more so, regaling me with tales of their aunt and uncle who have moved to Australia.

Prague Airport is a breeze, in, out, little fuss nice and simple.


CONT....

 

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PART III

Leaving Prague, I was on a BA flight to Heathrow, connecting with AA to ORD, then AA onto MCO. This was going to be a long day, I had planned this in advance, and I knew to savour the small things. The BA flight was on time, the Lounge in Prague is small and given I left early, essentially deserted.

The flight arrived at T3 (there was a bit of debate about this terminal, as others had caught this flight and arrived at T5) but it is now T3, which suited my connection to ORD with AA. T3 was packed, did I say packed? I’ve seen less people at the MCG on grand final day. I had a bit of a look around for a new book as I had finished my previous one, and T3 has plenty of good shops. Then it was off to the AA lounge, what was interesting was the immigration people inside the lounge before you hit the dragons, I got asked 20 questions, then was allowed to bow at the dragon altar.

The AA lounge at T3 is how does one put it – underwhelming, it’s about half as good as the AA lounge at ORD. Anyway the flight was on time and was boarding with plenty of time to spare. It was a 777-200 which although has some program choice in its IFE, it’s pretty basic, what I didn’t enjoy was the guy next to me, Bob from Wichita who had been to a shriners convention and decided to tell me all about it. Ironically even my latest Bose noise cancelling headphones could not defeat the end level boss from Wichita. (Incidentally, the BEST comb-over I have ever seen, sensational! – I dare suggest it could be seen from the moon).

I managed to watch 1 movie, and then dozed on and off until landing in ORD. Custom at ORD was awesome, there was no queue at all and straight through. Luggage took no time and it was off on the train to the domestic terminal. This was my first of many experiences with TSA, and was long but painless. Tip for those who get boarding passes not printed by AA staff, get them re-printed so you get priority access printed on them, invaluable!

AA whY Lunch

The showers in ORD at the AA dom terminal are awesome, I highly recommend them, and if you are there, please pick up my toothbrush and toothpaste I left behind.
The flight to MCO was on time and no issues, I was so tired I just slept the whole way, mainly thanks to an exit row.

Arriving in MCO, I stayed at the Hyatt inside the airport terminal, this was great! So simple and easy, I had meetings early the next morning, so was simple and convenient. Tip, if you stay here, ask for an internal facing room, you can leach the airports wireless instead of paying the stupid rates they were asking for. There is also plenty of places to eat in the MCO terminal so getting food wasn’t an issue.

I Also managed to find an awesome pop culture reference, for those that have seen the documentary, and if you haven’t you REALLY need to: The King of Kong!
(sadly no version of Donkey Kong there though!)

The next day was all meetings, I hired a car and drive to my meetings, I had driven in Orlando before and found it easy, so decided to go that way again. As I was staying at the airport it was easy to pickup/drop off the car. The next day I had a early flight to BOS via ORD, so again the airport was the logical choice. Even though I have no status with Hyatt, it was a no brainer.

Flights with AA again ran on time, no issues at all, as these legs were in whY no food again, but plenty of options in ORD to grab a quick bite. Arriving in BOS, I had to again grab a car for a 3 hour drive to my next series of meetings in Connecticut. I could have flown into Hartford/Springfield, but I do love the drive from Boston to Springfield. If you avoid the Massachusetts turnpike, you drive through some of the most amazing scenery it is one of my favourite drives without question.

CONT....

 

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PART IV

So 3 days in sunny Connecticut of meetings with some colleagues, then it was time to drive back to Boston, I drive back a different way through a small town called Wrentham, which is your best bet for outlet malls in Massachusetts. I managed to get most things which Mrs Reload had tasked me with getting. I also had to replace my ageing warrior suitcase. “Spot” my samsonite case was 15 years old and had a busted wheel, so sadly he was abandoned and replaced with a new Tumi hardshell, which I must say I really like! I picked it up for a stupid price which is perhaps why I love it so much.

I stayed at the courtyard at Boston logan airport, I was using Marriott points for this stay which made it nice and cheap They even pick you up from the rental car drop off area at avis so you don’t have to go back to the airport to then get the shuttle bus. Excellent service.

A 6am flight to Vegas via ORD awaited me, again in whY which was the third last coupon on my work RTW ticket. AA again had no issues, flights on time, and even landed in Vegas 40 minutes early. I certainly have had no complaints about AA up to this point. Some of the travelling passengers on the other hand.... well you get them everywhere don’t you....

So Vegas, well jeez it was hot, it was 103 and the second I left the terminal it hit me, my goodness, it was also blowing a gale which wouldn’t have helped. I grabbed a cab, when In Vegas I choose to stay at “the HOTEL” at the Mandalay bay, it is great, and I know a host there who is super cool and has a thing for Aussie accents, so always works well. I got a day rate on a room there, as I arrived at 3pm and my first status run flight of this trip left at 12.50am to ORD.

Basically all I did in this short time was have a shower, get changed and then finish off the shopping list given to me by SWMBO and the TWMBO (the twins who must be obeyed) I got the rest of the goodies for them, so that was done. I then repacked both suitcases, and left them at the hotel to be looked after while I did my status run. So it was off to SJU via ORD and MIA. As the flight left Vegas at 12.50pm I slept from the second I sat down until the wheel touched the tarmac at ORD, I did not even wake for ascent/descent popping of ears etc. It actually gave me a fright when we landed.

The lady next to me drooled all over her AA blanket, we did have a good laugh, although I was concerned about the number of face lifts she had undertaken, she looked like she had been stuck in a wind tunnel for a few hours. – I have no idea what the service in F on this flight as I was not conscious.

CONT.....

 

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PART V

The next flight ORD to MIA (again after a shower which really picked me up) was great, I was given breakfast

I chose the omelette over the cereal, I have had the cereal before its pretty lame. The omelette reminds me of Ansett, so I chose that J I had never been to MIA before, only MCO a few times, so it was good to see a new airport, it’s a monster airport, no doubt.

We then had an old AA 757 for the flight to SJU. I had so far managed to avoid them, but had no choice on this one. And guess what? You guess it, it had problems, first the APU was broken, then the flight data computers were kaput, so the plane went Unserviceable. I was pretty worried because I was catching the 6am flight back out of SJU the next morning. Anyway after 3 hours they managed to fix it, and away we went, the 757’s are cough. The old brown seats are shisenhousen.

An interesting spot was the AA premium cart, for those DYKWIA who are very comfortable with their sexuality enough to wear pink.

Landed in SJU, when landing there it felt I was in another world, the rusty 1950’s look of the place has a hell of a lot of charm, if anyone has ever played the computer game “tropico” it is exactly like that! I stayed at the best western at SJU, again for sheer convenience, basically right off the plane and into the hotel. One of the reason I chose this SC run was because of the internal USA nature of Puerto Rico. I didn’t feel comfortable in quick transiting a South American country.

If anyone stays at the best western, head out of the terminal and go to buffalo wings sports bar over the road, it looks dingy as heck from the outside, but inside its great and local service too. The staff were awesome, sat at the bar and ate food while chatting to the staff, the whole place was full of locals, so that to me means the place must be good.
The best western is very tired and dated, but it is clean and has a bed, so again it was ideal.

My flight left at 6am, and on a 757 I was dreading it would be the same one, but thank god it wasn’t, it was A 757 but had a much newer interior which was very pleasing! It was still an old and cough plane, but it was better than the other rust bucket. The AA club at SJU is good, again it was pretty well empty.

The return flights back to Vegas via MIA and ORD were uneventful, the omelette again for breakfast, and a chicken salad for lunch. All flights were again on time or earlier and had no issues. When leaving MIA, I saw a dreamlifter (pictures attached) which was pretty damn neat! And then in ORD, there was a big NATO meeting going on, and there were a lot of govt jets in at O'hare, including a USA 757 and 737, I also saw a Czech jet and from what I could see a German and RAF plane too. The plane spotting nerd in me was happy!

Drealifter in MIA.

US Govt Jets in ORD.

CONT....

 

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PART VI

Arriving back in Vegas, I went to the hotel, grabbed my luggage, and checked in, now it was time to relax! I played some poker and coughs, I lost a hundred bucks for the night but had a great time. The next day I had a super long spa session booked in with massage etc, it was awesome and just what I needed between stats runs. If you have the time, instead of killing yourself on a series of flights, I highly recommend just taking 24 hours out of it and treating yourself, it makes the whole thing a lot more bearable!

Some fine dining at LAS airport. - I wonder is she knows Abe Froman?

So now I picked up on my RTW ticket again and got the last flight to LAX.
Vegas was good without being great, I think, with no hard evidence that it has gotten way more expensive a place, food generally seemed to be more expensive than when I was there last. Certainly as I was there for the weekend the crowd was there which would not have helped.
The best bit was the bogan factor I'm just so glad that our bogans pale in comparison to the US bogans on bucks nights or hens nights, I saw a few things from visitors which would have made people on Patpong road shake their heads.

The whY flight to LAX was also easy, and I was staying at the Airport Marriott there, again using points, the elite check in desk had everything ready for me, so that was sweet. Basically headed straight to bed, ready for the early flight on my next Status run.

The next day I was up at 4am ready for my 6am flight to SJU via DFW and MIA, whilst this one didn’t earn as many SC’s it was still damn good value. Another 757, gosh they suck, did I mention that? Oh and again, the same choice of omelette or cereal, absolutely ZERO meal variations! The same stuff over and over. This was also my QF WP qualification flight! Hooray! Back to WP, I had only been a SG for 6 months, and now have 18 months of WP ahead of me.

Lunch from DFW to MIA was again the same chicken salad, at least when I have done multiple flights with QF in the same week I always get different meals, AA’s meals while good and tasty were so repetitive! (see pictures)

(AA F lunch meal choice 1. Chicken Salad)

(AA F Lunch choice 2. Toasted Chicken Sandwich.)

AA F Dinner, Mushroom pasta.

CONT....

 

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PART VII

Arriving later in SJU I had even less time so I basically checked into the best western again and went straight to sleep, another early start for what would be my longest day of flights ahead.

Here’s a picture of the SJU Admirals club, and it also shows why it is deserted, 99.9% of Americans would be confused as hell and give up.

A 737 back from SJU this time whish was great, I slept on the morning flight, avoiding the omelette or cereal yet again. Lunch from MIA to DFW was the same again! Yawn! And then a snack into LAX.
That was the end of my 17 AA flights. Here’s my ratings.

AA in whY;
Service 2/10 Meh. – nuff said.
Hard Product: 7/10 most of the time I had an Exit row so that made me happy. 757’s are cough, the MD80’s leak!!!!!

AA in F
Service 7/10 Older demographic FA’s but they knew their stuff, no complaints from me, but they were far from outstanding.
Hard Product: 6/10 the 757 F seats are rubbish, others are passable and still remind me of J with Ansett.
Meals: 6/10 the same stuff over and over and over! It was ok, but got sick of it pretty quickly, compared to QF dom J food they are cough.

So I went back to the LAX Marriott where I had a room again on points, where I could wash up, pack up my luggage and chill out until heading back to LAX for the flight home, it was great to have this room where I could sort everything out, have a nice meal, sit down and feel human before the flight home. I ended up having dinner with some Jetblue flight crew in the hotel lobby bar/restaurant while we watch some NBA. They were very cool people and I going to try them out next time I'm in the US.

So back on the QF bird to MEL, gosh it was good to hear another Aussie accent! Hooray! I had 80k for the flight home, back in whY, I have never flown in aA380 in whY before, so it was a good test. It is a good seat with plenty of room, I had a shadow next to me, (not that it makes a difference as you can’t put the armrest up) but at least I could put things in that seat. The plane was 2/3 full so lots of room.

I went to sleep immediately prior to take off and woke up some 5 hours later. I took some sleeping tablets and woke up with about 3 hours to go, time for a quick movie, some breakfast and then home to see the family! Hooray!

QF have yet to really mess up, and this again was another good flight, the FA’s are cool, I had a chat in the galley after waking up.
Some time during the flight all my AA flights from the previous days had posted and I landed as a WP which made zero difference to anything, hehehehe.

CONT....

 

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Part VIII

So here’s some pointers and recommendations for those who are thinking about SJU as a SC destination;

• SJU is a great place given its USA relationship, it is TSA security but no crazy stamps in your passport.
• You can overnight in SJU easily and depending upon your timings may never have to leave the airport.
• Break up your SC runs, spend a day in a place like SJU or Vegas in a resort and relax. Get a day spa treatment or something to relax and unwind, your health and sanity are worth more than squeezing in some more flight time.
• Whilst I had no issues with missed connections that many flights it is bound to happen, so allow for catch up time in case.
• Do not travel with luggage on the LAS-ORD-MIA-SJU or LAX-DFW-MIA-SJU legs, the connections are very tight and there was multiple occasions whereby the plane was waiting for pax from our flight and as on as we go on the plane left, there is no way luggage would have made it.
• AA is a very ordinary legacy carrier, its planes are pretty ordinary, and ideally I would choose a different carrier in the USA (Although aren’t they all the same) but the whole One World emerald thing is too hard to pass up given how cheap it was to attain.

 

[Katie]

And then in ORD, there was a big NATO meeting going on, and there were a lot of govt jets in at O'hare, including a USA 757 and 737, I also saw a Czech jet and from what I could see a German and RAF plane too.

Huh, I was at a conference at one of the hotels at O'Hare at that tme.

 

[Shelf]

Great TR!

You know Abe Froman aswell