The BEHEMOTH - 48K DONE4 with more than a few twists

[d15.in.oz]

I just wish Intra-Europe J was a little more spacious - closer to domestic US F...

Be careful what you wish for… imagine (for AFFers who travel domestically) if CityFlyer decided to introduce “those J seats” that are wound up to 3x3 (in Y) but wind down to 3x2 as the new Domestic Business Class and renamed the existing Domestic Business Class as Domestic First! (Would that be the best of both one worlds?)

 

[Keith009]

Great stuff mate - love ur writing style.
More please!

 

[simongr]

Hilton Arc de Triomph (“HADT”)

My first impression of the HADC are not great It looks quite old inside and being still a lowly HHonors blue I am not upgraded nor have access to the the Exec floor. They say that the thrill is in the chase. That may be true if hunting a stag through 11th Century England but it’s not the same when trying to get a better room in a hotel.

However when I really open my eyes and look around the hotel I see one of my favourite styles is everywhere – Art Deco. The hotel has such character – something lacking from the Hilton London Metropole and a few other places I have stayed. The room is huge by comparison to London and the style is very French.

I manage to grab a decent sleep for tomorrow is my first experience of France. The cab ride to the office is amazing. We have to drive through the Arc de Triomph which is like a ballet almost – it looks chaotic but it works perfectly. I hate to admit it but I think I am actually enjoying it here. I would love to drive through this – in someone else’s car!

After a day’s work it’s time for dinner. We have a nice if slightly strong G&T in the hotel Purple Bar (mrssimongr would love it). Following the advice of the concierge we head for Eugene – and a great dinner. My first decent meal of this trip – that’s since Friday and it is now Wednesday. I of course have a champagne aperitif followed by a massive capriccio of beef salad (I couldn’t finish it) followed by Chateau Briand in a morel sauce (real morels rather than the “wild mushrooms” you get in a lot of mushrooms) with Dauphinoise potatoes.

The next day is a little more experimental. We decide to eschew the concierge and find our own restaurant. After 20 mins of walking up to the ADT and back again and almost going to last night’s restaurant again we spy a café in the distance. The meal is fabulous and the atmosphere is, again, very French. People are smoking (not good), sharing champagne (excellent) and allowing dogs (muis bueno) in the restaurant. I have my first experience of snails – not in shell but in a wonderful garlic sauce.

The next day we are back to London. We finish quite early and have a great lunch at the station. The meal onboard the Eurostar isn’t great but the wine flows and books are being read. I am now done with books 1 and 2 and am galloping through 3. I know though that this weekend is going to “mental”.

 

[simongr]

Back at the Hilton Metropole London

When I get back to the hotel (bleh – better room at least but still the same hotel) I am still lost about what to do that evening. mrssimongr went to Potter 5 at the movies today and I am keen to watch – I have sought the advice of many FTers about a decent way to watch the movie – there is not an equivalent of Gold Class in London. I bite the bullet (after struggling with getting an internet connection in the room whilst trying to talk to my boss after the wine onboard ) and decide to go to the movie. What a disaster. The movie is great but the theatre is terrible (Odeon Marble Arch). The movie starts 45 mins after the advertised start time – and people are still arriving. The seat has less pitch than a QF whY seat! Overall a massive mistake on my part

Saturday is spent shopping for clothes as I still have no bags and no indication of an ETA. I get a couple of suits (on sale – so that wasn’t too bad), shirts a pair of shoes and a couple of ties (that was hard work).

On Sunday I hire a car and drive to the Sherwood Forrest Visitor’s Centre near Nottingham. Collecting the car is a slow process but the drive is not so slow. We surprise my Grandmother by having all the siblings in one place at one time – the first time in over 16 years! Then after a quick lunch it’s back to London to collect my suits after they have been altered to fit my giant legs

Finally I start to relax in London. I have a week (well five days) free of family commitments, shopping for clothes and dramas – however next weekend begins the real intensity – if I thought it had been hard so far the trials are just beginning.

 

[simongr]

Billy-Bob – second cousin twice removed of the BEHEMOTH

In the first week of my trip I got the fantastic and terrible news that one of my oldest friends has had her third baby in Bath (officially the greatest place on Earth). I had emailed asking if they were free the following Saturday and so far I had heard nothing – then mid week I get an email saying they would love to see me – thing just got interesting!

Just to give some context. When I started planning the BEHEMOTH I knew that I had one weekend when the new Potter book was released so I had planned a nice “me” weekend – basically a mileage run to DXB where I could fly out on Saturday night, have a sleep and read the book and just chill. Since then I have now thrown in the visit to friends and my parents are in country so I plan now to visit my brother’s family as well – this is going to be a monster weekend. Oh and another friend had another baby so that is Monday planned!!!

Being somewhat of a controls focussed planning person that I am I have Saturday and Sunday now planned to the hour almost – if anything goes wrong – I am fracked!

The plan is:

Sat 9am-11am – buy Potter book, look for very old comics not available in Oz and collect hire car
Sat 12am – 2pm – collect hire car and drive to Bath
Sat 2pm – 3pm – Buy new Bath Rugby shirt and T-shirt for mrssimongr
Sat 3:30pm – 5:45pm – Visit friends and see baby
Sat 6pm-8pm – Drive to LHR
Sat 8pm-9:40pm – LHR J lounge

Then flight to DXB and back

Sun 2pm-3pm travel to visit family
Sun 3pm-11pm dinner with family
Mon 6am-7am travel back to London
Mon 7am-8am freshen up in Hotel
Mon 8am – leave for work

I am thinking this wont be as relaxing as it could be!!!! The first spanner in the works is lunch in London on the Friday. I have been invited to a celebratory lunch with our European team. The lunch is planned to start at 2PM – so I know I wont be back after lunch but at least I will be back at the hotel by about 6PM. At 11PM when I stagger into the hotel and flop on the bed I realise that I probably didn’t need to add to the complication this weekend. At 6AM the next morning when I wake again I am feeling a little seedy…

But the show must go on. At 8AM I get a call – a call I have been hoping for but assuming it would never come “Mr simongr – we have a piece of luggage for you – can we deliver it now?” Being halfway to the shower I ask them to deliver in a bout 20 mins. In about 30 secs as if by magic the shopkeeper appear (oh wait that was Mr Ben – if I keep going like this the mice on the mouse organ will be fixing everything google it Bagpuss is the key word). Well I have one piece – sadly this is the piece I don’t want/need today. What is means is that I will have to return the beautiful Tumi tri-fold garment bag that I bought on Thursday – so now the morning includes that store as well. Well the game is afoot.

A quick taxi to Piccadilly has me at Tumi at 9:28 – it opens at 9:30. After minimal fuss the bag is returned and I am off to the Filofax store for mrssimongr. That doesn’t open until 10AM so I am kicking my heels a bit and listening to Mika. After that I negotiate through the back streets of London to the comic store (via a book store to get Potter) – they don’t have what I want and by now it’s time to think about the next stages of the weekend.

Into a black cab and back to the hotel. As I leave the hotel my mother calls and asks if I have seen the weather in the West of England. In summary there are the worst floods for 70 years and people have been sleeping in cars. A call to my friend in Bath and the weather there is fine. Ok so we can get to Bath but can we get to Dubai this evening. I gamble on the Bath trip.

A quick walk to Hertz is followed by the worst catalogue of poor service I have experienced. It takes 15 mins before I can even see someone. In front of me someone who changed their reservation is turned away as they just don’t have any cars. I am asked if I want to pay for an upgrade. Given I know that they are given away premium cars already I say no. I am offered an upgrade – but the passenger window is broken. Not a drama for me as I am alone, all alone.

Finally I get down to the garage and I wait for the car. A little chap says he is just getting the car and vanishes – 10 mins later I am fuming and another member of staff comes down and I point at the car I am expecting so he runs to get it. When he brings it down he explains that it doesn’t have a full tank so he will mark it down as being only a quarter and adjust my rental by £15 as well. However this isn’t getting me out of London any faster. The demon in me takes over and the I race up and down through the gears cursing that my GPS charger is in my bag that hasn’t been returned so I am negotiating London streets with a hazy 7 year old memory.

Finally I escape London’s clutches and the “drop the hammer” until that is the first, second, third and more set of road works – this is a painful drive and for every minute of it I am seeing seconds tick away from my time in Bath.

Eventually I leave the motorway and duck down the country lanes to Bath. Ordinarily this would be fun but I am stuck doing 40MPH in a 60MPH zone. Ever time we stop I feel like the car is almost panting – it wants to race away from me – at least this is fun.

I get to Bath at 2:45PM so I have time to get a new rugby shirt (not the latest strip but I will survive that). I try to get a gift for mrssimongr but the store has closed . It’s then a slow drive through Bath to my friend’s house. I arrive at 3:27 and they aren’t there but at 3:30 on schedule they arrive – two adults and three girls under 5!!!!!

I have a great couple of hours catching up after 7 years and the trials that got me here just fade away. This is definitely the hardest part of trip. Leaving Bath is a wrench. It is a beautiful place full of fantastic memories. I had forgotten how much I missed it until today. I am not sure I can face coming back here until I can come to stay and that is not planned until my retirement – and for reference purposes that is at least 25 years away

With a heavy heart and slightly heavier foot I am back on the road to LHR. I am both relaxed and stressed about this part of the journey. I have plenty of time. Take off is 21:40. I have no luggage and I leave Bath (roughly 90 mins to LHR) at 6PM. There are however too many variables – will the weather delays be causing queues at the airport, will the traffic jams outbound still be there, will I get caught speeding, will I drive a tad too fast and spin the car across 5 lanes killing a family of five leaving a small boy who will spend the rest of his life in torment at the stupid driver that killed his family. Five hours in a car by yourself gives you way too much time to think about things…

However on schedule I arrive at T4. I then turnaround and drive half way round the airport and drop off the hire car. Back to T4 and there are the infamous white tents for PAX. I am dreading the walkthrough and then the joining of the queue. Thankfully the chap in front of me asks for the F check in and is waved through. I take a punt on J and am also waved through.

Inside the terminal is a zoo – I can’t even see J check in. I do however see an empty self service check in so I use that and get both my LHR-DXB and my DXB-LHR BPs. I am thankful that I don’t have to explain my trip to anyone at this point. I am fastracked through security. In all it takes me about 8 mins from drop off by Hertz to be in the lounge. Now the reading can begin. I almost don’t want to start reading because know that if I start I will have to finish and that will mean that there will be no more expectation – there may even be no more Harry.

I start off in the Gate 1 lounge (still only Terraces rather than F) and am happily reading away. I go for the spicy tomato pasta and it really is spicy – a shame because the flavour itself is ok.

Then my worst fears are realised (actually not my worst fears – that involves me having to fly LHR-SYD in whY between a COS and a yapper of age) – the flight is delayed by about two hours. Thankfully I am on the same metal back from DXB to LHR so I am not concerned about missing my “connecting” flight. I go to check that and find that when I changed flight times they didn’t delete one of my flights. My electronic itinerary had me doing LGW-BGI on the 25th and the 26th. In fixing this I now have the discussion with the CS staff in the lounge as to what the heck I am doing. There is much gaping and incredulous looks. Anyone would think that breakfast in DXB was unusual…

The lounge closes at about 10PM and we are punted to the gate 10 lounge. This is not my preferred lounge – I don’t know why it just seems less special. The CS staff does an exceptional job dealing with an abusive pax and I sit and wait for my flight. I have already dealt with page 52 of Potter but I still need a glass of red to steady my nerves.

 

[simongr]

Journey – LHR-DXB
Flight no. – BA109
Class – Business
Seat – 10B

Eventually we board – about 2 hours late. On take off I am asleep again and when the seatbelt light goes out I am lying flat and it is lights out. I wake briefly to see the dinner cart pass me by and then it’s back to sleep. I wake again for breakfast which is a bit depressing – no bacon roll offered.

Umm was that the shortest trip report ever? Sorry about that – blame the wine or the airlines or JK Rowling – just don’t blame the messenger!

 

[simongr]

Journey – DXB-LHR
Flight no. – BA108
Class – Business
Seat – 10B

We land at DXB and I am out like a shot – although I have no idea where I am going. I am still airside (I think) and I actually hear my flight being called so I go to the gate to check whether I have time to get to the lounge. I do! So into the lounge I go and a little more reading but no time for a shower – and I can’t justify a beer – by my body clock it really is 8AM and there is no excuse for a beer at this time

Security is a pain – it is belt and braces removal but soon I am onboard and ensconced in my seat – and when I say that I mean my seat – my butt has been in this seat for the past 7 hours so it really is my seat.

Now the reading begins in earnest. I am up to about page 150 so I forecast the book should be done before I get to LHR. As above this is bittersweet. I of course accept the glass of bubbles onboard – I have applied the rule that when on an aircraft you are not technically tied to any real timelines.

The book is consuming – even during meal service I couldn’t put it down. Thankfully drinks service didn’t require my nose to be out of the book. I wasn’t keeping track but my glass was not often empty. The staff were doing a great job!!!

I have a lot of comments re Potter – people asking for details on the plot – which I refuse to divulge.

In terms of general observations – kudos to the family next to me – they had an exceptionally well behaved 5 year old. The Old Club World seats are just not comfortable. They are hard and short. And finally the screens on that 777 – they are smaller than a ipod Video!!! What a dreadful excuse for business class.

I am off the aircraft quicksmart as I have to get to south London to see family. I had not pre-booked HEX so I was in standard class for the price of First

It wasn’t too bad and I had time to head back to the hotel to find my second piece of luggage has arrived so I was able to grab the family gifts that were in there before I headed to see the family.

As ever that family location was a great night – plenty of wine and talk – really a relaxing night. Although at 7AM when I had overslept it wasn’t as relaxing!

Back to the hotel and a quick change and we are close to starting the journey home!!!

 

[tscharke]

mate, you even have my wife waiting in anticipation for the next chapter in the behemoth!!! however no matter how many times I try to explain the reasoning behind mileages runs she just no comprendi!!! she just sees all those lost opportunities to shop in places like London, NY etc......

 

[ioki]

what a weekend and how many "miles" did you cover in the end?

can't wait for the next installment!

 

[NM]

hehehe. This is like reading a Potter book and already knowing something of what happens later in the book .

 

[Shano]

And who would have thought an accountant could be so colourful......

 

[tscharke]

And who would have thought an accountant could be so colourful......

HEY! watch it buddy....there are more of us than you know here!!!

 

[NM]

HEY! watch it buddy....there are more of us than you know here!!!

Ahh, that explain it

 

[Keith009]

mate, you even have my wife waiting in anticipation for the next chapter in the behemoth!!! however no matter how many times I try to explain the reasoning behind mileages runs she just no comprendi!!! she just sees all those lost opportunities to shop in places like London, NY etc......

Tell me about it - except replace 'wife' with 'mum and dad.'

 

[simongr]

Journey – LGW-BGI
Flight no. – BA2153
Class – Business
Seat – 1D

Two more days in the office and my European odyssey is drawing to a close. Now that I have all my bags and my new clothes my luggage is a little overfull. Eventually after some jiggery pokery I am able to fill both bags and the Tumi isn’t too overloaded. I have however had to dump the Potter paperbacks that I bought on route – just absolutely no space.

I have booked the same car company for the journey to Gatwick just to make life a little easier. The journey to LGW takes me past Buckingham Palace, the Guards buildings, Westminster and quite a few other sights. It also takes me through Lambeth – what a range of contrasts from what I have been in for the past two weeks. It takes the full 90 mins allocated for the journey to LGW but finally we are there.

As last time LGW is a bit of a zoo but at least the queue for J check in isn’t too bad. Again the CS staff is a stunned mullet as she reads and re-reads my itinerary multiple times asking me if I am seriously deranged. My luggage is 1kg over the 32kg limit so I am told to take something out of the bag and put it in hand luggage. This then makes the hand luggage too large for the sizer until I take out my laptop. I am quite pleased I had a chance to test the Tumi in a sizer and that it passed. I had been concerned that it might be a little outside of the correct so this is a relief. The relief is short lived as the “Fasttrack” through security takes over 20 minutes. The staff are pretty good and sensible. I also feel my safety enhanced when after the WTMD I then have to remove my shoes and send them through a separate screener

Finally I am into the lounge and starting to relax. I am really looking forward to New York and my planned personal day on the Saturday. I am also daunted by the impending mileage run and marathon journey home. I just have time to see that some points have posted DXB-LHR but not the other way – that is until I check my QF account. I can see that my carefully sculpted plan of making EXP in time to use an eVIP for my JFK-NRT trip is looking in jeopardy – no points have posted from the AY flights and now the DXB flights have gone to the wrong account. I am going to have to suffer J for the 14 hours to NRT.

There are no calls in the lounge and I lose track of time a little (champagne and pain au chocolat will do that to you) and I arrive a little late at boarding. Again there is no priority boarding and I am stuck behind some old lady who is determined to get on the aircraft even though three people tell her that she is booked on a different flight.

On boarding I am told to turn left – I hadn’t really appreciated when I booked this seat that it was a two class 777 rather than three. Even though I boarded “late” the cabin is still very empty. Interestingly four VIPs board through the forward stairs. Not sure who they are but the staff are gushing with their gratitude that they are flying with us. The PAX themselves were equally polite and not a hint of DYKWIA was heard. What was heard was a screaming child boarding – I am now in fear for my sanity on this flight. Thankfully the noise doesn’t get much closer but is still there to be heard. What does board is a family of three including a 5 year old girl who sits down in 1E. I have 8 hours facing a 5 year old to contend with.

Shortly after take off the privacy screen is pulled across and my journey begins. It takes an awfully long time to get the IFE going and I then realise how bad old Club World IFE really is. Even with a larger screen on this 777, the lack of AVOD is startling – I am almost beginning to miss QF’s AVOiD! I watch “Hot Fuzz”, sleep through “Bourne Identity” and watch TMNT (really brings back memories that one).

Again though I am not able to get laptop power from the BA empower port so I really am stuck with the IFE. Thankfully lunch is served – a hilarious prawn salad (basically one real prawn and a heap of those miniature prawns you get in tins) precedes a nice chicken curry – however as the chicken is a whole breast the flavour only coats the outside rather than the permeating as it would if it had been in pieces. Dessert is however the best onboard dessert I have had – a Bourbon Biscuit Cheesecake – 100% yum!

Given the copious wine and early start it is not long before I doze. It is actually quite hard to sleep as the footstool end of the flat bed actually tilts down so my feet slide off.

Finally though we are at BGI. Deplaning is a debacle. One of trucks pushing the stairs breaks down so we go back to stair 2 – then they get stair 1 working and the BGI ground staff come up that one for paperwork – so the cabin crew need to push through the pax to hand over the paperwork. Finally we are on the ground at BGI – and the problems start here…

 

[simongr]

BGI – A terrible mistake

I know on the ground I need to collect my bags so that they can be rechecked. I have over 90 mins which is plenty of time. Or at least it would be if my bags came out quickly. But I am skipping to the middle of the story rather than the beginning. This time I know the immigration process so I am at the front of the “3 hours or less transit” queue. I get some incredulous looks from the immigration agent and a few shakes of the head. Then it is into the baggage hall.

I go straight to the baggage services counter to confirm my understanding of the process and I am informed by the same chick that guided me through the process last time that I do need to collect my bags. I go to the carousel and wait… and wait – I am seeing a theme here. I am starting to realise that I need to check in for my next flight as I suspect that check in closes at about 4PM. It is now 3:30PM and I have no bags.

Back to baggage services and they realise I was on BA going to AA so I was meant to be at another carousel. Still no luck there and it is now 3:40PM. Baggage services advise I should check in and come back for bags – I sprint through customs and to check in which is a complete mess. I am given my BP by an incredibly unhelpful member of staff who basically says if my bags are not back there by 4PM I will be on the flight but my bags wont be. I sprint back baggage services – back through customs the wrong way and still no sign of my bags until I spot them in the midst of a throng of people. It is now about 3:55PM and the baggage handler guys says that he will put them on the belt for me. I have a bad feeling about this but I have no choice as time has basically escaped me…

It is back through customs without a customs form as this was collected on my first trip through customs so there is a raised eyebrow – but a waved hand as well. I find my way back to departures through a very slow security function. Given that only the main departures area is air conditioned I am basically not at my most hygienic at this point I am quizzed as to what is in my hand luggage – my parents found some metal soldiers from when I was younger and had handed them over in London. They are fragile so I am very nervous when they start wanting to get them out. I stress them out so much that they wave me through – one might say that officialdom at BGI is perfunctory at best.

I find my way to the one and only lounge. Now this is a third party managed lounge so I am trying to work out what my access should be. As an AA Platinum I don’t have access to lounges on “domestic” itineraries – and BGI-JFK is “domestic” for these purposes. However I am on a same day international itinerary so should get access through that. I am also QF SG – but as this is a third party managed lounge I don’t think this actually counts. At the entrance to the lounge they are confused as my BP doesn’t have the required red sticker but after a little joking about pulling me out of the lounge after they check with AA – I make my way in.

After a frantic 60 mins this is a relief and it take me a few mins to calm down and breathe. That is aided by a few chips and a bottle of beer. I duck back out to the entrance to see if they call flights which they do. When I get back into the lounge I see an AA aircraft landing so I know there are a few minutes more relaxation due in the lounge. I am struggling with the free wireless in the lounge but manage to get connected as power is ebbing from the laptop. I squeeze out enough juice to hit up AFF, check if points have posted and check position on HHonors – I not obsessive much really.

The BEHEMOTH though really is taking shape and quite a few notes have been written already. Mostly the two page introduction (sorry about those random and rambling musings).

 

[simongr]

Journey – BGI-JFK
Flight no. – AA1384
Class – Business
Seat – 3A

Boarding is a total farce. We are called down to the gate and I get into the queue – which seems large for premium PAX. I quickly realise that this is the queue for people shipping bottles of rum back to the US. Is the rum really that bad in the US that you need to buy three bottles to bring home?

Finally they call Business class and fragile PAX to the gate. I then get to walk outside and stand in the sun for 10 minutes whilst they set up secondary screening. This is another pathetic effort by BGI. Another nod to security requirements that I assume are being imposed on them – when in fact the security check is nothing more than opening my bag and closing it again. We are further delayed boarding as we have to get the bus – have I mentioned how much I HATE getting the bus for a 100 metre walk? It just seems and unnecessary delay. Add to this that we have about 12 people needing wheelchair assistance and the boarding process is not just a debacle but a slow tedious humid debacle. BGI will not be on my Christmas list…

I board the AA 757 for business class. I must have had a 763 on the way to BGI last time I was here – this is a two class J/whY config (which is amazingly similar to my two class F/whY config on a later flight in a 757). The flight as ever is full to bursting – I haven’t had a single flight that wasn’t full on this trip.

I actually like the 757 F for “domestic” sectors more than for example Club Europe on BA and Business Class on QF. The seats are certainly more spacious – if a little older and tattier. I like the leather for these shorter flights (ha ha – a four hour flight is deemed short to me now – who would have though…) – I feel like I am sitting in a comfy recliner.

Pre-flight drinks are water and OJ (yup I can tell I am back AA). IFE is just the main screen presentation of “Breach”. I realise I haven’t got my cigarette lighter connector handy so not much use of the laptop for me after draining power in BGI.

I actually doze through “Breach” after dinner a dinner of grilled chicken with rice and beans. The wine is an excellent Australian Merlot so the dozing is somewhat induced. I am little concerned that having slept a bit on both flights that I might not sleep when I get to NYC – sleep was to be the least of my worries.

As we left a little a late it is 10:30PM before we start to land at JFK. Employing my “I can walk faster than you” style of speed walking through the Airport I am literally the first person off our flight to get to Visitors immigration. There are three immigration staff for Visitors and there are about 4-6 people in each queue ahead of me. It takes over 40 mins to get through immigration. The number of people who don’t have the right papers, don’t know what they are doing is astounding. It literally takes me 60 seconds to get through the immigration process – why does it take everyone else so long?

At last I am in the baggage hall and after some confusion regarding which belt we will be at I start my now traditional wait for my bags. A wait that unsurprisingly goes on for some time – about an hour in total and eventually the carousel stops and I come to the realisation that it has happened again. I am actually close to tears at this point. I just wanted the last few days of this trip to be easy not a scramble for new clothes and a lack of luggage on the way home so that I can’t really buy much whilst I am here.

I make my claim at baggage services and head out for a taxi/cab. I avoid the throng of people who are happy for me to skip the yellow cabs and go with them – “Jitneys” I think they are called. The cab driver is fine and gets me to the Doubletree on Lexington pretty quickly.

 

[garyjohn951]

Simon, as I mentioned in another post, when the caribbean, you are on "island time".
Secondly the rum is cheaper than the coke in Barbados, thats why they take as much as they are allowed. I bought a 1 litre top label rum for under $A10 bucks.

 

[dragonman]

Mate I really empathise about the luggage - daughter and I on a DONE4 last xmas and her bag was lost in transit CDG -YYZ never to be seen again. Having read this I realise I will never check a bag on a plane again. My stress levels rise just reading your brilliantly written reports. Good luck and keep them coming!

 

[drron]

And they line up with their rum because on AA it is no liquids in cabin.All that rum goes in with your luggage.Because rum is so cheap I have absolutely no recollection of my AA BGI-JFK flight earlier this year.Sat down in the exit row and promptly went off to sleep after the grumpy FA had her rant at those in the exit row opposite.