I'll start by reviewing the booking we made-it was done with e-bookers.com who initially seemed very good,however they didn't like my credit card so I had to book over the phone.The guy who made our booking insisted that we should take an earlier flight from ORD-LAS and also a flight from LAS-LAX that gave us only an hour in LAX.I wasn't particularly pleased but he said that our first choice flights were unavailable so we had no choice.I opted to collect the tickets from their
office in Tottenham Court Rd in London and was told to come in on Friday 11th Jan,but when I got there they said they weren't ready and I would have to come back another day.So E-bookers have so far not done very well,but they were the source of another problem which came up at check in,more on that later.
A few days later I went on AA.com and emailed them to check that one hour was going to be ok to transfer at LAX on the return-they sent me a standard 'Your custom is valued by AA' etc email to say they would reply shortly,two months later I'm still waiting.It was also annoying that it is not possible to find out what our baggage allowances would be without calling their office in the US.I was far from impressed by the AA website-particularly that there was no European or UK
version,just the standard AA.com which is designed for pax travelling within or from the US.
So Feb 23rd arrived and we found ourselves first in line for check in and after a short wait while the agents got themselves ready we went up to the desk and checked in.Neither myself nor my partner have been to the US before,we had only ever flown out of LHR eastbound to Europe/Asia before this flight,consequently we were unfamiliar with the idea of pre-allocated seats on flights
to/from America.On my previous trip to Australia we had pre-requested window seats but that turned out to be a complete waste of time as noone took any notice.Anyway we were informed that the only seats availble were middle seats-i.e no aisle and no window.I don't know how Ebookers trains their agents but it should have pointed out to us at the time that we booked the flights that we could/should book allocated seats.
The thought of 9 hours stuck in the middle seat (it's 2-5-2 on AA 772's by the way) was not a good start to the holiday,but I didn't let it get to me too much,and in any case we had plenty of time to kill before the flight.We had breakfast and then headed off to the airside part of Terminal 3,which is a very depressing place to be at the moment since it is effectively a building site and also because it's where my partner works,so for her it was like being at work.Our flight was
called just after 9am and we went through to the piers (which are a very boring part of LHR),I grabbed a quick photo of Virgin's 'Cosmic Girl' B744,a Brunei 767 and a couple of the UA 767 in the Star Alliance colours.We entered the gate area (gate 21) and I was waved through the security area without even having my hand luggage subjected to a secondary screening-my other half wasn't so lucky she was picked out for the random search and had to unpack EVERYTHING from her
hand luggage,she cleared security about five minutes after me.And then I looked out the window to see a gleaming 777 in bare metal standing in front of me.This was my first flight on a 777 and it was about to become a very memorable flight for good and bad reasons.At 0940 we got the boarding call and made our way through the air bridge on th the aircraft.Alot of people seem to rave about the 777 as being the best aircraft in the sky-I don't know why,I found it was a nice plane but not anything special,the way the overhead bins are designed is good and gives the
cabin a roomy feel about it but other than that it's very similar to other aircraft on the inside.
This is where it got interesting......By 1000 we seemed all set to go,the only thing that alerted me to a
possible delay was the lack of a tug attatched to the front of the aircraft.Push back time of 1005 came and went and a few minutes later the F/O came over the intercom to inform us that the cabin crew were unable to close one of the doors on the right side of the aircraft due to some problems with the inflatable emergency slide,and that it may be necessary to change aircraft.So we continued to sit on the aircraft which was being buffeted quite severely by the strong winds at LHR that day.Being sat where we were made things worse as we had nothing to look at
through the window and the PTV's were not yet switched on.Three quarters of an hour later we
were informed by the F/O that there was no replacement a/c available and that it was necessary
to move passengers away from the affected door and find new seats for them,which would be interesting as the affected passengers were in business class.About ten minutes after the musical chairs began we had another announcement from a member of ground staff to say that a replacement aircraft had suddenly become available which would now be 'fed and watered'
for us.In the meantime we had to return to the gate which we did at around 1120.On our minds during all of this was the fact that we were scheduled into ORD at 1240 and we had a connecting flight to LAS at 1458,although the gate staff were already announcing that once we were airborne passengers would be rebooked from ORD where neccesary.
Back in the deperture lounge we were given a new departure time of 1200,which then became 1215 and then 1230,although it was 1240 when we actually got called to board.We boarded our new aircraft (N786AN) via the stairs at the end of the pier and a bus from gate 22 to stand 26.By now it was 6 hours since we checked in and we were all getting a little restless.Having been on N771AN for an hour and a half,and back in the departure lounge for a further hour and twenty minutes and still some way off taking off let alone reaching cruise altitude we were hungry and
thirsty,I found it very poor that not only were we now around three hours late and facing a further delay in ORD due to missing our LAS flight (AA1243),but we had been provided with no refreshments during our protracted stay on the ground at LHR-not even so much as a cup of water,made worse by the fact that we were prevented from leaving the departure lounge for security reasons.
By 1300 we were back in 37E+F on our replacement aircraft,and just awaiting the loading of some cargo which took another few minutes and we were at last on our way.We taxiied past a Nigerian 742 and an MEA 320 before taking our place in the inevitable queue for 27R behind a Malev 737.Finally at 1335 we took off,a mere 3 and a half hours late.
It was a particularly rough climb due to the strong winds but once we cleared around 18000ft it smoothed out quite alot.Our initial route took us over South Oxfordshire,South Gloucestershire and across South Wales to the port of Fishguard after which we croosed the Irish Sea (referred to on the skymap as The Celtic Sea) reaching Ireland just south of Waterford and a few miles to the south Shannon airport before starting the long haul across the Atlantic,with a cruise
altitude of 34000ft.
Up to the point of departure my impression of AA was not a good one,but I'm pleased to say that the in flight experience was excellent.Around half an hour after take off we had the drinks service accompanied by the obligatory peanuts.I didn't pay a great deal of attention to the IFE,I only use it for the skymap usually-unless there is a particularly good movie or something,which there wasn't.The meal service arrived at just over an hour later and was probably the best meal I've had
on a plane,the choice was salmon or chicken and I went for the chicken.After that I went to sleep for a while,waking up as we crossed Canada at 39000ft.We passed just to the North of the Island of Newfoundland,just north of Quebec and Montreal over Lake Huron followed by a left turn over Michigan before we headed directly onto the approach for 27R at ORD.Before this we had some more food about an hour before we landed,again the food was excellent-Pizza this time!
Touchdown was at about 1600,and we to got gate M10 at 1605.On our way to the gate we passed a JMC 767 and an Air2000 aircraft,and we parked between a BMI330 (G-WWBM) and a BA777 (G-YMMK),it was just like being back in the UK again.After collecting our luggage and clearing customs we were directed to the AA agents who rebooked us on AA1717-which was the very flight that Ebookers said we couldn't get on.We then got the monorail to Terminal 3 and made
our way through the security areas,at this point I had to prove that my camcorder was the genuine article and my partner had to drink some of her water to prove it wasn't some sort of poison or something.We wandered around the the terminal area for a while and got something to eat before we prepared to board the aircraft.
AA1717
Departure 1944 (Chicago)
Arrival 2141 (Pacific)
Aircraft MD-80 (Super 80) N406AA
We were allocated 28E+D which is adjacent to the rear emergency exit which meant we got plenty of legroom,push back was a few minutes late at 1950 with takeoff from 27L at 2000.Our route took us west to Des Moines and Omaha,then down to Colorado Springs at around 28000ft,then heading down to the Grand Canyon,I had been asleep for most of the previous two hours (it was now around 0530 GMT and I'd had only had around three hours sleep on the way over from LHR.
I woke up to see the bright lights of Vegas as we crossed the mountains which circle the city.We then made a slight right turn and picked up the ILS for runway 25R and landed at around 2135.
We finally collected our luggage and got a cab to the 'Stratosphere' at about 2200.We actually arrived at the hotel exactly 24 hours after we had checked in at LHR and despite all the delays I would say was a good journey-the in flight experience on both flights was excellent and my only complaint about the days travelling would be the lack of food or drink during our delay at LHR.
For those of you with flight sims the route (VOR's) we took from LHR was LHR-CPT-STU-Shannon-YBC-VBS-YEE-TVC-PMM-ORD then ORD-JOT-IOW-PWE-GLD-HBU-GCN-LAS.These may not be 100% accurate but they are as close as I can make them to the route we actually took.
Thanks for reading....
Matt
you can't buy time but you can sell your soul and the closest thing to heaven is to rock'n'roll
Lufthansa747 From Philippines, joined May 1999, 3119 posts, RR: 51 Reply 1, posted (10 years 2 months 2 weeks 4 days 14 hours ago) and read 2346 times:
Interesting trip report!
Your wait without even any drinks sounds pretty bad - even NWA managed to get some warm soft drinks and a bucket of ice to the gate area when my KLM flight was 3.5 hours late.
I have found Ebookers.com to be just terrible - they can't get anything right. After trying to book a longhaul flight with them twice, I swear never to book anything with them again unless they have some really great deals.
First, I booked a Lufthansa flight AMS-SYD with ebookers.nl. My booking was done well within the offer/ticketing period and their rules state that they'll do the ticketing etc on the following work day. Now, this lady called me three days later just to inform me that my booking has been cancelled. She also said that there is no such fare which was utter crap since the fare was listed at Lufthansa.nl.
Second try was with ebookers.fi and as soon as I requested a certain fare basis, she started laughing and told me that such fare is not bookable. I booked it five minutes later obviously from someone else than ebookers.
J-bird From United Kingdom, joined Feb 2001, 102 posts, RR: 0 Reply 2, posted (10 years 2 months 2 weeks 4 days 11 hours ago) and read 2292 times:
Good report, especially interesting for me because I fly the ORD-LHR-ORD route with AA quite often. I must say, it does sound as though you got bad luck with your flight - I've never had any problem like that.
I guess the worst that's happened to me was two weeks ago when upon arrival at Heathrow (on another very windy day), there was no gate for us. We had to wait in the plane an hour as it was gradually unloaded via a bus.
Other than that, my service has always been excellent and I agree with you - the Pizza is excellent! Highpoint of my flight (I guess I please easily).
Anyway, enjoy Vegas and hopefully have a better trip back.
Ryanair!!! From Singapore, joined Mar 2002, 4608 posts, RR: 30 Reply 4, posted (10 years 2 months 1 week 6 days 6 hours ago) and read 2166 times:
Excellent trip report! I must say AA sure has good in flight service! I had a similarly good flight from HNL-LAX way back when they still flew the DC10s. I guess the Aloha spirit was on board and cheerful middle aged women served the aisle! Felt like Golden Girls all over again! Hehehe...
Cheers
Ryan
Welcome to my starry one world alliance, a team in the sky!
KHI747 From Pakistan, joined Oct 2000, 1600 posts, RR: 1 Reply 6, posted (10 years 2 months 1 week 4 days ago) and read 2092 times:
Good trip report....infact i just got back from Vegas myself. Did you take the rides on the top of the stratosphere? The free fall one was just amazing...how did you fare in gambling ?
Qantas744 From United Kingdom, joined May 2004, 246 posts, RR: 6 Reply 7, posted (10 years 2 months 1 week 3 days 12 hours ago) and read 2055 times:
The last thing I did before I booked the tickets was to go back to expedia/travelocity etc to check the fares one more time,but ebookers were offering a considerable saving on the other sites which is why I booked with them.A couple of weeks later I booked some LHR-AMS flights on opodo.com and they sent the tickets post free-they arrived the next day! I've never tried expedia but I check their fares frequently and they generally come out as the most expensive option-not by a great deal though.
No we didn't do the ride at the top of the Stratosphere,I was quite happy to stay up there watching the action at McCarran! Being hotel guests meant we could go up and down the tower all day for only $5.The only time we got lucky on the casinos was on our last day-we stopped in one as we walked down the road that goes past the end of the runway (near the Welcome To Fabulous Las Vegas sign) we put 25c in a machine and got $4 back.I'm not really a gambling type person (not casino gambling anyway) and we only spent around $10 on the slots etc all week.
Matt
you can't buy time but you can sell your soul and the closest thing to heaven is to rock'n'roll
Chepos From Puerto Rico, joined Dec 2000, 5826 posts, RR: 14 Reply 8, posted (10 years 2 months 1 week 3 days 12 hours ago) and read 2052 times:
Great trip report.
I also had a 3 hour delay with AA and we also got nothing, on the other hand my uncle had an 8 hour delay with AA again and he got a dinner vouvher. Concerning inflight service I must say AA has improved greatly, on my flight yesterday the f/a's were nice and cheerful they also walked around the cabin to see if pax needed anything . Way to go AA, they've converted me to an AA fan. I hope you enjoyed Vegas it's a wonderful city.
Chepos
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