Flight & arrival

Today's photos

It turns out that the seating plan online was wrong, although we have the same sort of seats they are not by the exit or bulkhead, perhaps they do this just to confuse people.

We eventually took off about an hour late, at least we are on the way and should be less than an hour late getting in, hopefully. The flight is completely full so there isn't any chance of swapping seats get a bit nearer to Jane and you can't even cross to the next aisle on this plane so I can't even go over for a chat, but there seems to be plenty of legroom at least even with the seat back in front of me.

I'm sure lunch will be round soon, but I just want a tin of beer.

1 hour in and we are at 34,000 feet doing 555 mph with 3300 miles to go or in plain English (no pun intended) about 6 hours 45 minutes. One thing I did notice is the air pressure reading on my smart watch that was 1012 hPa on the ground & has now dropped to 797 hPa but nobody has popped yet so it can't be a bad sign. The WiFi doesn't work on here or least my phone doesn't want to connect, but we have our own entertainment when I can get over to where Jane is and switch it on then we can both stream video from it to our phones or tablet. 

Airlines never cease to amaze me on how you can make lunch so crap, it's that bad I've chosen to leave it & I'm not a picky eater so I will just stick with the beer. I think we have only ever been on one flight where the food was edible and that was with Delta but by far the worst was Virgin Atlantic to San Francisco, on an 11-hour flight that turns into a 14-hour flight you have little option but to eat the crap. 

At 3 hours in everyone is fed up & wandering about, Jane looks like she watching something interesting & I'm playing with my phone & tablet, I have managed to produce a short video about 3 minutes long completely off-line. 

1 hour & 30 minutes to go and this is when I start to feel like I've had a stroke, the pizza slices are a bit on the spicy side, but I'm starving so scoffed that and washed it down with a beer.

At the moment it looks like we will be 30 minutes late getting in which will put us at 2 p.m. local time. 

We seem to be making a rapid descent as my ears just popped twice & the air pressure on the watch is zooming up.

We were only 30 minutes late getting in as predicted & there was somebody to help push the wheelchair to the priority desk at immigration, then to baggage claim, she even took us out to the train station to get the tickets. 

From there it was a 30-minute ride to Suburban Station. 

The temperature here is 32c at the moment and really humid so it was a sticky walk to the hotel about 15 minutes from the station, but when we saw the room it was worth it, we have never had a sofa in a hotel room before, we also have a safe, a fridge, free in-room Wi-Fi (normally a charge here unless you use the lobby Wi-Fi)  & a massive TV and if that wasn't enough, I can use my mobile as if I'm at home with no extra charges, it really does save so much time when you can use Google Maps to plan your public transport plus it's a really nice place.

After having a sit in the hotel for a bit it was time to head back out into the heat of the late afternoon to get something to eat from Jimmy John's, they do amazing subs, then we got some drink, snacks and the all-important beer. We arrived back at the hotel at 8 pm which is about 1 o'clock on Saturday morning back in the UK. We're both a bit knackered now so it's time to chill out in front of the TV for the rest of the evening. 

I feel old

Given the fact that I will be 50 in a few days, I think I'm getting too old to work all day before we travel then have only 4 hours sleep.

The taxi was booked for 04.20 which means I was up at 3 am although Jane had already got up to do the last minute checks beforehand, there's very little chance of getting any sleep now until about 11 pm tonight, but with the 5 hour time difference that's going to be 4am on Tuesday when we get to bed again.

This is the first time that we have gone on vacation on a weekday so left a bit earlier than normal just in case there it was a problem with the traffic because I hate having to rush. Our flight doesn't leave until 10.15 so that means with the 3 hours you need to be there to check-in, we had plenty of time, it's always best to get the bag checked in and past through security then there is time to do other things like eating.

The flight number is AA729 but there's no point in posting a link here to it, but a quick Google search will show what's happening.

Heathrow

The traffic was ok all the way and we arrived at 5:50. We only have one bag to check-in this time as we are travelling lighter every time we go so dumped that at the special assistance which always seems to be occupied by somebody who doesn't need it. It turns out that the travel agent told us lies and we ended having to pay £45 to check the bag because of the tickets we had, even though we asked them more than once, all airlines now charge for bags unless you buy a more expensive seat which would have cost us more in the end, I think, the only other option is to take 2 carry-on bags and 2 small rucksacks but this then makes it difficult to walk the 2 miles to the departure gate with the wheelchair. 

Anyhow, at least getting through security went smoothly and quickly so after having a sandwich, it's time for the pub, but at the price, I won't be having many. 

One thing Jane did notice is that my countdown clock had broke on the blog so as we have plenty of time to kill I have fixed it or should I say I built another one on the website because I couldn't figure out what had broken.

So now it's time for breakfast beer in the pub whilst we wait, the plane is apparently 25 minutes delayed now and as of 08:30 there is no gate displayed yet which should happen around 9 am. We haven't got seats together, but that's not a problem for us plus, Jane has an aisle seat by the bulkhead and I have a window by the emergency exit, you would pay good money for these, normally people pay extra for these seats as they easy to get in and out of plus you get a ton of leg room.
So now it's time to load up and wait to go, still 20 minutes late or so.